The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its quarterly report for the Indian telecom sector. The report is for the Quarter Ending (QE) March 2024. According to the data shared by TRAI, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for the sector from wireless services has increased by 0.64% from Rs 152.55 in the previous quarter to Rs 153.54. On a YOY (year-on-year) basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 7.88% in this quarter.
TRAI also shared the individual ARPU performance for prepaid and postpaid services. Interestingly, prepaid services saw an uptick in ARPU, while postpaid services saw it going down. Prepaid ARPU per month increased from Rs 149.56 in QE Dec-23 to Rs 150.74 in QE Mar-24. However Postpaid ARPU per month decreased from Rs 189.08 in QE Dec-23 to Rs 187.85 in QE Mar-24.
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Gross revenue (GR), applicable gross revenue (ApGR), and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the sector for QE March 2024 was Rs 87,926 crore, Rs 83,945 crore and Rs 70,462 crore, respectively. GR increased by 4.05%, ApGR increased by 3.51% and AGR increased by 3.87% in Q.E. Mar-24, as compared to the previous quarter.
The license fee for the sector grew from Rs 5,433 crore in the previous quarter to Rs 5,637 crore in the March quarter. TRAI said, "Total number of Internet subscribers increased from 936.16 million at the end of Dec-23 to 954.40 million at the end of Mar-24, registering a quarterly rate of growth 1.95%."
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Out of the 954.40 million internet users, 40.27 million users had wired connections while the remaining 914.13 million users had wireless connections. There's still plenty of room for growth in the wired internet service segment, and the private telecom operators as well as internet service providers are trying to build a business here. The prepaid ARPU for the June 2024 quarter should not register much growth as the tariffs were mostly the same and users in India mostly recharge with the lower-end prepaid plans.
