ravi_patent

seems to be a typing error in the heading as of now termination charges themselves are around 50 to 65 paise in respect of std calls . so how to quantify soon is the key point. Morganstanley recently estimated that tariffs will fall to 45 paise by fy 2011 (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/Morgan_Stanley_downgrades_telecom_Ind/articleshow/4123304.cms)

Telenor entering India: Investment plans http://www.telenor.com/en/resources/images...tcm28-37393.pdf (p22 gives details of call termination charges in India)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articl...2.cms?prtpage=1 GSM operators' body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has written to the Telecom Ministry that one of the CDMA operators may be in the process of launching EVDO wireless data cards and has, therefore, sought its intervention in the matter. Similar to 3G services, EVDO is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. In a letter to Telecom Minister A Raja and Secretary Siddhartha Behura, COAI Director General T V Ramachandran said, "If allowed (the EVDO services, which is a 3G service), would be a gross violation of all principles of level-playing field enshrined in, inter alia, NTP-99. It would also be violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution." COAI has sought intervention of the ministry for ensuring that no private player is allowed to launch EVDO service without 3G being made available to all players. According to the body, the launch of EVDO service would be unfair to the GSM operators as "CDMA operators have ample spectrum to offer both 2G as well as 3G services and this can result in unfair anti-competitive advantage to CDMA and tilt the playing field to the disadvantage of the private GSM operators".

