Centre’s telco mop up dips
Telecom operators saw average revenue per user decline nearly 6%
New Delhi, March 27: Gross revenue of telecom services providers declined by 8.1 per cent while the licence fee collected by the government dropped by 16 per cent year-onyear in the quarter ended on December 31, 2017, a Trai report said.
The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) earned by companies from sale of telecom services declined by 16.05 per cent to `38,536 crore in the reported on y-o-y 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-onyear (y-o-y) growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter in last year has been (-) 8.18 per cent and (-) 16.05 per cent respectively,” the Trai’s quarterly performance indicator report said.
The licence fee which is collected from telecom service providers on the basis of AGR in turn declined by 16.04 per cent to `3,104 crore in October-December 2017 period from `3,249 crore in the same period a year ago.
The spectrum usage charge, which is also one of the major component of government’s revenue, declined by 29.72 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent on y-o-y in this quarter,” Trai said in the report. —
We expect the migration of subscribers from the exiting telcos to the continuing telcos to complete over the next six months. But till such time, the pricing levels in the industry are unlikely to witness material improvement. — ICRA