Mobile data price down by 95% but revenue up 2.5 times

Out of the total volume of wireless data usage in 2018, 4G technology contributed the major part of 86.85 per cent with volume of 40,304 million GB while share of 2G, 3G and CDMA data usage is 0.95 per cent, 12.18 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively in the total volume of wireless data usage.

Prices of mobile data have fallen drastically by about 95 per cent to Rs 11.78 per gigabyte (GB) but cumulative revenue of telecom operators has risen by around 2.5 times to Rs 54,671 crore in the last five years, a Trai report said on Wednesday.

The data usage in the country increased by 56 folds to 46,404 million GB in 2018 from 828 million GB in 2014 with average data consumption in the country growing multi-fold to 7.6 GB per subscriber from 0.27 GB per subscriber during the same period, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in the report.

West Bengal, UP (West) and Assam service areas recorded growth of more than 100 per cent in the average wireless data usage per subscriber per year in 2018 while other service areas grew by over 50 per cent during the same period.

"Total volume of wireless data usage increased from 20,092 million GB in the year 2017 to 46,404 million GB in the year 2018 with yearly growth rate of 131 per cent.

"Total volume of wireless data usage in the year 2014 was only 828 million GB," the report said.

Out of the total volume of wireless data usage in 2018, 4G technology contributed the major part of 86.85 per cent with volume of 40,304 million GB while share of 2G, 3G and CDMA data usage is 0.95 per cent, 12.18 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively in the total volume of wireless data usage.

The average revenue per person increased to Rs 90.02 in 2018 from Rs 71.25 in 2014.

"Total revenue  from wireless data usage increased from Rs 38,882 crore in the year 2017 to Rs 54,671 crore in the year 2018 with yearly growth rate of 40.61 per cent.

"The total revenue from wireless data usages was Rs 22,265 crore in the year 2014," the report said.

The average cost to subscriber for wireless data in the year 2014 was Rs 269 per GB and Rs 226 per GB in 2015.

"On introduction of 4G technology in India, average cost to subscriber for wireless data usage sharply declined to Rs 75.57 per GB during the year 2016.

"Further, average cost to subscriber for wireless data declined from Rs 19.35 per GB in the year 2017 to Rs 11.78 per GB in the year 2018," the report said.

During the year 2018, UP (West) service area led the average wireless data  usage per  wireless data subscriber per month with 8.3 GB consumption followed by Punjab and Bihar service areas (8.1 GB in each) among all service areas.

UP (East) service area recorded the minimum average wireless data usage of 6.3 GB per wireless data subscriber per month during the year 2018, the report said.

Photograph: Krishnendu Halder/Reuters