Growth in quarter ending June 2008
· Total subscriber base grows by 8.42% with addition of 25.30 million subscribers
· Wireless market grows by 9.88% with addition of 25.80 million subscribers. Rural wireless subscribers grow by 13.72%
· Internet subscribers increased to 11.66 million
· Broadband subscriber base reached 4.38 million
· Tele-density grows to 28.33%
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a Press Note as follows:
Salient features
Subscriber Growth:(i) The total subscriber based of the wireline and wireless services reaches 325.79 million for the quarter ending June 2008 as against 300.49 million for the quarter ending March 2008, thus registering an increase of 8.42% during the quarter.
(ii) The tele-density for the quarter ending June 2008 reached 28.33 as compared to 26.22 for the quarter ending March 2008.
(iii) The subscriber base for wireless services has increased from 261.07 million for the quarter ending March 2008 to 286.87 million for quarter ending June 2008. Subscriber base of Wireline service has decreased from 39.42 million for the quarter ending March 2008 to 38.92 million for the quarter ending June 2008.
(iv) Rural Wireline subscriber base has decreased from 11.64 million for the quarter ending March 2008 to 11.33 million for the quarter ending June 2008, thus showing a negative growth of 2.66%. The rural wireless subscriber base has increased from 62.28 million for the quarter ending March 2008 to 70.83 million during this quarter, registering a growth of 13.72%.
(v) The number of Public Call Offices (PCOs) in the country has increased from 6.19 million for the quarter ending March 2008 to 6.22 million for the quarter ending June 2008 by registering growth of 0.48%.
B. ARPU Trends:
(i) For GSM segment, all India blended ARPU per month has decreased by 9.3% from Rs. 264/- in March 2008 to Rs. 239/- in June 2008.
(ii) ARPU for postpaid service has shown a decline of 5.9% from Rs. 638 in March 2008 to Rs. 600 in June 2008. Prepaid service has also shown a decline in ARPU of 8.9% from Rs. 224/- in March 2008 to Rs. 204/- in June 2008.
(iii) For CDMA segment, all India blended ARPU (per month) for the quarter ending June 2008 is Rs. 139/- as compared to Rs. 159/- for the quarter ending March 2008.
C. Internet and Broadband Growth:
(i) Internet wireline subscribers reaches 11.66 million for the quarter ending June 2008 as compared to 11.09 million during the previous quarter registering a growth of approx. 5.09%.
(ii) There are 75.97 million wireless Internet subscribers (capable of accessing Internet through mobile handset (GSM/ CDMA)) for the quarter ending June 2008.
(iii) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has retained its top position and reported a subscriber base of nearly 5.94 million Internet subscribers against 5.64 million at the end of last quarter.
(iv) The number of Broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) is 4.38 million for the quarter ending June 2008 as against 3.87 million for the previous quarter. The growth rate of broadband subscribers in this quarter is 13.17%.
(v) The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Dial-up Internet subscribers is Rs.225/- for the quarter ending June 2008.
(vi) The Minutes of Usage (MoU) for Dial-up access per subscriber/month is 225 minutes.
D. Quality of Service
QOS Performance during the year
(a) Wireline Services
The performance of the Wireline Service Providers in this quarter as compared to the previous quarter for key performance parameters is given in the table below:
|
Sr. No. | Parameters | Benchmark | No. of operators not meeting the benchmarks | |||
| QE March 2008 | QE June 2008 | |||||
| Out of 78 In Nos | Out of 78 In %age | Out of 78 In Nos | Out of 78 In %age | |||
| 1 | Provision of Telephones after registration of demand | 100% within 7 Days | 65 | 83.33% | 52 | 66.67% |
| 2 | Call Completion Rate (in local network) | >55% | 7 | 8.97% | 4 | 5.13% |
| 3 | Fault repaired by next working day | >90% | 18 | 23.08% | 17 | 21.79% |
| 4 | MTTR | <8 Hrs | 25 | 32.05% | 21 | 26.92% |
| 5 | Call Completion Rate (in local network) | >55% | 7 | 8.97% | 4 | 5.13% |
| 6 | Metering & billing credibility - % of bills | <0.1% | 5 | 6.41% | 1 | 1.28% |
| 7 | Customer Care Service (95% of requests) |
|
|
|
|
|
| (i) | Shifts | <3 Days | 21 | 26.92% | 18 | 23.08% |
| (ii) | Additional Facilities | <24 hrs. | 15 | 19.23% | 9 | 11.54% |
| 8 | Response time to the customer for assistance |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| %age of calls answered by operator (voice to voice) |
|
|
|
|
|
| (i) | Within 90 sec = 95% | 95% | 9 | 11.54% | 8 | 10.26% |
(b) Wireless Service
93 GSM operators and 44 CDMA operators have reported their performance in QOS parameters during the quarter ending June 2008. The comparative statement of the key parameters is given in the following table:-
| Sr. No. | Parameters | Bench- Marks
| No. Of Operators Not Meeting The Benchmarks | |||
| Quarter Ending March 2008 | Quarter Ending June 2008 | |||||
| Out Of 134 (Nos.) | Out Of 134 (%) | Out Of 134(Nos.) | Out Of 134 (in%) | |||
| 1 | Blocked call rate | <1% | 9 | 6.72% | 6 | (This is an archive of the press release and has not been edited by our staff.) |