Jump to content
Reliance Jio & Reliance Mobile Discussion Forums

ravi_patent

RIM Addict
  • Content count

    636
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by ravi_patent


  1. FE has a story on ARPU and MOU of 4 majors of indian telecom

    http://www.financialexpress.com/news/vodafone-idea-pip-rcom-in-usage-chart/807391/0

    however i was wondering if ARPU and MOU can be considered separately for evaluating telco's profitability.

    true gsm biggies have higher ARPU& MOU.but average airtel customer shells out 202rs/ month after using 458minutes/month.while Rcom customer shells out 117rs/m with only 93minutes of usage.

    who is least profitable then?


  2. @kshah

    may i know whether iphone is subsidized in india as operator locked cdma phones .to my understanding no.

    ofcourse indian media is generally obsessed with brand loyalty than abuse of monopolies and publicity is the least we can expect.what happened in dhaval valia/vfone was because of media support

    legal battles are won here not on merits.

    cci is an opportunity for india to show

    its well deserved place in global market as a huge market.whether india reliazes the same or not is the issue


  3. @commonman

    HomeShop18 – 200 off 1000 Gift Coupons

    GCDFZ95H5CJEADEZY

    GC7829PM5375GJEQF

    GCUDUCEIE515H2PH8

    GCZH29565UAPSIEQY

    GC9DUC5TP5D5H2E8Q

    source:desidime

    intersting to note that some people have started selling vouchers on ebay..check this http://cgi.ebay.in/Tradus-Rs-1000-Discount-Gift-Vouchers-SALE-/230635285694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item35b2ef2cbe

    i am sure that they will have tough time as long folks like us are around

    @MKPatel

    since 6 months i have been using coupons of one or other but never came across flipkart coupons


  4. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/article2121392.ece

    GSM mobile subscription, which has been going the roof for the past four years, is showing signs of slowing.

    For the first time since September 2009, GSM operators have added fewer than 10 million subscribers in a month.

    In May, 11 GSM operators together added 9.5 million new users taking the total subscriber base to over 590 million. While this addition in number is still good compared to other global markets, it is much lower than what the operators were adding over the past few months.

    According to the Cellular Operator's Association of India (COAI), the dip in numbers is due to lack of competition among operators on tariffs, which has cut down the number of dual SIM users.

    “In the past few months operators have not offered any new deals on tariffs. This has in-effect brought down the number of subscribers who would take multiple connections. Earlier, subscribers had the incentive to take one or more connections to take advantage of a better tariff plan on another operator's network,” Mr Rajan S. Mathews, Director-General, COAI, told Business Line.

    Mr Mathews said that stiff subscriber verification norms are also having an impact on mobile offtake in the rural areas. “The growth in mobile subscription has been coming from the rural areas but as operators move deeper into the hinterland issues such as subscriber verification and high cost of providing connection are coming in the way,” he added.

    Market watchers said that the introduction of Mobile Number Portability may have also put breaks on the dual SIM market.

    So, is this the beginning of slowdown of India's telecom growth story?

    According to the COAI, the demand for mobile is still there, so the net additions will bounce back in the next few months but not to the extent that the industry saw at the start of this year.

    “We were adding close to 15-16 million subscribers a month. So, that may not happen but we expect the number to stabilise around 11-12 million additions for some time,” he said.


  5. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/iphone-maker-apple-comes-under-cci-scanner/articleshow/8927346.cms

    NEW DELHI: iPhone and iPad maker Apple Inc has come under the scanner of the Competition Commission of India for allegedly limiting the availability of its products to a few service providers using its dominant market position.

    A customer has filed a complaint before the Commission under section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 that Apple is curbing the customer's choice by limiting the availability of iPhones and iPads in India to a limited number of service providers, besides its signature stores.

    At present, iPhone's latest version is available in India through Aircel and Bharti airtel , while the iPads are sold through Apple store only.

    An Apple official when contacted declined to comment. "The complainant has also alleged that a user can only download software from the i-store and the others are not recognised by the device," a senior CCI official told PTI.

    Besides, Apple phones could only be serviced in Apple centres, which in turn charge high rates for servicing.

    The Commission is due to take up the matter for consideration by the end of this week, sources said.

    iPhone, the touch screen handset that acquired a cult status in the US and other western countries, was launched for the first time in India in 2008. Following the launch, the new upgrades have also been introduced in the Indian market.

    Smartphones are cathcing up fast in the Indian market, especially at a time more companies roll out 3G services across the country. 3G services, which offer high-speed Internet access, have already been rolled out by various operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel.

