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

Fixed line services

As of December 31, 2006, the total fixed wireline subscriber base stood at 40.3 million. Fixed line services were being provided by five licensed private operators: Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, HFCL Infotel, Shyam Telelink and Reliance Communications. This was in addition to the services provided by the incumbents MTNL and BSNL.

Market share
BSNL and MTNL had a market share of 83 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, while the five private operators had a combined share of 8 per cent. The OctoberDecember 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.

A comparison of the rural and urban direct exchange lines (DELs) shows that there were 12.46 million rural DELs as against 27.84 million urban DELs. While BSNL had 100 per cent market share of rural DELs, in urban areas, its share was 76 per cent, down from 77 per cent in the preceding quarter. MTNL continued to maintain its market share at 13 per cent in the urban areas while private operators increased their market share by 1 per cent to 11 per cent.

Fixed line growth
During the quarter ended December 2006, the wireline segment declined by 175,450 lines, from 40.48 million in the previous quarter to 40.3 million. Overall, there was a negative growth of 0.43 per cent in the subscriber base during the quarter.

While MTNL, BSNL, HFCL Infotel and Shyam Telelink registered a decline in their fixed line subscriber base, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel registered an increase.

Other performance indicators
Public call offices (PCOs): During the quarter, only 183,000 PCOs were added compared to 647,157 PCO additions in the previous quarter. The total number of PCOs as of December 31, 2006 stood at 5.3 million. Of these, BSNL accounted for 39 per cent, down from 40.83 per cent in the preceding quarter; MTNL had 5 per cent; and private operators combined accounted for 56 per cent.

Village public telephones (VPTs): The October-December 2006 quarter saw an addition of 7,046 VPTs vis-? -vis 2,833 in the previous quarter, taking the total to 559,355. While BSNL added 7,091 VPTs, the five private operators registered a drop of 45 VPTs. Of the 607,491 villages in the country, 48,136 were uncovered as of December 2006.

Mobile services

The wireless subscriber base (mobile and WLL-F) continued on its growth trajectory during October-December 2006 with 149.62 million subscribers as of December 31, 2006. During this quarter, the GSM subscriber base crossed the 100 million mark to reach 105.43 million while the CDMA subscriber base stood at 44.19 million. During this period, 20.08 million subscribers were added, representing a 15.5 per cent growth.

Both CDMA and GSM continued to grow at rates similar to those in the previous quarter with the GSM growth rate at 15.84 per cent, down by a negligible 0.1 per cent and the CDMA growth rate at 14.69 per cent, up by 0.2 per cent.

Bharti was the largest GSM operator with 31.97 million subscribers, accounting for 30.34 per cent of the market. BSNL, Hutch and Idea followed with 26.6 million (22.41 per cent share), 23.31 million (22.12 per cent share) and 12.44 million subscribers (11.79 per cent share) respectively.

In the CDMA segment, Reliance was the largest operator, followed by Tata Teleservices and BSNL. Reliance had 29.98 million subscribers (accounting for 59.61 per cent of the market), while Tata Teleservices and BSNL had 14.45 million (32.7 per cent share) and 2.98 million subscribers (6.74 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
The average revenue per user (ARPU) for the GSM segment registered a further decline of 6.2 per cent during the quarter under review. The all-India blended ARPU per month for GSM operators decreased from Rs 337 in the quarter ended September 2006 to Rs 316 in the quarter under consideration. Similarly, the all-India ARPU for CDMA operators fell from Rs 215 to Rs 196 for the same period. The lowest blended GSM ARPU per month was in Circle B at Rs 280, which is lower than the previous quarter’s figure of Rs 313. The highest blended ARPU was in the metro circles, at Rs 393, down from Rs 400 in the previous quarter.

The all-India GSM ARPU for the post-paid segment also declined from Rs 643 in the preceding quarter to Rs 632 for the quarter ended December 2006.Likewise, the prepaid ARPU fell from Rs 277 in September 2006 to Rs 262 in the quarter under review.

