The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recently released a report on “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for the period January-March 2006”. It provides an update on growth trends in various telecom services. We bring you the key highlights…

Fixed line services
As on March 31, 2006, the total subscriber base of fixed lines including WLL(F) stood at 50.2 million. During this period, fixed line services were being provided by five licensed private operators: Bharti Telesonic, Tata Teleservices, HFCL Infotel, Shyam Telelink and Reliance Infocomm. This was in addition to the services provided by the incumbents MTNL and BSNL.

The quarter under consideration saw an increase in direct exchange lines (DELs) from 48.8 million to 50.1 million. By the end of March 2006, 1,340,436 new lines were added. Overall, there was a 2.74 per cent growth in the subscriber base during the quarter.

A comparison of the number of rural and urban DELs shows that there were 14.68 million rural DELs as against 35.49 million urban DELs. While BSNL had 99.63 per cent market share in rural DELs, in urban areas, its market share was 64 per cent. MTNL had 11 per cent share in urban areas while private operators had 25 per cent share.

Market share
 BSNL and MTNL had a market share of 74 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, while the five private operators had a combined share of 18 per cent. The JanuaryMarch 2006 quarter, however, saw a 1 per cent increase in the market share of private operators while BSNL’s share declined by the same amount. MTNL managed to maintain its market share.

Other performance indicators
Public call offices (PCOs): During the quarter, 464,470 new PCOs were added, taking the total number of PCOs in the country to 4,199,157. Of these, BSNL owned 49 per cent or 2,064,174 PCOs, MTNL owned 7 per cent or 279,041 PCOs while private operators owned 44 per cent or 1,855,942 PCOs.

Village public telephones (VPTs): The January-March 2006 quarter saw an addition of 9,487 VPTs in the country, taking the total to 548,843. While BSNL added 9,259 VPTs and Bharti 243, HFCL reduced 15 VPTs. Of the 607,491 villages in India, 58,648 do not have any VPTs.

Mobile services
The January-March 2006 quarter saw the mobile subscriber base cross the 90 million subscriber mark. As of March 31, 2006, there were 69.2 million GSM subscribers and 20.94 million CDMA subscribers. The 14.19 million subscribers added during this period represented 18.68 per cent growth. This was higher than the 16.72 per cent growth seen in the quarter ended December 2005.

GSM growth rates increased significantly, from 15.03 per cent in the quarter ended December 2005 to 18.29 per cent in the quarter under consideration. In comparison, CDMA growth rates have declined, from 22.79 per cent to 20 per cent during the same period.

During the January-March 2006 quarter, Bharti was the largest mobile operator followed by BSNL and Reliance. Bharti had 19.58 million subscribers (accounting for 21.72 per cent of the market) while BSNL and Reliance had 17.65 million (19.58 per cent market share) and 17.31 million (19.21 per cent market share) subscribers respectively.

Bharti and Reliance are providing services in all 23 service circles in the country. The quarter saw TTSL starting services in the Kerala circle. The company has now increased its presence to 20 circles. Dishnet Wireless has started providing mobile services under the brand name Aircel in five service areas. Escorts Telecommunications has started providing services in all three licence areas and Reliance Infocomm has started its services in the Jammu & Kashmir circle. Spice Communications in Karnataka has migrated to the UASL and BPL Mobile Cellular is now a part of the Hutch Group. The Hutch Group is currently providing services in 16 circles.

Mobile service trends
As of March 31, 2006, the share of prepaid subscribers in the total GSM subscriber base was 80.54 per cent as compared to 78.32 per cent at the end of December 2005. In the CDMA segment, however, the numbers fell. By the end of March 2006, the figure stood at 79 per cent, as against 82 per cent at the end of December 2005. The GSM post-paid growth rate continued to decline: from 7 per cent at the end of December 2005, it has dwindled to 4.43 per cent in the quarter under consideration while the GSM prepaid segment increased from 18 per cent to 22 per cent.

Mobile ARPUs
As far as the average revenue per user (ARPU) is concerned, the all-India blended ARPU per month for GSM operators went up to Rs 366 in the quarter under consideration from Rs 362 in the quarter ended December 2005. The all-India ARPU figure for CDMA operators remains steady at Rs 256 for the same period. The lowest blended GSM ARPU per month was in Circle B (Rs 338), which is higher than the previous quarter’s corresponding figure (Rs 323). The highest blended ARPU was in the metro circle (Rs 420).

