Telecom sector revenue slips 7%, licence fee falls over 10% in 2018: Trai

The adjusted gross revenue earned by companies from sale of telecom services dropped over 10% to Rs 144,446 crore during 2018 from Rs 160,814 crore in 2017

Gross revenue of telecom operators slipped 7.13 per cent in 2018, while licence fee and spectrum charges that the government collects from them fell 10.29 per cent and 17.7 per cent, respectively, during the year, according to regulator Trai.

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) earned by companies from sale of telecom services dropped over 10 per cent to Rs 144,446 crore during 2018 from Rs 160,814 crore in 2017, according to the Trai's telecom services performance indicator report for 2018, which was released on Wednesday.

"Gross revenue (GR) declined from Rs 255,655 crore in...2017 to Rs 237,417 crore in...2018 with yearly decline rate of 7.13 per cent. AGR also declined from Rs 160,814 crore in...2017 to Rs 144,446 crore in...2018 with yearly decline rate of 10.18 per cent," it said.

Gross revenue includes installation charges, sale proceeds of handsets (or any other equipment), interest, dividend, value-added services, access or interconnection charges, roaming charges, revenue from infrastructure sharing, without any set-off for related item of expense.

Spectrum usage charges (SUC) was 17.74 per cent lower at Rs 4,186 crore in 2018, while licence fee collections fell 10.2 per cent to Rs 11,641 crore.

"Access services contributed 71.19 per cent of the total AGR of telecom services. In access services, GR, AGR, license fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC) declined by 8.88 per cent, 16.13 per cent, 16.20 per cent and 17.82 per cent, respectively, in 2018 over 2017," it said.

Giving a break-up of the individual operators-wise AGR from access services, the report showed that Bharti Airtel had experienced 26.95 per cent drop year-over-year, Vodafone (8.12 per cent), and Idea (massive 65.61 per cent). Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merged their operations in August last year.

The AGR for Reliance Jio on this parameter was a staggering 316.5 per cent higher at Rs 31,097 crore in 2018, the report showed.

"Public sector undertakings (PSUs) share in the access AGR of telecom services is 9.66 per cent for the year 2018 as compared to 10.23 per cent in the previous year," it said.