TRAI WIRELESS DATA SERVICES IN INDIA AnAnalyticalReport Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Government of India TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (IS/ISO 9001-2008 Certified Organisation) WIRELESS DATA SERVICES IN INDIA AnAnalyticalReport Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, New Delhi-110002 Tel : +91-11-23221856, Fax : +91-11-23235249 Website : www.trai.gov.in From the Desk of the Chairperson The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in recent years, has taken many initiativestoempowertheconsumerandpromotethegrowthoftelecommunications sector. Telecommunications is one of the fastest evolving sectors in the world and telecomprovidersneedtoinnovatecontinuallyinordertoremaincompetitive.The newtechnologieshaveledtoconvergenceofnetworkswithasinglenetworkdelivering voiceaswellasdataservices.Thishasresultedinanexplosivegrowthindatausagein Indiaaccompaniedbyasharpfallinprices.Themobiledatausagepersubscriberin Indiaisamongstthehighestintheworldandthepriceofdataamongstthelowest.. WiththeforbearanceregimeadoptedbyTRAIintelecomtari,intensecompetition and technological developments in the sector, the last few years have witnessed greaterwirelessdatausageforcommunicationandentertainment.Withthemobile service providers employing technologies like Long Term Evolution (LTE)/4G technologies,proliferationofaordablemobilehandsetsandlowtaris,thevolumeof usageofdataisexpectedtogrowsimilarlyinfuturealso. . Thisreportisbasedoninformation&statisticsfromvariousresourcesavailablewith TRAIandisanin-houseexercise.ImustacknowledgetheeortsputinbytheTRAIs FinanceandEconomicAnalysis(F&EA)teamledbyShriS.K.Mishra,PrincipalAdvisor (FinanceandEconomicAnalysis). . This report provides an excellent perspective of the wireless data usage and its growth in India. We hope this report will be useful to stakeholders. . R.S.SHARMA Chairperson TABLEOFCONTENTS Introduction 2 ExecutiveSummary 3 CHAPTERS Chapter1:WirelessDataSubscribers 5 Chapter2:WirelessDataUsage 15 Chapter3:RevenuefromWirelessDataUsage 25 Chapter4:WirelessDataServiceFuture 33 IndexofChartsandTables 42 INTRODUCTION This Report presents the Key Parameters and mobile internet subscriptions. On one growthtrendsofWirelessDataUsage,Wireless hand, with the steep decline in taris of DataSubscribers,MarketShareinWirelessData telecommunication services, the aordability Services,WirelessDataRevenue,Averagecost hasincreased,ontheotherhandthecontent, to subscriber for Wireless Data etc. in the last not only in English and Hindi, but in regional four years. The information available in this languages also, is readily available at reportislargelybasedonthedata/information aordablepricetotheconsumers.Asaresult, provided by the telecom service providers to consumption of data has increased multifold. theTelecomRegulatoryAuthorityofIndia. . Access to internet has empowered millions of Indians by giving them access to real-time Lastfouryearshavewitnessedunprecedented information, government services, e-markets, growth in wireless data usage for andsocialmedia.Thisdevelopmentishavinga communication and entertainment. With the positive impact on improving their quality of entryofanewTSPusingLongTermEvolution life with digital information. . (LTE)/4G technology and also the consequent gradual adaptation of this technology by the Thisreporthasbeendividedintofourchapters:- leading incumbents, data usage has grown (1) Wireless data subscribers, . sharply and it is expected to grow further in future also. Upgradation of mobile networks (2) Volumeofwirelessdatausage,. from 2G to 4G in large parts of the country (3) Revenuefromwirelessdatausage. along with availability of smart phones at (4) Wireless Data Usage Future . relatively aordable prices is driving the Chapter-1isaboutthewirelessdatasubscriptionwhichincludesyearly netadditionandyear-on-yeargrowthrateofwirelessdatasubscribers. CHAPTER-1 Thisalsoincludesdistributionoftechnology-wiseandLSA-wisenumber of wireless data subscribers, share of PSUs and Private operators in wirelessdatasubscribers,etc. . Chapter-2 discusses year-wise volume of wireless data usage which includes total volume of wireless data usage, its yearly growth rate, CHAPTER-2 volume of per subscriber wireless data usage, distribution of technology-wisedatausage,etc. . Chapter-3isrelatedtoannualrevenuecollectedbythewirelesstelecom service providers from their customers for wireless data usage. It also CHAPTER-3 includes annual growth of data revenue, average revenue per data subscriberforwirelessdatausage,averagecosttosubscriberforperGB wireless data services, etc. . Chapter-4 deliberates about the projections about growth of wireless data services in Indian Telecom Sector and international trends in CHAPTER-4 growthofwirelessdataservices.ApartfromthedataavailablewithTRAI, variousotherrecentresearchreportsandtheprojectionsmadetherein, havebeencited. . 