Consumer Fixed Services in Indian Market Likely to Reach Rs. 240 Billion in 2012
The Indian market of consumer fixed services is speeding up to hit the Rs. 240 billion (Rs 24,000 crore) mark by the end of 2012. According to a study by analyst firm Gartner Inc., this will bring a 2% increase in revenue in comparison to 2011 accounting Rs. 235 billion. This market has consumer voice service revenue, consumer broadband access revenue as well as the consumer internet access revenue included in it.
According to estimations, the consumer fixed voice revenue is about to hit Rs. 148 billion in 2012 bringing a 7% turn down from 2011. The voice revenue will decline more by 25% in between 2012 and 2016. A growth will be witnessed by Indian consumer fixed line services market in terms of broadband and internet access sectors which is likely to grow Rs. 92 billion in 2012. In this same year, the penetration of household based broadband connections will cross about 6%. The digital subscriber lines (DSL) will continue to rule the broadband market. This accounts for a total of 87% of the broadband connections in 2011 and is estimated to have a growth up to 18% in 2012.
There are expectations that the fixed price of broadband services will decrease because service providers are putting efforts to draw consumers in the rural areas. Well, the fall in ARPU will be compensated by higher usage levels and the unveiling of the high-speed and expensive broadband services will enable to bring a hike in the average selling prices as well as ARPU. As a matter of fact, the total effect will be a little bit of fall in the levels of ARPU in the upcoming five years.
Gupta said “There has been slower than expected growth of fixed broadband services – which has mainly been due to the slow roll out of fixed broadband infrastructure. While some operators have rolled-out FTTx/Ethernet cables, much of the investment focus has been in wireless services. Fixed line broadband penetration will stay in single digits till 2016. Wireless broadband services are expected to help bridge the demand and supply gap to some extent, especially in markets that are not covered by copper telephone lines.”
