Telecom Lead India: Gross revenue of telecom service
sector in India during Q3 ending December 2011 was Rs 49,365 crore, showing a
decrease of 1.16 percent compared to Q2 2011.
The year-on-year growth in gross revenue over the same
quarter last year was 15.03 percent. Pass-through charges accounted for 30.96
percent of the GR for the quarter ending December 2011.
Average license fee as percentage of AGR is 8.31 percent
in the quarter ending December 2011 as against 8.30 percent in previous
quarter. The quarterly and the year-on-year growth rates of the average license
fee for the December 2011 quarter are 2.08 percent and 13.34 percent
respectively.
TRAI said access services contributed 76.37 percent of
the total revenue of telecom services. In Access services GR, AGR, license fee
& spectrum charges increased by 3.35 percent, 4.09 percent, 4.20 percent
& 6.13 percent respectively for the December 2011 quarter vis-Ã -vis
previous quarter.
Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for Access
Services based on AGR increased from Rs 98 in September 2011 quarter to Rs 100
for the December 2011 quarter.
The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to
926.53 million at the end of December 2011 from 906.93 million in September 2011,
registering a growth of 2.16 percent over the previous quarter as against 2.36
percent during the September 2011.
TRAI said subscription in urban areas grew to 611.19
million till December 2011 from 601.72 million in September 2011, taking the
urban teledensity to 167.85 from 166.01.
Rural subscription increased from 305.51 million to
315.33 million, and the rural teledensity increased from 36.40 to 37.48. Share
of rural areas in total subscription has increased from 33.69 percent at the
end of September 2011 to 34.03 percent at the end of December 2011.
According to telecom regulator TRAI, about 49.87 percent
of the total net additions have been in urban areas as compared to 64.37
percent in the previous quarter.
Rural subscription growth rate increased to 3.22 percent
in December 2011 quarter from 2.50 percent in September quarter 2011.
