The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released the performance indicator report (PIR) for the July-September 2015 quarter. The report highlights the growth trends in the telecom sector for this period. It has been prepared on the basis of information provided by service providers.

According to the report, the country’s telecom subscriber base (wireless and wireline) increased from 1,006.96 million on June 30, 2015 to 1,022.61 million at the end of September 2015, registering a growth of 1.55 per cent over the previous quarter. The number of subscribers ref­lected a year-on-year growth of 5.83 per cent over the same quarter in 2014. The overall teledensity increased from 79.98 per cent as of June 30, 2015 to 80.98 per cent as of September 30, 2015.

Bharti Airtel led the pack with 238.74 million subscribers as of September 30, 2015. It was followed by Vodafone India (188.26 million) and Idea Cellular (166.56 million). With regard to net additions during the quarter, Airtel recorded the highest growth (4.63 million), followed closely by Idea (4.48 million).

The number of telecom subscriptions in urban areas increased from 584.21

million at the end of June 2015 to 599.01 million at the end of September 2015, resulting in an increase in the urban teledensity from 149.7 per cent to 153.49 per cent during the same period.

The rural telecom subscriber base grew from 422.75 million in June 2015 to 423.61 million in September 2015, resulting in an increase in the rural teledensity from 48.66 per cent to 48.76 per cent. In addition, the share of rural subscribers in the total user base declined from 41.98 per cent in June 2015 to 41.42 per cent in September 2015. Idea Cellular had the highest share of rural subscribers (54.56 per cent) in its user base, followed by Vodafone India (52.72 per cent).

Wireline

The country’s wireline subscriber base reduced from 26.15 million to 25.95 million during the period under review, thereby decreasing the wireline teledensity from 2.08 per cent to 2.06 per cent. The rural subscriber base dropped from 4.9 million to 4.77 million, while the urban subscriber base decreased from 21.25 million to 21.18 million.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited continued to lead the market with a 60.28 per cent share. However, its subscriber base decreased by about 1.83 per cent during the July-September 2015 period to stand at 15.65 million at the end of the quarter. Bharti Airtel recorded the highest net additions (79,000 subscribers) during the period.

The total number of public call offices (PCOs) in India stood at 702,000 at the end of September 2015 as compared to 658,000 at the end of June 2015. The decline in the number of PCOs compared to the corresponding quarter in 2014 was 22.91 per cent. Meanwhile, there was no change in the number of village public telephones (VPTs), which remained at 587,280 at the end of September 2015. At the end of the quarter, 98.91 per cent of 593,731 inhabited villages (as per Census 2001) were connected.

Wireless

The total wireless (GSM and CDMA) subscriber base grew by 1.62 per cent, from 980.81 million in June 2015 to 996.66 million in September 2015. The teledensity increased from 77.9 per cent to 78.93 per cent during July-September 2015.

The rural subscriber base increased by 0.24 per cent in the quarter ended September 2015, as compared to a 0.89 per cent growth in the quarter ended June 2015. Mean­while, the urban user base increased by 2.64 per cent in the quarter ended September 2015, as compared to a growth of 4.72 per cent in the quarter ended June 2015. The share of rural subscribers decreased from 42.6 per cent to 42.02 per cent during the quarter that is under review.

GSM services continued to dominate the wireless market, accounting for 95.17 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base. The GSM subscriber base stood at 948.55 million in September 2015 compared to 930.92 million in June 2015, registering a growth of 1.89 per cent. Mean­while, the CDMA user base registered a 3.56 per cent decline, from 49.89 million in June 2015 to 48.11 million in Sept­ember 2015.

With a subscriber base of 235.21 million, Bharti Airtel’s share in the GSM market was the highest at 24.8 per cent. It was followed by Vodafone India with 188.17 million users and Idea Cellular with 166.56 million users.

Among CDMA operators, Reliance Communications maintained its lead position with a subscriber base of 25.89 million and a market share of 53.8 per cent. It was followed by Tata Teleservices Limi­ted and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited with 12.49 million subscribers and 8.36 million subscribers respectively.

