The revenue of telecom operators from services declined by 2.67 per cent in the quarter ended December 2012, despite increase in monthly consumer’s spend on mobile phone usage by around 3 per cent, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom operator, earned from telecom services, declined by 2.67 per cent at Rs. 34,527.50 crore, while the gross revenue (GR) decreased by 0.15 per cent at Rs. 52,858.39 crore on quarterly basis, the report said.
As far as consumer spending is concerned, TRAI said the Monthly Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for GSM service increased by 3.03 per cent to Rs. 98 in quarter ended December 2012 from Rs. 95 in the previous quarter.
In its performance indicator report released on Monday, the telecom regulator also said on annual basis this was 2.25 per cent increase in each GSM subscribers spend in a month.
In the case of CDMA mobile users, they increased their spend by 8.84 per cent on annual basis and 2.80 per cent to Rs. 80 in quarter ended December 2012 from Rs. 78 in quarter ended September 2012.
However, the revenue of sector on annual basis improved during the quarter ended December 2012.
“The year-on-year growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter last year has been 7.08 per cent and 1.31 per cent, respectively,” TRAI said.
The regulator found Internet subscribers on quarterly basis increasing by 5.49 per cent to 25.33 million at the end of December 2012 quarter from 24.01 million in the September quarter. Number of broadband subscribers increased to 14.98 million at the end of December 2012, from 14.68 million at the end of September 2012, registering a quarterly growth of 2.02 per cent and year-on-year growth of 12.23 per cent, the report said.
The report shows that India lost around 4.20 crore telecom subscribers during the December quarter. The number of telephone subscribers declined to 89.55 crore at the end of December 2012 from 93.77 crore at the end of September 2012.
