Telecom growth up but revenue dips

New Delhi, Oct 7 (UNI) India's telephone subscribers base grew 8.42 per cent with the addition of 25.30 million customers in the first quarter of the current fiscal, official data released today said.

With this, number of total subscribers went up to 325.79 million at June-end, increasing the country's teledensity to 28.33 per cent.

But telecom sector gross revenue at Rs 35,311 crore in the April-June quarter declined by 1.30 per cent from Rs 35,770 crore in the previous quarter, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Public sector companies grossed Rs 9,756 crore, while private firms' revenue totalled Rs 25,555 crore, TRAI said.

Internet subscribers grew to 11.66 million, while broadband subscribers reached 4.38 million.

Growth of mobile telephone subscribers went up by 9.88 per cent with addition of 25.80 million subscribers but the net growth declined to 8.42 per cent because of the decline in landline subscription.

Landline subcribers declined to 38.92 million in the April-June quarter from 39.42 million in the previous January-March quarter, TRAI said.

The decline includes the dip in rural India where subscribers decreased from 11.64 million to 11.33, recording a negative growth of 2.66 per cent.

However, the number of mobile telephone subscribers in rural areas increased from 62.28 million to 70.83 million, registering a robust 13.72 per cent quarter-to-quarter growth.

Even as private telephone susbcribers increased, the number of public call offices (PCOs) also recorded a marginal growth of half a per cent from 6.19 million 6.22 million, the telecom regulator said.

The number of FM radio stations in the country went up to 236 at June-end from 205 which were operational till March-end, TRAI said.

But number of direct-to-home television providers remained static with one free-to-air DTH platform of Doordarshan and six private players. Only three private service providers are operational today with as many in the process of rolling out their services.

There are 35 community radio stations in the country which are operational out of total 51 licensees at June-end.

UNI SAA AK CS2012