Cell Airtime Surges, Operators & #8217; Revenue Dips

Indians are talking more on their mobile phones but the cellular operators are not rejoicing as yet.

The use of cellular airtime has gone up by more than 47 per cent from 270 minutes a month per user on average to nearly 400 minutes between January and June 2003.

With free incoming calls introduced from May 1, traffic on this segment has shot up by more than 60 per cent from 150 minutes on average to 246 minutes. Outgoing traffic has also gone up by 23 per cent, owing to the sharp decrease in tariffs.

Despite the surge in airtime use, cellular operators claim the average revenue per user has dropped 10-15 per cent in the first half of 2003.