Telecom Sector's Revenue Growth Lowest in Last 6 Years: COAI

"If I go back to 2010, the industry has consistently been delivering double digit growth of about 10 percent. After years of constant revenue growth of double digit, it has come to the level of 6.5 percent," industry body COAI's outgoing chairman and Idea Cellular Managing Director Himanshu Kapania said at an event.

He said the industry has seen decline in revenue from voice calls, although overall subscriber base rose by 79 million last year.

"Industry has been investing in expansion of network and at the same time cut down data tariff by 20 percent and voice call rates by 10 percent," Kapania said.

He said that telecom regulator Trai reducing interconnection charges from 20 paise per minute to 14 paise per minute, decline in roaming rates and reduction in SMS rates has led to steep decline of an estimated 8-10 percent.

"Despite volume expansion in minutes and growth in subscriber base, the overall mobile voice segment revenue recorded negative to zero growth for the first time in the history of Indian mobility sector," Kapania said.

At the event, COAI announced new leadership team. Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal was elected Chairman, taking over from Kapania.