Latest news with #Trai
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Telecom industry AGR shows modest 1.7% rise in Q4 FY25
The telecom industry recorded a 1.7% sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the last quarter of FY25, with the impact of last year's tariff increases waning. Vodafone Idea and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) saw sequential declines in their mobile service revenues. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai ) data showed for the January-March quarter, the AGR of the industry stood at ₹79,226 crore, a tad higher than ₹77,934 crore in the preceding quarter. Access or mobile services contributed 84.02% of the telecom industry AGR while the remaining amount came from national long distance (NLD), international long distance (ILD), internet service providers (ISPs), etc. In terms of access services, Reliance Jio has extended the gap with Bharti Airtel in terms of AGR growth. Jio's AGR climbed 3.2% to ₹29,464.7 crore in the Q4 from ₹28,542.8 crore in the preceding Q3. Airtel's AGR climbed about 1% to ₹26,324.2 crore. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Swing Trading: Get Free Access to Mr. Hemant's Elite Strategy! TradeWise Learn More Undo The gap between the top two mobile operators had narrowed in the preceding quarter. After reporting a rise in their access services AGR in the FYQ3, both Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL witnessed a decline in Q4. The AGR of Vodafone Idea declined 3.8% in Q4 to ₹7,653.5 crore from ₹7,958.5 crore in the preceding Q3. Similarly, BSNL's AGR was down 2.3% to ₹2,239.5 crore from ₹2,292.5 crore in the reported period. Live Events Higher quarterly AGR translated into higher license fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the department of telecommunications (DoT). The license fee mop-up rose 1.7% sequentially to ₹6,340 crore, while SUC collections rose 1.2% on-quarter to ₹1,000 crore, data collated by the regulator showed. Telcos annually pay 8% of AGR license fees while the overall SUC payout is in the range of 1-3% after the government had said airwaves acquired from the first 5G spectrum auction onwards will not attract any SUC. Overall, sectoral minutes of consumption increased, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month from wireless services increased 1.6% on-quarter to 1026 minutes in the March quarter. The Trai report on the telecom industry's fiscal fourth quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services increased 0.6% sequentially to ₹182.9. Data collated by the regulator showed the country's internet user base decreased in the March quarter by 0.1% sequentially to 969.1 million.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Telcos' AGR rises 12.44% to Rs 79,226 cr in Mar quarter; Jio tops chart: Trai report
New Delhi: Telecom operators recorded a 12.44 per cent year-on-year increase in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to Rs 79,226 crore in the quarter ended March 2025, sector regulator Trai said in a report on Thursday. Reliance Jio led the chart with Rs 29,464 crore AGR -- the amount from which the government collects its share as licence fee and spectrum usage charge. Bharti Group followed Jio with an AGR of Rs 26,324 crore, but it recorded the highest growth rate of 25.64 per cent in the segment during the reported quarter on a year-on-year basis. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Here's What A New Gutter System Should Cost You In 2025 Gutters System US Learn More Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea recorded a 3.84 per cent growth in AGR at Rs 7,653.53 crore, while BSNL saw a 12.45 per cent growth at Rs 2,239.54 crore. Tata Teleservices registered a growth of 2.31 per cent at Rs 677 crore and MTNL 's AGR declined by 6.04 per cent to Rs 147 crore during the quarter. Live Events The gross revenue of telecom service providers increased by 11.74 per cent annually to Rs 98,250 crore in the March 2025 quarter, as per the Trai's Performance Indicator Report. The rise in telecom service providers' revenue was mainly due to an increase in mobile services rate that took place in July 2024. The move led to an increase of 19.16 per cent in average revenue per user (ARPU) to Rs 182.95 for telcos. The government's collection in the form of licence fee imposed on AGR increased by 12.46 per cent annually to Rs 6,340 crore while spectrum usage charges rose by 15.08 per cent to Rs 1,000 crore.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Govt, Trai dismiss telecom companies revenue fears on satcom
