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

Fixed line services
As of September 30, 2006, the total fixed wireline subscriber base stood at 40.48 million. Fixed line services were being provided by five licensed private operators: Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), HFCL Infotel, Shyam Telelink and Reliance Communications. This was in addition to the services provided by the incumbents MTNL and BSNL.

During the quarter ended September 2006, there was a decrease in direct exchange lines (DELs) from 41.27 million to 40.48 million. By end-September 2006, the wireline segment had declined by 795,910 lines. Overall, there was negative growth of 1.93 per cent in the subscriber base during the quarter.

A comparison of the rural and urban DELs shows that there were 12.56 million rural DELs as against 27.92 million urban DELs. While BSNL had 99.9 per cent market share of rural DELs, in urban areas, its share was 77 per cent. MTNL had 13 per cent share in the urban areas while private operators had 10 per cent share.

Market share
BSNL and MTNL had a market share of 84 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, while the five private operators had a combined share of 7 per cent. The JulySeptember 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, 647,157 PCOs were added, taking the total number to 5,149,710. Of these, BSNL accounted for 40.83 per cent or 2,102,666 PCOs; MTNL for 5.12 per cent or 263,461; and private operators accounted for 54.05 per cent or 2,783,583 PCOs.

Village public telephones (VPTs): The July-September 2006 quarter saw an addition of 2,833 VPTs, taking the total to 552,309. While BSNL added 3,153 VPTs, the five private operators registered a drop of 320 VPTs. Of the 607,491 villages in the country, 55,182 did not have any VPTs.

Mobile services
The July-September 2006 quarter saw the wireless subscriber base (mobile and WLL-F) cross the 100 million mark to reach 129.54 million. As of September 30, 2006, there were 91.01 million GSM subscribers and 38.53 million CDMA subscribers. During this period, 17.4 million subscribers were added, representing a 15.52 per cent growth.

GSM growth rates increased, from 13.43 per cent in the quarter ended June 2006 to 15.94 per cent in the quarter under review. CDMA growth rates, too, registered a 14.4 per cent growth.

Bharti was the largest GSM operator with 27.06 million subscribers, accounting for 29.73 per cent of the market. BSNL, Hutch and Idea followed with 20.93 million (23.01 per cent share), 20.36 million (22.37 per cent share) and 10.36 million subscribers (11.38 per cent share) respectively.

In the CDMA segment, Reliance was the largest operator, followed by Tata Teleservices and BSNL. Reliance had 23.02 million subscribers (accounting for 60 per cent of the market), while Tata Teleservices and BSNL had 12.38 million (32 per cent share) and 2.76 million subscribers (7.16 per cent share) respectively.

Bharti and Reliance were providing services in all 23 service circles in the country. Reliance Telecom, Reliance Communications’ GSM arm, had applied for a unified service licence in all its areas of operation. Dishnet Wireless, operating under the Aircel brand, was yet to start services in Himachal Pradesh and Bihar.

Mobile ARPUs
As far as the average revenue per user (ARPU) is concerned, the all-India blended ARPU per month for GSM operators decreased from Rs 352 in the quarter ended June 2006 to Rs 337 in the quarter under consideration. Similarly, the allIndia ARPU for CDMA operators fell from Rs 228 to Rs 215 for the same period. The lowest blended GSM ARPU per month was in Circle B at Rs 313, which is lower than the previous quarter’s figure of Rs 319. The highest blended ARPU was in the metro circles, at Rs 400, which was lower than the previous quarter’s corresponding figure.

The all-India GSM ARPU for the post-paid segment remained steady at Rs 643 whereas the prepaid ARPU fell from Rs 286 in June 2006 to Rs 277 in the quarter under review.

For CDMA operators, there was a huge disparity between post-paid and prepaid ARPUs. The post-paid ARPU was 3.21 times that of the prepaid ARPU. The ARPU in the post-paid segment increased from Rs 534 in June 2006 to Rs 543 in the quarter under consideration and the ARPU in the prepaid segment fell from Rs 183 to Rs 169.

In an operator-wise comparison, BSNL and MTNL saw a reduction in ARPU from Rs 370 to Rs 352. The ARPU of private GSM service providers also decreased from Rs 345 to Rs 332.

Mobile usage pattern
The minutes of usage (MoU) per GSM subscriber increased from 414 minutes in the quarter ended June 2006 to 425 minutes in the quarter under consideration. Similarly, the MoU for CDMA operators fell from 443 minutes to 413 minutes for the same period. The ratio of incomingto-outgoing minutes for GSM subscribers stood at 56:44 against 57:43 in the previous quarter. This ratio was 53:47 for the post-paid segment and 58:41 for the prepaid segment. For the CDMA segment, the figures stood at 54:46 as compared to 57:43 for the same period.

Circle-wise, the outgoing MoU per GSM subscriber was the highest in Circle A at 190 minutes per month and the highest incoming MoU per subscriber was registered as a tie between the metros and Circle A at 253 minutes per month. In the CDMA segment, the metros, at 402 per month, recorded the lowest blended per subscriber usage for both outgoing and incoming calls followed by Circle B at 405 per month.

The all-India blended average subscriber outgo per minute (rental plus call charges) for GSM operators for the quarter under consideration fell to Rs 1.45 as against Rs 1.55 in the quarter ended June 2006. In the CDMA segment, the all-India blended average subscriber outgo per minute for the quarter under review registered a decline from Rs 1.06 to Rs 1.05.

Internet services
As of end-September 2006, 153 internet service providers (ISPs) were operational. During the quarter under consideration, the subscriber base touched 8.1 million as compared to 7.71 million in the preceding quarter, registering an increase of 5.02 per cent. The annual growth rate was 31.64 per cent.

BSNL retained its top position with a subscriber base of 3.5 million while MTNL retained its second position with a subscriber base of 1.5 million. Sify moved up to the third position with 860,000 subscribers. Bharti rose one place to fourth position with a subscriber base of 520,000 and VSNL with 450,000 subscribers moved to fifth place.

Leased line connectivity
The number of leased line internet connections stood at 18,876 during the quarter ended September 2006. It registered an increase of 16.5 per cent compared to 16.19 per cent at the end of June 2006.

High speed broadband connectivity
The number of broadband subscribers stood at 1.8 million in the quarter under consideration, as against 1.55 million in the period ended June 2006, registering a growth of 15.95 per cent.

Internet MoU/ARPU
According to the reports of 30 ISPs, the average MoU per subscriber per month for dial-up internet usage was approximately 185, compared to 190 during the previous quarter. The ARPU per month was Rs 220.

VSAT services
VSAT services were being provided by eight operators as of September 30, 2006. There was an addition of 2,331 subscribers during the quarter. The total number of subscribers increased from 52,739 in June 2006 to 55,070 in September 2006, registering a growth of 4.42 per cent as against a growth rate of 5.32 per cent in the previous quarter.

HCL Comnet remained the market leader with 18,631 VSAT subscribers followed by HECL with 18,022, Bharti Infotel with 7,966 and Bharti Broadband with 4,798 subscribers.

PMRTS
The public mobile radio trunked service (PMRTS) subscriber base increased from 29,430 at the end of June 2006 to 30,189 in September 2006, registering a marginal growth rate of 2.58 per cent. Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai together accounted for 71.88 per cent share of the total PMRTS subscriber base. Delhi led with 9,139 subscribers followed by Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai with 5,496, 4,354 and 2,711 subscribers respectively.