Indian Telecom Market

Indian Telecom Market

The Indian telecommunications

industry is one of the fastest growing
in the world and India is projected to
become the second largest telecom
market globally by 2010.
 Facts..
 India added 113.26 million new customers
in 2008, the largest globally.

 In fact, in April 2008, India had already

overtaken the US as the second largest
wireless market.

 To put this growth into perspective, the

country’s cellular base witnessed close to
50 per cent growth in 2008, with an
average 9.5 million customers added every
month.
 Facts…
 According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI), the total number of telephone connections (mobile
as well as fixed) had touched 385 million as of December
2008, taking the telecom penetration to over 33 per cent.

 This means that one out of every three Indians has a

telephone connection, and telecom companies expect this
pace of growth to continue in 2009 as well.

 "We are extremely bullish that the growth will continue in

2009. This year, the number of additions will be in excess
of 130 million," according to T.V. Ramachandran , Director
General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an
industry body that represents all Global System for Mobile
communications (GSM) players in India.
 Forecasts…
 According to CRISIL Research estimates, eight
infrastructure sectors, which include the telecom sector,
are expected to draw more than US$ 345.28 billion
investment in India by 2012.

 With the rural India growth story unfolding, the telecom

sector is likely to see tremendous growth in India's rural
and semi-urban areas in the years to come.

 By 2012, India is likely to have 200 million rural telecom

connections at a penetration rate of 25 per cent.

 And according to a report jointly released by Confederation

of Indian Industry (CII) and Ernst& Young, by 2012, rural
users will account for over 60 per cent of the total telecom
subscriber base.
 Growing…
 According to Business Monitor International, India
is currently adding 8-10 million mobile
subscribers every month. It is estimated that by
mid 2012, around half the country's population
will own a mobile phone.

 This would translate into 612 million mobile

subscribers, accounting for a tele-density of
around 51 per cent by 2012.

 It is projected that the industry will generate

revenues worth US$ 43 billion in 2009-10.
 Growth in Segments
 According to a Frost& Sullivan industry analyst, by 2012,
fixed line revenues are expected to touch US$ 12.2 billion
while mobile revenues will reach US$ 39.8 billion in India.

 Fixed line capex is projected to be US$ 3.2 billion, and

mobile capex is likely to touch US$ 9.4 billion.

 Further, according to a report by Gartner Inc., India is

likely to remain the world's second largest wireless market
after China in terms of mobile connections.

 According to recent data released by the COAI, Indian

telecom operators added a total of 10.66 million wireless
subscribers in December 2008.

 Further, the total wireless subscriber base stood at 346.89

million at the end of December 2008.
 Contd…
 The overall cellular services revenue in India is projected to grow at a
CAGR of 18 per cent from 2008-2012 to exceed US$ 37 billion. Cellular
market penetration will rise to 60.7 per cent from 19.8 per cent in 2007.

 The Indian telecommunications industry is on a growth trajectory with the

GSM operators adding a record 9.3 million new subscribers in January
2009, taking the total user base to 267.5 million, according to the data
released by COAI.

 However, this figure does not include the number of subscribers added by
Reliance Telecom.

 In WiMax, India is slated to become the largest WiMAX market in the Asia-
Pacific by 2013.

 A recent study sees India's WiMAX subscriber base hitting 14 million by

2013 and growing annually at nearly 130 per cent.

 And investments in WiMAX ventures are slated to top US$ 500 million in
India, according to a report by US-based research and consulting firm,
Strategy Analytics.
 Value Added Services Market
 A report by market research firm IMRB stated
that the mobile value-added services (MVAS)
industry was valued at US$ 1.15 billion in June
2008, and is expected to grow rapidly at 70 per
cent to touch US$ 1.96 billion by June 2009.

 Currently, MVAS in India accounts for 10 per cent

of the operator's revenue, which is expected to
reach 18 per cent by 2010.

 According to a study by Stanford University and

consulting firm BDA, the Indian MVAS is poised to
touch US$ 2.74 billion by 2010.
 VAS…
 Mobile advertising, which is an important VAS segment, offers
great potential to become an important revenue source.

 Marketers are increasingly using MVAS as a step ahead of SMS-

based marketing to sell soaps and shampoos, banking, insurance
products and also entertainment services, and rural markets are
proving to be very receptive for such marketing.

