The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently released the Indian Telecom Service Performance Indicators report for the period JanuaryMarch 2007. It provides an update on growth trends in various telecom services.The key highlights of the report are presented below…
Fixed line services
Fixed line services are provided by five licensed private operators ?? Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL), Shyam Telelink and Reliance Communications (RCOM) ?? and two PSUs ?? Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).
At the end of the January-March 2007 quarter, the fixed line subscriber base stood at 40.75 million compared to 41.54 million in the quarter ended March 2006 and 40.3 million in the quarter ended December 2006. The rural fixed line subscriber base increased from 12.48 million in the December 2006 quarter to 12.56 million in the March 2007 quarter.
All the service providers, except HFCL and Shyam, increased their fixed line subscriber bases. BSNL increased its subscriber numbers from 33.58 million to 33.74 million, MTNL from 3.69 million to 3.73 million, Bharti Airtel from 1.74 million to 1.87 million, TTSL (including Maharashtra) from 480,000 to 530,000, and RCOM from 490,000 to 570,000. On the other hand, the fixed line subscriber base of HFCL and Shyam Telelink maintained status quo with 170,000 and 150,000 subscribers respectively.
Market share
In terms of subscribers, BSNL and MTNL had a market share of 83 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, while the five private operators together accounted for 8 per cent share. The market share of the fixed line segment remained constant during the period under review.
Direct exchange lines
The sector registered an increase of 451,502 direct exchange lines (DELs) during the quarter ended March 2007. The net number of DELs stood at 40.75 million as on March 31, 2007 against 40.3 million on December 31, 2006. The overall percentage increase in the number of DELs is 1.12 per cent.
Other performance indicators
Village public telephones
The number of village public telephones (VPTs) increased from 552,309 in the quarter ended December 2006 to 556,368 in the quarter ended March 2007. Of this, BSNL added 7,567 VPTs while the five private operators registered a decrease of 60 VPTs during this period. The total number of villages left uncovered, as on March 31, 2007, was 43,416.
Public call offices
The number of public call offices (PCOs) increased from 5.3 million in the quarter ended December 2006 to 5.55 million in the quarter ended March 2007. Of this, BSNL accounted for 2.11 million (38 per cent) while MTNL and the private operators had 260,000 (5 per cent) and 3.18 million (57 per cent) respectively.
Mobile services
During the January-March 2007 quarter, the wireless (mobile and WLL-F) segment added 15.49 million subscribers to the 149.62 million subscriber base in the previous quarter. This translated into a growth of 10.35 per cent as against 15.5 per cent in the previous quarter.
The GSM segment recorded 14.27 per cent growth during the quarter and reached a subscriber base of 120.47 million at the end of March 2007. In comparison, the CDMA segment recorded a growth of 1 per cent and a subscriber base of 44.64 million.
In the GSM segment, private operators accounted for 75 per cent of the subscribers while the PSUs accounted for the rest. Twenty-two new private operators were awarded licences in December 2006, but they are non-operational at present.Bharti, with a GSM subscriber base of 37.14 million, remained the largest GSM operator followed by BSNL, Vodafone Essar and Idea with 27.43 million, 26.44 million and 14.01 million subscribers respectively.
In the CDMA segment, Reliance was the largest operator with a subscriber base of 24.62 million, followed by TTSL and BSNL with 16.02 million and 3.55 million subscribers respectively. Meanwhile, RCOM recorded negative growth in all its circles except in Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
Internet services
The internet subscriber base stood at 9.27 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 compared to 8.58 million during the preceding quarter, registering a growth of 8.03 per cent. Besides, there were 31.3 million internet subscribers who accessed the internet through mobile handsets (GSM/CDMA) at the end of March 2007.
BSNL retained its top position and reported an internet subscriber base of 4.19 million at the end of March 2007 as against 3.81 million at the end of the previous quarter. MTNL also retained its second position with a subscriber base of 1.76 million. Sify was in third position with a subscriber base of 820,000.
Leased line connectivity
The number of leased line internet connections stood at 18,287 for the quarter ended March 2007 as compared to 18,058 as in December 2006, an increase of 1.27 per cent.
High speed broadband connectivity
There are 51 broadband service providers in the country at present. The number of broadband subscribers (as reported by the ISPs) was 2.34 million at the end of March 2007 as compared to 2.05 million at the end of December 2006, a growth of 13.85 per cent over the previous quarter.Of the total, 1.94 million subscribers used DSL-based broadband; 240,000 used cable modem-based broadband; 76,708 were Ethernet LAN users; 21,993 used fibre-based broadband; 20,792 were radio customers; and there were 39,760 others.The broadband subscriber growth rate was 13.85 per cent in the quarter under review as compared to 13.04 per cent in the previous quarter.
International connectivity
The bandwidth owned by various international gateway service providers (IGSPs) for their ISP operations and internet leased lines is reported to be 19 GB for the downlink and 18 GB for the uplink.
Internet MoU/ARPU
The average revenue per user (ARPU) per month for dial-up internet subscribers was Rs 200 for the quarter under consideration. The average dial-up access minutes of use (MoUs) per subscriber per month were 180 minutes as against 190 minutes at the end of the previous quarter, a decrease of 5.26 per cent.
QoS for ISPs
Most of the ISPs were able to meet the prescribed benchmarks, barring one or two cases.
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ISP node unavailability: This should not exceed 30 minutes in a month. Barring Asianet Satellite Communication and WWW Communications, all the other ISPs were able to achieve this benchmark.
VSAT services
VSAT services are being provided by eight operators. There was an addition of 2,585 subscribers in the first quarter of 2007.The total number of subscribers increased from 58,226 in December 2006 to 60,811 in March 2007, a growth of 4.44 per cent, as against the 5.73 per cent growth in the quarter ended December 2006.
Hughes Communications remained the market leader with 20,317 VSAT subscribers followed by HCL Comnet with 20,250, Bharti Airtel with 8,917 and Bharti Broadband with 4,862 subscribers. Essel Shyam and GNFC recorded a negative growth of 2.9 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
PMRTS
The public mobile radio trunked service (PMRTS) subscriber base increased from 30,670 in December 2006 to 31,501 in March 2007, a growth rate of 2.71 per cent. Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai together accounted for 71.42 per cent market share. Delhi led with 8,924 subscribers followed by Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai with 6,636, 3,891 and 3,046 subscribers respectively.
Net, net, as the figures reveal, both mobile and fixed telephony subscribers increased during the three-month period January-March 2007. At this rate of growth, the government’s target of 500 million subscribers by 2010 does not seem too daunting.