New Delhi: The government and the telecom regulator have brushed aside fears of telecom operators that satellite communication players such as Starlink and Amazon Kuiper can eat into their revenue, saying the two services are different and satellite services will be offered at a much smaller scale. As per an analysis, Starlink can have a million customers by 2028-29, as against 75 million wireline broadband users and 1.2 billion 4G and 5G users, said officials. Satcom tariffs are set to be around eight times higher than those for terrestrial telecom services while the one-time hardware cost will be 13 times higher. While Starlink is yet to announce tariffs and hardware costs for the Indian market, based on an analysis of tariffs in other countries, officials estimate that the one-time cost of hardware could be ₹20,500-21,000 and the monthly plan could be priced at ₹2,720-2,800. In comparison, telcos offer fixed wired broadband plans in the range of ₹500-1,000, with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam offering a plan for as low as ₹329 with 1,000 GB of data. Telecom operators, in a recent joint letter through the Cellular Operators Association of India to various government authorities, had slammed the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on satcom spectrum pricing , calling them unjustifiably low. Telcos had cautioned the government that if Trai's recommendations were implemented in their current form, they would create a non-level playing field and impact the sustainability of terrestrial telecom services. But the government and the regulator rejected the contention. "Starlink may have around 1035 PB of data capacity over India in a year, which is nothing when compared to capacities of terrestrial operators," said an official, who did not wish to be identified. Live Events The capacity generation potential of Starlink has been derived from what the Elon Musk-owned company has told the Indian authorities. Starlink has applied to IN-SPACe for authorisation of 600 Gbps over India. Taking 75% for downlink purposes, 450 Gbps has been considered for the calculation of download capacity. The numbers arrived at in the comparative analysis are only generic and not made part of any official document by the government and the regulator, according to officials. "The exercise was undertaken to get an idea around satcom and its potential," said a second official. Trai, too, has not taken into account the demand by telcos of a level playing field with satcom players, as the regulator felt that the two services are different. It has presented a comparative analysis of the two services, as per which satcom is nowhere close to the capacities of telcos, said officials. Based on its analysis, Trai said that as per conservative estimates, the network capacity of the typical terrestrial wireless access service operator for providing broadband access to households and enterprises through fixed wireless access technology would be of the order of 168 terabits per second (Tbps) in the near- to-medium-term. On the other hand, the network capacities of major non-geostationary orbit (NGSO)-based fixed satellite service (FSS) providers (such as Starlink and OneWeb) for providing satellite broadband in India would range between 0.6 Tbps and 3 Tbps in the near-to-medium term.
Mint
4 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Trai rejects operators' call to disband India's public WiFi project, caps tariffs
Telecom operators received a setback as the sector regulator rejected their calls to scrap the country's public WiFi project and decided to cap bandwidth pricing under the scheme to provide affordable internet connectivity. Operators cannot charge public data offices (PDOs) more than twice the tariff applicable to retail subscribers for fiber broadband services with speeds up to 200 Mbps, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its new tariff order. Under the Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-Wani) project, PDOs are local and small shops that buy internet bandwidth from operators to resell as public WiFi hotspots and internet sachets of ₹5-10 per day to consumers in rural and other areas. 'This pricing framework has been designed to appropriately balance the interests of all stakeholders by ensuring affordability for small-scale Public Data Offices (PDOs) while also providing economic incentives to service providers," Trai said in its Telecommunication Tariff (Seventy First Amendment) Order, 2025. Also Read: Trai moves to rein in spam calls with new digital consent rule The PM-Wani scheme, which started in 2020, has been struggling to take off because of the high pricing charged by telecom operators and internet service providers. The government targeted 10 million public WiFi hotspots across the country by 2022, and 50 million by 2030. However, according to government data, about 333,215 hotspots have been deployed so far, with nearly half of those in Delhi. The operators were charging up to ₹8 lakh per annum from PDOs for providing bandwidth using expensive internet leased lines. The Broadband India Forum, which represents Big Tech companies, blamed the dearth of public WiFi hotspots in India on 'predatory pricing' by the carriers. Later, the government scrapped the commercial agreement norm under which the carriers were providing connectivity to PDOs via leased lines. Trai rejects arguments According to Trai, the new tariff framework takes into account the prevailing market conditions, current levels of adoption of PM-WANI services, as well as potential future growth. 