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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released "The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report" for the January-March 2005 quarter. The report provides an update on growth trends in various telecom services. Here is a look at some of the key developments in the industry during this period.

FIXED LINE SERVICES
As on March 31, 2005, fixed line services were being provided by the incumbents BSNL, MTNL and five licensed private operators –­ Bharti, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), Reliance Infocomm, Shyam Telelink and HFCL Infotel. During the quarter, TTSL started services in the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) including Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Kolkata circles. Bharti Tele Ventures also started service in Gujarat, Punjab, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh (West) including Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Kolkata.

Market share
As of March 31, 2005, the total subscriber base for fixed line services including WLL(FWT) stood at 46.2 million. BSNL held 80 per cent market share followed by MTNL with 9 per cent. The five private operators together had an 11 per cent share. In the quarter under consideration, the share of private operators increased by 1 per cent while that of BSNL declined by the same amount. MTNL managed to maintain its market share.

At the end of March 2005, there were 32.74 million urban direct exchange lines (DELs) and 13.45 million rural DELs. The number of DELs grew from 44.9 million as on December 31, 2004 to 46.2 million as on March 31, 2005. Overall, there was a 2.87 per cent growth in the subscriber base during the quarter.

Public call offices
There were 2.77 million public call offices (PCOs) in the country as of March 31, 2005. BSNL had 68 per cent share with 1.87 million PCOs. MTNL followed with 10 per cent share and 279,776 PCOs. Private operators held 10 per cent share and had 620,088 PCOs. A total of 239,820 PCOs were added during the quarter.

Village public telephones
Of the 6.07 million villages in the country, 76,875 did not have any telephones as of March 31, 2005. During the quarter, the number of village public telephones (VPTs) increased to 530,616 from 525,272 as on December 31, 2004. While BSNL added 6,172, MTNL reduced its VPTs by 191, Bharti by 607 and HFCL by 31.

MOBILE SERVICES
As of March 31, 2005, the mobile industry had crossed the 52.2 million subscriber mark. These included 41.07 million GSM subscribers and 11.14 million CDMA subscribers. The 4.2 million subscribers added during this period represented an 8.76 per cent growth. This was lower than the 11.67 per cent growth seen in the quarter ended December 2004.

During the January-March 2005 quarter, Bharti was the largest mobile operator followed by Reliance Infocomm and BSNL. Bharti had 10.98 million subscribers while Reliance Infocomm and BSNL had 10.45 million and 9.9 million subscribers respectively.

The quarter saw Bharti Cellular starting services in the Bihar, Assam and northeast circles. The company now provides services in all 23 circles in the country. Reliance Internet started services in Kolkata while TTSL became operational in all its licensed areas. BSNL also started CDMA operations in the northeast circle.

GSM service trends
As of December 2004, the share of prepaid subscribers in the total GSM subscriber base stood at 73.6 per cent. This was lower than the 74.5 per cent share at the end of September 2004. The post-paid segment saw a growth of 13.88 per cent against the prepaid segment's 9.47 per cent.

GSM ARPUs
As far as the average revenue per user (ARPU) is concerned, the all-India blended ARPU per month for GSM operators went down from Rs 404 in the quarter ended September 2004 to Rs 398 in the quarter ended December 2004. The lowest blended ARPU, Rs 339, was in Circle B while the highest, Rs 472, was in the metro circle.

The all-India ARPU for the post-paid segment declined by 4.95 per cent from Rs 707 in the quarter ended September 2004 to Rs 672 in the following quarter. On the other hand, the ARPU for the prepaid segment increased marginally from Rs 299 in the quarter ended September 2004 to Rs 302 in the quarter ended December 2004. Despite this, the post-paid ARPU was 2.22 times the prepaid ARPU in the quarter ended December 2004.

In an operator-wise comparison, BSNL/MTNL recorded an ARPU of Rs 372 for the quarter ended December 2004. This was lower than the Rs 406 per month enjoyed by private operators.

GSM usage pattern
The minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber increased by 7.6 per cent, from 302 in the quarter ended September 2004 to 325 in the following quarter. The ratio of incoming-to-outgoing minutes stood at 63:37. This ratio was 57:43 for the pos paid segment and 69:31 for the prepaid segment.

