Telecom sector revenue fell 8% in Oct-Dec quarter: TRAI report

The monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) earned by telecom service providers for GSM and 4G mobile services also declined by 5.37% to ₹79 in the Dec-Oct quarter.

Gross revenue of telecom services providers declined by 8.1%, while the licence fee collected by the government dropped by 16% year-on-year in the quarter ended on December 31, 2017, a report by telecom regulator, TRAI, said.

Spectrum usage charge, which is one of the major components of the government’s revenue, declined by 29.72% to to ₹1,152 crore in the reported period from ₹1,639 crore in same period a year ago. (HT Photo)

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) earned by companies from sale of telecom services declined by 16.05% to ₹38,536 crore in the reported on year-on-year basis.

“Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of telecom service sector for the quarter ended December 2017 has been ₹61,089 crore and ₹38,536 crore respectively. The year-on-year growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter in last year has been (-) 8.18% and (-) 16.05% respectively,” the TRAI’s quarterly performance indicator report said.

The licence fee collected from telecom service providers on the basis of AGR, in turn declined by 16.04% to ₹3,104 crore in October-December 2017 period, from ₹3,249 crore in the same period a year ago.

Spectrum usage charge, which is also one of the major components of the government’s revenue, declined by 29.72% to to ₹1,152 crore in the reported period from ₹1,639 crore in same period a year ago.

The revenue of access service providers (ASPs) fell by 22.3% during the period under review to ₹28,967.93 crore from ₹37,283.71 a year ago. The ASPs provide telecom services directly to consumers like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL, MTNL, etc.

The monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) earned by telecom service providers for GSM and 4G mobile services declined by 5.37% to ₹79 in the reported period from ₹84 in the July-September 2017 period.

There were 119 crore telephone subscribers in India at the end of December 2017.

“Monthly ARPU for GSM service (including LTE) declined by 23.61% on y-o-y in this quarter,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in the report.

Total number of internet subscribers increased to 44.59 crore at the end of December 2017 from 42.92 crore at the end of September 2017.