Business Standard Mumbai February 12, 2009, 0:49 IST Upping the ante in telecom price war, Reliance Communications (RCom) has reduced its GSM tariffs by 50 per cent by doubling talktime period and extending validity for lifetime. However, the move has failed to amuse the existing GSM players as they have opted for a “wait and watch” policy. The company has enhanced validity and talk-time of its already launched GSM tariff plans. Under the new offer, subscribers would be able to make local calls at 50 paise per minute (Re 1 earlier) and STD calls at 75 paise per minute (Rs 1.50 earlier). It had also extended validity for lifetime (licence period of the company). Earlier, Reliance Mobile GSM had offered limited validity of either 3 months or 6 months, which has now been enhanced to lifetime validity, by default. Thus, all new Reliance Mobile GSM connections will come with lifetime validity at a nominal charge, RCom said in a release here today. Under the offer, the company will also provide a daily talk-time credit of Rs 4 for 90 days, thus a total talk-time of Rs 360 (6 times that of the recharge value). The additional talk-time can also be used to make local calls and send SMS to any network, it said. The double talk-time offer is available on every recharge till March 31 for both existing and new customers. Moreover, all the company’s new connections will come with lifetime validity at a nominal charge. Its existing GSM customers can avail of the scheme on every recharge with a special tariff voucher of Rs 26. RCom has also introduced an SMS pack of Rs 32 targeting the youth, which will offers 500 local SMSes free-of-cost. “We have received tremendous customer response for our GSM service since its launch in January. By offering lifetime validity, lucrative benefits and other gamut of services, we are fulfilling customers’ expectation of a delightful communication experience. We will continue to explore new opportunities to provide our Reliance Mobile customers with unparalleled network quality, customised tariff plans, constant innovations and best in class services,” RCom Regional Head (West) Dinesh Gulati said. However, the existing operators are playing a waiting game. When contacted, an Idea Cellular spokesperson said, “We will only launch schemes depending on the market demand, and if there is a need to reduce tariffs, we will take a call on it.” A Vodafone-Essar official also mirrored the sentiment, while analysts were skeptical whether other companies will follow suit.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Featur...how/4121300.cms It has been amazing to watch the Indian mobile market from close quarters over last 13 years. This market has seen more unexpected twists and turns than perhaps any other industry. Now with the entry of new players, we are set for another round of game changing behaviour. Traditional mobile industry models indicated that a minimum market share of 20% is critical for an operator to have a sustainable mobile business. Accordingly, there has been an expectation of consolidation in the market for last couple of years. Instead of consolidation, however, the market has seen new telecom licenses being awarded. Several global players have bought into the Indian operators, Virgin Mobile has entered the market and there is potential for entry of more mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in future. Today, India is clearly the most competitive telecom market in the world with 12 facility based licensees. Going forward, with the potential entry of 3G and MVNO operators , this number is set to increase. We do not see consolidation happening in the medium term for several reasons. Firstly, the large scale of the Indian market and declining capital costs for mobile equipment have led to a fundamental change in mobile business economics. Currently, we expect that a pan-India operator can make sustainable margins at a subscriber base of about 40-50 million. That translates to a market share of about 7% as the market grows to over 600 million in a few years timeframe. Secondly, global telcos have taken a stake in most Indian operators. Most of them would like to hold on to such a large, profitable portfolio of subscribers in the context of their global footprint and subscriber base. Third, most of these operators will incur a substantial proportion of their planned capital expenditures in next 2-3 years to drive pan-India rollouts. With these costs sunk-in , duplicate networks in place and limited merger synergies, the case for consolidation could further weaken. It is pertinent to note that most mergers in the Indian mobile industry have been driven by the need to enter new circles and not been intra-circle in nature. Therefore, intense competition is here to stay for a long time. We see about 8-10 facility based operators and a few MVNOs co-existing in the market. Most of these operators are expected to have a pan-India footprint. Such high competition will have significant impact on the market, particularly as growth begins to slow down after 3-4 years. As market growth slows down, and multiple brands co-exist , mobile services could increasingly begin to ape the FMCG market, particularly for the mass market prepaid segment. If number portability were to become seamless enough, it is even possible to envision a scenario where the customer makes a brand choice every time he/she comes for a recharge. This could drive the end-game towards getting maximum share of the customer’s communication spend through share of MOUs or share of use. Business risks to the operators in such a market will increase substantially. With high contestability, high churn and commoditisation of service, relatively rapid changes in market share would be possible. Any significant reduction in market share or volume could leave an operator saddled with overcapacity, stressing the entire cost structures and potentially creating a downward spiral. With network coverage and quality a given , there would be two key levers to play in the mass market segment. First would be to meet the next level of customer needs like service experience, emotional connect with the brand and relevance of value added services. Second, which is discussed below in more detail, would be ability to realign cost structures to emerging pricing models. In the near term, pricing is expected to see another round of sharp decline with the entry of new competitors. Overall prepaid Average Revenue Per User (ARPUs ) will decline with the need to penetrate the next income strata of customers. Even the postpaid ARPUs, which have been a key profitability driver, are expected to decline significantly, as operators aggressively target these customers with introduction of number portability. Regulatory intervention is soon expected to reduce the currently high carriage and termination charges. This will provide greater flexibility for operators to come up with the next round of pricing strategies. The new operators with idle capacity and low subscriber base are expected to take a lead in driving these pricing innovations. They also have the opportunity and possibly the compulsion to plan upfront for lower ARPUs. Hence, expect them to design low- cost greenfield networks leveraging the declining GSM capital costs and possibilities offered by infrastructure sharing . Pricing innovations could for instance , include all you can eat pricing (unlimited call nationally) for a low fixed monthly charge. Such models will enhance the minutes of use and drive down realisation per minute, putting pressure on incumbents with their large subscriber base and minute factory models. Our analysis indicates that within a year’s time, mobile tariffs will reach a level as to allow customers from all income segments to enter the mobile market, subject to availability and need. Any future decline in pricing would be driven more by competitive forces rather than the customer’s ability to pay. Accordingly, the pricing will go down to the levels at which operators can have sustainable business plans. One would expect that operators with lower cost structures will emerge as winners in that scenario. At the same time, most operating costs are expected to increase. Marketing expenditure will go up without commensurate increase in customer base; regulatory and competitive pressures to improve network quality, within a constrained spectrum, could drive increase in network expenditure . Servicing the rural markets may be more expensive than urban customers. Some other factor costs such as labour, utilities and real estate would be also driven up by inflationary pressures. Therefore, despite increase in scale for all operators, margins could come under pressure. There might be a temptation to presume that since Indian telcos are making good margins at such low tariffs, they are running very efficient operations. Our experience suggests that while the labour cost advantage within low- cost countries leads to lower absolute costs, it also masks several inefficiencies. After adjusting for the structural differences across countries, the overall cost structures of LCC operators are at times higher than best in class. It would be fair to assume that the need to chase high growth in a low labour cost environment has led to reduced focus on efficiencies. It is imperative for operators to prepare for this scenario by taking a hard look at the cost of their people, processes, channel and outsourcing contracts to fundamentally change their cost structures. How well they are able to realign their cost structures to prepare for the emerging environment might well determine their position in the future pecking order of the telecom market in India. Saurine Doshi is partner and vice president and Mohit Rana is principal consultant, AT Kearney India