Circle-wise, the outgoing and incoming MoU per subscriber was highest in Circle C with 156 and 272 minutes respectively. The lowest usage was in Circle B with 107 and 163 minutes respectively. As far as messages are concerned, the highest number of outgoing messages, 40 per subscriber per month, was seen in Circle A, followed by the metro circle with 35 messages.

GSM revenue per minute
The all-India blended revenue per minute for GSM operators for the quarter ended December 2004 declined by 9 per cent to Rs 1.23 compared to Rs 1.35 seen in the preceding quarter.

Minimum effective charge –­ GSM and CDMA
The minimum effective charge reflects the actual amount paid by a user with a total outgoing usage of 250 local minutes per month. During the quarter ended March 2005, no change took place. The figure stood at Rs 1.20 per minute.

INTERNET SERVICES
As of end March 2005, there were 172 internet service providers (ISPs) operational in the country. BSNL retained its top position with a subscriber base of 1.84 million. MTNL retained second position with 1.01 million subscribers. Sify moved up to the third position with 811,000 subscribers while Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited slipped to fourth position with a subscriber base of 702,000. Reliance Communications Infrastructure reported a subscriber base of 246,000 and remained at fifth place. The reported internet subscriber base touched 5.55 million as of March 31, 2005 compared to the 5.45 million seen in the previous quarter. There was an increase of 1.91 per cent during the quarter.

Internet telephony
Fifty-one ISPs provide internet telephony services in the country. The MoU decreased to 41.52 million in the quarter ended March 2005, compared to 43 million in the preceding quarter.

Leased line connectivity
The number of leased line connections reached 12,204 during the quarter under review as opposed to 12,195 in the preceding quarter.

Cyber cafes/community internet centres
As of March 31, 2005, there were 8,791 cyber cafés functional in the country, of which 7,879 were franchised by ISPs and 912 were non-franchised.

High speed broadband connectivity
The number of subscribers accessing the internet through "always-on" high speed connections (less than 256 kbps) during the quarter reached 696,370.

The number of broadband subscribers increased from 46,638 as of December 31, 2004 to 182,987 at the end of March 2005, a growth of 292 per cent.

Internet MoU/ARPUs
According to reports of 39 ISPs, the average MoU per subscriber per month stood at about 305 minutes. The ARPU per month for internet usage was Rs 220.

VSAT SERVICES
VSAT services are being provided by nine operators as of March 31, 2005. RPG Satellite Communications surrendered its licence during this period while that of HFCL was cancelled by DoT.

The quarter saw an addition of 2,182 subscribers, taking the subscriber base from 36,221 in December 2004 to 38,330 in March 2005. This represented a growth of 5.75 per cent as against 12.24 per cent in the previous quarter.

HCL Comnet remained the market leader with 13,452 VSAT subscribers followed by Hughes Escorts Communications Limited with 12,012, Bharti BT with 5,581 and Comsat Max with 4,453 subscribers respectively. HCL Comnet added 1,369 new connections, the maximum for any operator, while Essel Shyam and ITI had negative growth during the quarter.

Quality of service
TRAI has set quality of service (QoS) benchmarks for fixed line, mobile and internet operators. Here is a look at the latest indicators on the quality of telecom services provided.

BASIC SERVICE PROVIDERS

Provision of telephone within seven days for exchange areas declared "On demand"
Although 41 out of 63 service providers did not meet the 100 per cent QoS benchmark for this parameter, Reliance Infocomm met it in all its circles.

Fault incidences per month per 100 phones
The benchmark for this parameter is less than three faults per 100 phones per month. While all private operators met this benchmark, BSNL and MTNL failed to do so in any of their circles.

Percentage of faults fixed by next working day
The TRAI benchmark set for this parameter is more than 90 per cent. All the private operators, except Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) (Andhra Pradesh) met this target. BSNL has made the grade in 16 out of 26 circles while MTNL has failed to do so in both Delhi and Mumbai.

Mean time to repair
BSNL met the TRAI benchmark of less than eight hours in only nine out of 26 circles. MTNL failed to do so in both its circles while all the private operators, except TTSL (Andhra Pradesh), met the required standard.

Grade of service for junction between local exchanges
All private operators, except TTSL, Gujarat, met the TRAI stipulation of less than 0.002.

