According to a recent paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), telecom operators have experienced a significant decline in revenue share from voice calls and SMS over the past decade. The emergence and widespread usage of internet-based calling and messaging applications have led to this shift in consumer behaviour.
As per PTI, the paper highlights that telecom operators' revenue share from voice calls has decreased by approximately 80%, while revenue from SMS has declined by a staggering 94% over the last 10 years. On the other hand, revenue per user from data usage has witnessed remarkable growth, increasing over 10 times between the June 2013 quarter and the December 2022 quarter.
The growing popularity of over-the-top (OTT) applications such as WhatsApp, Google Meet, and Facetime has contributed to this transition from traditional voice and SMS services to data-driven communication. This global trend has had a significant impact on the revenue composition of wireless access service providers in India.
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The consultation paper by TRAI focuses on the regulatory mechanism for OTT communication services and explores the possibility of bringing OTT players under the licensing framework. This would entail entry fees, revenue sharing, compliance with lawful interception, provision of call data records, and adherence to regulatory requirements.
The data presented in the paper reveals that the share of revenue from data has witnessed a substantial increase, accounting for 85.1% of the average revenue per user (ARPU) in the December 2022 quarter, compared to just 8.1% in the June 2013 quarter. However, despite this growth, the overall ARPU has only grown by approximately 41% during the same period.
The paper also highlights the decline in revenue share from voice calls, which now constitutes 10.1% of the ARPU, down from 58.6% in the June 2013 quarter. Similarly, the revenue share from SMS has reduced to 20% of the ARPU, compared to 3.22% previously.
