TRAI releases “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report”

TRAI releases “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report”The total number of wireless telephone users in India surged to 39.176 crore, with thumping increase of 4.487 crore during the first quarter of 2009, which ended on 31 March — the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reports.

In “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report” for first quarter of this year, released today, the TRAI articulates that the number of wireless telephone users surged by 12.93% during first quarter (January-March) of 2009. The number of wireless subscriber in the previous quarter – fourth quarter (October – December) of 2008 was 34.689 crore.

According to the report, the total number of telecom subscriber – wireline + wireless – reached to 42.972 crore in the first quarter of 2009, from 38.479 crore in the fourth quarter of 2008, showing a growth of 11.68%. The tele-density i.e. number of telephones per 100 people, was 36.98 in the first quarter of 2009, which was up from 33.23 in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The report states that the all-India blended Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) per month for the GSM segment dropped by 6.82% from Rs 220 in December 2008, to Rs 205 in March 2009. For GSM postpaid service, the ARPU fell 2.8% to Rs 543 in March 2009, from Rs 559 in December 2008. The ARPU for prepaid service sunk 6% to Rs181 in March 2009, from Rs192 in December 2008. The all-India blended ARPU per month for CDMA segment was Rs 99 in the first quarter of 2009, down from Rs 111 in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The TRAI reports that the number of wireline subscribers grew marginally from 3.790 crore of the fourth quarter of 2008, to 3.796 crore in the first quarter of 2009. The rural wireless telephone users grew 17.77% to 10.971 crore in the first quarter of 2009, from 9.315 million users in the fourth quarter of 2008, while the number of rural wireline subscribers dropped marginally from 1.068 crore in the fourth quarter of 2008, to 1.058 crore in first quarter of 2009. The number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) was 0.622 crore during the first quarter of 2009, up from 0.552 crore during the fourth quarter of 2008. And, the total number of Internet users, during the first quarter of 2009, grew 5.3% to 1.354 crore from 1.285 crore during the fourth quarter of 2008.