 Further, Venture Capitalists like Canaan Partners, Draper Fisher

Juvertson, Helion, and Nexus India are also innovating with
services like mobile payment options, advertising, voice-based
SMS and satellite video streaming.

 According to Venture Intelligence, there were nine deals worth

US$ 41 million in 2007 in the mobile VAS space, and till August
2008, seven deals worth US$ 91 million had already been
finalised.

 Presently, mobile VAS has a US$ 700 million market with a 20 per
cent y-o-y growth, which is likely to touch US$ 3 billion by 2012.
 Major Investments
 The booming domestic telecom market
has been attracting huge amounts of
investment which is likely to accelerate
with the entry of new players and launch
of new services.

 Buoyed by the rapid surge in the

subscriber base, huge investments are
being made into this industry.
 Contd…
 Norway-based telecom operator Telenor has bought a 60 per cent stake in
Unitech Wireless for US$ 1.23 billion.

 Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo has acquired a 27.31 per cent equity
capital of Tata Teleservices for about US$ 2.6 billion and a 20.25 per cent stake
in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd for about US$ 190.23 million.

 Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), which has a 31 per cent stake in

Bharti Airtel has received the government’s approval to offer long distance
services in India, according to a communication ministry official.

 Mauritius-based P5 Asia Holding Investments (Mauritius) Ltd will be investing

around US$ 545.13 million to hold a 20 per cent stake in Aditya Birla Telecom
Ltd (ABTL). The funds will be utilised for network rollout and operations of
ABTL in the Bihar circle.

 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is planning an investment of around US$

201.5 million in the Tamil Nadu Circle for an additional 23 lakh mobile
connections under both 2G and 3G technologies by 2009.

 The latest to join the world's second largest telecom market is Bahrain's
Batelco which has signed a deal to buy 49 per cent in Chennai-based S-Tel, a
GSM service provider, for $225 million.
 Contd…
 Etisalat, a Gulf-based telecommunications company has picked up
a 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom.

 Kavveri Telecom Products Limited is planning to set up a new

subsidiary - Kavveri Telecom Infrastructure Limited (KTIL) - with
an investment of US$ 20.11 million over the next two years, to
offer in-building telecom infrastructure to telecom service
providers.

 Juniper Networks, which is the second-largest maker of

networking equipment, plans to invest US$ 400 million in India,
over the next five years, with a focus on its research and
development (R&D) activity.

 BSNL, India's leading telecom company in revenue terms, will put

in about US$ 1.16 billion in its WiMax project.

 Bharti Airtel will be spending US$ 2.5 billion in a major expansion

bid.
 Contd…
 Reliance Communication has committed US$ 5.69 billion as capital
investment for the fiscal year ending March 2009.

 Idea Cellular will spend about US$ 2.36 billion in the fiscal ending March
2009.

 Srei Group's Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) plans to invest US$ 3
billion in 2008-09 to ramp up its telecom infrastructure business to grow
both organically and inorganically.

 Vodafone Essar will invest US$ 6 billion over the next three years in a bid to
increase its mobile subscriber base from 40 million at present to over 100
million.

 Telecom service provider, Tata Teleservices Limited, has announced that the
company will be investing additional US$ 6.74 million in Gujarat to set up
100 cell sites by August 2009. The company had earlier made an
announcement of investing US$ 24.1 million in the state till March 2009.

 Telecom operator Aircel, which launched GSM mobile services in Bangalore

on February 23, 2009, plans to invest US$ 220.58 million over the next year
to set up base stations across the state.
 Investments Abroad
 After the amazing growth story in
the domestic market, Indian
telecommunication companies are
now set to have a major global
footprint.
 Contd…
 The Bharti Group, which already has operations in
Seychelles, (begun over a decade ago), and in the Channel
Islands in Europe, launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka
under 'Airtel' brand on January 12, 2009.

 Airtel is expected to invest about US$ 200 million in setting

up and expanding its operation in Sri Lanka over the next
five years.

 The company will simultaneously roll out second generation

(2G) and third generation (3G) services in the country.

 DTH company Spize TV (owned by Pyramid Saimira Group)

has bought France Telecom's European DTH operations
called WorldTV Europe.
 Contd…
 Tata Communications has bought the 30 per cent
stake in Neotel that was previously held by
Eskom and Transnet.

