New war front for telcos: Falling revenues from rising voice calls

According to India Ratings, the outlook for the sector will continue to remain damp in FY20

Looking at data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), one would think operators have finally managed to arrest fading revenues from voice calls due to booming internet consumption. But despite 83 per cent rise in outgoing voice calls, operators witnessed revenue from calls reducing to a fifth of what it was seven quarters back (October-December 2016). 

The share of revenue from calls commensurately reduced to a third during this period, according to Trai's performance indicator reports from Q3 2016 to Q2 2018. Only the data revenue has doubled during the period. The tariff pressure on the industry has been