Indians Switching from SMS to Voice Calls
New figures released by India's telecoms body, TRAI have shown that SMS usage has continued to fall, reaching an all time low in percentage terms. According to the report, an average GSM user sent 26 text messages per month in Q1 '08, compared to 39 per month a year earlier. CDMA subscribers sent an average of 17 text messages per month - down from 20 per month a year earlier.
In revenue terms, where SMS traffic used to account for nearly 9% of a GSM operators revenues, it has now fallen to 4.3% - and is just 1.8% for a CDMA operator.
However, net revenues have actually risen slightly as voice call costs plummet and it seems that Indian subscribers have simply switched from SMS to voice calls instead. For GSM operators, the ARPU has risen to Rs 264 in March 08 compared to Rs 261 in Dec-07. Voice call minutes have risen to an average of 493 minutes per month in Q1, compared to an average of 463 in the previous six month.
“ARPUs for [GSM] postpaid and prepaid services have shown an increase of 1.59% and 2.3% to touch Rs 638 and Rs 224 in March 08,” the TRAI reported.
However, CDMA operators saw their ARPU fall from Rs 176 to Rs 159 over the same timeframe and their average minutes per month fell from 413 to 364 over a comparable period.
Posted to the site on 7th July 2008