pathankot

l.e.t

Reliance rings thrice Surajeet Das Gupta / New Delhi January 20, 2009, 0:01 IST The group has made a third entry into mobile telephony. Is its pricing a calculated gamble for cheap additional spectrum? When Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, was making a high-decibel entry into mobile telephony based on the CDMA platform six years ago, he gave several interviews recounting how his father, the redoubtable Dhirubhai, provided the guiding principle for the business. In a customary heart-to-heart evening chat with his elder son, Dhirubhai said mobile telephony would take off only if a short how-are-you call cost less than a postcard, whose price was 15 paise. That charted the course for Reliance Infocomm’s Monsoon Hungama. Opening on July 2, 2003, it offered a mobile phone for Rs 501, including Rs 100 worth of free talk time, and redefined the pricing and tariff structure in the business. Until then, if you wanted a mobile phone, the handset alone cost about Rs 2,000 and more, the connection was extra. Now, Dhirubhai’s younger son, Anil Ambani, is going a step ahead. Having received the group’s telecom business in the June 2005 settlement with his brother and consolidated it as Reliance Communications, Ambani has taken the company’s focus back to GSM and launched a new pre-paid service that can be bought for just Rs 25 and will be valid for three months, one-eighth of the cheapest offer by anyone else. The connection will come with five to 10 minutes of free talk time (depending on the circle) every day, which works out to 450 to 900 free minutes in the three-month period. Ambani’s rivals say this is purely a ploy to get additional spectrum at a low cost before the other new licence holders get in. Spectrum, the radio frequency on which mobile signals travel, is a scarce resource on which the new telecom wars are being fought. A new licence holder, as RCom is, begins with 4.4 MHz and gets another 1.8 MHz in Delhi and Mumbai once its subscriber base in these cities touches 500,000. Low key, low cost Reliance won eight circles when the government gave out the first GSM licences in 1995. However, they are on the fringe and have so far netted only 10 million subscribers. The group’s big entry in the business took place on the CDMA platform in December 2002. In keeping with the company’s penchant for grandeur, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister at that time, took the first call from then communications minister Pramod Mahajan. The inauguration was covered live by most news channels. Anil Ambani, who skipped that glittering event, has done it quietly this time — just a regular press conference in Mumbai. There were no ministers, no teasers, no hoardings, no multi-crore pre-launch advertising blitz, and no brand ambassador (cricketer Virender Sehwag’s mother had become a household name the last time). But the usual Reliance methods of scale and speed are very much in attendance. The company has done a national rollout of the new licence in just 12 months. The others who got licences at the same time are nowhere close to it. RCom has already invested over Rs 10,000 crore and its target is to reach 95 per cent of the population in three to four months. That is close to the penetration of its CDMA service, which has more than 50 million subscribers. By the end of this month, RCom’s GSM will be in 11,000 cities and 300,000 villages. The low-key launch has given ammunition to the spectrum theory. Its propounders say the company has saved on marketing and advertising expenses so that it reaches the half a million mark in subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai at the lowest possible cost and get more spectrum. “There is nothing to respond to as they are not following a sustainable pricing policy and their average revenue per user is negative. They are making a loss per subscriber and virtually giving away SIMs (subscriber identity module cards) free to subscribers. Their aim is to reach 500,000 subscribers in a circle so that they can get the additional 1.8 MHz of spectrum nearly free of cost. They are not making any advertising blitz to keep the numbers in check,” says a senior executive of a leading telecom company. According to RCom, however, this is a usual entry strategy for someone coming into a crowded market. “Our target is to reach the 100 million mark in mobile subscribers in the shortest possible time,” says S P Shukla, president of RCom’s wireless business. Since the CDMA service already has 50 million and the older GSM service 10 million, the target gets whittled down to 40 million. Still, what about the cost? Entry cost Retailers can pick up the SIM card for Rs 10 and sell it for Rs 25. The company will give them Rs 40 after a month if the subscriber is still on the network. Thus, even if the retailer gives the SIM free, he still makes money. If a subscriber makes calls for 10 minutes or less a day, RCom will get no revenue for the first 90 days from him since it is giving 10 minutes free every day. On the other hand, it will have to pay termination charges to other networks on the calls made to non-RCom phones at the government-mandated rate of 30 paise a minute. Assuming that about two-thirds of the free outgoing calls are to other networks — after all, Reliance’s GSM subscriber base is only a fraction of the total mobile user base of more than 300 million — the company will pay Rs 60 per subscriber per month to other networks for the free calls which anyway will not bring in any revenue. Still, rivals say the expenses are a small price. “The math works out beautifully for them. Even if RCom has to spend Rs 180 per subscriber for three months as termination charges, that comes to only Rs 9 crore for 500,000 consumers. Once it reaches that number, it gets 1.8 MHz of additional spectrum under government policy. Everyone knows that the spectrum value is many times more,” says an RCom rival. He adds that apart from the subscriber base, the usage has also been made a criterion for allocation of additional spectrum. That RCom can achieve thanks to the free minutes which it has spread over the three-month