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| Despite fierce competition, average cellular tariffs have gone up 10 per cent from Rs 0.67 per minute to Rs 0.74 between March and June, according to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report. This has resulted in the usage going down from 570 minutes per subscribers to 563 minutes. |
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| However, despite the decrease in usage, the increase in tariffs have resulted in the operators getting higher average revenue per user per month, which has gone up from Rs 1,157 to Rs 1,248. |
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| The biggest jump in tariffs has been in the Circle A states which includes Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where average airtime has gone up from Rs 0.47 to Rs 0.74. |
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| In Circle C states, where there is not much competition with just two operators, tariffs have gone up from Rs 1.26 per minute to Rs 1.43 a minute. Circle C states comprise Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and North East. |
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| However, there has been a decline in tariffs in metros, where excess competition from as many as seven operators has driven down airtime from Rs 0.87 to Rs 0.74 a minute. In circle B states, comprising Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, the tariffs have come down from Rs 0.57 per minute to Rs 0.53. |
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| However, this has been offset by an increase in monthly rentals from Rs 311 to Rs 340. In other circles monthly rentals have declined taking the national average rental from Rs 424 a month to Rs 393. |
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| However, in the pre-paid card category, airtime tariffs have come down from Rs 1.16 a minute to Rs 1.00. This has resulted in the number of post-paid subscribers decreasing by 7 per cent which now account for only 24 per cent of the total cellular base. |
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| The minutes of usage for pre-paid card have also gone up from 143 minutes per user to 167 minutes while the average revenue per subscribers has dipped marginally from Rs 288 to Rs 284. |
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| Despite the lower revenues from pre-paid cards, most operators are now heavily focusing on attracting subscribers in this segment in the hope that a fraction of the card users will move on to the post paid subscription where revenues are higher. |
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Cellular operators pointed out that while the increase in post-paid airtime was only marginal, this had been offset by a decrease in monthly rentals.
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