The TRAI has released a report on the performance of telecom services, downloadable here. Some details we gleaned from the exhaustive 126 page report. Internet Wireless Internet What surprised me most is the suggestion that there were 75.97 million wireless Internet users in India at the end of June 2008 (Q109). If you read the fine print (and we did), here's the truth: that is essentially the number of users capable of accessing data services including Internet through mobile handset (GSM/ CDMA), and not the actual number. So even the growth in this base is not indicative of usage trends: June 2007 - 38.02 million, Sep 2007 - 46.37 million, Dec 2007 - 57.83 million, March 2008 - 65.50 million, June 2008 - 75.97 million. Industry insiders have told us the number is more likely between 10-15 million users accessing the wireless Internet, and mobile operators have also spoken about an increase in the depth of WAP usage among customers. But, but, but - it's NOT 75.97 million, and it looks like there's spin involved in numbers even from regulators. Dialup -- 11.6 million dialup subscribers by the end of Q109, up marginally by 510,000 -- Around 5604 subs added per day. -- Growth rate declined Quarter on Quarter - from 7.08 percent in Q408 to 5.09% in Q109 -- ARPU of Rs. 225 -- Subscriber base: BSNL has base of 5.94 million (up from 5.64 million last quarter), MTNL has 1.92 million, while Airtel has 0.87 million. Important: very…
