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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently released a report on "Indian telecom services performance indicators, April-June 2005". We bring you the key highlights of the report...

Performance of fixed line services
As of June 30, 2005, the total subscriber base of fixed lines including WLL(F) stood at 46.9 million. During this period, fixed line services were provided by five licensed private operators –­ Bharti Telesonic Limited, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), HFCL, Shyam Telelink and Reliance Infocomm. This was in addition to the services provided by the incumbents –­ Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

BSNL and MTNL had a market share of 79 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, while the five private operators had a combined share of 13 per cent. The April-June 2005 quarter, however, saw an increase in the market share of private operators while BSNL's share fell. During this quarter, Bharti Telesonic started fixed line services in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The quarter under consideration saw an increase of 650,863 lines. The number of direct exchange lines (DELs) increased from 46,200,279 to 46,851,142 by the end of June 2005. Overall, there was a 1.41 per cent growth in subscriber base during the quarter.

A comparison of the number of rural and urban DELs shows that there were 13.57 million rural DELs, as against 33.28 million urban DELs. While BSNL had 100 per cent market share in rural DELs, in urban areas its market share was 70 per cent. MTNL had a 12 per cent share in urban areas while private operators had 18 per cent share.

Other performance indicators
Public call offices (PCOs): During the quarter, 177,836 new PCOs were added, taking the total number of PCOs in the country to 2,949,068. Of this, BSNL owned 64 per cent or 1,892,373 PCOs, MTNL owned 10 per cent or 282,886 PCOs while private operators owned 26 per cent or 773,809 PCOs.

Village public telephones (VPTs): The April-June 2005 quarter saw an addition of just 51 VPTs in the country, taking the total to 530,667. While BSNL added 14 VPTs and TTSL (Andhra Pradesh) added 63, HFCL reduced 26 VPTs. Of the 607,491 villages in India, 76,824 do not have any VPTs.

Performance of mobile services
The April-June 2005 quarter saw the mobile subscriber base touch 57.37 million. As of June 30, 2005, there were 44.94 million GSM subscribers and 12.43 million CDMA subscribers.

The quarter witnessed an increase of 5.16 million subscribers over the base of 52.21 million at the end of March 2005. This represented an overall growth rate of 9.86 per cent. The GSM subscriber base grew at a rate of 9.44 per cent. This was lower than the 12.43 per cent growth that took place in the CDMA subscriber base.

The overall growth rate was higher than the rate of 8.75 per cent seen in the previous quarter. The growth rates associated with CDMA increased significantly from 5.08 per cent at the end of March 2005, to 12.43 per cent at the end of June 2005. In comparison, the GSM subscriber base growth rate slowed down from 9.8 per cent in end-March 2005.

The Bharti Group, with a 21.4 per cent market share, led the mobile industry in terms of number of subscribers. It was followed by Reliance Infocomm with 20.3 per cent market share, BSNL with 18.6 per cent market share, the Hutchison Group with 14.7 per cent and Idea Cellular with 9.7 per cent.

Although Bharti, Reliance Infocomm and BSNL/MTNL had licences to offer mobile services in all 23 service circles, Bharti was the only private operator offering services in all of them. Reliance offered services in all circles except Jammu & Kashmir, BSNL offered services in all its 21 circles while TTSL offered services in all its 20 licensed service areas. During the April-June 2005 quarter, TTSL also started services in Kerala circle.

Tariff trends in GSM services
One of the newest trends to emerge in the GSM space is the launch of recharge coupons for low-end prepaid subscribers. These coupons, with a denomination value of about Rs 200 and a validity of one month, offer talktime of about Rs 50.

This development has helped increase the affordability of mobile services for consumers. Operators have also benefited as they have enjoyed a higher revenue realisation of around Rs 6.67 per outgoing minute.

Many GSM service providers have also launched post-paid tariff plans, which offer free airtime equivalent to the fixed monthly charges.

As far as the lowest local outgoing GSM tariffs available in the market are concerned, in the post-paid segment, the lowest available effective charge per minute was Rs 1.20 while in the prepaid segment it was Rs 1.50.

Performance of internet services
The internet subscriber base touched 5.89 million by end-June 2005. The subscriber base grew by 6.08 per cent during the April-June quarter. A total of 168 internet service providers (ISPs) were operational.

Of the total users, the number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 kbps or more) increased to 399,253, representing a growth of 118 per cent over the previous quarter. Approximately 66,000 broadband subscribers used DSL.

BSNL managed to retain the top slot in terms of internet subscriber base. It had a reported subscriber base of 2.02 million, higher than its base of 1.84 million at the end of March 2005. MTNL retained second position with a subscriber base of 1.11 million. Sify was in third position with 846,000 subscribers, while Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) was in fourth position with 641,000 subscribers. Reliance Communications Infrastructure Limited remained in fifth place with 284,000 subscribers.

Based on the figures reported by 34 ISPs, the average minutes of use per subscriber per month stood at approximately 300 minutes. The average revenue per user for internet usage was about Rs 200 per month. The segment saw revenues of about Rs 5.4 billion during the quarter.

Internet telephony: Fifty-one of the 121 ISPs permitted by TRAI to offer internet telephony provide such services. The total minutes of usage for this service stood at 39.1 million at the end of June 2005. This was lower than the 41.52 million minutes clocked in the previous quarter.

Leased line connectivity: The number of leased line connections reached 11,547 during the April-June 2005 quarter.

Performance of other value-added services

Public mobile radio trunked service
The PMRTS subscriber base increased from 26,330 in March 2005 to 26,467 in June 2005, registering a marginal growth rate of 0.52 per cent. The four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai together account for as much as 72.06 per cent of the total subscriber base. Delhi led with 8,737 subscribers. It was followed by Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai with 4,145, 3,718 and 2,471 subscribers respectively.

VSAT services
VSAT services were being provided by nine service providers during the AprilJune 2005 quarter. According to figures received by TRAI, 2,252 new subscribers were added during this period.

The total number of subscribers increased from 38,303 as on March 31, 2005 to 40,555 as of June 30, 2005. This represented a growth of 5.88 per cent as against a lower growth rate of 5.75 per cent seen during the previous quarter.

HCL Comnet maintained its position as market leader. It had 14,129 VSAT subscribers followed by Hughes Escorts Communications Limited with 12,454, Bharti BT with 6,134, and Comsat Max with 4,540 VSAT subscribers. The company added the maximum (677) number of new connections. It saw a growth rate of 5.03 per cent. ITI and Gujarat Narmada valley Fertilizer Company saw negative growth rates of 3.92 per cent and 3.85 per cent respectively in the quarter ended June 2005.