TRAI releases Indian telecom services quarterly performance indicators

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Indian Telecom Quarterly Performance Indicators Report for January – March 2010 released yesterday by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reveals that the number of telephone subscribers has increased from 562.16 million at the end of December-2009 to 621.28 million at the end of March-2010.

This marks a sequential growth of 10.52 percent over the previous quarter and reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth of 44.58 percent over the same quarter of last year. With this, the overall teledensity in India has reached 52.74 as on March 31, 2010.

Trends in Telephone subscribers and Teledensity in IndiaSource: TRAI, India.

Subscription in urban areas has grown from 387.63 million at the end of December-2009 to 420.47 million at the end of March-2010, taking the urban teledensity from 110.96 to 119.73. Rural subscription has increased from 174.53 to 200.81 million leading to increase in rural teledensity from 21.16 to 24.29, during this period.

About 56 percent of the total net additions have been in urban areas as compared to 57 percent in the previous quarter. The share of rural subscribers has increased to 32.3 percent in total subscription from 31 percent in December-2009.

Composition of Telephone SubscribersSource: TRAI, India.

With 59.23 million net additions during the quarter, total wireless (GSM + CDMA) subscriber base has increased to 584.32 million at the end of March-2010, and the wireless teledensity has reached 49.60.

Internet subscribers have increased from 15.24 million at the end of December-2009 to 16.18 millions at the end of March-2010, registering a quarterly growth rate of 6.17 percent.

The number of broadband subscribers increased from 7.82 million at the end of December-2009 to 8.71 million at the end of March-2010, registering a quarterly growth of 12.15 percent and Y-O-Y growth of 41.05 percent.

Share of broadband subscription in total Internet subscription increased from 51.3 percent in December-2009 to 54.2 percent in March-2010. Also, 86.6 percent of the broadband subscribers are using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.

Trends in Internet/Broadband subscriptionSource: TRAI, India.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) for GSM-full mobility service declined by 8.6 percent, from Rs. 144 in quarter ending December, 2009 to Rs. 131 in quarter ending March-2010, with Y-O-Y decrease of 36.1 percent.

ARPU for CDMA – full mobility service declined by 7.4 percent, from Rs. 82 in quarter ending December-2009 to Rs. 76 in quarter ending March-2010. ARPU for CDMA has declined by 22.9 percent on Y-O-Y basis.

The complete report is available on TRAI’s website.

Source: Press Information Bureau, India