(2 July 2005 9:00 pm)

BANGALORE: Private operators, made it big in the Indian telecom market as they accounted for 43 per cent of total telecom services revenue in FY 2004-05.

According to the V&D100 survey (Vol II) for FY 2004-05 by the Voice & Data magazine, The overall telecom services industry in the country grew 16 per cent from Rs 587.4 billion in 2003-04 to Rs 680.69 million in 2004-05.

Cellular services continued its great march, growing at 63 per cent in FY 04-05, according to V&D100 2005, the tenth Indian Telecom Industry Report (Vol II) released by VOICE&DATA-the leading communications business magazine. However, fixed services posted a negative growth of 1 per cent, although it still formed the biggest chunk (48 per cent) of the telecom services market.

According to the report, national long distance (NLD) services grew by 22 per cent while international long distance (ILD) slipped 12 per cent. Despite all the talking about broadband, the internet services could grow only 1 per cent. VSAT services posted a growth of 29 per cent, while radio trunking services went up by 4 per cent.

The study is based on a survey of all licensed service providers in the country. "The performance in 2004-05 was a result of the massive expansion of networks by almost all the wireless operators including BSNL," VOICE&DATA editor Ibrahim Ahmad said.

The cellular industry grew by more than 50 per cent in both revenue terms as well as the number of subscribers. 17.9 million mobile lines were added in FY 2004-05, of which GSM contributed around 14.8 million lines whereas CDMA contributed around 3.1 million lines.

The mobile industry is estimated to be around Rs 232.84 billion ($5.2 billion) in FY 2004-05, an increase of 63 per cent. Last year the Indian mobile industry, as per V&D estimates, was around Rs 142.67 billion ($3.2 billion).

In subscriber terms, Bharti led the race with 10.98 million, followed by Reliance with 10.45 million, and BSNL had around 10.16 million. In revenue terms, Bharti was in the front, followed by Hutch, Reliance, and BSNL.