The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released the performance indicator report (PIR) for the April-June 2013 quarter. The report has been prepared based on the information provided by service providers and highlights the growth trends in the telecom sector for the quarter.

According to the report, the country’s telecom subscriber base (wireless and wireline) increased from 898.02 million in end-March 2013 to 903.09 million in end-June 2013, registering a growth of 0.56 per cent over the previous quarter. The overall teledensity increased from 73.32 per cent in end-March 2013 to 73.5 per cent in end-June 2013. There has been a 6.47 per cent decline in the country’s telecom subscriber base year on year owing to operator initiatives to weed out inactive users.

Bharti Airtel led the pack in terms of overall subscribers. With regard to net additions during the quarter, Idea Cellular recorded the highest growth (3.36 million), followed by Reliance Communications (RCOM) (2.76 million) and Airtel (2.72 million).

The urban telecom subscriber base decreased from 548.8 million in end-March 2013 to 545.48 million in end-June 2013, resulting in a decline in urban teledensity from 146.96 per cent to 145.35 per cent. Meanwhile, the rural subscriber base grew from 349.22 million to 357.61 million during the same period, which increased the rural teledensity from 41.02 per cent to 41.9 per cent. The share of rural subscribers in the user base grew from 38.89 per cent in March 2013 to 39.6 per cent in end-June 2013. Idea Cellular had the highest share of rural subscribers (55 per cent) in its user base, followed by Vodafone India (54.17 per cent).

 Wireline

The wireline subscriber base reduced from 30.21 million at end-March 2013 to 29.73 million in end-June 2013, resulting in a 2.42 per cent decrease in wireline teledensity. The rural wireline subscriber base dropped from 6.71 million to 6.51 million, while the urban user base decreased from 23.5 million to 23.22 million.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) continued to lead the wireline market with a 66.91 per cent share. However, the company’s subscriber base decreased by about 2.72 per cent during April-June 2013 to 19.89 million.

The total number of public call offices stood at 1.16 million in end-June 2013 as compared to 1.26 million at end-March 2013. The decline over the corresponding quarter in 2012 was 32.22 per cent. The number of village public telephones (VPTs) also declined from 589,631 in end-March 2013 to 589,272 in end-June 2013. Currently, 99.25 per cent of the country’s 593,731 inhabited villages (as per Census 2001) are connected.

 Wireless

The total wireless (GSM and CDMA) subscriber base witnessed a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.64 per cent, from 867.8 million at end-March 2013 to 873.36 million in end-June 2013. However, it declined by 6.5 per cent over the same quarter in 2012.

Meanwhile, the country’s wireless teledensity increased from 70.85 per cent to 71.08 per cent during April-June 2013. The rural wireless subscriber base increased by 2.51 per cent in the quarter ended June 2013 as compared to 3.29 per cent in the quarter ended March 2013. Moreover, the share of rural subscribers in the overall wireless user base increased from 39.47 per cent to 40.2 per cent during April-June 2013. Meanwhile, the urban wireless user base declined by 0.58 per cent during the quarter.

GSM services continued to dominate the wireless market, accounting for 91.84 per cent of the wireless subscriber base. The overall GSM subscriber base stood at 802.12 million in end-June 2013 as compared to 794.03 million in end-March 2013, registering a growth of 1.02 per cent. Meanwhile, the overall CDMA user base decreased by 3.43 per cent from 73.78 million in end-March 2013 to 71.24 million in end-June 2013. With a subscriber base of 190.91 million (23.8 per cent market share), Bharti Airtel accounted for the highest share in the wireless market, followed by Vodafone India, which had 155.03 million users.

Among the CDMA operators, RCOM maintained its leadership position with a subscriber base of 39.34 million and a market share of 55.22 per cent. With regard to net additions, all operators except RCOM registered a decline during the quarter under review.

 Mobile ARPUs

GSM services

The monthly all-India blended ARPU for GSM players increased from Rs 105 in the quarter ended March 2013 to Rs 111 in the quarter ended June 2013.