 With this, Tata Communications in association

with Tata Africa Holdings became the largest
stakeholder with 56 per cent stake.

 Tata Communications marked its entry into UAE

by launching a range of dedicated Ethernet
services in association with leading
telecommunication service provider of UAE,
Etisalat.
 Manufacturing
 India's telecom equipment manufacturing
sector is set to become one of the largest
globally by 2010.

 Mobile phone production is estimated to

grow at a CAGR of 28.3 per cent from
2006 to 2011, totalling 107 million
handsets by 2010.

 Revenues are estimated to grow at a

CAGR of 26.6 per cent from 2006 to 2011,
touching US$ 13.6 billion.
 Contd…
 Presently the telecom hardware manufacturing
sector is dominated by international majors like
Nokia, Ericsson, LG, Motorola, Samsung and
Alcatel-Lucent, who have set up manufacturing
bases in India.

 Domestic manufacturers have little contribution

in the segment.

 Other foreign majors that have set up

manufacturing bases in India include Foxconn,
Flextronics Elcoteq Celestica, Elextronics
Aspocomp, Salcomp, Siemens, Cisco, Perlos and
Solectron.
 Contd…
 LG Electronics has announced that it will
be further expanding its handset
manufacturing facility in India and Nokia
will now be targeting rural India in its
expansion plans.

 In fact, Nokia Siemens Networks launched

its new facility for the production and
distribution of mobile communications
infrastructure at Oragadam near Chennai.
 Rural Telephony
 Rural India had 76.65 million fixed and Wireless
in Local Loop (WLL) connections and 551,064
Village Public Telephones (VPT) as on September
2008.

 Therefore, 92 per cent of the villages in India

have been covered by the VPTs.

 The target of 80 million rural connections by 2010

is likely to be met during 2008 itself.

 Universal Service Obligation (USO) subsidy

support scheme is also being used for sharing
wireless infrastructure in rural areas with around
18,000 towers by 2010.
 Contd…
 The Indian wireless industry, with a 32 per
cent penetration, is only second after
China in terms of subscribers at 325
million.

 Most of this growth has come from urban

India where penetration is close to 60 per
cent, but in rural markets it's less than 15
per cent.

 And it's here that the industry sees the

largest opportunity for growth.
 Policy Initiatives
 The government has taken many
proactive initiatives to facilitate the
rapid growth of the Indian telecom
industry.
 Contd…
 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has
adopted new guidelines for computation of foreign equity
holding in Indian companies.

 The new norm is expected to allow companies in a sector

like telecom to raise the extent of foreign investment. The
new norms will benefit all such companies that have
touched their foreign direct investment ceiling and part of
the investment is through an Indian company owned and
controlled by resident Indians.

 "All investments directly by a non-resident entity into an

Indian company will be counted as foreign in-vestment,
while foreign investment through an investing Indian
company will not be considered for calculation of the
indirect foreign investment, in case the Indian company is
owned and controlled by resident Indian citizens,"
according to Home Minister Mr. P Chidambaram.
 Contd…
 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is
permitted through the automatic route in telecom
equipment manufacturing.

 FDI ceiling in telecom services has been raised to

74 per cent.

 Introduction of a unified access licensing regime

for telecom services on a pan-India basis.

 Introduction of mobile number portability in a

phased manner, starting in the fourth quarter of
2008.
 Contd…
 The government is implementing a program of
connecting 66,822 uncovered villages under the
Bharat Nirman programme.

 The government will invest US$ 2 billion to set up

1.12 lakh community service centres in rural
India to provide broadband connectivity in 2008-
09.

 The Finance Ministry has declared a five-fold

(from US$ 100 million to US$ 500 million)
increase in the external commercial borrowings
amount, which companies involved in
infrastructure sectors can borrow from overseas
to spend in India.
 Contd…
 In another move, the Department of Telecommunications
(DoT) has stated that foreign telecom companies can bid
for 3G spectrum without partnering with Indian companies.

 Only after winning a bid, would they need to apply for

unified access service licence (UASL) and partner with an
Indian company in accordance with the FDI regulations.