    According to a CyberMedia Research study, about 12 million smartphones are expected to be sold in India during 2011.

    The Commission, which became fully functional in 2009, with the appointment of a chairman and six members, has the power to check anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position, drawn from Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.

    Beginning June 2011, the Commission also received powers to check high-voltage mergers and acquisitions, with the notification of section 5 and 6 of the Act.


  6. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/dot-panel-backs-30-limitmerged-entitys-market-share/439877/

    A department of telecommunications (DoT) panel has accepted a majority of the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on merger and acquisition (M&A) rules.

    The final approval will have to come from the full Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in DoT. However, the way seems clear.

    “We have accepted in principle Trai’s views on M&As. These will be part of the new telecom policy, which will be ready by August,” a senior DoT official told Business Standard.

    Trai had suggested the merged entity shouldn’t have more than 30 per cent market share in any circle in terms of both subscribers and adjusted gross revenue. The present cap is 40 per cent. Also, it should not hold more than 14.4 Mhz spectrum for GSM services and 10 Mhz for CDMA services. Trai has proposed that the additional spectrum be returned.

    This comes amid calls for consolidation in the telecom sector. The presence of at least half-a-dozen operators in each circle has led to tough competition for adding subscribers and a decline in revenues of telecom companies.

    At present, a combined entity can have up to 40 per cent market share in a circle and retain the entire spectrum (of the two merged entities) provided it fulfils the subscriber criterion within three months. Otherwise, the excess spectrum has to be returned.

    There is also a three-year lock-in period. The DoT panel has accepted Trai’s suggestion that this be done away with. Instead, Trai has recommended that a promoter not be allowed to dilute equity below 51 per cent for five years or till the rollout conditions are met.

    Another recommendation is charging a one-time fee from operators holding more spectrum than was mentioned in their contracts.

    The policy also proposes allowing companies to share spectrum.

    The official said Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had already announced that the M&A policy would mandate a minimum of six operators per circle, including government-owned MTNL/BSNL.

    Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal had earlier said consolidation in the telecom industry was inevitable and he did not see more than six players surviving. Most of his counterparts have also said this.

    Trai says the policy will ensure better use of resources, while preventing abuse of market dominance.

    Telecom Secretary R Chandrasekhar, in an interview to Business Standard, had said, “Subject to the floor of six operators in a circle, any artificial barrier that may have crept in, which prevents such consolidation from happening, is being reviewed. But precise details, in terms of how much relaxation and in what manner, will be mentioned in the final policy.”


  7. mts is offering bundled device on 3m advance rental across all states where postpaid is avlbl. plan details and t&c below

    MBlazer ARP 3GB 2097 Rs. 2097 Rs 0.4/ MB 3 GB Usage per month for 3 months

    MBlazer ARP 6GB Unlimited 2397 Rs. 2397 NA 6 GB Unlimited Usage* per month for 3 months

    Extra Usage shall be charged @ Rs 0.40/MB.

    *Post 6 GB (at speeds up to 3.1 Mbps), Unlimited Usage will be available at 144 Kbps

    In case of disconnection within the subscription period, no refund will be provided.

    Migration to any other plan will not be allowed within the subscription period.

    The free unutilized data usage cannot be carried forward to the next month.

    No add on Pack shall be allowed with ARP plans during the Advance Rental period. Post which the customer may add the existing retail add on packs to the monthly rental packs.

    Post 3 months customer will be automatically migrated to the plans mentioned against each plan but however has the choice to opt for plan migration to any existing retail tariff plan.

    http://www.mtsindia.in/Tamilnadu/postpaid.html

    • Like 2

  8. TRAI seeks 3 months more time for finalising IU Charge regime

    http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article2084671.ece

    The telecom regulator TRAI has requested the Supreme Court (SC) for three months extension for completing formulation of the new Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) regime.

    The Apex court had earlier given TRAI four months time on February 4 for coming up with recommendation on telecom interconnection charges which expired on June 4.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had in an application filed on Friday requested the apex court “to grant further 3 months time to TRAI to carry out exercise in framing IUC regulation”.

    Meanwhile, the TRAI, which is facing opposition from the new and old established telecom operators over the issues and methods adopted in consultation process to review IUC, has requested the apex court to give suitable directions over it.

    It has requested the apex court to “grant suitable direction regarding the procedure and method to be followed by it (TRAI) since there are difficulties/issues with regard to implementation of compliance with the directions of TDSAT in the impugned order”.