Prepaid ARPU increased from Rs 89 in March 2013 to Rs 97 in June 2013, while post-paid ARPU decreased from Rs 519 to Rs 480. As per TRAI, the decline in post-paid ARPU is owing to telecom operators reporting revenues from in-roamers separately for post-paid and prepaid customers. Earlier, revenues were reported under the same category by most operators.

 CDMA services

Between December 2012 and March 2013, Tata Teleservices Limited, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited and RCOM discontinued their CDMA services in several circles. This impacted the performance parameters (ARPU, minutes of usage [MoUs], etc.) for CDMA services. The monthly all-India blended ARPU for CDMA mobile services increased from Rs 95.25 in the quarter ended March 2013 to Rs 98.35 in the quarter ended June 2013. The ARPUs for prepaid services increased from Rs 58.92 to Rs 61.06 during this period. The ARPU for post-paid services decreased from Rs 453.28 to Rs 453.08.

Mobile usage pattern

GSM services

The overall monthly MoUs per subscriber for GSM services increased from 383 in the quarter ended March 2013 to 388 in the quarter ended June 2013. The overall ratio of incoming and outgoing MoUs declined from 52:48 in end-March 2013 to 51:49 in end-June 2013. The number of outgoing SMSs per subscriber per month decreased from 30 in end-March 2013 to 27 in end-June 2013.

 CDMA services

Overall monthly CDMA MoUs per subscriber increased by 1.24 per cent from 274.92 in the quarter ended March 2013 to 278.32 in the quarter ended June 2013. Prepaid and post-paid MoUs increased by 0.32 per cent and 4.07 per cent respectively during April-June 2013. The number of outgoing SMSs per month per user declined from 18 in end-March 2013 to 17 in end-June 2013.

 Quality of service

During April-June 2013, the performance of wireless service providers improved with respect to parameters such as the accumulated downtime at base transceiver stations; TCH congestion levels, the most affected cells having over 3 per cent TCH (call drop) rate; the number of connections with good voice quality; the number of congested points of interconnection; the resolution of billing/ charging/validity complaints; accessibility of call centre/customer care; and the percentage of requests for termination or closure of service complied with within seven days.

The performance of wireless service providers deteriorated during April-June 2013 with regard to parameters such as the percentage of calls answered by operators (voice-to-voice) within 60 seconds; credibility of metering and billing services for both prepaid and post-paid customers; the time taken to apply a waiver, credit or adjustment to a customer’s account from the date of resolution of complaints; and the time taken for refund of deposits after closures.

Internet and broadband

TRAI has divided the parameters for this segment into two parts – internet subscribers excluding internet access through mobile devices, and internet services access by mobile device subscribers.

As of June 2013, the country had 186 internet service providers (ISPs) and 198.39 million internet subscribers, including those customers who accessed the internet through their mobile handsets. Overall, there were 164.81 million mobile internet subscribers at end-March 2013.

BSNL led the internet market with a 60.13 per cent share (internet subscriber base of 13.16 million at end-June 2013), followed by RCOM (2.6 million) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (1.98 million). The 10 leading ISPs together accounted for 94.47 per cent of the subscriber base. Maharashtra had the largest internet and broadband user base in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu.

 Internet access excluding through mobile devices

As of June 2013, there were 21.89 million internet subscribers, excluding those accessing these services through mobile handsets. This stood at 21.61 million in December 2012.

The share of broadband in the internet subscriber base during April-June 2013 was 69.44 per cent, while the share of narrowband subscribers was 30.56 per cent. The broadband user base grew from 15.05 million in the quarter ended March 2013 to 15.2 million in the quarter ended June 2013. The segment witnessed a quarterly growth of 0.98 per cent and a year-on-year growth of 4.32 per cent. The number of narrowband subscribers increased by 1.99 per cent from 6.56 million in end-March 2013 to 6.69 million in end-June 2013. DSL was the preferred broadband technology, which was used by over 84.38 per cent of subscribers during April-June 2013. It was followed by the Ethernet local area network (6.54 per cent) and cable modem (5.28 per cent).

 Financial performance

In June 2013, the sector’s gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) stood at Rs 572.6 billion and Rs 386.4 billion respectively. The gross revenue and AGR increased by 5.48 per cent and 9.53 per cent respectively during the quarter ended June 2013.