The gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the Indian telecom services sector for the quarter ending September 2011 was $9.56 billion and $6.40 billion respectively according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
“There has been an increase of 6.51% and 2.67% in GR and AGR respectively as compared to the previous quarter. The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter in the last year has been 19.21% and 12.52% respectively,” the telecom regulator stated in the Q2 performance report of telecom companies.
“Access services contributed 73.04% of the total revenue of telecom services. Access services GR, AGR, License Fee & spectrum charges increased by 2.52%, 0.96%, 1.15% & 0.17% respectively in the quarter ending September 2011 vis-à-vis previous quarter,” the report stated.
The Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for Access Services based on AGR remained unchanged at the level of $1.88. Whereas the ARPU for GSM service declined by 4.59%, from $1.88 in quarter ending June 2011 to $1.78 in the quarter ending September 2011, with Y-O-Y decrease of 15.11%.
The ARPU for CDMA – full mobility service increased by 9.56%, from $1.23 in the quarter ending June 2011 to $1.36 in the quarter ending September 2011. ARPU for CDMA has declined by 3.31% on Y-O-Y basis, the report stated.
The quarter also saw the number of telephone subscribers in India going up from 885.99 million at the end of June 2011 to 906.93 million at the end of September 2011, registering a growth of 2.36% over the previous quarter as against 4.69% during the quarter ending June 2011. The overall teledensity in the country reached 75.48% as of September 30, 2011.
“Subscription in urban areas grew from 587.94 million at the end of Jun-11 to 601.72 million at the end of September 2011, taking the urban teledensity from 163.13% to 166.01%. Rural subscription increased from 298.05 million to 305.51 million, and the rural teledensity increased from 35.60% to 36.40%. Share of rural areas in total subscription has increased to 33.69% at the end of September 2011 from 33.64% at the end of June 2011,” the TRAI report stated.
Other important highlights of the report include:
- Wireline subscriber base further declined from 34.29 million at the end of June 2011 to 33.31 million at the end of September 2011, bringing down the wireline teledensity from 2.86% at the end of June 2011 to 2.77% at the end of September 2011.
- The number of Internet subscribers increased from 20.33 million at the end of June 2011 to 20.99 million at the end of September 2011, registering a quarterly growth rate of 3.25%.
- Number of broadband subscribers increased from 12.35 million at the end of June 2011 to 12.83 million at the end of September 2011, registering a quarterly growth of 3.93%.
