Growth dropped, ARPUs fell, teledensity grew at a snail's pace and landlines were disconnected. TRAI's report on key performance indicators for the quarter ending December 2008 is out and reflect the massive upheaval the industry is undergoing due to the economic downturn. Internet/Dialup The TRAI report records that India had a total of 12.85 million Internet (Dialup) connections at the end of December 2008. This base accelerated slightly to achieve a 5.01% growth from 4.97% recorded during September when there were 12.24 million connections. This does not include broadband subscribers. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has 6.38 million Internet connections against 5.94 million at the end of last quarter. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has retained second position with a base of nearly 1.95 million. Bharti Airtel Ltd is third with 0.93 million. The minutes of use per connection per month dropped from 225 in June 2008 to 213.08 minutes in September quarter and crawled back up to 221.97 in December. ISPs Market share of PSUs BSNL and MTNL continue to decline - from 68.04% in September, it was 67.82% at the end of December 2008. Bharti Airtel, Sify and Reliance Communication are climbing up the ladder with 7.83%, 3.7% and 7.31% of the market share respectively. You Telecom has 1.56%, Data Infosys Ltd has 1.93% and Tata Communications has 3.05%. As you can see in the table, Bharti Airtel has 10,06,688 Internet connections, Reliance has 9,40,227 connections and Sify has 4,75,213 connections. The total revenue of ISPs in India…
