Revenue From Telecom Services Increases 5.7 percent in January-March

Mobile phone service providers alone jointly reported gross revenue of Rs. 55,164.18 crores. The rest came from companies holding single licenses for services such as Internet and long-distance calls.

The highest gross revenue was reported by Bharti Airtel at Rs. 17,226 crores, followed by Vodafone India at Rs. 8,630.44 crores, Idea Cellular Rs. 8,232.5 crores, BSNL Rs. 7,564.32 crores, Reliance Communications Rs. 4,197.6 crores, Tata Teleservices Rs. 3,348.21 crores, Aircel Rs. 3,041.83 crores, MTNL Rs. 1,052 crores and Uninor Rs. 1,049.57 crores.

Videocon Telecom's gross revenue stood at Rs. 378.43 crores, Sistema Shyam at Rs. 318.66 crores and Loop Mobile Rs. 121.99 crores.

The adjusted gross revenue during the quarter, based on which the government gets paid license fees and spectrum charges, increased by about 10 percent to Rs. 38,842.8 crores from Rs. 35,279.5 crores recorded by Trai in the corresponding period of 2012-13.

Adjusted gross revenue is calculated after deducting income from non-telecom activities such as rentals and certain charges paid to other telecom operators. Telecom service providers jointly paid license fees of Rs. 3,110.71 crores, which is about 9 percent higher than a year earlier. Spectrum charges paid to the government increased by about 8 percent to Rs. 1,442.94 crores in the period.

Airtel paid Rs. 1,444.55 crores toward both licence fees and spectrum charges. Vodafone contributed Rs. 736.36 crores and Idea Cellular Rs. 733.78 crores. BSNL paid Rs. 542.72 crores, RCom Rs. 297.54 crores, Tata Teleservices Rs. 253.32 crores and Aircel Rs. 227.76 crores.