    Interconnection charges are paid by a telecom service provider for using network of other operators for transmitting and completing a call.

    TRAI’s IUC regulation was widely opposed by the state run BSNL and private operators — Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Etisalat DB and CDMA lobby group AUSPI on various grounds.

    Last month, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal had dismissed the plea filed by the UK—based telecom operator Vodafone, opposed some of the questions incorporated in the IUC consultation paper of TRAI.

    On February 4 this year a three—judge bench of the apex court headed by the Chief Justice Mr S H Kapadia had directed TRAI to frame the IUC regulation afresh as per the directions of the TDSAT.

    The TDSAT had on September 29 last year set aside the TRAI’s Interconnection Usage Charges (Regulation), 2009 and asked the telecom regulator to bring out fresh regulations in consultations with various stake holders.

    Following it, the TRAI on April 27 issued a consultation paper on IUC. However, a set of GSM companies questioned some of the issued raised in it, contending that it was not in accordance with the directions of TDSAT.

    In its 2009 IUC regulation, the TRAI had fixed a mobile termination charge (MTC) at 20 paise per minute for all local and national long distance charges.

    It had also raised the MTC for incoming international calls to 40 paise per minute from 30 paise, while putting a ceiling on carriage fee of 65 paise per minute for domestic long distance calls.


  9. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-eworld/article2079720.ece?css=print

    In India, operators have sunk a lot of money into 3G, and even before they recover money there is already talk of LTE (Long Term Evolution). Is it too early for India to be talking about 4G?

    I don't think so. It's easy to see the progress from 2G to 3G, and now 4G, as sequential but I don't think that's the way the world works. You deploy certain technologies in certain spectrum. So there is 2.6 gigahertz for LTE spectrum, 2.3 gigahertz for BWA (broadband wireless) — which, for a while in India was called the WiMax spectrum; now it's back to the BWA spectrum, though. So none of these is 3G spectrum, they are not good for HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) either. Nobody is making equipment in that spectrum. It is 2.1 gigahertz where people make HSPA equipment and nobody really makes LTE equipment in that band. And then, 900 megahertz is where people make GSM equipment. So the sequencing is based on which order the regulators give out licences for these spectrums and, of course, when the standards are set out. But it doesn't mean you operate in that way; you actually operate in parallel — to use an analogy, just like a grandfather, father and son lead parallel lives. There is so much of congestion in voice in India that the 3G spectrum will just be consumed by voice. So you will need LTE for data. India is one of the few countries where there is very, very little strategy on spectrum.

    India has specific issues related to less spectrum availability and rural roll outs. What kind of a role do you think Ericsson can play in such a scenario?

    Well, one good thing that has happened is that you can now deploy all the technologies simultaneously on single-base stations; the Ericsson 6000 Series base stations allow both GSM and HSPA to be deployed on them … you can buy a base station to deploy 3G and 4G technologies instead of going separately. Then, we also have scenarios for network sharing where you share the radio access network and it branches out to your core network. Those kind of solutions need to be discussed in India, because there are so many operators! No country has so many operators per megahertz.

    Is the WiMax versus LTE debate over?

    Well, there will always be a little WiMax, but I have always said that this is not really about technology. We have seen that LTE is a better technology than WiMax but that is not the main thing. The main thing is economies of scale. We assessed that WiMax, at best, will end up with a one per cent market share, and that is why we didn't see it worth investing in. We are now being proved right, and many companies are veering round to the same view. But I wouldn't certainly go out and declare that the debate is over.

    Why were there no takers for WiMax? Is it a technology, business or ecosystem issue?

    It was predominantly an ecosystem and scale issue. We didn't see enough benefits on that track. There was 3G, HSPA and then WiMax, but it wasn't attractive enough to derail everything else going on in the industry.

    Is the network keeping pace with devices that are getting incredibly smarter?

    I think we are keeping pace. Today, the average person talks 300 minutes on phone a month, which corresponds to 20 megabyte of data. So if all the six billion people on earth talk simultaneously, they are consuming 20 gigabytes. On the other hand, people who use data heavily use around 4-5 gigabytes each. So there is a challenge.

    What is the future of wireless technology? What comes after LTE and LTE Advanced?

    If you simplify, for the short range or indoors, we will see the evolution of WiFi. For wide area coverage, we will see the evolution of LTE. It will be a question of finding the shortest way to some antenna, and from the antenna to optic fibre to the cloud. A smart card will keep track of what's happening and charge you per usage, and that money can then be reinvested in building an even better network. But I don't see a 5G technology coming because we have already reached the ‘channel limit' of what you can do.

