Average monthly revenue per subscriber has declined to Rs 374 for the quarter ended September 2005 for GSM mobile operators while for the CDMA operators the figure is even lower at Rs 244.

On the basis of compilation and analysis of data submitted by various service providers, telecom regulator TRAI said that ARPU (average revenue per unit) has come down by 7.4 per cent during September 2005

TRAI also said that ARPU in case of post-paid subscribers was much higher compared to pre-paid customres. All India postpaid ARPU stood at Rs 646 per month which is about 2.3 times than that of all India prepaid ARPU of Rs 284.

Similarly, in case of CDMA operators, ARPU for postpaid subscriber is much higher compared to prepaid customers.

Based on data, TRAI has concluded that if first 11 years of performance is considered, the performance of Indian mobile sector appeared to be better than China.

China has been adding about 4 to 5 million mobile subscribers every month in last five years. India has also achieved this landmark in December 2005 when the mobile subscriber addition reached around 4.5 million in a single month for the first time since the launch of mobile services in the year 1995.

"Thus India seems to have really caught up with China in mobile growth," TRAI said in a statement. China launched its mobile services in 1988 and India in 1995 and based in first 11 years performance Indian mobile sector has performed better than China, TRAI said.

(www.zeenews.com)