Voice revenue’s contribution to overall revenue of Indian telecom operators declined by around two percent during the quarter ended December 31, 2010.
This is despite a recent recovery in mobile services tariffs which had touched historical lows in fiscal 2009-10.
Revenue contribution from calls for GSM operators declined to 54.81 percent in the quarter ended December 2010 from 55.8 percent in the previous quarter. For CDMA operators, the decline was around two percent with contribution from calls dropping from 49.8 percent to 47.6 percent in the last quarter of calendar year 2010, TRAI data revealed.
SMS contribution also showed a marginal decline for GSM operators, while CDMA players recorded a marginal increase. For GSM players, SMS contributed 7.42 percent for the quarter ended December 2010. SMS contributed 5 percent to the total revenue for CDMA service providers.
Contribution from other revenues (including installation and VAS) grew for both GSM and CDMA operators, according to TRAI. Other revenue contributed 11.05 percent to GSM kitty, while CDMA operators received 5.8 percent contribution from other revenues.
Gross revenue (GR) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom sector for the quarter ended December 2010 has been Rs 42,916.81 crore and Rs 29,925.37 crore respectively, with an increase of 2.44 percent and 0.64 percent in GR and AGR respectively as compared to previous quarter.
Access services contributed 77.15 percent of the total revenue of telecom services.
The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 723.28 million in September 2010 to 787.28 million at the end of December 2010. The overall teledensity in India has reached 66.16 in 2010.
Subscription in urban areas grew from 487.07 million in September 2010 to 527.50 million at the end of December 2010, taking the urban teledensity from 137.25 to 147.88.
Rural subscription increased from 236.21 million to 259.78 million, and the rural teledensity increased from
28.42 to 31.18. The share of rural subscribers has increased to 33 percent in total subscription from 32.66 percent in September 2010.
63.17 percent of the total net additions have been in urban areas as compared to 66.83 percent in the previous quarter. Rural subscription recorded an increase in rate of growth during the quarter, from 7.81 percent in September 2010 to 9.98 percent in December 2010. Rate of growth for urban subscription also increased from 7.62 percent in September to 8.30 percent in December 2010.
Himachal Pradesh has the highest rural teledensity of 69.79, followed by Punjab (53.01), Kerala (51.26), Haryana (47.55) and Tamil Nadu (Incl. Chennai) (46.41). Bihar continues to have the lowest rural teledensity of 17.89, followed by Madhya Pradesh (18.26).
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
