latest facts and stats on Indian Telecom

Updated facts and stats on Indian Telecom

Data as per TRAI February 2011 report

As of Month end February 2011, Teledensity in India is 66.36% with total Wireless and wireline subscriptions totalling 826.25 million. Broadband reach is measured at 11.47 million. The number of active connections (making or receiving 1 call on the network per month) is 562.98 million.While the numbers show a saturation in urban teledensity numbers and a limited potential to add new urban subscriber connections, the potential in rural areas is obvious at 31% teledensity. However, margin challenges for operators will increase as teledensity will increase. Also, as the number of subscriptions from rural India is increasing, the minutes of usage per subscriber and the ARPU are falling on a Y-O-Y basis.

The inexorable rise of subscriber figures has powered the fast and furious growth of Indian Telecom sector past the 80 crore mark. In Contrast to high growth in subscribers (CAGR 0f 47% from March 2008 to December 2010), the growth in revenue has been at a CAGR of 17%in the same period.

Data as per TRAI and COAI reports

A total of 15 operators has made the markets hyper-competitive and it is expected that with 3G roll outs and hyper price war scenario, there ought to be a shake out and consolidation.

Data as per TRAI march 2011 report

While data on handset sales is not available it is believed that approximately 190 million handsets sold in 2010 with replacement sales contributing to 118mn units or 62.8% of the total units sold. Replacement sales for handsets is to clock a 32% growth rate over next 4 years to register 359 million unit sales/year. This would contribute to 89.30% of the 402 million unit handsets sales by 2014. Translated in terms of ASPs, medium ASP devices i.e devices between Rs.2000-5000 will benefit from replacement sales and is expected to register a CAGR of 26.07% over 2008 onto 2014, when the total sales of handsets between Rs.2000-5000 would be around 240 million units/ year. This is great news for the tier B Indian OEMs who have been more successful than the Tier 1 brands to garner the replacement sales.