Idea Cellular, in its earnings report for the quarter ending June 30th 2013, has said that its "non-data mobile VAS revenues" are under pressure from the "threat emerging from free messenger & chat 'OTT' applications/services", as well as the institution of TRAI's double confirmation regime, which is impacting all telecom companies, and has led to them increasing rates for VAS and also mobile data. Non-Data VAS as a percentage of revenues has declined to 7.4% of service revenues for the company, down 2.8%. What the company has not mentioned, is that it is these free OTT (Over the Top) applications are inherently linked to growing its Data VAS revenues, which is growing. In fact, 'Value Added Services' (VAS) has increased to 16.1% (15.6% in Q2FY13), improving overall ARPM. - Data revenues are 8.7% Service Revenue, up 3.3% year on year. Last quarter it was 7.2%, but keep in mind that Q2 is a slow quarter for telcos, in terms of overall revenue. - 14.7 million connections added to mobile data usage on a yearly basis - 33.6 million 2G+3G users - Data ARPU per data customer (2G + 3G): Rs 55, up from Rs 54 last quarter - 178 MB blended per user data usage, up from 160 MB last quarter - 17.5 billion MB data transfer during the quarter, up 99.6% from Q2FY13 - Rs 0.31 per MB is the Average Realized Rate per MB, down from 0.335 per MB last quarter. - 3G data subscribers: 6.2 million, up…
