The total revenue of the Indian telecom sector grew by 7 per cent to Rs. 2,83,207 crore for 2010-11 financial year, estimates telecom journal Voice&Data .
During the previous fiscal the total revenue of the sector stood at Rs. 2,64,669 crore.
Revenue from various services in the Indian telecom industry grew to Rs. 166,168 crore, up 14.9 per cent, in 2010-11 fiscal as against Rs. 1,44,600 crore in the previous financial year.
“The growth was purely driven by growth in subscriber base for various services,” Ibrahim Ahmed, Chief Editor of Voice&Data told PTI .
Various telecom services counted in the survey include cellular, fixed line, National Long Distance (NLD), International Long Distance (ILD), broadband and VSAT services.
However, revenues from telecom equipment segment declined by 2.52 per cent to Rs. 1,17,039 crore in FY ’11 from Rs. 1,20,069 crore in FY ’10.
“Due to amendment in security norms of telecom licence most of the service providers could not purchase equipment. This effect was visible on the overall revenue of telecom equipments segment,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Voice&Data estimates that maximum revenue in the service segment of the industry came from cellular services market which grew by 16.6 per cent to Rs. 102,230 crore in FY ’11 from Rs. 87,680 crore in the previous fiscal.
Revenues from fixed line continued to decline both in terms of number of connections and revenues. V&D estimated it to be at Rs. 11,602 crore representing a 15.6 per cent year-on-year decline.
Based on the survey, the journal estimated that the country has close to 501 million active subscribers instead of 574 million reported by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for March.
Revenues from International Long Distance (ILD) segment is estimated to be at Rs. 22,607 crore in FY ’11, up 10 per cent from Rs. 20,530 crore in FY ’10.
The journal attributed the growth in ILD segment to Indian telecom operators increasing their presence in foreign markets. “This brought additional ILD revenue for domestic operators. With falling rates there has been a substantial growth of inbound voice traffic into India,” it said.
According to the survey revenues from broadband services stood at Rs. 6,846 crore recording a growth of 22.4 per cent over FY ’10 revenue of Rs. 5,591 crore.
“While BSNL’s broadband revenue grew by 40 per cent in FY ’11, the other state-run telecom operator MTNL’s revenue grew just 8 per cent during the same period,” the journal said.
Top 30 cities contributed nearly 60 per cent to the total number of broadband subscribers.
Among service providers, Bharti Airtel retained its top position for the second consecutive year, by posting a revenue growth of 42.1 per cent at Rs. 59,467 crore in the 2010-11 financial year.
Vodafone Essar occupied the second spot. It registered 16.1 per cent growth in revenue at Rs. 27,348 crore in FY’11 as against Rs. 23,559 crore in the previous fiscal. This was followed by Reliance Communication, which reported a marginal revenue growth of 4.4 per cent at Rs. 23,108 crore for FY ’11.
According to the estimates of V&D , state-run telecom company BSNL registered a 10 per cent drop in revenue at Rs. 28,877 crore in FY’11 from its previous fiscal’s earnings of Rs. 32,072 crore.
During the 2010-11 financial year, revenue of other public telecom operator MTNL dropped nearly 22 per cent at Rs. 3,951 crore, it said.
“We spoke to most of the payers in the industry. The numbers were directly and indirectly shared by the service providers,” Mr. Ahmed said.
