Mobile users talk less as freebies dry up

Bharti Airtel users talked two minutes less a month on average during the quarter

Cellphone users talked less during April-June as mobile operators cut free talktime and other freebies.

The country’s largest cellular operator, Bharti Airtel, which had 209 million subscribers at the end of June, said its users talked two minutes less a month on average during the quarter. The typical Bharti Airtel subscriber talked for 435 minutes in a month between April and June, down from 437 minutes in the previous three months. A year ago, the customer talked for 455 minutes a month.

Bharti Airtel’s average revenue per user from voice increased two per cent sequentially during the quarter to Rs 166, but there was no change from a year ago.

Idea Cellular, the country’s third-largest mobile operator, reported an increase in average monthly talktime to 401 minutes in April-June from 397 minutes in January-March.

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular added two per cent customers over the quarter.

Vodafone, India’s second-largest cellphone service company, does not report these details for the country.

Uninor, the country’s newest operator, reported a three per cent drop in average monthly talktime to 449 minutes in April-June from 463 minutes in January-March.

Bharti Airtel’s average realisation a minute from voice, a metric that determines a cellular operator’s profitability, improved to 38.08 paisa each minute during the quarter, up 1.49 paisa over the same three months the previous year. Its average realisation from data dropped two per cent to 28.04 paisa a megabyte, while subscribers used seven per cent more data than in the previous quarter.

“The subdued competitive intensity, phased launch of Reliance Jio in 2015 and potential pick-up in economic activity could improve realisation a minute,” Rahul Singh, an analyst with Standard Chartered Bank said in a report on Bharti Airtel.

An analyst with UBS said while data use had increased, indicating a shift for companies like Bharti Airtel, its realisation from data declined 1.2 per cent sequentially during the April-June quarter.