CDMA cos' revenue per user declines

NEW DELHI: For the first time ever, the average monthly revenue per user for operators who offer mobile services on CDMA-based platform have fallen below the Rs 100-mark, an analysis by sector regulator Trai has revealed.

Operators such as Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices have a significant majority of their customers on the CDMA-technology platform.

This marks a fall of over 50% as CDMA operators had an annual ARPU of Rs 159 in the corresponding period last year (March 2008). ���Monthly revenues have decreased from Rs 111 in December 2008 to Rs 99 in March 2009 for the CDMA operators, registering a decline of 10.7%,��� Trai said.

As per Trai���s latest performance indicators��� report, all key parameters such as average revenues and minutes of cellular usage for operators on both GSM and CDMA platforms have continued their declining trend in the quarter-ended March ���09.

The average monthly revenues for GSM operators have also hit an all time low as it declined 6.5% to touch Rs 205 for the quarter-ended March 2009, when compared to Rs 220 in December 2008. However, the average monthly revenues for GSM operators continue to be more than double that of their CDMA counterparts.

The regulator���s report also reveals that all operators have failed to arrest the dip in the monthly minutes of usage (MoU). ���MoU per subscriber continues to show a declining trend.

It has declined by 2.43% from 496 in December 2008 to 484 in March 2009. The outgoing MoUs declined by 2.39% and incoming by 2.47%,��� Trai said.