Bharti Airtel has for the second time in a row grabbed more revenue market share (RMS) than Reliance Jio Infocomm in the fiscal third quarter, helped by the sharp hike in base prepaid rates it took last November in Odisha and Haryana along with share gains in rural markets, said experts, analysing latest telco financial data put out by the sector regulator.Loss-making Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to lose RMS share in the third quarter, FY23, unable to fight its financially-stronger rivals, Airtel and Jio, in both urban and rural markets.“Bharti raised tariffs for the entry level plan in Odisha and Haryana in Nov’22, and in both these circles, it gained 40 bps/90 bps market share in 3QFY23,” Motilal Oswal said, analysing telco financial data collated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).It added that Airtel’s focus in rural markets also played out well, with its AGR market share growing faster in the B&C circles than in metros and A-circles.Airtel’s adjusted gross revenue market share, commonly known as RMS, rose 26 basis points (bps) sequentially to 36.2% in the December quarter while Jio’s on-quarter revenue share gain was lower at 11.2 bps to 41.1%, while Vi’s slipped almost 54 bps sequentially to 16.8%, Trai data showed.RMS is a measure of overall telecom market leadership. A basis point is 0.01%.Airtel recently extended the 57% hike in base prepaid rates it initially took in Odisha and Haryana to a total 19 markets in a clear bid to boost average revenue per user (ARPU) beyond the Rs 200 level. Kolkata, Gujarat and MP are the only markets where it’s yet to roll out the higher base prepaid rates.Morgan Stanley estimates the higher minimum recharge plans to be 1.3-1.5%-accretive to Airtel’s India mobile business revenues, all else equal, once rolled out on a pan-India basis. “Bharti has been the first mover in taking entry-level tariffs higher, while competition has still not reacted.”Analysts, though, said both Airtel and Jio continued to gain RMS in the December quarter, FY23, at cash-strapped Vi’s expense.“Out of the 22 circles, Bharti/Jio saw their market share improve in 16/14 circles respectively with average growth of 1% QoQ each…as a result, Vi’s RMS dropped to 16.8%,” Motilal Oswal said.Cash-strapped Vi needs urgent external funding to expand its 4G coverage and also roll out 5G services, given that rivals Jio and Airtel are on track to roll out the next-gen networks by the year-end.Trai data showed Airtel and Jio reported sequential growth on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR, including NLD revenue) front in the December quarter, while Vi reported a sequential fall, underlining the latter’s continuing inability to compete with the top two carriers.Airtel and Jio reported 2.5% and 2% sequential rises in AGR (including NLD revenue) to Rs 20,190 crore and Rs 22,930 crore respectively in the fiscal third quarter. By contrast, Vi’s AGR (including NLD revenue) fell 1.4% on-quarter to Rs 9,380 crore in the October-December period.Trai data showed overall December quarter sectoral AGR (including NLD) rose 1.8% sequentially to Rs 55,750 crore, largely backed by telcos’ ARPU growth. Industry ARPU grew 2% sequentially to Rs 162 in Q3FY23.