    As data usage increases, will fixed wireline networks make a comeback or do you think wireless technologies will be able to meet the demand?

    Nobody wants to be completely connected with the wireline. I think, in the end, everyone will have only wireless — that is why people have WiFi at home. A revival of the fixed line will depend on regulatory things, but from a technical point of view there is no reason for that to happen.


  10. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-info-tech/article2071961.ece

    Chinese equipment maker ZTE is planning to launch 4G-enabled devices (LTE) by August of this year.

    The company will first launch LTE-based dongles and then introduce phones by the first quarter of next fiscal year. The move is aimed at leveraging on potential demand for 4G services as operators start rolling out their LTE (long-term evolution) networks by this year-end.

    Speaking to Business Line, Mr Isaac Liang, International Market Director – TDD Product, ZTE Corporation, said, “We already have single mode devices in the market. We are planning to launch multi- mode devices by third quarter which will allow subscribers to move between LTE and 3G networks.”

    “We are looking to bring the price points of these LTE devices to the existing price of 3G devices,” he added.

    Globally, a number of countries have launched LTE networks. But most of them are FDD (Frequency Division Duplex variant while in India it is going to be the Time Division Duplex (TDD) version. The difference is in the way spectrum is used. In FDD, spectrum is split into two with one half used for uplinking communication and the other half for downlink.

    In TDD version, the spectrum is used as one chunk giving the operators the freedom to use it according to the traffic flow.

    In India, a number of operators are planning to launch TDD-LTE including Airtel, Aircel, Reliance Infotel and Tikona.

    Mr Liang said that network deals are expected by the year-end and ZTE is aiming at a 30 per cent share of the market. Currently, ZTE has not managed to make much inroads into the Indian telecom network market, dominated by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens. But Mr Liang said that since LTE is a new network, operators will not be compelled to stick to their current suppliers.


  11. incredible effort and thanks for sharing ,which will surely inject more optimism and fighting spirit in BB subs

    I liked this most

    " i thought it is important for you people to know how not to lose premium

    customers and there are simple things beyond your crores of Marketing Budgets which you can do to keep a Customer happy. Despite such a horrible experience, i am doing my part as a long time Airtel Customer.

    Hope you do yours..."


  12. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-info-tech/article1819813.ece

    Rural folks living in six lakh remote villages across the country will soon get high speed broadband services for just Rs 99 a month.

    Villagers won't have to pay any upfront cost for taking a connection and also get the consumer premise equipment free of cost.

    This is being made possible because the Department of Telecom has finalised a scheme whereby telecom operators will be given money to roll out wireless broadband network in villages.

    Four plans

    In return for the subsidy, operators will have to offer the tariffs fixed by the DoT and minimum speeds of 512 kbps.

    The DoT has decided on four tariff plans, the cheapest one being Rs 99 a month with 500 Mb of free download (enough for watching streaming video for 8 hours or download 100 songs). For higher data usage, consumers can opt for Rs 400 a month bundled with 10 GB free download. For Government institutions, there is an unlimited download plan for Rs 800 a month.

    The project will be funded by the Universal Services Obligation (USO) which a corpus of nearly Rs 20,000 crore.

    For providing the subsidy, DoT will select one private operator in each circle through a bidding process.

    Telecom companies with unified access licence or Internet service licence will be allowed to bid.

    According to the draft tender document, the operators which agree to cover all the villages in a circle at the lowest cost will be given the contract. BSNL will also be given the same amount by default.

    Once the operator is selected it will be responsible for installing the required network and providing modems, dongles and devices to consumers.

    Operators are free to choose the technology but will have to roll out services in 10 per cent the targeted districts within 12 months and complete coverage within 24 months.

    Broadband wireless

    Operators will get subsidy in a phased manner over 8 years in addition to Rs 2,000 for each consumer premise equipment.

    The broadband project has been in the making for the past five years but could not be implemented because of the delays in auctioning for broadband wireless spectrum. Now that the spectrum has been sold, the DoT has decided to push through with the project. The final tender document is expected to be released in the first week of May while the bids are expected to be opened in the latter half of June.

    Broadband growth rate in India has been sluggish compared to the uptake in mobile usage. While there are nearly 14-15 million new mobile subscribers every month, only a few lakh new broadband connections are being added each month. The Government had set a target of reaching 20 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010 but fell short by 50 per cent.

×