Calcutta, March 22: The telecom services performance indicators for the October-December 2004 period indicates that an 11.68 per cent increase in the mobile subscriber base has not translated into revenue growth. The average revenue per user (ARPU) has declined by 7 per cent from Rs 436 to Rs 404 and minutes of usage (MOU) per subscriber has also fallen by 6 per cent from 322 to 302 minutes.

The quarterly survey by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) shows mobile growth at 68.81 per cent in 2004.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), however, have performed better with an ARPU of Rs 405.

The difference of ARPU between post-paid and pre-paid is narrowing down because of low-rental post-paid plans. The difference was down to 2.37 times in October-December from 3.36 times in the year-ago period.

On the usage pattern of cellular subscribers, Trai said incoming calls constitute 64 per cent of total calls, while each subscriber sends around 30 SMS per month. The minutes of usage per user in metro circles is as high as 656.

The survey also said cellular service providers earn 45.55 per cent of revenue from voice and 28.5 per cent as rentals. About 5.43 per cent revenue is from SMS, 8.32 per cent from value-added services and 12.2 per cent from roaming.

Reliance ? CDMA and GSM ? had a 21.1 per cent market share with Bharti close on the heels at 20.5 per cent. BSNL and Hutchison follow with 18.5 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

As on December 31, 2004, the total subscriber base of fixed lines, including fixed wireless, stood at 44.9 million. BSNL and MTNL have 81 per cent and 9 per cent market share respectively, while all the five private operators have a 10 per cent share. For the October-December 2004 period, the share of private operators has increased by 2 per cent.

While BSNL increased its base by 2.2 per cent, MTNL saw an 8.63 per cent decline in subscribers.