Telcos’ Q2 earnings & learnings

Top listed telcos Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications ( RCom) are likely to report on-year falls in net profit in the seasonally weak July-September quarter, also the first after Reliance Jio Infocomm’s entry.

Incumbents are likely to be stung by declining data realisations and a continuing slowdown in data revenue growth, amid some effect of Jio’s launch. Q2 profit and revenue estimates are based on an ET Poll, averaging forecasts of six brokerages.

Goldman Sachs estimates Airtel and Idea to report an average 25% on-year data revenue growth, way below the 60% growth levels a year ago. Analysts expect the real impact of Jio’s free services to show in Q3 and Q4.