The Hindu Business Line : Wireless user base grows 10% in Oct-Dec

NEW DELHI: India, the world's fastest growing wireless market, added 31.58 million subscribers in the wireless segment in the third quarter ended December last fiscal, a growth of 10 per cent over the previous quarter.

During the quarter, the subscriber base for wireless services has increased to 346.89 million from 315.31 million in the previous quarter, telecom regulator TRAI said on Thursday.

Telecom operators earned Rs 39,408 crore revenue in the quarter, posting an increase of 6 per cent over the Q2. The Adjusted Gross Revenue, or AGR, for Q3 was also up 6 per cent at Rs 28,940 crore, it said.

Operators have earned less average income per user in both GSM and CDMA segments. The all-India blended ARPU per month has dropped by 45 per cent to Rs 220 in the quarter over preceding quarter.

CDMA operators' ARPU is down to Rs 111 from Rs 122 for the quarter ended December 2008. ARPU for post-paid service has shown a decline of 4.2 per cent to 559 in December 2008 while that of prepaid service has gone up by 1.6 per cent to Rs 190.

The total subscriber base of the wireline and wireless services reached 384.79 million in the said period, a growth of 8.80 per cent over the previous quarter, the TRAI said. The tele-density (number of phones per 100 people) is 33.23 as on December 2008 . - PTI

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