The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators, October–December, 2021

TRAI has released the telecom services subscriber data for the period, October-December 2021.

Highlights are:

The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,189.15 million at the end of Sep-21 to 1,178.41 million at the end of Dec-21, registering a decline rate of 0.90% over the previous quarter. This reflects Year-On-Year (Y-O-Y) growth rate of 0.39% over the same quarter of the last year. The overall Tele-density in India decreased from 86.89% as in QE Sep-21 to 85.91% as in QE Dec-21.

Telephone subscribers in Urban areas decreased from 659.09 million at the end of Sep-21 to 655.20 million at the end of Dec-21 and Urban Tele- density also decreased from 72% to 137.26% during the same period.

Rural telephone subscribers decreased from 530.06 million at the end of Sep-21 to 523.21 million at the end of Dec-21 and Rural Tele-density also decreased from 33% to 58.50% during the same period.

Out of the total subscription, the share of Rural subscription decreased from 57% at the end of Sep-21 to 44.40% at the end of Dec-21.

With a net decrease of 11.40 million subscribers during the quarter, the total wireless subscriber base decreased from 1,166.02 million at the end   of Sep-21 to 1,154.62 million at the  end of  Dec-21, registering a decline  rate of 0.98% over the previous quarter. On Y-O-Y basis, wireless subscriptions increased at the rate of 07% during the year.

Wireless Tele-density decreased from 85.20% at the end of Sep-21 to 84.17% at the end of Dec-21 with quarterly decline rate of 98%.

Wireline subscribers increased from 13 million at the end of Sep-21 to 23.79 million at the end of Dec-21 with a quarterly growth rate of 2.84% and, on Y-O-Y basis, wireline subscriptions also increased by 18.63% at   the end of QE Dec-21.

Wireline Tele-density increased from 1.69% at the end of Sep-21 to 1.73% at the end of Dec-21 with quarterly growth rate of 60%.

Total number of Internet subscribers decreased from 834.29 million at the end  of  Sep-21    to  30 million at the end of Dec-21, registering a quarterly decline rate of 0.60%. Out of 829.30 million internet subscribers, number of Wired Internet subscribers are 26.58 million and number of Wireless Internet subscribers are 802.72 million.

The Internet subscriber base is comprised of Broadband Internet subscriber base of 792.09 million and Narrowband Internet  subscriber  base of 37.21.

The broadband Internet subscriber base decreased by 0.35% from 794.88 million at the end of Sep-21 to 792.08 million at the end of Dec-21. The narrowband Internet subscriber base also declined by 5.57% from 39.41 million at the end of Sep-21 to 21 million at the end of Dec-21.

Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 5.55%, from Rs.108.16 in QE Sep-21 to Rs.114.16 in QE Dec-21. On Y-O-Y basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 12.31% in this quarter.

Prepaid ARPU per month increased from Rs.102.16 in QE Sep-21 to Rs.107.98 in QE Dec-21, however, Postpaid ARPU per month decreased from 212.28 in QE Sep-21 to Rs.210.33 in QE Dec-21.

On all India average, the overall Minutes of Usage (MOU) per subscriber per month for wireless service increased by 3.33% from 827 in QE Sep-21   to 854 in QE Dec-21.

Prepaid MOU per subscriber per month increased from 837 in QE Sep-21  to 868 in QE Dec-21. Postpaid MOU per subscriber per month decreased from 649 in QE Sep-21 to 638 in QE Dec-21.

Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Service Sector for the Q.E. Dec-21 has been Rs.69,695/- Crore and 55,151/- Crore respectively. GR increased by 3.56% and AGR increased by 3.07% in Q.E. Dec-21, as compared to previous quarter.

The Y-O-Y growth in GR and AGR in Q.E. Dec-21 over the same quarter in last year has been -2.64% and 81% respectively.

Pass-through charges increased from Rs.13,790 Crore in QE Sep-21 to Rs.14,544 Crore in QE Dec-21 with quarterly growth rate of 5.47%. The Y- O-Y decline rate of 39.31% has been recorded in pass-through charges for QE Dec-21.

The License Fee increased from Rs.4,271 Crore for the QE Sep-21 to Rs.4,541 Crore for the QE Dec-21. The quarterly and the Y-O-Y  growth rates of license fee are 34% and 19.21% respectively in this quarter.

Access services contributed 77.84% of the total Adjusted Gross Revenue of telecom services. In Access services, Gross Revenue (GR), Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), License Fee, Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) and Pass Through Charges increased by 3.30%, 1.20%, 1.19%, 1.11% and 12.10% respectively in QE Dec-21.

The performance of wireline service providers in terms of QoS during the quarter vis-à-vis that in the previous quarter is given below: –

The performance of Cellular Mobile service providers in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) during the quarter vis-à-vis that in the previous quarter is given as below: –

A total number of 909 private satellite TV channels have been permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking only/downlinking only/both uplinking and downlinking.

As per the reporting done by broadcasters in pursuance of the Tariff Order dated 3rd March 2017 as amended, out of 893 permitted satellite TV channels which are available for downlinking in India, there are 350 satellite pay TV channels. Out of 350 pay channels, 253 are SD satellite  pay TV channels and 97 are HD satellite pay TV

Since the introduction of DTH Sector in the year 2003, Indian DTH (direct- to-home) services have displayed a phenomenal growth. During the QE 31stDecember 2021, there were 4 pay DTH service providers in the country.

Pay DTH has attained total active subscriber base of around 68.52 million in QE 31st December 2021. This is in addition to the subscribers of the DD Free Dish (free DTH services of Doordarshan).

Apart from the radio channels operated by All India Radio – the public broadcaster, as per the data reported by FM Radio operators to TRAI, as on 31st December 2021, there are 386 operational private FM Radio channels in 113 cities operated by 36 private FM Radio

The advertisement revenue reported by FM Radio operators during the quarter ending 31st December 2021 in respect of 386 private FM Radio channels is Rs 421.74 crore as against Rs 294.78 crore in respect of 385 private FM Radio channels for the previous quarter i.e. 30th September, 2021.

As per data received from MIB, as on 31st December 2021, 343 Community Radio Stations are operational in the country.

CT Bureau