Average mobile bill below Rs 400

For the first time in over four years, the national average revenue per user (ARPU) for GSM based telecom operators in the country has fallen below the Rs 400 mark to Rs 396.41 during the third quarter of the current fiscal, down 1.42 per cent from the previous quarter, according to data compiled by the cellular operators.

The APRU, which was Rs 523 in June, 2003, fell to Rs 432 per in March 2004. It declined further to touch the Rs 402 mark in the first quarter (April -June), 2004, a 6.8 per cent drop over January-March 2004.

The APRU sustained at Rs 402 during the July-September 2004 and finished at Rs 396.41 during October-December 2004. 
 

All in the network ARPU decline from previous quarter (in %)
Operator	April-June	July-Sept	Oct-Dec
Aircel	-15.58	1.58	-9.87
Bharti	-5.52	3.23	-4.52
BPL	-19.21	-1.82	-1.08
Idea	-10.24	-1.23	3.03
Hutch	-1.40	-0.58	-0.80
Spice	-8.26	2.29	-3.61
Reliance	-8.41	-22.97	12.71
National APRU in Rs	402.12	402.13	396.41

Despite the decline in the APRU, cellular companies are happy that the rates are stabilising. "Over the last year, the decline has been marginal. Prior to this, the ARPU was dropping relentlessly at over four per cent every quarter.

Our tariffs are amongst the lowest in the world, and as scope for further reduction is minimal, ARPU is not likely to decline much further," said T V Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) told Business Standard.

According to data released by COAI, Reliance, Idea and BPL were the biggest gainers during the quarter October-December, 2004 reporting a growth of 12.71 per cent, 3.03 per cent and 1.08 per cent respectively in their ARPUs, their first since 2003.

For Hutch, despite its average revenue being on the decline over the last three quarters, it's figures continue to be the highest in the country at Rs 484.08, followed by Bharti at Rs 433.35.

Hutch and Bharti are also the only private GSM service providers, amongst the seven players, who are above the national average (Rs 396.41).

According to Deepak Kapoor, executive directive and leader, telecom practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, telecom operators were unlikely to be concerned about their ARPU, as the decline was due to the falling tariffs.

"Another round of tuning will lead to stabilisation in the tariffs - it is then that that average revenue would be important as a good measure, as cost of addition of a subscriber to the network becomes negligible," he said.

On the revenue front, the total adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of GSM operators, as defined by the Department of Telecommunications rose to Rs 3207.28 crore in the third quarter, from Rs 2930.68 crore in the previous quarter (July - September, 2004)

Only two service providers, Reliance during the July-Sept period and Aircel in April-June, had witnessed a fall in revenues over the last three quarters.

Bharti continues to be the highest total revenue in the country at Rs 1149 crore during the Oct-Dec quarter, a 8.04 per cent higher than in the previous quarter, followed by Hutch at Rs 983.97 crore, up 10.71 from July-Sept period.