NEW DELHI: Telecom service sector’s adjusted gross revenue increased by 9.52% year-on-year (YoY) in the March 2023 quarter, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data released on Monday. Sequentially, the sector’s Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) jumped 2.5% in the quarter.
Similarly, the gross revenue (GR) and applicable gross revenue (APGR) of the sector is by 3.19% to Rs 85,356 and 2.62% to Rs 78,631 crore, respectively, in the quarter. The annual growth in GR and APGR over the same quarter in last year has been 11.69% and 11.12%, respectively.
According to the data, the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 0.83% from Rs 141.14 in the December quarter to Rs 142.32 in March 2023 quarter. On a YoY basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 11.91% in this quarter.
Interestingly, the prepaid ARPU per month of telecom operators increased from Rs 137.71 to Rs 139.63 but Postpaid ARPU decreased from Rs 182.30 to Rs 173.50 in the quarter.
The data noted that ARPU for private service providers increased by 0.66% from Rs 149.84 to Rs 150.83 in the quarter while BSNL/MTNL increased by 1.27% from Rs 60.11 to Rs 60.87 in the quarter.
The licence fee increased from Rs 5,031 crore for the quarter ending December 2022 to Rs 5,159 crore for the quarter of March 2023. The quarterly and the YoY rate of growth in licence fees are 2.53% and 9.47%, respectively, in this quarter.
According to TRAI, the total wireless subscriber base increased from 1,142.93 million at the end of December 2022 to 1,143.93 million at the end of March 2023, registering a growth rate of 0.09% over the previous quarter.