OTT platforms impact the voice call revenue of telecom companies: Telecom services have completely changed with the increasing use of internet and social media and OTT apps. This can be inferred from the fact that the share of voice calls in the revenue of telecom companies has declined by 80 percent in the last 10 years. At the same time, revenue from SMS services fell by 94 percent. In the last 10 years, the share of voice calls in the revenue of telecom companies has decreased by 80 percent. On the other hand, the income from SMS services has decreased by 94 percent. According to a circular issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the decline is due to the increase in the use of Internet-based calling and messaging services over the past 10 years.
The use of OTT apps for voice calling has increased
According to TRAI, the average revenue per user (ARPU) from internet usage has increased 10 times from June, 2013 quarter to December, 2022 quarter. In its recently released notification to regulate messaging and calling apps like WhatsApp, Google Meet, FaceTime etc., TRAI said the growing use of ‘over the top’ (OTT) apps for messaging, voice calling is impacting telecom services worldwide. Instead of messages and calls, the Internet has now become the main source of revenue for providers All major components of ARPU declined from June, 2013 to December, 2022 quarter. ARPU is the main way to measure the growth of telecom companies.
Revenue share of calls has declined
According to TRAI documents, the share of internet revenue in the total revenue of telecom companies has increased nearly 10 times from 8.1 in 2013 to 85.1 percent in December 2022. However, telecom companies’ ARPU increased from Rs 123.77 to Rs 146.96 during the period. According to the data, between the June 2013 quarter and the December 2022 quarter, the revenue share of calls fell to Rs 14.79 crore or 10.1 percent of the total ARPU. In June 2013, it was Rs 72.53 crore or 58.6 percent of the total revenue. Similarly, the revenue share of messaging services or SMS has come down from Rs 3.99 per ARPU to 23 paise. (including language input)
