Telcos see 15% dip in services revenue in March quarter

Govt's earning from the sector depends on the adjusted gross revenue of telecom companies

The revenue of telecom operators from services dipped by about 15 per cent to Rs 40,831 crore in the January-March quarter this year, a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report said on Wednesday.

The revenue was Rs 8,379 crore in the same period of last year. “The year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in GR (gross revenue) and AGR (adjusted gross revenue) over the same quarter in last year has been (-) 7.35 per cent and (-) 15.60 per cent respectively,” Trai's performance indicator report for March quarter showed.

GR comprises revenues generated by the companies from all their resources AGR comprises earnings only through telecom services. The revenue from access services, part of AGR and earned by retailing to subscribers, declined by 21 per cent to Rs 31,595 crore during the quarter from Rs 39,886 crore in the same period a year ago.

Access services contributed 77.38 per cent of the total AGR of telecom services in the reported quarter.

The government's earning from the sector depends on the AGR of telecom companies. The licence fee and spectrum usage charges, the two main form of government earnings, also declined in the reported quarter.

"The license fee declined from Rs 3,698 crore for the quarter ended December 2016 to Rs 3,361 crore for the quarter ended March 2017. The quarterly and the year-on-year growth rates of license fee are -9.09 per cent and -13.19 per cent respectively in this quarter," the report said.

The gross revenue of the telecom service providers declined by 7.35 per cent to Rs 63,315.18 crore in the January-March 2017 period, from Rs 68,335.39 crore in the year-ago period.