Mobile ARPU and usage

GSM services

The monthly all-India blen­ded ARPU for GSM players decreased from Rs 126 in the quarter ended June 2015 to Rs 122 in the quarter ended September 2015. Prepaid ARPU decreased from Rs 109 in June 2015 to Rs 105 in September 2015, while post-paid ARPU decreased from Rs 501 to Rs 490.

The overall monthly minutes of usage (MoUs) per subscriber for GSM services decreased from 388 in the quarter ended June 2015 to 374 in the quarter ended September 2015. The overall ratio of incoming and outgoing MoUs stood at 51.6:48.4. The number of outgoing SMSs per subscriber per month increased from 22 in June 2015 to 23 in Sep­tem­ber 2015.

CDMA services

The monthly all-India blended ARPU for CDMA services dec­reased from Rs 107 in the quarter ended June 2015 to Rs 106 in the quarter ended September 2015. The ARPU for prepaid services dec­reased from Rs 55.79 to Rs 53.80 during this period. The ARPU for post-paid services inc­reased from Rs 506.42 to Rs 507.30.

The overall monthly CDMA MoUs per subscriber decreased by 2.5 per cent, from 263 in the quarter ended June 2015 to 256 in the quarter ended September 2015.

Outgoing MoUs decreased by 0.27 per cent and incoming MoUs decreased by 5.22 per cent during this quarter. Prepaid MoUs per subscriber per month decreased by 2.75 per cent while post-paid MoUs per subscriber per month decreased by 2.18 per cent in this quarter.

Quality of service

During July-September 2015, the performance of 2G wireless service providers in terms of quality of service (QoS) improved on parameters like the worst-affected base transceiver stations (BTSs) due to downtime and point-of-interconnection (PoI) congestion.

On the other hand, the param­eters that showed a deteriorating QoS included the call set-up success rate, call drop rate, worst-affected cells with a more than 3 per cent traffic channel (TCH) drop (call drop) rate, metering and billing credibility (prepaid and post-paid), the resolution of billing/charging/validity complaints, the period of applying credits/waivers/ adjustments to customer accounts from the date of complaint resolution, the percentage of calls answered by operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds, the percentage requests for the termination/ closure of services addressed within seven days, and the time taken to refund deposits after closures.

For 3G operators, several parameters showed an improvement in terms of QoS, including worst-affected BTSs and Node Bs due to downtimes, call set-up success rate, paging channel and radio resource control congestion, TCH and circuit switched radio access bearer congestion, call drop and circuit switched voice drop rate, connections with good voice quality and circuit switched voice quality, and PoI congestion. However, a single parameter showed a QoS deterioration: worst-affected cells with a more than 3 per cent TCH drop (call drop) and circuit switched voice drop rate (cell bouncing busy hour).

Internet and broadband

TRAI has divided the parameters for this segment into two parts: internet subscribers that do not access the internet through mobile devices, and internet subscribers that access the internet through mobile devices.

As of September 2015, India had 131 internet service providers (ISPs) and 324.95 million internet subscribers, including those accessing the internet through their mobile handsets. The number of wired broadband subscribers stood at 19.6 million. Bharti Airtel led the internet market with a 25.5 per cent share (an internet subscriber base of 82.86 million at the end of September 2015), followed by Vodafone India (66.51 million) and Idea Cellular (41.34 million). The top 10 ISPs together accounted for 98.05 per cent of the subscriber base. The top five states in terms of internet subscriptions (wired and wireless) were Maharashtra (27.71 million); Tamil Nadu, including Chennai (26.87 million); Andhra Pradesh (24 million); Karnataka (21.72 million); and Uttar Pradesh (East) (20.73 million).

In addition, as of September 2015, there were 120.88 million broadband subscribers and 204.07 million narrowband subscribers. Wireless (dongle and phone) was the most preferred technology for service providers to provide broadband services, accounting for 86.27 per cent of the total broadband subscribers. The top five states with respect to broadband subscriptions were Tamil Nadu, including Chennai (12.02 million); Maharashtra (11.36 million); Delhi (10.61 million); Karnataka (10.12 million); and Andhra Pradesh (9.56 million).

Financial performance

During the quarter ended September 2015, the sector’s gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) stood at Rs 649.96 billion and Rs 462.57 billion respectively. The gross revenue and AGR decreased by 4.08 per cent and 7 per cent respectively from the quarter ended September 2014.