period. Says analyst Mahesh Uppal: “The strategy is akin to free sampling and acquiring subscriber numbers by being a loss leader so that you can claim more spectrum. The fear is that its consequences should not be passed on to others by creating a shortage of the scarce resource.” The last time, Reliance’s cheap service garnered a large number of subscribers but later it had to write off a large sum as non-performing assets to clean up its balance sheet. The reasons why Reliance is doing it again are two. First, over 80 per cent of the new additions in the mobile space are for GSM, since consumers like the flexibility of choosing their handset (CDMA phones are tied to the network). Secondly, international roaming, especially in Europe, is difficult on CDMA, and Reliance cannot afford to loose the customers who travel as they would typically be high-usage ones. “We will leverage on our late mover advantage. Our aim is to get part of the 250 million GSM consumers who are frustrated with their existing networks to come and try a new, better service at the lowest cost, forcing the incumbents to defend their position,” says Shukla. He says the plan is also to get a part of the 8-9 million new subscribers that come on board the GSM ship every month, a market that was so far largely out of Reliance’s reach. Macquarie Research projects that RCom should be able to capture at least 6 per cent of the net add market by the third quarter of 2009-10. Experts say the pricing would affect the incumbents, which will have little choice but to take on this new RCom in GSM’s clothing. Already, Bharti’s Airtel, the country’s largest mobile phone brand, has cut its lifetime connection fee to Rs 99. Vodafone is planning to bring its down to the same level across the country. Idea Cellular is already offering it at Rs 40 in some circles and the average across the country has already fallen to Rs 149. All of them point out that they are not offering free minutes — a loss-making proposition. Macquarie warns of a disruptive impact on the incumbents’ average revenue per user, or ARPU, as well as their minutes of usage since many pre-paid subscribers would shift significant talk time usage to RCom for the next 90 days. Macquarie says Bharti’s Airtel will suffer a 17 per cent drop in ARPU in the next quarter, and forecasts a sharper decline for Idea Cellular, which is also launching in new circles. RCom executives say that while the goal is to get a large subscriber base, they do not think the company would be ARPU-negative and that the business model is not unsustainable. They point out that the company would make some money from calls that terminate on its network (at the same rate that it will pay other networks). Secondly, they expect all their consumers to buy recharge coupons and use their phones beyond the 10 calls that are free. Thirdly, the incentives given by other competitors to retailers for a new connection are as high as Rs 150-200 while RCom’s trade margins are far lower. “The trends have shown that 85 per cent of calls from a phone are made to just five numbers, so once they know a new number they will also call back and we expect termination charges on incoming to neutralise what we spend on outgoing calls to other networks,” says a senior executive of RCom. He adds that the company has been able to pass on the lower trade margins and the zero cost on advertising to consumers as low entry packs. “One of our competitors, which recently started service, spends Rs 30 crore on advertising, but got only 70,000 subscribers in a month. We have refrained from doing so,” says Shukla. But is RCom overstretching itself by targeting 100 million mobile subscribers? Most analysts agree that the mobile market would hit the 600 million mark by 2012, nearly twice the current size, which has been reached with just seven players. With six new players joining the fray and incumbents controlling at least 70 per cent of the net additions, it might be difficult to get more than 30 million customers each and that would only materialise three years down the line. Many expect RCom to loose its CDMA subscribers to its own GSM service, so there might not be any big real addition in its mobile subscriber base. “If RCom continues with this fabulous offer, its CDMA subscribers will feel cheated and shift. With number portability (which allows users to migrate from one service provider to another while retaining the number) coming in, it will be easier to do so. So these numbers are too ambitious,” says a senior executive of a competing mobile company. Industry experts say the company itself might offer free or cheap GSM handsets to its CDMA customers to goad them to switch, so that it has to manage just one network. But RCom executives say they are technology-neutral and there is a market for both the products. Those who want data functions would prefer CDMA, while those looking for predominantly voice usage and handset flexibility would prefer GSM. Shukla and his team are not only concentrating on new customers but also targeting the existing pre-paid, low-end customers of rivals. RCom has leveraged its existing network to keep fixed costs down. For instance, a similar launch by a new player would need twice the investment, as the network and the towers would have to be set up from scratch. The company can also leverage its existing distribution network of over 5,000 distributers, 2,000 exclusive stores and more than a million outlets. It’s a muscle that will be difficult to match for new players except for the Tata Group, which, too, already has a CDMA network and is making a foray into GSM. Above all, RCom is counting on two factors. One, it does not expect any of the new GSM licence winners to roll out in the next 12 months. The second is the financial meltdown. “We clearly have time to consolidate our GSM foray in the next one year as we don’t see new players coming in. So we will be competing with the same players that we used to. The only change is that we have a pan-India GSM product,” says a Reliance ADAG executive. Not only that, by the time the other newcomers get in, RCom will also have more spectrum.

