Missed calls = Missed revenues

Posted on | March 28, 2006 |

We have all done and benefitted from it - giving missed calls to convey messages. But what is the impact of missed calls on the carriers. This Zee News story puts the exact share of missed calls at around 20-25%.

Kobita Desai, principal telecom analyst, Gartner

“There is also a situation when the other person has to call back. No doubt mobile tariffs are quite low and the price differential with fixed is very narrow. However that is not necessarily the case with prepaid tariffs which is still significantly higher and also the pulse rate is shorter. Mobile calls are billed at 60 secs whereas fixed calls are billed at 180 secs.”

Who loses and who gains on missed calls

“it would depend on where the call originates from. If more calls originate from the fixed network then the lion’s share of the call revenue is retained by fixed network operator. However they would have to give a percentage to the mobile network as an interconnect or termination cost. Or vice versa. Often missed calls happen within mobile networks as well. Here there is loss of revenue on both sides, especially if the called party has caller line identification.”

“Missed calls have to originate from some network. So there’s always percentage given as interconnect/termination to the network on which the calls terminate. However good interconnect rates are dependent on the volume of traffic generated. In a non monopoly environment like India’s mobile industry, it becomes difficult for a carrier to arbitrage on good interconnect rates if they only invite incoming traffic,” she says.

“Further not getting threshold revenue (cost of servicing + margins) from their home subscribers may affect business sustainability in the mid to long term,” notes Desai.

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