'By aligning with these considerations, the framework aims to facilitate the orderly, sustainable, and inclusive growth of the public Wi-Fi ecosystem under the PM-WANI initiative." During the consultations on the tariff order, the telecom operators had pushed back against capping the bandwidth tariffs and wanted Trai to leave them to market forces, calling PDOs their competition. Also Read: Next-gen telecom tech to get ₹1,000-crore yearly R&D boost under telecom policy 'They are buying the service (bandwidth) for reselling. Why should any operator be forced to provide its network services to its competitors at the arbitrarily regulated prices for building their network," Ravi Gandhi, president and chief regulatory officer of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, had told Trai during a discussion in April. Besides, telecom operators said the concept of public WiFi in general is no more relevant in the country, given the spread of affordable 4G and 5G services and wanted the government to disband the project. Trai countered that the operators face no competition from PDOs. 'It is pertinent to mention that, as per the PM-WANI Central Registry, there are approximately 3 lakh registered PDOs, which constitute only a minimal percentage (0.7%) of the total FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) connections (4 crore approx). Given this relatively low number, the impact of PDOs on overall broadband market appears insignificant," Trai said in the order. Trai also highlighted that a large number of PDOs are small, residential setups located in low-income neighborhoods, providing affordable and accessible broadband internet to the masses, especially the subscribers at the bottom of the pyramid. 'These Public Data Offices generally have a limited data consumption under PM-WANI scheme as compared with regular retail connection, i.e. the data consumption under PM-WANI scheme is generally less than the data consumed for personal use out of this connection," Trai said. High broadband connectivity costs can act as a significant entry barrier for such small entities and may adversely impact the proliferation of the PM-WANI scheme. Also Read: Telcos breathe easy as DoT blocks Trai's bank guarantee demand In its draft order, Trai had not specified the 200 Mbps limit—the two-times tariff cap applied generally for all the plans, regardless of speed. In the new order, it said the current usage by most PDOs remains within the 100 Mbps range, and to support their growth and the overall expansion of the PM-WANI service, provisioning of broadband FTTH plans with bandwidths of up to 200 Mbps would offer sufficient flexibility to meet future demand. Trai has not capped the tariff for broadband connectivity to PDOs for bandwidth capacity exceeding 200 Mbps.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Trai caps connectivity costs of public Wi-Fi providers
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel New Delhi: The telecom regulator has capped broadband connectivity costs of public Wi-Fi service providers at double the rates of home broadband services, setting aside all objections from telcos, with an aim to boost internet accessibility under the Prime Minister's Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) intiative."Every service provider providing retail FTTH (wired) broadband services shall offer all of its retail FTTH broadband plans up to 200 Mbps to the PDOs ( public data offices , which offer Wi-Fi services) under the PM-WANI scheme, at tariff not exceeding twice the tariff applicable to the retail subscribers for the corresponding FTTH broadband plan of the bandwidth (capacity) offered," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its tariff order issued on move aims to significantly boost the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots under PM-WANI, which is nowhere near the target set at the launch of the scheme in 2020-creating 10 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022 and 50 million by on April 30, there were only 278,801 deployed PM-WANI Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. Trai said the proposed tariff framework takes into account prevailing market scenarios, current levels of adoption of PM-WANI service, and the potential future major objectives of the PM-WANI initiative include providing high-speed and affordable internet access in rural and underserved areas as well as in public spaces such as railway stations, banks and post shopkeepers, retailers and chaiwalas were encouraged to become public Wi-Fi providers, or PDOs, for last-mile internet delivery without the need of a permit or registration operators had argued that lowering broadband connectivity costs would allow PDOs to make unjustified profits, riding on telcos' expensive network infrastructure and denting their revenue. But the regulator has argued that the high rates demanded by telcos are the primary reason for low demand for PDO licences under the PM-WANI noted that in the name of commercial agreement, telecom and internet service providers often pushed public Wi-Fi providers to connect the access points using the expensive internet leased line (ILL), instead of the regular wired broadband connection, popularly called home tariff cap will apply to all fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) plans up to 200 Mbps offered by the service providers to the per Trai, the pricing framework has been designed to appropriately balance the interests of all stakeholders by ensuring affordability for small PDOs while also providing reasonable compensation for the broadband connection to the service providers.