thats great news bcos ,aircel has been and continues to be an aggresive player..

sadik has got it correct...i use both tata and reliance...voice quality of both is good..and as pointed by everybody coverage of tata is not as good as reliance

http://www.business-standard.com/india/new...s/00/06/348120/ Russian telecom major Sistema, which has a 74 per cent stake in a joint venture with Delhi-based Shyam Telelink, got an all-India Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) last year. It is the first among the new entrants to kick-off its services, with a launch in Rajasthan four months ago. Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices spoke to Surajeet Das Gupta and I****a Russell about his strategy to become an all-India operator in 22 circles over the next eighteen months. Excerpts: What is your pan-India rollout time table? We launched our services in the Rajasthan circle last October, and already have more than 300,000 mobile subscribers — that’s around a tenth of the net additions. About 60 per cent of our subscribers were using mobile services provided by our competitors, so it shows that our product quality is being appreciated. We will launch our mobile network in another six circles, including Tamil Nadu and Kerala by end of May, and we shall have a pan-India presence in another year and a half. Given you’re entering a market which already has six well-established players, and there are six more waiting to make an entry, what kind of a market share are you looking at? That depends on the pace of the rollout. We’re looking at securing 10-15 million subscribers by the end of 18 months. We’ve taken into account the impact of number portability as well, but we haven’t seen too many markets where this has a big effect on subscriber numbers. Generally, people remain loyal to their service providers. We’re looking at a 8-10 per cent market share by 2012, by which time there will be 700 million mobile phone customers in the country. So it helps to be one of the first among the new players? Absolutely. I understand 50-60 per cent of users never change their operators, so this gives us a good base to build on. Reliance Communications, which has just launched its GSM service, is offering a connection for just Rs 25 and is throwing in another 10 minutes of free talk time every day, for the first 90 days. I don’t think this can be a sustainable long-term strategy. In any case, this has not affected our customer additions. Reliance launched its services in Rajasthan in January and our customer base in the same month rose by 5-10 per cent over December which is quite good. It is too early to study consumer trends, but I assume our segment of the market is different and they do not get attracted by the Rs 25 offer. If another 350 million customers are to be added by 2012, and there are 12 competitors (six old and six new players) for it, the market for each of you will be quite small. Newcomers are not the only source of customers for us. The majority of customers that we are getting in Rajasthan are through churn. I don’t think that subscribers are looking at buying a CDMA or a GSM service per se — they’re asking for quality. We are also looking at why our competitors’ customers are dissatisfied, so that we can offer them a product without these problems. This will also help differentiate us from our competitors. GSM phones have beaten CDMA ones in India as well as the world over. Have you made the wrong choice? Plus, if you’re banking on your rivals’ customers moving to you, they have GSM phones while you have CDMA ones. So, they have to buy your phones. Doesn’t that make the cost of entry too high? Mobile operators, who are offering CDMA, are going to continue to do that. They’re not going to switch to GSM. Second, the capex for a new CDMA network is around 25-30 per cent lower than that for a new GSM network. Third, customers who buy bundled handsets tend to be loyal. Our costs are not high — we have an entry level phone for just Rs 899, along with talk time. How much will you save by leasing towers? We will build about 20 per cent of the towers on our own and lease the rest. The towers that you build are yours for life. It is a strategic dilemma, but our main interest is to roll out quickly. However this also means that while our capex will be lower, our operating costs will go up since we’ll have to pay rentals on towers. Have you bought Chinese equipment to save costs or is it that some of the European players don’t want to sell their equipment to you as they already have long-term contracts with the incumbents? There are only three big vendors in the CDMA space. Basically there is ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent. After having in-depth discussions with all of them, we selected two big Chinese vendors — ZTE and Huawei. With Alcatel-Lucent, there were some financing issues. What about the mobile phones? Our phones are mainly from China and Korea; we look at value-addition and not at low-quality products. It is reasonable to expect that a majority of the customers will not be the high-end variety, so we are currently working with Huawei and ZTE. For high-end phones, we’re working with Samsung. By when can we expect SIM card-based CDMA phones in the Indian market? We will definitely see them in the near future. The question is when. There are some phones of Samsung and Nokia that are already available. Why are CDMA-operators hesitant to opt for SIM-based phones? Is it the cost or does bundling the phone along with the connection and airtime help you avoid churn? There are historical reasons for this. For example, in Russia there is no subsidy for CDMA hand phones — the CDMA is a very high-end niche product only for high-speed data and good-quality voice. It has a small market but at the same time it has very high average revenues per user (Arpu). But in India, CDMA is around a fourth of the market, and bundling has been the norm here.

