The Hindu Business Line : Telephony base swells; ARPU continues to dip

New Delhi April 17 Telephone subscriber base of the wire-line and wireless services together reached 189.92 million in the quarter ending December 2006 from 170.02 million on September 30, 2006, showing an increase of 11.7 per cent during the quarter. However, the blended ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) per month for GSM services has declined by 6.2 per cent from Rs 377 in the quarter ended September 2006 to Rs 316 in the quarter ended December '06, according to performance indicator report released by the telecom regulator.

The ARPU (per month) for CDMA services for the quarter ended December 2006 was Rs 196 as against Rs 215 for the quarter ended September by registering a negative growth of 8.83 per cent. The good news is that the minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber increased by 7 per cent from 425 in quarter ended September to 454 in quarter ended December. Outgoing MoUs continued to grow at 11.06 per cent at a higher rate than incoming MoUs (3.82 per cent).

The growth in subscriber base has taken the tele-density to 17.16 compared to 15.41 in September quarter.

While the subscriber base for wireless services has increased from 129.54 million to 149.62 million during the quarter, fixed line service user base decreased from 40.5 million to 40.3 million.

The number of Public Call Offices (PCOs) in the country has increased to 5.30 million from 5.12 million by registering a growth of 3.51 per cent in quarter ended December 2006. The number of Village Public Telephones (VPT) also increased to 5.59 lakh from 5.52 lakh, registering a growth of 1.26 per cent.

Internet subscriber base at the end of quarter was 85.82 lakh as compared to 80.96 lakh during the preceding quarter, registering an increase of 6 per cent. The number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 kbps or more) was 20.54 lakh as on December 31, 2006, with a growth rate of 13.04 per cent over the previous quarter.

The ARPU for dial-up Internet subscribers was Rs 205. The minutes of usage for dial-up access per subscriber per month were 190.