CLSA: Bharti Airtel best placed to play telecom sector's rising smartphone penetration in India trend
Recovery was led by smartphones, which jumped 3x QoQ/16% YoY to 54 mn and at the highest-ever share of 69% of total shipments. Feature phone shipments were down 30% YoY to 25 mn, led by a sharp 89% YoY fall in 4G feature phones to 1 mn. CLSA forecasts India’s smartphone user base to expand from 403 mn in FY20 to 590 mn by Mar-23CL, driven by a pick-up in smartphone migration. CLSA believes Bharti Airtel is best placed to play the sector’s rising smartphone penetration.
Smartphone migration will drive growth in data subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are well placed to play rising 4G data penetration and ARPU growth: Reuters