The all-India GSM ARPU for the post-paid and prepaid segments has witnessed growth. ARPU for the post-paid segment increased from Rs 621 in December 2005 to Rs 628 in the quarter under consideration. In the prepaid segment, the ARPU increased from Rs 286 to Rs 298 during the same period. For CDMA operators, there has been a huge disparity between post-paid and prepaid ARPUs. Post-paid ARPU has been 2.97 times that of prepaid ARPU. The ARPU in the post-paid segment has increased from Rs 511 in the quarter ended December 2005 to Rs 547 in March 2006 and the ARPU in the prepaid segment has declined from Rs 207 to Rs 184 in the same period.

In an operator-wise comparison, BSNL/MTNL recorded an increase in ARPU from Rs 354 to Rs 391. In the prepaid segment, growth of 18.2 per cent was recorded, while the post-paid segment declined from Rs 520 to Rs 479. The ARPU of private GSM service providers has declined from Rs 365 to Rs 357.

Mobile usage pattern
The minutes of usage (MoU) per GSM subscriber increased from 393 minutes in the quarter ended December 2005 to 395 minutes in the quarter under consideration. Similarly, the MoU for CDMA operators has shown a 19 per cent increase, from 462 minutes to 550 minutes for the same period. The ratio of incoming-to-outgoing minutes for GSM subscribers stood at 59:41 against 61:39 in the previous quarter. This ratio was 54:46 for the post-paid segment and 70:30 for the prepaid segment. For the CDMA segment, the figures stand at 56:44 as compared to 48:52 for the same period.

Circle-wise, the outgoing MoU per GSM subscriber has been the highest in Circle C at 179 minutes per month and the highest incoming MoU per subscriber has been registered in the metros at 251 minutes per month. In the CDMA segment, Circle C at 518 per month recorded the lowest blended per subscriber usage for both outgoing and incoming calls followed by Circle A at 428 per month.

Mobile revenue per minute
The all-India blended revenue per minute for GSM operators for the quarter under consideration has gone up marginally to Re 0.93 as against Re 0.92 in the quarter ended December 2005. In the CDMA segment, the all-India blended revenue per minute for the quarter under consideration has declined by 14.54 per cent from Re 0.55 to Re 0.47 for the same quarter.

Tariff trends in mobile services
The effective charge represents the actual amount paid by a user with a total outgoing usage of 250 local minutes per month. During the quarter ended March 2006, the lowest effective charge per minute stood at Rs 1.01 for the GSM post-paid segment and at Rs 1.21 for the prepaid segment. In the CDMA segment, the lowest available effective charge per minute has been pegged at Re 0.71 as against Rs 1.31 at the end of December 2005 for post-paid and Rs 1.09 for prepaid.

Internet services
As of end March 2006, 121 internet service providers (ISPs) were operational. For the quarter under consideration, the subscriber base touched 6.9 million as compared to 6.7 million in the preceding quarter, registering an increase of 3.45 per cent. The annual growth rate has been pegged at 24.85 per cent and 1.3 million subscribers were added during the year.

BSNL retained its top position with a subscriber base of 2.9 million. MTNL retained its second position with a subscriber base of 0.98 million. Sify moved up to the third position with 0.89 million subscribers. VSNL slipped to fourth position with a subscriber base of 0.56 million and Bharti, with 0.39 million subscribers moved to fifth place.

Leased line connectivity
The number of leased line internet connections stood at 15,596 during the quarter ended March 2006. It registered an increase of 27.79 per cent compared to 12,204 at the end of March 2005.

High speed broadband connectivity
The number of broadband subscribers was 1.3 million in the quarter under consideration as against 0.9 million in the period ended December 2005, thus registering a growth of 49 per cent.

Internet MoU/ARPU
According to the reports of 34 ISPs, the average MoU per subscriber per month was approximately 175, in comparison to 189 during the previous quarter. The ARPU per month for dial-up internet usage was of the order of Rs 210, similar to that of the previous quarter.

VSAT services
VSAT services were being provided by nine operators as of March 31, 2006. In the current quarter, there was an addition of 3,497 new subscribers. The total number of subscribers increased from 46,577 in December 2005 to 50,074 in March 2006, registering a growth of 7.51 per cent as against the growth rate of 8.11 per cent in the previous quarter. HCL Comnet remained the market leader with 17,110 VSAT subscribers followed by HECL with 15,669, Bharti Infotel with 7,265 and Bharti Broadband with 4,740 VSAT subscribers.

Public mobile radio trunked service (PMRTS)
The PMRTS subscriber base increased from 28,025 at the end of December 2005 to 29,950 in March 2006, registering a marginal growth rate of 6.87 per cent. Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai together account for 71.68 per cent share of the total PMRTS subscriber base. Delhi led with a market share of 9,160 subscribers followed by Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai with 5,278, 4,076 and 2,953 subscribers respectively.