The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released the performance indicator report (PIR) for the July-September 2013 quarter. The report has been prepared based on the information provided by service providers and highlights telecom growth trends during the three-month period.

According to the report, the country’s telecom subscriber base (wireless and wireline) decreased from 903.09 million in end-June 2013 to 899.86 million in end-September 2013, registering a decline of 0.36 per cent. The overall teledensity decreased from 73.5 per cent in end-June 2013 to 73.01 per cent in end-September 2013. There was a 4.03 per cent decline in the telecom subscriber base year on year owing to operator initiatives to weed out inactive subscribers.

Bharti Airtel led the pack in terms of overall subscribers. Bharti Airtel recorded the highest net additions (2.53 million) during the quarter, followed by Aircel (2.28 million) and Idea Cellular (2.26 million). Reliance Communications (RCOM) registered the highest net decline in its subscriber base during the quarter (9.47 million).

The urban telecom subscriber base decreased from 545.48 million in end-June 2013 to 543.18 million in end-September 2013, resulting in a decline in urban teledensity from 145.35 per cent to 144.02 per cent. Meanwhile, the rural subscriber base reduced from 357.61 million to 356.68 million during this period, which led to a drop in rural teledensity from 41.9 per cent to 41.7 per cent. The share of rural subscribers in the user base grew from 39.6 per cent in end-June 2013 to 39.64 per cent in end-September 2013. Idea Cellular had the highest share of rural subscribers (54.36 per cent) in its user base, followed by Vodafone India (53.47 per cent).

Wireline

The wireline subscriber base reduced from 29.73 million in end-June 2013 to 29.28 million in end-September 2013, resulting in a 1.5 per cent decrease in wireline teledensity. The rural wireline subscriber base dropped from 6.51 million to 6.31 million, while the urban user base decreased from 23.22 million to 22.97 million.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) continued to lead the wireline market with a 66.14 per cent share. However, the company’s subscriber base decreased by about 2.62 per cent during July-September 2013 to 19.37 million.

The total number of public call offices stood at 1.08 million in end-September 2013, as compared to 1.16 million in end-June 2013. The decline over the corresponding quarter in 2012 was 29.76 per cent. The number of village public telephones (VPTs) increased from 589,272 in end-June 2013 to 589,313 in end-September 2013.

Wireless

The total wireless (GSM and CDMA) subscriber base witnessed a decline of 0.32 per cent from 873.36 million in end-June 2013 to 870.58 million in end-September 2013. It declined by 3.97 per cent over the same quarter in 2012.

Meanwhile, the country’s wireless teledensity decreased from 71.08 per cent during April-June 2013 to 70.63 during the quarter under consideration. The rural wireless subscriber base decreased by 0.21 per cent in the quarter ended September 2013 as compared to 2.51 per cent growth in the quarter ended June 2013. However, the share of rural subscribers in the wireless user base increased from 40.2 per cent during April-June 2013 to 40.25 per cent during the period under consideration. Meanwhile, the urban wireless user base declined by 0.39 per cent during the quarter ended September 2013.

GSM services continued to dominate the wireless market, accounting for 92.77 per cent of the wireless subscriber base. The overall GSM subscriber base stood at 807.68 million in end-September 2013, as compared to 802.12 million in end-June 2013, registering a growth of 0.69 per cent. Meanwhile, the overall CDMA user base decreased by 11.7 per cent from 71.24 million in end-June 2013 to 62.91 million in end-September 2013.

With a subscriber base of 193.39 million (23.94 per cent market share), Bharti Airtel accounted for the highest share in the wireless market, followed by Vodafone India, which had 155.54 million users.

Among the CDMA operators, RCOM maintained its leadership position with a subscriber base of 32.42 million and a market share of 51.53 per cent. With regard to net additions, all operators registered a decline during the quarter under review.

Mobile ARPUs

GSM services

The monthly all-India blended ARPU for GSM players decreased from Rs 111 in the quarter ended June 2013 to Rs 109 in the quarter ended September 2013.

The Prepaid ARPU decreased from Rs 97 to Rs 95, while the post-paid ARPU dropped from Rs 480 to Rs 463. As per TRAI, the decline in the post-paid ARPU is owing to 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 decreased from Rs 98.35 in the quarter ended June 2013 to Rs 98.22 in the quarter ended September 2013. The ARPU from prepaid services increased from Rs 61.06 to Rs 61.49 during this period, while that from post-paid services decreased from Rs 453.08 to Rs 449.04.

Mobile usage pattern

GSM services

The overall monthly MoUs per subscriber for GSM services decreased from 388 in the quarter ended June 2013 to 375 in the quarter ended September 2013. The overall ratio of incoming and outgoing MoUs stood at 51:49 in the quarter end-September 2013. The number of outgoing SMSs per subscriber per month increased from 27 in end-June 2013 to 29 in end-September 2013.

CDMA services

Overall monthly CDMA MoUs per subscriber decreased by 5.74 per cent from 278.32 in the quarter ended June 2013 to 262.35 in the quarter ended September 2013. Prepaid and post-paid MoUs decreased by 6.02 per cent and 4.24 per cent respectively during July-September 2013. The number of outgoing SMSs per month per user declined from 17 in end-June 2013 to 16.9 in end-September 2013.

Quality of service

During July-September 2013, the performance of wireless service providers improved on parameters such as the accumulated downtime at base transceiver stations (BTSs); the number of points of interconnection not meeting quality benchmarks; credibility of metering and billing services (for both post-paid and prepaid); resolution of complaints related to billing, charging and validity; accessibility of call centre and customer care services; and the time taken for refund of deposits after closures.

The performance of wireless service providers deteriorated during July-September 2013 with regard to parameters such as the percentage of calls answered by operators (voice-to-voice) within 60 seconds; the time taken to apply a waiver, credit or adjustment to a customer’s account from the date of resolution of complaints; the worst-affected BTSs in terms of downtime; the worst affected cells with a call drop rate of over 3 per cent; the number of connections with optimal voice quality; and the percentage of requests for termination or closure of services complied with within a week.

Internet and broadband

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

As of September 2013, the country had 182 internet service providers (ISPs) and 198.39 million internet subscribers, including those accessing the internet through their mobile handsets.

BSNL led the internet market with a 59.38 per cent share (an internet subscriber base of 13.17 million at end-September 2013), followed by Reliance Communications Infrastructure Limited (2.75 million) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (1.98 million). The 10 leading ISPs together accounted for 94.32 per cent of the subscriber base. Maharashtra had the largest internet and broadband user base in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh (including Uttarakhand).

Internet access excluding through mobile devices

As of September 2013, there were 22.19 million internet subscribers, excluding those accessing these services through mobile handsets. This base stood at 21.89 million in June 2013.

The share of broadband in the internet subscriber base stood at 69.18 per cent during July-September 2013, while the share of narrowband subscribers was 30.82 per cent. The broadband user base grew from 15.2 million in the quarter ended June 2013 to 15.35 million in September 2013. The segment witnessed a quarterly growth of 0.99 per cent and a year-on-year growth of 4.52 per cent. The number of narrowband subscribers increased by 2.25 per cent from 6.69 million in end-June 2013 to 6.84 million in end-September 2013. DSL was the preferred broadband technology, which was used by over 83.82 per cent of subscribers during July-September 2013. It was followed by Ethernet local area network (6.92 per cent) and cable modem (5.4 per cent).

Financial performance

In June 2013, the sector’s gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) stood at Rs 574.52 billion and Rs 388.1 billion respectively. The gross revenue and AGR increased by 0.33 per cent and 0.44 per cent respectively during the quarter ended September 2013.