The Hindu Business Line : Hutch's Mumbai clients pay the highest

While average revenue per user for cellular operators have been on the decline by over 6 per cent, Hutch's revenue per subscriber in Mumbai has in fact recorded a 10 per cent increase during April to June quarter.

Reliance's GSM subscribers in the North East pay the second highest at an average of Rs 536 a month. This is higher than the national average of Rs 402 per user per month earned by other operators, according to a report prepared by the Cellular Operators' Association of India.

Bharti Cellular's subscribers in Karnataka and Delhi also pay higher than the national average at Rs 530 and Rs 517 per month. Market watchers point out that though these operators are not charging higher tariffs from their subscribers compared to competitors, their ARPU (average revenue per user) is on the higher side because they have been able to attract more high-end users in their respective circles.

"Competitive pressures force operators to offer discounts to retailers and consumers which attract a lot of one-time users. While this may give operators a lot of subscribers, there may not be any revenues flowing in," said an analyst. The other reason for higher ARPUs, according to industry sources, is that these operators have kept away from offering huge discounts to retailers to bloat up the subscriber numbers.

On the other end of the spectrum are Bharti's subscribers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala who pay as low as Rs 232 and Rs 279 a month on an average. Other operators who do not get high ARPU include Aircell in Chennai whose subscribers pay just Rs 278 a month and Spice Telecom in Punjab where the mobile users pay Rs 283 a month.

Analysts also point out that higher ARPUs is not a factor of usage habits of consumers in a particular circle. Operators in a circle are not getting similar returns from their subscribers despite tariffs being the same. For instance, in Mumbai BPL Mobile is getting only Rs 339 per subscriber when Hutch is raking in almost double that amount.

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