The Indian telecom operators registered deterioration in multiple quality of service (QoS) parameters including metering and billing credibility for postpaid services, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its report. The report released by Trai for the quarter ended March, 2020 highlights the performance of the cellular, wireline, broadband and direct-to-home (DTH) operators. According to the report, the cellular operators recorded deterioration in multiple QoS parameters such as traffic channel, radio access bearer (RAB) congestion along with the time taken for refund of deposits after closures.
Indian Wireless Operators Registered Improvements Only in Multiple QoS
The Trai report highlights that the Indian cellular operators took longer time for resolution of billing, charging and validity complaints as compared to previous quarters. Further, the operators also said to have taken longer time for the period of applying credit, waiver and adjustments to the user’s account from the date of resolution of complaints. The report also highlights that the operators registered deterioration in Drop Call Rate spatial distribution measure that requires call drop rate on an operator network to not exceed 2% for 90% of its towers. However, Trai said that the Indian cellular operators have improved on two parameters including accessibility of a call center and the percentage of calls answered by operators within 90 seconds.
Telecom Users Consumed 11GB Data on Average During March Quarter
Meanwhile, the report highlights that the telecom operators registered an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 97.64 during the quarter ended March, 2020. The prepaid services is said to have registered an ARPU of Rs 84 per month while the postpaid services is said to have registered an ARPU of Rs 244. The telecom operators in the Kerala circle registered an ARPU of Rs 127 per month during the quarter ended March, 2020, the highest in the country. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat also emerged as key areas for the operators in terms of the ARPU revenues. The Trai data also highlights that the 99.43% of users in West Bengal are on prepaid, among the highest in the country. In the Jammu and Kashmir circle, the prepaid services are said to have accounted for 56.99% of the total subscribers. Trai said that the average wireless data usage per wireless data subscriber per month touched 11GB during the quarter ended March, 2020. The total wireless data usage is said to have increased from 20,899,931TB during the December, 2019 quarter to 22,854,131TB during the March, 2020 quarter. The Trai report also highlights that 4G accounted for 95.83% of wireless data usage followed by 3G at 3.49% with 2G accounting for 0.67% during the March, 2020 quarter.
