It is interesting to note that a majority of net-additions are now coming from towns and villages with a population of less than 20,000. There were no major concerns about margin erosion despite special thrust on rural areas.

Cellular revenue continues to contribute a large chunk to the telecom services revenue, followed by fixed line and ILD. Broadband has also shown a phenomenal growth of 162.7% as individuals and enterprises started using broadband in a big way. However, the broadband user-base growth is not up to the mark.

Cellular revenue showed an impressive 36.4% rise, to Rs 76,608 crore in FY 2007-08 from Rs 56,183 crore in the previous fiscal.

NLD is yet another booming segment. It clocked revenue of Rs 9,732 crore in FY 2007-08, registering a 35.4% rise over previous fiscal's Rs 7,186 crore.

Fixed line showed a dismal performance, with revenues declining by 11.6% to Rs 26,692 crore from Rs 30,190 crore in the previous fiscal. In the fixed line business, all telecom players showed negative growth as they started looking at broadband as a growth area.

Among the V&D Top10, the Top 5 of FY 2006-07 retained their position in the last fiscal too. Idea Cellular moved up to #6 from #8 in FY 2006-07. Aircel retained its #9 position, while Tata Teleservices and MTNL slipped one level each.

BSNL retained its top position with revenue of Rs 35,296 crore, despite a decline of 12.1%. Bharti Airtel is the second in the list with revenue of Rs 26,436 crore from telecom operations. Reliance Communications and Vodafone garnered Rs 18,638 crore and Rs 15,477 crore, respectively.

The current fiscal will be a year of concern as a possible global economic slowdown is likely to play havoc with the Indian businesses. However, telecom players are looking at boosting their revenues by moving closer to their customers and identifying new target users.

Team V&D
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in