Telecom sector revenues cross Rs.40,000 cr

Continuing its robust growth, the Indian telecom industry saw its gross revenues growing 2.6 percent to more than Rs.40,000 crore in the quarter ending March 31, said the sectoral watchdog here on Monday. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the gross revenue of the telecom sector for the period under review stood at Rs.40,444.66 crore, as against Rs.39,408 crore in the previous quarter. The state-owned operators -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam -- together earned Rs.10,599 crore, while private players raked in Rs.29,846 crore. TRAI said India's total subscriber base reached 429.72 million by March-end, as against 384.79 million for the quarter ending December, registering a growth of 11.68 percent. Tele-density, too, increased 36.98 percent from 33.23 percent in the previous quarter. The subscriber base of wireless and wireline increased to 391.76 million and 37.96 million respectively. However, rural wireline decreased from 10.68 million to 10.58 million, a decrease of 0.93 percent. According to the watchdog, the ARPUs (average revenue per user) continued to fall, decreasing 6.82 percent from Rs.220 in December-end to Rs.205 in March. The number of Internet wireline subscribers increased 5.3 percent to 13.54 million in the fourth quarter as against 12.85 million in the same period a year before.