Teledensity rises to 12.80, telecom growth clocks 42.60percen

New Delhi, June 28 (UNI) Led by mobile services, telephone subscribers grew at an impressive 42.60 per cent from the period April 2005 to March 2006 while teledensity clocked 12.80, according to the latest figures released by the telecom regulator, TRAI today.

The gross subscriber base of the fixed and mobile services together reached 140.32 million at the end of the quarter ending March, 2006 from 124.78 million as on December, 2005, showing an increase of around 12.45 per cent during the quarter.

The overall annual growth (April 2005 to March 2006) was 42.60 per cent.

The subscriber base for Mobile Services (GSM and CDMA) increased from 75.94 million to 90.14 million, during the last quarter, a quarterly growth of 18.70 per cent.

The Annual growth (April 2005 to March 2006) for this segment was a whopping 72.62 per cent.

The share of private service providers v/s PSU service providers for gross subscriber base (fixed + mobile) increased to a ratio of 1.31 in comparison to the ratio of 0.89 at the end of March 2005.

The share of private service providers v/s PSU service providers for mobile services increased to a ratio of 3.76 in comparison to the ratio of 3.67 at the end of March 2005.

The number of Village Public Telephones (VPTs) added during the last quarter was 9487 making cumulative total of 5,48,843 VPTs in the country. The annual additions in this segment were of the order of 18,227.

TRAI said the number of Public Call Offices (PCOs) in the country increased to 41,99,157 registering a growth of about 12.45 per cent during the quarter. The number of PCOs at the end of March 2005 were 2771132 and 1428025 PCOs were added during the FY 2005-06, thereby having annual growth of 51.53 per cent.

Gross Teledensity of the country reached 12.80 at the end of March 2006 as compared to 9.11 at the end of March 2005.

All India Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Mobile service (GSM) for the quarter ending March 2006 was Rs 366 showing a marginal increase of 1.2 per cent from Rs 362 for the quarter ending December 2005. There is a decrease of 7 per cent in ARPU as compared to that of March 2005.

All India ARPU for mobile service (CDMA) for the quarter ending March 2006 remained same at Rs.256 as for QE December 2005.

Average minutes of Usage (MOU) per subscriber per month for Mobile service (GSM) for the quarter ending March 2006 was 395 as compared to 393 per month during the quarter ending December-05.

Annual increase in MOUs in comparison to 344 during March 2005 is around 15 per cent.

Average MOU per subscriber per month for mobile service (CDMA) for the quarter ending March 2006 was 550 as compared to 462 per month during the quarter ending December 2005, recording an increase of about 19 per cent. Annual increase in MOUs in comparison to 344 during March 2005 is around 60 per cent.

The All India blended Revenue Per Minute (RPM) for Mobile Service (GSM) for the quarter has marginally increased from Rs 0.92 in the quarter ending December-05 to Rs 0.93 in the quarter ending March 06.

The All India blended Revenue Per Minute (RPM) for Mobile Service (CDMA) for the quarter was Rs.0.47 as compared to Rs 0.55 in the previous quarter implying a reduction of 14.5 per cent.

The Internet subscribers' base increased from 6.70 million to 6.94 million during the quarter ending March 2006. The annual growth of this segment has been 25 per cent.

The number of Broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) increased from 9.03 Lakhs to 13.48 during the quarter ending March 2006 registering a growth of about 50 per cent. Growth as compared to March 2005 was of the order of 650 per cent.

Average minutes of use for dial up access per month per Internet subscriber was of the order of 175 minutes and the ARPU per month for Internet service was of the order of Rs. 210.

Minutes Of Use (MOU) of Internet Te/lephony during the last quarter was of the order of 996 millions.

The total revenue in telecom service sector was Rs.86720 crore for the FY year 2005- 06, in comparison to Rs.71674 crore for the FY 2004-05, thus registering an annual growth of 21 per cent.

The total investment in the telecom services sector reached Rs 200660 crore at the end of the FY 2006 in comparison to Rs 178831 crore at the end of FY 2004-05, showing an increase of around 21835 crore during the year.

On comparing the performance of the service providers for the quarter ended March 2006 with that of the quarter ended March, 2005, it is seen that the performance in respect of parameters namely "New connections after registration of demand", "Mean Time To Repair" and" Metering and billing credibility - per cent of bills" have deteriorated and in respect of parameters "Fault incidences per 100/subs/month", "Fault repaired by next working day" there has been some improvement.

During the quarter ended March 31, 2006, 129 licensees have reported their performance in QOS parameters in 23 circles. In comparison to the performance in the quarter ended March 31 2005 it is seen that the number of service providers meeting the quality of service benchmarks has significantly increased.

UNI/RT SBA RK1420