For CDMA operators, the huge disparity between post-paid and prepaid ARPUs noted in the last quarter continued in this quarter as well. The post-paid ARPU was 2.87 times the prepaid ARPU. This can be attributed to the declining importance of the processing fees on the recharge coupon purchased by prepaid subscribers. The ARPU in the post-paid segment decreased from Rs 534 in September 2006 to Rs 456 in the quarter under consideration and the ARPU in the prepaid segment fell from Rs 169 to Rs 159.

Mobile usage pattern
The minutes of use (MoU) per GSM subscriber increased from 425 minutes in the quarter ended September 2006 to 454 minutes in the quarter under consideration. Similarly, the MoU for CDMA operators increased from 413 minutes to 424 minutes for the same period. The ratio of incoming-to-outgoing minutes for GSM subscribers stood at 54:46 against 56:44 in the previous quarter.This ratio was 52:48 for the post-paid segment and 55:45 for the prepaid segment. For the CDMA segment, the figures stood at 52:48 as compared to 54:46 during the same period.

Circle-wise, the outgoing MoU per GSM subscriber was the highest in Circle B at 210 minutes per month and the lowest outgoing MoU per subscriber was registered in the metros at 203 minutes per month. In the CDMA segment, the highest outgoing MoU was recorded for Circle C at 240 per subscriber per month and the lowest outgoing MoU was in Circle A at 184 per subscriber 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 1.26 as against Rs 1.45 in the quarter ended December 2006. In the CDMA segment, the all-India blended average subscriber outgo per minute for the quarter under review registered a decline from Rs 1.05 to Re 0.86.

Internet services

As of end-December 2006, over 100 internet service providers (ISPs) were operational. During the quarter under consideration, the subscriber base touched 8.58 million as compared to 8.1 million in the preceding quarter, registering an increase of 6 per cent. The annual growth rate was 28.06 per cent.

BSNL retained its top position with a subscriber base of 3.81 million against 3.54 million in the previous quarter.MTNL also continued to retain its second position with a subscriber base of 1.65 million, up from 1.5 million in the previous quarter. Sify was in the third position with a subscriber base of 806,000. Bharti retained its fourth position with a subscriber base of 597,665 while Reliance Communications, with 540,068 subscribers, moved to fifth place.

Leased line connectivity
The number of leased line internet connections stood at 18,058, down by 818 connections during the quarter ended December 2006. It registered a decrease of 4.33 per cent compared to an increase of 16.5 per cent at the end of September 2006.

High speed broadband connectivity
The number of broadband subscribers stood at 2.05 million in the quarter under consideration, as against 1.8 million in the period ended September 2006, registering a growth of 13.04 per cent, down from 15.95 per cent in the previous quarter.

Internet MoU/ARPU
The average MoU per subscriber per month for dial-up internet usage was approximately 190 minutes compared to 185 during the previous quarter. The ARPU per month was Rs 205.

VSAT services

VSAT services were being provided by eight operators as of December 31, 2006.There was an addition of 3,156 subscribers during the quarter. The total number of subscribers increased from 55,070 in September 2006 to 58,226 in December 2006, registering a growth of 5.73 per cent as against a growth of 4.42 per cent in the previous quarter.

HCL Comnet remained the market leader with 19,376 VSAT subscribers followed by HECL with 19,077, Bharti Tele Ventures with 8,518 and Bharti Broadband with 4,803 subscribers.

PMRTS

The public mobile radio trunked service (PMRTS) subscriber base increased from 30,189 at the end of September 2006 to 30,670 in December 2006, registering a marginal growth rate of 1.59 per cent.Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai together accounted for 72.05 per cent share of the total PMRTS subscriber base. Delhi led with 9,114 subscribers followed by Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai with 6,075, 4,121 and 2,789 subscribers respectively.