With the tariff for mobile services in the country hitting the rock bottom following the rolling out of the revolutionary pay per second billing plan, the average revenue per user (ARPU) of the operators has been on the decline, seriously impacting their revenues.
It is interesting to note that the ARPU figure of the mobile operators shows a huge disparity in 22 different telecom circles for the October-December quarter of the current fiscal as per the data compiled by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
While the average ARPU of the Delhi circle is still at a high of Rs 239.44 for the said period, higher than the national average of Rs 155.60, there are circles like West Bengal with the lowest ARPU of Rs 106.70.
The ARPU of the Orissa circle is also among the lowest in the country at Rs 122.83. Barring West Bengal, Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir, Orissa trails all other circles in ARPU figure.
The ARPU of the cellular operators in the Orissa circle fell from Rs 134.01 in the July-September quarter to Rs 122.83 in the October-December quarter, a decline of 8.35 per cent.
For the Orissa circle, the COAI data has taken into account five leading operators of the state including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Aircel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.
Together, these five players have a subscriber base of 11.4 million in the state by the end of February 2010, a 5.15 per cent growth over the previous month.
The pan-India ARPU witnessed a fall of 10.4 per cent from Rs 173.66 in the July-September period to Rs 155.60 in the October-December quarter.
The low ARPU in Orissa compared to other circles can be attributed to the lesser usage of voice calls and value added services which brings down the effective rate of revenue realization per minute for the operators, said a top official of a leading mobile services provider.
Bharti Airtel, the market leader in the Orissa circle with 39,36,925 subscribers in the state by the end of February 2010 (COAI data) has the highest ARPU of Rs 152.45 in the October-December period.
The operator witnessed a decline of 12.86 per cent in its ARPU compared to Rs 174.45 in the July-September period.
Apart from Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular also saw a negative growth of 17.45 per cent in its ARPU.
However, in the said period, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone Essar and Aircel recorded a growth of 3.3 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 11.85 per cent in their ARPUs.
In terms of overall revenue generation, the combined revenue of five mobile operators- Reliance Telecom, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular saw a marginal increase from Rs 284.83 crore in July-September to Rs 286.93 crore in the October-December period.
All these mobile service providers posted growth in revenue excepting Bharti Airtel. Aircel posted the highest growth of 31.76 per cent among these five operators.
