Private operators grab 43 per cent telecom market

Hyderabad: Private operators in the Indian telecom market as accounted for 43 per cent of the total telecom services revenue in FY 2004-05. The overall telecom services industry in the country grew 16 per cent from Rs58,741 crore in 2003-04 to Rs68,069 crore in 2004-05.

Cellular services continued grew at 63 per cent in FY 04-05, according to V&D100 2005, the tenth Indian Telecom Industry Report (Vol II) released by VOICE&DATA.

However, fixed services posted a negative growth of 1 per cent, although they still formed the biggest chunk (48 per cent) of the telecom services market.

National long distance (NLD) services grew by 22 per cent while international long distance (ILD) slipped 12 per cent. Despite all the hype surrounding broadband, internet services grew only 1 per cent. VSAT services posted a growth of 29 per cent while radio trunking services went up by 4 per cent.

V&D100 (Vol II) for FY 2004-05 is based on a survey of all licensed service providers in the country. "The performance in 2004-05 was a result of the massive expansion of networks by almost all the wireless operators including BSNL," Ibrahim Ahmad, editor, VOICE&DATA, said.

Cellular Services
Cellular services grew by more than 50 per cent in both revenue terms as well as the number of subscribers. 17.9 million mobile lines were added in FY 2004-05, of which GSM contributed around 14.8 million lines whereas CDMA contributed around 3.1 million lines.

The mobile industry is estimated to be around Rs23,284 crore ($5.2 billion) in FY 2004-05, an increase of 63 per cent. Last year the Indian mobile industry, as per V&D estimates, was around Rs14,267 crore ($3.2 billion).

In subscriber terms, Bharti led the race with 10.98 million subscribers, followed by Reliance with 10.45 million, while BSNL had around 10.16 million subscribers. In revenue terms, Bharti was also in the front, followed by Hutch, Reliance, and BSNL.

In FY 2004-05, Bharti netted a revenue of Rs5,436 crore in FY 2004-05, up 67 per cent from Rs3,261 crore in FY 2003-04. Hutch posted a revenue of Rs4,365 crore in FY 2004-05.

Fixed Services
BSNL and MTNL were hit hard during FY 2004-05, even as fixed services posted a negative growth of 1 per cent BSNL and MTNL's total subscriber base went down 2 per cent and 6 per cent respectively while that of Tata Teleservices and Reliance Infocomm grew 174 per cent and 160 per cent respectively.

The fixed phone subscriber base of the country grew 4.22 per cent in FY 2004-05. In FY2003-04, it had grown at 5.6 per cent Private operators added around 2.7 million fixed lines subscriber in 2004-05.

Survey Highlights :

• Cellular services grow 63 per cent
  
• Fixed down 1 per cent
  
• National Long Distance up 22 per cent
  
• International Long Distance down 12 per cent
  
• Internet services up 1 per cent
  
• VSAT services up 29 per cent
  
• Radio Trunking up 4 per cent

Overall services industry grows 16 per cent. Private operators account for 43 per cent of total telecom services revenue in FY 05.