Telecom Lead India: Indian telecom operators have
generated Rs 2,674 crore revenue from the Internet business during the quarter
ending December 2011 as compared to Rs 2,664 crore in the previous quarter,
showing an increase of 0.34 percent.
There are 22.39 million Internet subscribers at the end
of December 2011 as compared to 20.99 million at the end of September 2011,
registering a growth of 6.66 percent.
Apart from this, 431.37 million wireless subscribers have
subscribed to data services, as reported by the wireless service providers.
Total minutes of usage for Internet telephony increased
from 194.36 million in September 2011 to 233.01 million in December 2011.
Number of broadband subscribers increased from 12.83
million at the end of September 2011 to 13.35 million at the end of December
2011, registering a quarterly growth of 4.03 percent and y-o-y growth of 21.49
percent.
TRAI said share of broadband subscription in total
Internet subscription decreased from 61.1 percent at the end of September 2011
to 59.6 percent at the end of December 2011.
Number of narrowband subscribers increased from 8.16
million at the end of September 2011 to 9.04 million at the end of December
2011, showing a growth of 10.8 percent as against a growth of 2.21 percent in
the previous quarter.
The total Internet leased line customers stood at 50,343
in December 2011 compared to 49,476 in September 2011, registering an increase
of about 1.75 percent.
There are 7,585 cyber cafes at the end of December 2011
as compared to 7,890 at the end of September 2011 registering a decline of 3.87
percent during the quarter.
As per the reports available with the TRAI, 36 ISPs are
providing Internet Telephony services presently.
BSNL holds 54.97 percent of the market share with
reported subscriber base of 12.31 million Internet subscribers at the end of
December 2011. Reliance is at second position (3.58 million) followed by MTNL
(2.54 million).
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is the most preferred
technology used by the service providers to provide broadband services and it
constitutes 85.12 percent of total broadband subscribers, followed by cable
modem technology (5.75 percent) and Ethernet LAN (5.09 percent).
48.26 percent of total wireless subscribers base are
capable of accessing data services/Internet at the end of December 2011 as
against 42.79 percent at the end of previous quarter.
