Revenue from telecom services rises to Rs 57,378 cr in Jan-Mar

The gross revenue of telecom service companies increased 5.7 per cent to Rs 57,378 crore in the last quarter of 2013-14 from a year earlier, according to data from the telecom regulator TRAI.

The gross revenue of telecom service providers was Rs 54,283.78 crore in the same period a year ago.

Mobile phone service providers alone jointly reported gross revenue of Rs 55,164.18 crore. The rest came from companies holding single licenses for services such as Internet and long-distance calls.

The highest gross revenue was reported by Bharti Airtel at Rs 17,226 crore, followed by Vodafone India at Rs 8,630.44 crore, Idea Cellular Rs 8,232.5 crore, BSNL Rs 7,564.32 crore, Reliance Communications Rs 4,197.6 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 3,348.21 crore, Aircel Rs 3,041.83 crore, MTNL Rs 1,052 crore and Uninor Rs 1,049.57 crore.

Videocon Telecom's gross revenue stood at Rs 378.43 crore, Sistema Shyam at Rs 318.66 crore and Loop Mobile Rs 121.99 crore.

The adjusted gross revenue during the quarter, based on which the government gets paid license fees and spectrum charges, increased by about 10 per cent to Rs 38,842.8 crore from Rs 35,279.5 crore recorded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in the corresponding period of 2012-13.

Adjusted gross revenue is calculated after deducting income from non-telecom activities such as rentals and certain charges paid to other telecom operators.

Telecom service providers jointly paid license fees of Rs 3,110.71 crore, which is about 9 per cent higher than a year earlier. Spectrum charges paid to the government increased by about 8 per cent to Rs 1,442.94 crore in the period.

Airtel paid Rs 1,444.55 crore toward both licence fees and spectrum charges. Vodafone contributed Rs 736.36 crore and Idea Cellular Rs 733.78 crore. BSNL paid Rs 542.72 crore, RCom Rs 297.54 crore, Tata Teleservices Rs 253.32 crore and Aircel Rs 227.76 crore.