sixer

spring

dear all i want to give 1 Zone alarm pro key ,which i have received during the promo period and uninstalled due to heavy memory use ... on first come first serve basis! pl pm me regards

its painfull to see that you were having problem with one guy and ebay... ur problem wt ebay comes under contract law rather than consumer law

if the kid will grow up to be a terrorist or scientist is the parents choice!!

dear kumaar i belive that now every body tries snatch as much as possible of the NLD/ILD market,otherwise they would have nipped this propsal in the bud itself just as happened in the case of net telephony.therefore i expect this to be launched soon..if not bsnl becoz of the inherent functioniong airtel,tata and rcom will try ,and the one having latest technology for such interoperator operable calling cards will be the first one plausibly Airtel(ericsson manages the network),followed by rcom . probably foreign operators will snatch Ild market

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Teleco...how/4066599.cms Here is consolation for all the million who were disappointed by the government's move not to lift curbs on internet telephony. Customers still have some reasons to cheer as the Telecom Commission has permitted subscribers to choose the cheapest STD and ISD tariffs, irrespective of their service provider. Currently, a subscriber can only avail the STD and ISD tariffs offered by his service provider and cannot access the rates offered by other companies. Globally, long-distance tariffs have fallen 20-53% after customers were allowed to choose their operator. Subscribers now have the freedom to choose their carrier for making long-distance calls, whether domestic (STD) or international (ISD) as they can buy calling cards from the operator who provides the lowest tariffs. This will usher in new competition in long-distance calls. More importantly, the move will also challenge the dominance of all existing telecom operators as it will allow all players who carry long distance calls to sell the consumers. This implies, companies like RailTel, Powergrid, Tulip IT services and foreign operators such as British Telecom, AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom and Cable & Wireless can all sell their long distance tariffs directly to customers. This is how the concept of calling cards will work. Suppose you are a Bharti Airtel subscriber, but you find that BSNL or Reliance Communications (RCOM) offers the cheapest long-distance tariffs. You can buy a pre-paid long distance package from BSNL or RCOM for a particular time period. You then punch in a set of numbers specified in the package to get onto the BSNL or RCOM network and make your calls. You can talk for as long as your pre-paid package permits. Similarly, a Bharti or a Vodafone customer can also buy calling cards from companies such as Powergrid, Tulip IT and Idea cellular amongst others. There is more choice in the offing -- you can now buy long distance calling cards from all players who offer these services including foreign operators such as such as British Telecom, AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom and Cable & Wireless. Therefore, if an AT&T were to offer you a rates at say Rs 2 per minute to the US. compared to the average rate of Rs 6-9 per minute at present), you can junk your operators and use the American telco's services. dear kumaar u r correct..i have missed the point