 Further, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eased its

mobile-banking norms, by raising the caps on fund
transfers as well as mobile-based payments, and increasing
the transaction limit to US$ 96.81 per day for fund
transfers.
 Contd…
 The Department of Telecom has allowed
passive infrastructure sharing among
operators, which includes sharing of
physical sites, buildings, shelters, towers,
power supply and battery backup. In early
2008, it also allowed sharing of active
infrastructure but it has been limited to
antenna, feeder cable, node B, radio
access network and transmission systems
and not sharing of spectrum.
 Road Ahead
 As on October 17, 2008, there were 350 million mobile and
fixed line subscribers in India, with about 8 million
subscribers being added each month.

 The Union Minister for Communications and Information

Technology, Mr A Raja, has stated that the target for the
11th Plan period (2007-12) is 600 million phone
connections with an investment of US$ 73 billion.

 Apart from the basic telephone service, there is an

enormous potential for various value-added services.

 In fact, the real potential for telecom service growth is still

lying untapped.
 Contd…
 The Indian rural market is going to be the next
big thing for wireless telecom providers.

 With the tele-density in rural areas being still

about 10 per cent against the national average of
about 21 per cent, there seems to be huge
untapped potential for mobile phone penetration
in rural India.

 The government also plans an investment of US$

2 billion, during 2008 to 2009, for the
development of around 100,000 community
service centres in rural India to provide
broadband connectivity.
 Contd…
 Additionally, by 2010, the government
targets:
 80 million rural connections
 Mobile coverage of 90 per cent
geographical area
 Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in 600
towns
 Quadrupling manufacture
 Two-fold increase in telecom equipment
R&D from the current level of 15 per cent.
 According to the CII Ernst& Young report titled 'India 2012:
Telecom growth continues', revenue from India's telecom
services industry is projected to reach US$ 54 billion in
2012, as against US$ 31 billion in 2008.

 According to Mr Prashant Singhal, Telecom Industry

Leader, Ernst& Young India, "Going forward, rural
telephony, 3G, WiMax and data services will drive sector
growth in 2012.

 The industry will witness sustained growth in mobile

services and data revenues.

 Network expansion will continue in order to support the

rural growth."
 Contd…
 In addition to this, some interesting new developments worth
tracking include:

 The emergence of digital media advertising ( internet, mobile and

digital signage) as the medium of choice for advertisers. Of the
available media, it was the fastest growing segment in 2008.

 According to a FICCI-PwC report, it is expected to touch US$

211.97 million in 2011 from the current US$ 57.1 million.

 The robust sales of ‘smartphones’ which do not seem to have been

adversely affected by the economic slowdown.

 Smartphones, which have computer-like features, are a favourite

with not only professionals, as they enhance productivity, but also
with the youth that are attracted by their multimedia applications.

 Smartphones market, sized at 5 million in 2008, is expected to

witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent by
2011, as per technology research firm Ascendia.
 Contd…
 Global mobile phone vendors are going green in India.

 Vihaan Network Ltd, a group company of Shyam Group has

launched the world’s first zero opex GSM systems powered
by solar energy rather than conventional sources.

 In a recently launched initiative, Nokia collected three

tonnes of junk handsets, batteries, chargers and
accessories from four cities during a 45-day campaign.

 The collected junk will be taken to Singapore for recycling.

Hundred per cent of the materials in the phones can be
recovered and used to make new products.

 Exchange rate used: 1 USD = 51.6499 INR

 New Telco’s to invest $ 2 bn
 Firming up their rollout plans, the new
telecom licensees will invest around $2
billion in the next four months for the
rollout of their services.
 The investment, necessitated by
regulations, is significant as it comes at
a time when other sectors are shying
away from fresh investments due to
the ongoing economic slowdown.
 Contd…
 “The new players will have to commence operations soon, as the
conditions of spectrum allocation require a company to fulfil
certain rollout obligations (depending on the circle of operations),
including launching of services within a stipulated period.

 Now that the companies were awarded spectrum last year, the
government is putting pressure on them to start operations,”
Gartner Principal Research Analyst Naresh Singh said.

 The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) mandates that a

company has to commence the rollout within six months of
getting spectrum.

 It also states that phone firms have to cover 10 per cent of all
district headquarters in the licensed area within one year and 50
per cent of the district headquarters in the licensed area within
five years.
 Contd…
 Companies like Shyam Sistema (which has got
spectrum for 22 circles), Unitech Wireless (21
circles), Datacom Solutions and Loop Telecom
(both received spectrum for 20 circles), and Swan
Telecom (14 circles) are gearing up to commence
2G operations in the next six months.

