TRAI releases its performance indicator report for January- March 2012 quarter

As per the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country?s total subscriber base at the end of March 2012 stands at 951.34 million.

In comparison at the end of December 2011, the country?s total telephone subscriber base stood at 926.53 million. The total wireless subscriber base including GSM and CDMA has increased from 893.84 million at the end of December 2011 to 919.17 million at the end of March 2012.

According to the quarterly report, the wireline subscriber base in the country continues to decline. The wireline subscriber base in the country has declined from 32.69 million at the end of December 2011 to 32.17 million.

The telecom subscription in urban areas has increased from 611.19 million at the end of December 2011 to 620.52 million at the end of March 2012, increasing the urban teledensity from 167.85 to 169.55 during the same period. Similarly, the telecom subscription in rural areas has also increased from 315.33 million at the end of December 2011to 330.82 million at the end of March 2012. The teledensity in rural areas has increased from 37.48 in December 2011to 39.22 in March 2012.

Further, the internet subscriber base in the country registered a growth of 2.10 per cent during January to March, 2012. The total internet subscriber base increased from 22.39 million at the end of December 2011 to 22.86 million at the end of March 2012.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2012, the gross revenue earned by the telecom service sector stood at Rs 492.42 billion and the adjusted gross revenue for the sector for the same period stood at Rs 344.57 billion. The monthly average revenue per user for GSM service increased by 1.66 per cent from Rs 96 at the end of December 2011 to Rs 97 at the end of March 2012.

According to the TRAI data, Bharti Airtel continues to be the leading telecom service provider with a subscriber base of 184.55 million at the end of March 2012. The operator added 5.58 million new users between January to March 2012. Vodafone?s total subscriber base stood at 150.48 million at the end of March, 2012 with total addition 2.74 million users for the period between January to March 2012.

By the end of March 2012, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited?s total subscriber base stood at 120.98 million and 9.29 million, respectively. For the period between January to March 2012, BSNL and MTNL added 1.22 million and 0.16 million new users, respectively.

Idea Cellular added maximum number of new users between January to March 2012. The operator added 6.34 million new users during the period. Between January to March 2012, Uninor added 6.13 million new users. Other operators like Tata Communications, S-Tel and Etisalat lost 1.70 million, 0.12 million and 0.89 million subscribers, respectively from January to March 2012.