Telcos post Rs50,000 crore plus revenues for September quarter

The total revenue of telecom service providers stood at Rs50,054 crore for the quarter ended September 2011, Trai data shows.

Around 26 per cent of the industry's gross revenue amounting to Rs13, 239 crore was accounted for by Bharti Airtel alone, followed by state-owned BSNL with 18 per cent share at Rs9,040 crore.

Vodafone was next with17.8 per cent share, at Rs8,915 crore, followed by Idea Cellular with 10.7 per cent, at Rs5,360.13 crore and Reliance Communications with 8.5 per cent share, at Rs4,260.77 crore.

Tata group companies, including Tata Teleservices and Tata Communications, accounted for 8.3 per cent share with gross revenue of Rs4,163.14 crore.

The total adjusted gross revenue (AGR), which came only from the telecom business of the operators, was Rs33,414.44 crore.

Telecom service providers pay certain percentage on AGR to government as licence fee and spectrum charges, of which government would get around Rs2,773 crore and Rs1,105.82 crore as spectrum charges, amounting to Rs3,857 crore approximately.

For Metro service areas and category 'A' circles, telecom service providers are charged 10 per cent of AGR, 8 per cent of AGR for category 'B' circles and 6 per cent of AGR for category 'C' circles as licence fee.