The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today released “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report” for the Quarter ended June 2017. In the report, the regulator revealed that telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,194.58 million at the end of March 2017 to 1,210.84 million at the end of June 2017.
Telecom operators have registered a growth of 1.36% over the previous quarter. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth of 14.25% over the same quarter of last year. Subscription in urban areas increased from 692.97 million to 700.96 million during the same period. In terms of rural subscription, it increased from 501.61 million to 509.88 million at the end of June 2017. Out of total subscription, the share of rural subscription increased from 41.99% to 42.11%.
When it comes to particular quarter details, telecom operators added 16.66 million subscribers. The total wireless (GSM+CDMA) subscriber base increased from 1,170.18 million to 1,186.84 million, registering a quarterly growth rate of 1.42% over the previous quarter. The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth rate of wireless subscribers for June 2017 stands at 14.66%.
Furthermore, the Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for GSM service (including LTE) declined by 3.75%, from Rs. 83 in QE Mar-17 to Rs. 80 in QE Jun-17. Monthly ARPU for GSM service (including LTE) declined by 36.87% on Y-O-Y in this quarter.
Also, prepaid ARPU for GSM service per month declined from Rs. 67 in QE March 2017 to Rs. 65 in QE June 2017 and postpaid ARPU per month also declined from Rs. 412 in QE March 2017 to Rs. 389 in QE June 2017.
Trai also revealed that Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of the Telecom Service Sector for the quarter ended (QE) June 2017 has been Rs. 64,889 crore and Rs. 39,778 Crore respectively. The Telecom service sector experienced the GR rise by 2.49%, however, AGR declined by 2.58% in QE June 2017, as compared to previous quarter. The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter in last year has been -11.53% and -25.49% respectively.
The report also revealed the license fee charge declines. The license fee declined from Rs. 3361 crore for the QE March 2017 to Rs. 3261 crore for the QE June 2017. The quarterly and the year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth rates of license fee are -2.99% and -24.42% respectively.
Access services of the sector contributed 75.63% of the total Adjusted Gross Revenue of telecom services. In Access services, Adjusted Gross Revenue(AGR), License Fee and Spectrum Usage Charges(SUC) declined by 4.79%, 5.26% and 4.61% respectively, however, Gross Revenue (GR) and Pass-Through Charges increased by 0.79% and 13.48% respectively in QE June 2017.
