← Business Metric: Industry Specific (Infrastructure, Transport & Utilities) (all topics)
ARPU / premiumisation (telecom)
What it is
Average revenue per user is the central telecom metric. Industry wireless ARPU reached about Rs 196 in the Mar 2026 quarter, up ~7% year on year, with the leading operator near Rs 254 against roughly Rs 214 for the largest by subscribers
Estimates put the uplift needed for a 15% return on capital at Rs 35-40 per user
Impact on industries
- A pure margin lever - incremental ARPU on an existing subscriber carries almost no cost, so it flows through to profit directly
- Removing entry-level prepaid plans and converting users to postpaid and bundled plans has lifted ARPU without tariff increases
- Current levels remain below what 5G capex requires, which is why tariff hikes of 10-20% are widely expected in the second half of 2026
- India is intensely price-sensitive, so hikes suppress subscriber additions and risk downtrading in the mass segment
- The scale-versus-wallet-share divide now defines the sector - one operator leads on subscribers, another on revenue per user