Aiming to reduce cost, telecom companies in February kept disconnecting inactive SIMs and the total wireless subscriber base decreased from 862.62 million in January 2013 to 861.66 million at the end of February 2013, registering a monthly growth of –0.11 per cent.
According to a latest Telecom Regulatory Authority (Trai) out of these 861.66 million subscribers, 712.49 million are active, hinting that the comings months will see further reduction in subscriber number. According to Trai data, Idea, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone have maximum active subscribers.
Dumping inactive SIMs helps telecom companies to unclog their systems and reduce costs at a time when the telecom sector is facing tough regulatory regime and high capital cost.
Analysts say laying off inactive SIMs can help operators save 2 per cent of their revenue annually.
However, the decline in the wireless subscriber base, which has been witnessed since July 2012 primarily due to disconnection of inactive mobile subscribers by the telecom service providers, has become gradually less, Trai analysed. In all ccompanies like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices had lost about 43 million subscribers in the second half of 2012.
With this the telecom companies have managed to increase their average revenue per use (ARPU - which is total revenue divided by the number of subscribers) which depicted an increase during the quarter ending December 2012.
Old reports of Trai show that on account of this dumping spree, all major operators recorded an increase in ARPUs in the December quarter when compared with the previous quarter.
Reliance Communications posted maximum increase in its voice ARPUs from Rs 102 in the second quarter FY12-13 to Rs 119 in the third quarter of the same year. Reliance disconnected around 20.5-million subscribers from June to November 2012. Similarly, Idea Cellular posted a jump in its ARPU from Rs 148 in the second quarter FY12-13 to Rs 158 in the third quarter.
Airtel recorded a 4 per cent sequential growth in ARPU at Rs 185 in the third quarter FY12-13, up from Rs 177 in the second quarter and Vodafone’s ARPU jumped to Rs 182 in the from Rs 174.
Meanwhile, as a number of telecom operators like Uninor, MTS and other have withdrawn services in certain circles, requests for mobile number portability have also increased sharply. By the end of February 2013 about 86.83 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number.