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The rapid revolution of tele- The volume of total wireless data communicationsservicesinIndiahas usageincreasedfrom20,092million aidedtheoveralleconomicandsocial GB during the year 2017 to 46,404 development of the country. It has millionGBduringtheyear2018with enabled better connectivity among yearlygrowthof131%. Thevolume usersandgreateruseofinformation oftotalwirelessdatausagewas828 and communication technology millionGBduringtheyear2014. . (ICT) services and emergence of a 4G technology (LTE Long Term variety of new business models. Technology)wasintroducedinIndia Due to length and breadth of the duringtheyear2016.Duringashort country, wireless access network is period of time, 4G data technology the primary source for such becamethemarketleaderinwireless connectivity. Last few years have data usage. The share of 4G data seen rapid transformation of the usageintotalvolumeofwirelessdata Indian telecom sector with usage has been 86.85% during the introduction of LTE technology and year 2018. . the resultant intense competition amongtelecomserviceproviders. . Totalrevenuecollectedfromwireless data usage was Rs. 54,671.44 crore Total number of wireless data (excludingrentalrevenue)intheyear subscribers increased from 424.02 2018ascomparedtoRs.38,882crore million at the end of the year 2017 in the year 2017. . to 578.20 million at the end of the year2018withyearlygrowthrateof Thevolumeofaveragewirelessdata 36.36%.Thenumberofwirelessdata usage per wireless data subscriber subscriberswas281.58millionatthe per month has increased from 4.13 end of the year 2014. GB during the year 2017 to 7.69 GB during the year 2018. . 3 Theaveragecosttosubscriberforper Numberofwirelessdatasubscribers GBwirelessdatausagewasRs.11.78 has increased year on year and per GB during the year 2018 as simultaneously, the volume of compared to Rs. 19.35 per GB wireless data usage increased during the year 2017. It may be multifold during the last two years. noted that the average cost to However, average revenue per subscriber for wireless data was wireless data subscriber showed Rs. 226 per GB during the year mixed trend during the last four 2015 i.e. before introduction of years. . 4G (LTE) technology. . The year 2016 ushered in a After the entry of a new telecom revolution in the way Indians used player in wireless telecom service mobile data owing to the withstate-of-the-art4Gtechnology widespread deployment of 4G, but in the year 2016, average cost to the world is swiftly moving on to subscriber for wireless data has even greater levels of data usage declined steeply during the years with the commercial deployment 2017 and 2018, due to intense of 5G technologies in the near tari competition in the telecom future. . service sector. . Both, the Government of India Average revenue per wireless data and the telecom industry, have subscribers (data ARPU) per month announced that they have initiated increasedfromRs.79.98intheyear preparatory steps for smooth and 2017toRs.90.61intheyear2018.It ecientrolloutof5Gforthebenet was recorded Rs. 71.25 per wireless of the consumers and the overall data subscriber per month in the economic development of the year 2014. . country. . 4 CHAPTER 1: WIRELESS DATA SUBSCRIBERS 5 As per information received from the wireless wireless access subscribers have increasingly access service providers, number of wireless opted for wireless data subscription also. . data subscribers has increased from 424.02 The following Charts depict the number of million at the year ending 2017 to 578.20 wireless subscribers and wireless data million at the year ending 2018 with yearly subscribers and their share. . growthrateof36.36%. Merelyveyearsago, at the close of year 2013, there were only Chart1.1:Trendoftotalwirelesstelephone 227.91 million wireless data subscribers in subscribersandtotalwirelessdatasubscribers the country. . No.ofWirelessSubscribers(Million) 1,176.0 Total number of wireless data subscribers