10% drop in revenue of telecom sector from consumer services: TRAI

The revenue of telecom sector from consumer services like mobile telephony and data dipped 10.5 per cent to Rs 37,284 crore in the October-December period over the previous three months, according to regulator Trai. The revenue of the sector from the same set of services stood at Rs 41,681 crore in July-September last year, reports PTI.

The sector had reported Rs 44,754 crore adjusted gross revenue (amount earned from sale of telecom services only) from access service in April-June 2016, showed the data released by the regulator. Incumbent telecom operators have blamed free services of new entrant Reliance Jio for the decline in their quarterly numbers. It was in July when Reliance Jio started expansion of its free 4G services bundled with LYF handsets in trial phase. The company in midJuly claimed to have 1.5 million subscribers during the trial phase.

Telecom operators pay government licence fee and other charges based on their adjusted gross revenue (AGR). "The license fee declined to Rs 3,698 crore for the December quarter from Rs 4,091 crore in the JulySeptember period of 2016," the report said. The AGR from all telecom services fell by 9.17 per cent on quarterly basis to Rs 45,905 crore in October-December from Rs 50,539 crore in the JulySeptember period.

The gross revenue of telecom service provider declined by 6.79 per cent to Rs 66,532 in October-December 2016 from Rs 71,378.69 at the end of July-September period. It was Rs 73,344.66 crore at the end of April-June 2016 quarter.