Call completion rate in local network
HFCL, Shyam Telelink, TTSL (Gujarat), Bharti (Tamil Nadu) and Reliance Infocomm (except Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh –­ East, Uttar Pradesh –­ West, and West Bengal achieved the desired QoS benchmark of greater than 65 per cent call completion rate. Sixteen out of 26 service areas of BSNL and MTNL (Delhi and Mumbai) did not meet the QoS benchmark.

Metering and billing credibility
The benchmark for this parameter is not more than 0.1 per cent of bills should be disputed over a billing cycle. BSNL met this benchmark in all its 26 circles except three (Chennai, Northeast-II and Jammu & Kashmir). MTNL (Mumbai and Delhi) also met the standard.

Among the private operators, TTSL (except Gujarat), Bharti (Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu), HFCL and Reliance (Himachal Pradesh) did not meet the QoS benchmark.

Operator-assisted trunk calls
BSNL, MTNL and all applicable private operators failed to make the grade in all the circles. The benchmark specified by TRAI is that urgent calls be answered within one hour and ordinary calls within two hours.

Customer care: Promptness in attending 95 per cent of customer requests

• Shifts: The benchmark set by TRAI is less than three days for shifting a phone. While Shyam Telelink, TTSL (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Chennai) and Reliance Infocomm (all circles) met the benchmark, BSNL and MTNL did not.
• Closures: The benchmark of less than 24 hours was met by all private operators except TTSL (Delhi) and Bharti (Delhi, Haryana). No information was available for BSNL while MTNL did not meet the benchmark.
• Additional facility: Against a benchmark of less than 24 hours, MTNL (Delhi and Mumbai), TTSL (Delhi) and Bharti (Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana) failed to meet this QoS benchmark. Information was unavailable for BSNL.

Percentage of repeat faults
There should be less than 1 per cent repeat faults, TRAI stipulates. BSNL in all its circles (except Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir), and MTNL (Delhi and Mumbai) have failed to meet this benchmark. Reliance Infocomm, Shyam Telelink and TTSL (Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Chennai) are within the TRAI limit.

MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS
The results of over 107 mobile service operators, including 28 CDMA operators, have been used to compile the data for QoS of mobile service providers. There has been an improvement in the performance of operators in the quarter ended March 2005 compared to the previous quarter. Some of the highlights are:

• The number of faults per 100 subscribers for TTSL (Karnataka) and Bharti (Uttar Pradesh –­ East, Jammu & Kashmir) is 2.07 per cent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively, which is way above the TRAI benchmark of <1 per cent.
• For the parameter faults cleared within 24 hours, the performance of BSNL (Orissa) and TTSL (Andhra Pradesh) was 88 per cent and 64 per cent respectively. These are much below the stipulation of 100 per cent.
• Twenty-three operators did not meet the benchmark of more than 99 per cent call success rate (CSR). The CSR for BSNL was 88 per cent each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (West), and 84 per cent in Orissa.
• All service providers met the benchmark for the parameter service access delay.
• Likewise, all the service providers met the benchmark for the call drop rate parameter, except BSNL in Assam.
• The parameter percentage of connections with good voice quality was not met by only five operators. The performance of MTNL (Delhi) was 56.8 per cent, which is way below the benchmark of greater than 95 per cent.
• On the parameter of number of complaints per 100 bills issued, BSNL scored 1.2 per cent, 1.7 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 2.3 per cent in Maharashtra, Kerala, Chennai and Kolkata respectively, which is much higher than the benchmark of 0.1 per cent.

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
Most of the ISPs met the TRAI benchmarks. The observations on QoS benchmarks for ISPs are as follows:

Service activation time
All the ISPs met the benchmark of six hours' activation time. Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited, Broadband Pacenet and Hughes did not, however, provide the data.

Time to access
The benchmark for this parameter is 30 seconds. Except HCL Infinet, all other ISPs met this target during the quarter.

Probability of accessing ISP node
ISPs are required to maintain 80 per cent probability in the first attempt, 90 per cent in the second attempt and 99 per cent in the third attempt. All the ISPs met this benchmark. Some companies did not provide the requisite data.

ISP node unavailability
ISP node unavailability should not exceed 30 minutes in a month. Barring HCL Infinet and WWW Communications, the other ISPs were able to achieve this benchmark.

Mean time to restore
As per Clause 1.9 Schedule "C" of the ISP licence, ISPs are required to rectify 90 per cent of the reported faults within 24 hours and 99 per cent within three days. All the ISPs rectified faults within the stipulated period of three days.