 STel (5 circles) and Tata Teleservices (which

already has CDMA operations) are also getting
ready for GSM operations.

 The new telecom licensees were awarded

spectrum during the previous allocations in
February 2008, after the companies paid Rs
1,651 crore as licence fee
 Contd…
 These companies will invest around $2 billion in the next
four months, according to an independent industry research.

 Further, announcements of commencement of operations

are expected in the next four months, with telcos expected
to undermine each other by launching predatory tariffs and
plans, according to a telecom analyst.

 The telecom companies are also in talks for infrastructure

sharing with tower companies.

 For example, Quipo Telecom Infrastructure will lease out

towers for the rollout of Unitech Wireless’ entire circles and
40 per cent of Swan Telecom’s tower requirement. The
infrastructure provider is also in advanced stages of
discussions with STel and a couple of new players.
 Contd…
 “The requirement of towers is huge, as the
companies are looking at commencing operations
at the earliest. And due to the difficulties in
raising funds, companies are increasingly opting
for sharing of towers rather than setting up their
own. There is an increased demand for leasing of
towers,” said Quipo Telecom CEO Probal Ghosal
said. “Absolutely true”, agreed Vikas Arora, Vice
President (marketing) of GTL, another passive
telecom infrastructure provider.

 The company, which already provides

infrastructure to existing operators, is also in
talks with new licensees.
 Contd…
 “It is always our belief that passive and ultimately active
infrastructure will have to be shared to reduce composition
of capex in the operators’ business plan.

 Furthermore, the ready availability of infrastructure will lead

to quick market penetration,” Arora said.

 The new players are also in talks with vendors for equipment
and active infrastructure.

 While companies like Loop Telecom (a subsidiary of Loop

Mobile) have placed equipment orders with ZTE, Datacom
Solutions is in advanced stages of discussions with Huawei.
Shyam Sistema, Swan and Unitech Wireless are also close to
announcing the names of the vendors.
 Contd…
 On the other hand, some of the established
players which had received spectrum for their
expansion plans are making additional
investments.

 Idea Cellular has committed Rs 1,000 crore

investments in the next 3-4 months (for rolling
out services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal
and Kolkata circles), while Aircel Communications
has announced investments of $5 billion in the
next three years.
 Telecom boom may ring in mega
BPO deals
 BPO revenues from Indian telecom players have tracked the
exponential growth of the telecom industry and rapid rise of new
corporate giants, including Bharti Airtel.

 Outsourcing revenues from the telecom sector in India are set to

grow at a CAGR of 31% in the next few years to nearly $2 billion
in 2012, according to a study on the potential of the domestic BPO
industry by Ernst & Young.

 Bharti has been growing at CAGR of 41% in the past two years.
The telecom industry has been adding around 10 million
subscribers every month with a subscriber base of 375 million in
2008-09.

 India’s largest mobile service provider, Bharti Airtel, which played

a pioneering role by outsourcing many of its non-core functions in
2005, is changing the way Indian firms have traditionally run
business and putting pressure on others to follow suit, the
consultancy said in the study. Telecom revenues made up 50% of
the domestic BPO revenues at $661 million in 2008.
 Contd…
 “This domain (telecom) has already witnessed a couple of large
outsourcing deals in recent months and the trend is expected to
continue,” said Milan Sheth, partner, Ernst & Young.

 The trend started in August 2005 with Bharti Airtel signing a

$272.2 million deal with four global BPO companies — IBM Daksh,
MphasiS, Teletech and HTMT —to outsource its call centres.

 The key driver for BPO in telecom is demand for customer care
and sales and marketing services, according to the report.

 Customer service is becoming the key to telecom service

providers because it can be a differentiator in the marketplace —
more so, because technology is uniformly accessible to all
providers.
 Contd…
 BPO for telecom is also a huge job creator, employing over
1,22,440 people in BPO firms in 2008 — a number that is set to
more than double to 2,94,444 in 2012.

 After telecom, banking is the biggest employment generator for

domestic BPO firms.

 According to the figures put out in the report, the banking sector
employed around 70,100 people in 2008 and this is projected to
go up to 2,25,900 in 2012.

