State-run PSU, BSNL till date found comfort in the fact that while it may be losing race on the subscriber addition front vis-à-vis private operators, it remained the leader in terms of revenue generated. But even this comfort was lost by the PSU as VoicenData’s annual survey for telecom services in India for the fiscal 2008-09 show that Bharti Airtel is now the leader well ahead of BSNL.

Bharti Airtel’s revenues from telecom services reached Rs 36,962 crore as compared to BSNL’s revenues of Rs 35,167 crore. Reliance Communications followed BSNL with revenues of Rs 22,941 crore while Vodafone stood at number 4 position with revenues of Rs 22,224 crore.

The NLD segment in the country is rapidly emerging as one of the most lucrative avenue with growth rate of 48.2 %, the highest growth rate among all telecom services, and revenues of Rs14,432 crore. Mobile services grew by 24.4 %.

Out of the over $ 30 billion (Rs 1,57,542 crore) in revenues from telecom services, mobile services alone grabbed 60.5 % share with revenues of Rs 95,271 crore. Next to follow in terms of revenues was fixedline services domain at a de-grow of 7.6 % and 15.6 % share of total telecom services revenues. Revenues from fixedline services were at Rs 24,649 crore. Fixedline services had recorded a decline of 11.6% in the previous fiscal.

The ILD segment grew by 30% with revenues of Rs 15,000 crore.  On the other hand while Broadband services grew by 39.9%, the figure looks modest when compared to last year’s growth rate of 162.7%. Revenuewise , broadband services contributed Rs 7,500 crore. Revenues from VSAT totaled Rs 650 crore while those from radio trunking services amounted to Rs 40 crore.