Telecom Firms' Q1 Gross Revenue up 12% at Rs 60,716 Crore

New Delhi: Telecom operators' gross revenue increased by about 12 per cent to Rs 60,716 crore in the first quarter of this financial year, as per the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The adjusted gross revenue on which government levies license and other regulatory fees increased by 16.26 per cent on yearly basis at Rs 41,016 crore during the reported quarter.

The gross revenue of telecom service providers was Rs 54,283.78 crore and adjusted gross revenue was Rs 35,279.5 crore in the first quarter of 2013.

"Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of telecom services sector for the quarter ended March 2014 has been Rs 60,716 crore and Rs 41,016 crore respectively," the telecom regulator said in its report.

Mobile service providers accounted for 77.83 per cent of the total AGR. The AGR is derived by allowing certain deductions in the gross revenue and is considered as actual revenue by telecom service providers from telecom services.

The license fee earned by the government increased by 14.86 per cent on yearly basis to Rs 3,286 crore in the first quarter of 2014-15.

The report showed that mobile Internet usage on CDMA network, which is seen as dying technology by many, is more than three times compared to usage on GSM network.

Average data usage per subscriber per month on CDMA network was 176.24 MB in the first quarter of 2014 while it was 59.94 MB per user on GSM network.

The report said that the monthly average revenue earned per user basis by GSM operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and others increased by 8.04 per cent on yearly basis to Rs 113.

In the case of CDMA players like Reliance Communications, MTS and Tata Teleservices, monthly ARPU increased 10.22 per cent on yearly basis to Rs 104.98 in the reported quarter.

Total telecom subscriber base at the end of March 31, 2014 stood at 93.3 crore, of which 90.45 crore were mobile or wireless telecom services subscribers.