 The two sectors combined contribute 80% of the domestic BPO

revenues — which is tipped to reach $6 billion in 2012.
 Trai suggests 3 year lock-in on
stake sale by new telcos
 While recommending a blanket ban on promoters of new telecom
licensees from selling their stake for a period of three years after
getting the licence, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has
added a caveat.

 In case a promoter does wish to sell his stake in the first three years
of getting the licence, then 50% of the transacted amount must be
paid to the government while the remaining 50% must be invested
back into the telecom company.

 While recommending the same Trai has acknowledged that the new
licences given by the department of telecommunications did not
capture the current market price for licences and spectrum.

 Further, the lock-in period would apply on circle basis and not on a
pan-India basis. This means an existing telecom operator, if granted a
licence for a new circle would be covered by the regulation. Further,
Trai has also recommended that henceforth companies would have to
report the promoter shareholding also to the it and DoT on a regular
basis.
 Contd…
 It is to be seen whether the government now acts upon the
Trai recommendation or taking refuge of the model code of
conduct for elections lets a new government take a
decision on the matter.

 It was reported on September 28, 2008, that the

government was planning to levy a charge on the income
earned from such stake sale by licensees in the first three
years of getting the licence.

 The department of telecommunications (DoT) had finally

suggested that in order to raise money the promoter may
issue fresh equity shares and the entire amount earned in
doing so should be ploughed back into the telecom venture
only.
 Contd…
 The government had allotted licences to new
operators in a controversial manner in 2007,
where applicants were allotted licences on first
come first serve basis until September.

 This was done for the first time and was contrary
to the practice so far.

 It was debated that the pan-India licence fee of

Rs 1,651 crore was a paltry amount for a
lucrative telecom licence and the bundled 4.4 Mhz
spectrum which came along with it, since the
actual price was much higher and the
government was being robbed of thousands of
crore.
 Contd…
 Later the promoters of new licensees such
as Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless
diluted their stake in these companies by
issuing fresh equity shares and received
astronomical valuations of around $2
billion or around Rs 10,000 crore without
starting any operations or investing money
on network only on the basis of the licence
and the bundled spectrum.
 Contd…
 The regulatory body has recommended that there
should be a lock-in of the equity share capital of
promoter, whose net-worth has been taken into
consideration for determining the eligibility for
grant of UAS license, for a period of three years
from the effective date of licence.

 However, with prior written approval of the DoT

and on fulfillment of roll out obligations, the
promoters may be permitted to sell their equity
share even during the lock-in period.
 Operators Subscribers Market% .
 Bharti Airtel 102,367,881 32.42%
 Vodafone 76,449,598 24.21% BSNL
49,073,929 15.54%
 IDEA 47,088,878 14.91%
 Aircel 21,798,375 6.90%
 Reliance 12,401,101 3.93%
 MTNL 4,297,218 1.36%
 Loop 2,305,640 0.73% .
 Vodafone Essar, India’s second
largest GSM-based mobile service
provider, reported £755 million in
revenues or roughly Rs 6,000 crore
for Q1 2009 as compared to £565
million in Q1 2008, at a 23 %
increase. The growth rate in the
previous quarter was 29.6 %.
 Reliance Communications today
announced its Q1 2009 financial
results posting a net profit of Rs 1,637
crore or $ 342 million at a growth rate
of 8.3 %. Revenues increased by 15.5
% to Rs 6,145 crore or $ 1.28 billion.
  
 EBITDA stood at Rs 2,453 crore at 9
% growth while the EBITDA margin
was at 40 % which the company says
is the highest in India.
 BSNL firm announced its profits for fiscal
year 2008-09 reporting a net of Rs
574.85 crore as compared to net of Rs
3,090 crore registered in last fiscal.
However, revenues were up at Rs
35,811.92 crore in 2008-09 from Rs
32,359 crore last year.
 BSNL attributed the drop on profits to
increased employee cost on account of
implementation of Sixth Pay Commission
recommendations and also to the
declining fixedline subscriber base.
 Airtel revenue for Q1 grew
marginally to Rs 9941 cr from Rs
9824 cr reported in March-09 quarter
 Net income for Q1-FY09 was
reported at Rs 2516 cr Vs Rs 2239 cr
in March-09 Quarter
 MANOJKUMAR 08148