New Delhi: The gross revenue of telecom service providers and licence fee paid to the government declined by around 10% to ₹ 58,401 crore and ₹ 2,929 crore, respectively, in April-June 2018 on year-on-year basis, a Trai report said Wednesday. “Gross revenue (GR) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the telecom service sector for the quarter ended June 2018 has been ₹ 58,401 crore and ₹ 36,552 crore, respectively,” Trai’s Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator report said.
The GR and AGR declined by 10% and 8.11%, respectively, on year-on-year basis. On quarter-on-quarter basis, the GR declined by 6.10%, however, AGR increased by 2.40% in June 2018 quarter.
The decline in AGR, which is revenue earned from sale of telecom services, led to fall in licence fees paid to the government by around 10% to ₹ 2,929 crore, according to the report.
The revenue of telecom operators from sale of services to retail subscribers, technically called access services, declined by 14.95% to ₹ 25,585 crore. The access services accounted for 70% of the total AGR in the telecom segment.
“In Access services, GR, license fee, spectrum usage charges and pass through charges declined by 9.07%, 2.88%, 2.21% and 21.86%, respectively, in quarter ended 30 June 2018,” the report said.
The GR and AGR of the telecom service providers have been on decline, barring few exceptions, after it peaked to ₹ 73,344.66 crore and ₹ 53,383.55 crore in April-June 2016 quarter with average revenue per user (ARPU) at ₹ 140.88. The licence fee collected by the government during this quarter in 2016 was ₹ 4,314 crore.
The monthly ARPU in the April-June 2018 period declined by 12% to ₹ 73.34, year-on-year basis.