The data card subscriber base for Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) which operates in India as MTS India, has declined to 1.29 million subscribers for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 (Q1 2014), down 4% from 1.34 million subscribers in the previous quarter, on account of cleaning up of inactive subscribers. This cleanup also impacted the company's total connection base which declined by 7.9% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 9.04 million connections, from 9.8 million connections in the previous quarter. The non-voice revenues which includes data and VAS revenues however increased by 9.1% QoQ to Rs 112.4 crore for the quarter, from Rs 103 crore in the previous quarter. As a percentage of revenues, non-voice contribution increased to 35.3% of the company's quarterly revenues, up from 34.5% in the previous quarter. SSTL claims that this percentage is the highest in the industry right now. Highlights - Minutes of Use increased to 414 million minutes for the quarter, up 109% from 373 million minutes in the previous quarter. - Blended mobile ARPU increased by 9.8% to Rs 107 for the quarter from Rs 97 in the previous quarter, due to increase in minutes of usage. - SSTL’s HSD services now covers over 600 towns across 9 circles, up from 550 towns across 9 circles in the previous quarter. - During the quarter, MTS India launched (pdf) new prepaid and postpaid data plans targeted towards heavy data users. - It also tied-up (pdf) with D-Link to launch an IP-based surveillance solution called MSecure which provides an MBlaze WiFi dongle and a D-Link security and surveillance camera along with 32 GB storage with auto rewrite facility. The solution was available…
