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Informist, Friday, May 29, 2026

JAIPUR – Analysts' near-term outlook is either neutral or positive on stocks of telecommunications companies amid the perceived absence of any major triggers. Next week, the BSE Telecommunication index is likely to find initial support at 3500 points and face resistance at 3588 points, according to Ganesh Angaj, head technical analyst at NVS Brokerage Pvt. Ltd. Beyond these levels, Angaj estimated support and resistance at 3479 points and 3610 points, respectively.

Friday, the key sectoral index ended 0.4% higher at 3561.61 points. Over the week, the index gained a little over 3.8%.

This week, Bharti Airtel's recently launched Priority Postpaid was the trending topic of discussion. It has ignited concerns regarding net neutrality as some argue network slicing could deteriorate the service for prepaid customers. "...aim is to drive postpaid addition, if they're (telecom companies) able to get more postpaid customers, their ARPU (average revenue per user) will improve...these type of services have been there in western countries, so this is not something out of the blue," said Piyush Pandey, senior vice-president and research analyst at Centrum Broking Ltd.

Pandey dismissed concerns of net neutrality, arguing that it is the principle that dictates all internet data should be treated equally, and that internet service providers must not discriminate against or favour transmission of certain digital traffic, to ensure access to the internet remains open and fair. In other words, telecom service providers should not block, throttle, or prioritise specific websites or applications, nor charge content providers more to reach users faster.

Pandey equated the concept to that in play across the airline industry, where paying higher fares or purchasing add-ons gets one tangible perks such as better seats, lounge access, and priority boarding. "Jio may also be planning to launch these network-slicing-based services. Vodafone cannot launch because they don't have 5G assets," Pandey said.

According to media reports, Bharti Airtel in a recent report to the Department of Telecommunications, said, "Priority Postpaid is implemented in a content-neutral manner and is fully consistent with the existing TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and DoT framework. There is no blocking, throttling, content-specific prioritisation, zero-rating, or preferential treatment of any application." It also added that the feature does not degrade the quality of service for any customer, whether prepaid or postpaid. 

Further, media reports also said peer Reliance Jio, in a letter to the telecom department, supported Bharti Airtel's move, which could be an indication of the company's own plans in the area. After all, support for Bharti Airtel's offering would smoothen the way for Reliance Jio's plans, if any. 

Earlier in the week, data from TRAI showed that Bharti Airtel led in subscriber additions in April with a net addition of 3.14 million users, compared with 5.09 million in March. Competitor Reliance Jio was close behind with a net addition of 2.94 million users in April, slightly lower than the 3.23 million it added in the previous month. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. onboarded 76,175 customers on a net basis in April, more than four times the 17,095 users it added on a net basis in March.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea broke a five-month recovery streak in April with a month-on-month decline in net mobile subscriber additions. The telecom service provider added a net 53,257 mobile subscribers in April, almost half the 102,899 users added in March. "Vodafone needs to add customers at the rate of market players... then only it can maintain market share", Pandey said.

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* ITI appoints Ramana Babu CV as chief financial officer effective Thu
* ITI swings to profit in Jan-Mar on one-time gain; sales rise on quarter
* HFCL gets INR 1.35-bln-order from RailTel for maintenance of data centres
* Vodafone Idea's mobile user addition nearly halves month-on-month in April
* CRISIL ratings assigns 'A-' rtg on Vodafone Idea's INR-350-bln bank facility
* Indus Towers CFO Vikas Poddar resigns with effect from Aug 18
* 3M India Jan-Mar PAT up threefold YoY at INR 2.15 billion

Following are the resistance and support levels for key telecom stocks for next week as per calculations based on their prices on the National Stock Exchange:

End

Reported by Shakshi Jain

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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