The boom phase for Indian telecom sector continues to ride on availability of cheaper telecom services at the same time aggressive marketing by new and established players. The growth phase is panning out across India and is not just limited to urban India.
TRAI released the ‘Indian Telecom Industry performance indicator report’ for quarter ended june 09. The report points out detail info regarding the surge in telecom – density as well as the current situation in Telemedia businesses.
Major Facts & Figures:
Telecom Subscriber Base:
- Telecom Subscribers Base in April-June quarter reached 464.82 million users compared to 429.72 Million in march quarter.
- Subscriber base registered a 8.17 percent Q-o-Q growth.
The telecom subscriber base continues to grow positively and has been able to provide record net-additions in recent past.
Mobile Subscriber Base:
- Total mobile subscriber base stood at 427.29 at the end of June-09 Quarter.
- Net quarterly additions in total wireless segment (GSM+CDMA) came in at 35.53 Mn.
- Wireless Tele-density reached 36.64 per cent.
Teledensity & Demographics:
- Total Tele-density stood at 39.86 per cent.
- Wireline Tele-density came in at mere 3.22 % whereas wireless subscription contributed 91.9 % of overall Tele-density.
- Subscription in Urban Areas was at 328.55 Million and Rural subscribers increased to 136.27 Million.
Total Tele-density in India can still register a comfortable growth rate looking at high tele-density found in China and other emerging countries. Rural Telecom market would continue to prosper as telecom companies make further inroads into this market.
Broadband subscribers:
- Internet subscribers increased to 14.05 million at the end of June 2009.
- Share of Broadband subscription in total Internet subscription increased from 46% in Mar-09 to 47% in June-09.
It would still take quite a long time before we see a major up rise in broadband subscriber growth. Wireless internet will outshine broadband in future as even notebook sales to desktop ratio are at a very high level compared to even some developed economies.
Usages and ARPU’s:
GSM:
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for GSM operators declined by 10% to Rs. 185 in QE Jun-09 from Rs. 205 in QE Mar-09.
MOU (months of usage) per subscriber for GSM continued to show a declining trend. It declined by 6.19% from 484 in QE Mar-09 to 454 in QE Jun-09. The outgoing MOUs declined by 5.30% and incoming by 7.04%.
This calls for a serious action as declining ARPU’s are also supported by declining Minutes of Usages showcasing that the lower revenues per user are somehow caused due to lower usages and not just lower pricing.
CDMA:
ARPU for CDMA operators declined by 7.2% from Rs. 99 in QE Mar-09 to Rs. 92 in QE June-09.
MOU per subscriber for CDMA declined by 4% to 342 (Q.E June 2009) from from 357 (Q.E March 2009). The Outgoing MOUs declined by 2.7% and Incoming MOUs declined by 5.2%.
CDMA continues to reel under lower ARPU’s although has been registering lesser decline in usages.
Telecom Turnover:
Gross Revenue (GR) stood at Rs 39,108.33 Crore and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Sector came in at Rs. 29,732.52 Crores.
GR has registered a decline of 3.3% compared to previous quarter whereas AGR increased slightly.
Average license fee as percentage of AGR was 8.43% in June-09 as against 8.4% in previous quarter.
The less outgo in terms of licensing fees is a big positive for Telecom industry and as such for telecom subscribers in general as this will allow further scope of reduction in telecom tariffs.
Telemedia Business:
Total Number of Television channels registered with Ministry of I&B was 447 and out of them 136 are pay channels.
Maximum number of TV channels being carried by any of the reported MSOs is 262 whereas in conventional analogue form, the maximum number of channels being carried by the reported MSOs is 100 channels.
The number of private FM Radio stations in operation increased from 245 in March-09 to 248 in June-09.
There are 6 private DTH licensees. 5 DTH licensees are offering pay DTH services to the customers as on June quarter and has reported subscriber base of 15.17 million subscribers.
Telemedia businesses like DTH and broadcasting has registered phenomenally good growth in short span of time and continues to ride on the economic boom.
Quality Of Service(QoS) :
TRAI also seconds the general view that service provided by wireless service providers has been deteriorating from many years. It earlier showcased its concern regarding higher call drops rate in India.
The Wireline Service Providers although met the QoS parameters of Customer Care Service (Closures) and Response time and also improved their performance in providing technical assistance. The wireline services performance has deteriorated in this quarter, as compared to the previous quarter, in respect of Faults incidences, Metering & billing credibility. The deterioration was also seen in call drop rates.
Thus quality of performance needs to be improved in terms of voice quality and providing good customer care services alone will not ride out the concerns of disgruntle telecom subscribers in India.