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Teleco...how/4066120.cms argeting a pan-India presence, Aditya Birla Group today said that its flagship firm Idea Cellular will roll-out operations in five service areas including West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir by the end of 2009. According to an investor presentation filed by the conglomerate to the stock exchanges, the group's telecom business has performed well in the third quarter ended December and is eyeing to begin operations in the remaining five service areas. "Spectrum has been alloted for remaining five service areas, West Bengal, Kolkata, Assam, North East and Jammu & Kashmir.... (We are) targeting roll out operations by the end of calendar year 2009," the Group said. The group further said that 'Spice', which was acquired last year, has been rebranded as 'Idea' in Punjab and Karnataka and Idea is operating in 15 service areas. The company is also planning to launch its Orissa and Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) services by the first and second quarter of the 2009-10 fiscal, it added. Idea's quarterly revenue have jumped 60 per cent in the reviewed quarter to Rs 2,728.6 crore as against the year-ago period, supported by the growing subscriber base. The company ranks second after Airtel, with 19.8 per cent market share in combined subscribers base of eight established service areas reflecting its brand strength. Further, Spice results since October 16, 2008 have been consolidated at 41.09 per cent as a joint venture with the firm. The company reported a fall in net profit to Rs 219.5 crore in the third quarter this fiscal as against Rs 236 crore in the same period last year. Its net profit took a hit to the tune of Rs 36.7 crore from the company's share in losses of Spice and Indus towers, the presentation added. Meanwhile, Idea's depreciation has risen to Rs 393.7 crore from Rs 227.7 crore due to new roll outs and capacity expansion and quality improvement efforts in existing service areas.

dear kumar ur predictions have come true...DOT sends back the proposal to TRAI http://economictimes.indiatimes.com//articleshow/4065689.cms? The hope of calls as cheap as STD 10 paise for telecom subscribers in India seems to be shattered as of now. The telecom commission which met on Monday has referred the issue back to Trai. "There are lot of issues to be sorted out in the same. We are referring it back to Trai," Sidharth Behura, Telecom Secretary, Department of Telecom told ET. Trai had last year recommended an unrestricted domestic telephony. Cellular mobile operators were lobbying for a rejection of the Trai recommendations as it will make calls dirt cheap and affect their business model. ISPAI said that the move by the government was anti consumers.

probably they believes in killing the competion rather than beating it

in the presentation telenor was emphatic abt a point "2 operators on CDMA, expected to be converted to GSM " i am doubtfull

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/N...how/4061388.cms Telecom Commission, the decision-making body for telecommunications, will take a call on allowing unrestricted Internet telephony in the country on Monday. Internet telephony will allow consumers to make STD calls as cheap as 10-40 paise per minute and also make free local calls from their computers. Most telcos are opposed to lifting curbs on net telephony as this will enable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to challenge their dominance in the domestic communication market. Last year, the industry regulator Trai had recommended that all curbs on Net telephony be removed. At present, a call from a computer could legally be made only to another computer within the country, and not to a phone. But the existing regime allows domestic users to make international calls to a phone from their computer. Full-fledged Internet telephony will allow consumers to make calls from PCs or laptops to fixedline and mobile phones in India. They can also make a call to personal computers from their mobile handsets. If permitted, rural India will be the biggest beneficiary as users will be able to make ultra-cheap calls from PCOs using this technology. Besides, broadband growth is also likely to get a boost. The Commission will also consider another recommendation of Trai where it had said that subscribers must be given the freedom to choose their carrier for making long-distance calls, whether domestic (STD) or international (ISD). If permitted, this will usher in new competition in long-distance calls. This is how it will work. Suppose you are a Bharti Airtel subscriber, but you find that public sector telecom firm BSNL offers the cheapest long-distance tariffs. You can buy a pre-paid long-distance package from BSNL for a particular time period. You then punch in a set of numbers specified in the package to get onto the BSNL network and make your calls. You can talk for as long as your pre-paid package permits. Trai had also mandated that all telcos offer their customers the facility to purchase pre-paid long-distance packages or virtual calling cards on the Internet. Globally, long-distance tariffs have fallen 20-53% after customers were allowed to choose their operator.

dear ajin thanks alot

dear gauarv which handset u tried 5000 or 6000?