Telcos' gross revenue up by 12% to Rs 60,716 cr in Q1

The gross revenue of telecom operators increased by about 12 per cent to Rs 60,716 crore in the first quarter of this financial year, as per the latest report of regulator TRAI.

The adjusted gross revenue on which government levies licence and other regulatory fees increased by 16.26% on yearly basis at Rs 41,016 crore during the reported quarter.

The gross revenue of telecom service providers was Rs 54,283.78 crore and adjusted gross revenue was Rs 35,279.5 crore in the first quarter of 2013.

"Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of telecom services sector for the quarter ended March 2014 has been Rs 60,716 crore and Rs 41,016 crore respectively," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a report.

Mobile service providers accounted for 77.83% of the total AGR. The AGR is derived by allowing certain deductions in the gross revenue and is considered as actual revenue by telecom service providers from telecom services.

The licence fee earned by the government increased by 14.86% on yearly basis to Rs 3,286 crore in the first quarter of 2014-15.

The report showed that mobile Internet usage on CDMA network, which is seen as dying technology by many, is more than three times compared to usage on GSM network.

Average data usage per subscriber per month on CDMA network was 176.24 MB in the first quarter of 2014 while it was 59.94 MB per user on GSM network.

The report said that the monthly average revenue earned per user basis by GSM operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and others increased by 8.04 per cent on yearly basis to Rs 113.

In the case of CDMA players like Reliance Communications, MTS, Tata Teleservices, monthly ARPU increased by 10.22% on yearly basis to Rs 104.98 in reported quarter.

The total telecom subscriber based at the end of March 31, 2014 stood at 93.3 crore, of which 90.45 crore were mobile or wireless telecom services subscribers.