ravi_patent
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Posts posted by ravi_patent
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if the last big ticket player to enter the game is coming out with such a good and beneficial plans..we can expect more from the serious wannabes like telenor ,sistema
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http://www.businessline.in/cgi-bin/print.p...amp;prd=bl&
Delhi, Jan. 28 The telecom regulator has told the Government that it should explore allotting 3G spectrum to more than one CDMA-based mobile operator.
There are four CDMA-based mobile players in the country for whom the Department of Telecom is yet to specify the roadmap for adoption third generation mobile technology.
As of now, the DoT is planning to auction spectrum to only one CDMA player as it does not have spectrum to accommodate more players. However, the telecom regulator has suggested that optimum utilisation of existing users in the 800 Mhz band could free up enough spectrum for one more player.
Ensuring Competition
“The authority understands that it is perhaps possible to identify more than one carrier in the 800-MHz band. It is all the more imperative as there are more than two access service providers in this category of technology for competition. Therefore, the authority recommends DoT may explore more than one block in the 800-MHz band for CDMA 3G services,” TRAI said.
The recently announced information memorandum for 3G auction had not specified the policy for CDMA players.
The Association of Unified Telecom Service Provider had written to the Government that limiting 3G auction to GSM operators would destroy the level playing field.
Policy call
Sistema Shyam, one of the new operators, had also written to the DoT to spell out the policy for CDMA operators. The company said that harmonisation of 800 Mhz band should be done after the auction is over. Subsequently, the DoT decided to auction one slot in the 800 Mhz band for CDMA players and sought TRAI’s views on pricing and allocation method.
In its recommendation, TRAI on Wednesday said that only existing CDMA players may be allowed to participate in the auction. It also said that the price of this spectrum should be 25 per cent of the amount paid by the GSM players during their auction to be held in February.
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/new...g/06/30/347194/
Unitech Wireless is in talks with Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for sharing towers, a move important in securing funding from Norwegian firm Telenor, which seeks to buy a 60 per cent stake in the Delhi-based realtor-promoted company.
“Unitech Wireless is expected to close the telecom deal with Telenor by early February ...The negotiations for tower-sharing, which is one of the preconditions for closing the deal, are at an advanced stage and the company is expected to sign the tower-sharing agreement sometime next week,” Unitech CEO Sanjay Chandra said.
According to company sources, Unitech is in talks with Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications.
Telenor last week said that the transaction was expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2009.
Telenor, in which the Norway government holds a majority stake, is seeking options other than the rights issue proposed to the government to fund the Rs 6,120 crore deal. It has appointed Deustche Bank to suggest ways of raising funds.
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NEW DELHI: After a series of delays, the communications ministry has got cracking on mobile number portability (MNP), which allows
consumers
to change their telecom operator but retain their number.
Over the weekend, the Department of Telecom (DoT) invited bids from companies with worldwide experience to implement MNP in India.
According to the new timeline, the last date for the submission of bids will be February 6 and the winner will be announced on March 5. If the latest timeline is followed, customers can expect to access this facility in the second half of 2009.
DoT has also clarified to all potential bidders that the amount customers will have to pay to change their operators will be decided by Trai. In 2006, Trai had recommended that consumers pay between Rs 200 and Rs 300 every time he/she wants to change their service provider. But, DoT has now said that the regulator would specify a new port fee before MNP is introduced.
The government had approved MNP in late-2007 and said the facility would be introduced in the four metros by the second half of 2008. Since then, implementation of MNP has missed several launch dates. Number portability has so far been introduced in countries like Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, the US, the UK, most of Europe and Pakistan. According to reports, its introduction has been followed by up to 20-50% subscribers switching operators in some of these countries.
The communications ministry has turned down demands of a few potential bidders to relax existing norms that allows only those companies to participate in the bid which have experiences in similar projects in international markets.
Besides, DoT has also added that these companies should have ported a minimum of about 25-million numbers in the markets they currently operate in. The Department has said that the list of pre-qualified bidders will be released on February 16 and selected companies will have to make presentations on rollout plans on February 23-24.
DoT will select two centralised operators who will administer and implement this service.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articl...2.cms?prtpage=1
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Money Control
Friday, Jan 23, 2009 at 18:41
Reliance Communication has declared its third quarter numbers of FY09. Its Q3 net profit was down by 7.9% at Rs 1410 crore versus Rs 1,531 crore, QoQ. The company's revenues went up 3.63% at Rs 5,850 crore versus Rs 5,645 crore, QoQ.
Key Takeaways from Reliance Communication concall:
Indian Telecom sector has not shown any signs of slowdown
Mobile users unhappy with services of incumbent operators
Will continue to launch affordable plans
GSM launch Will Give Co Substantial Market Share
RCOM has raised the bar in providing affordable connectivity to common man
Coverage in each circle, operating highest quality
Next few months’ company is going to launch new GSM handset
Q3 performance 65000 million customers
61 million wireless subscribers
GSM rollout to be huge opportunity for company
Revenue expanded 20%
PAT grew by 3%
Margin sustainable at current levels
Crossed 10 million subscribers in GSM
Net Debt equity ratio 0.64:1
Guidance
Revised capex for FY09 to be Rs 20000 crore versus Rs 30000 crore given out earlier
Capex for FY10 expected at Rs 15000 crore
Capex next year to come down substantially
Launch nation wise GSM services
Company GSM biz cover 14000 town; 3000 town is target in less than 30 days.
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http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200901231933.htm
New Delhi (PTI): Shyam Telelink (STL), a JV company between Russia's Sistema and Shyam Group, today said it has changed its name to Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTS).
"Sistema is the majority shareholder in this venture... As our name suggests, we envisage optimising this synergy of the two players from different countries with a clear-cut focus on becoming a strong telecom player in India," SSTS President and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said in a statement.
SSTS is an integral and important part of the overall Sistema global expansion footprint, he added.
The name change was announced by the company following an EGM meeting where the decision for the transition from STL to SSTS was ratified, the statement said, adding that the company has shifted its principal office to Gurgaon.
"We are going full-stream with our pan-India rollout strategy as we plan to add to existing operations in the Rajasthan circle with the launch of around five more circles in the coming months," Rozanov said.
The company had earlier announced a strategic tie-up with Russia's Mobile TeleSystems OJSC to bring MTS, the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS to India.
Under the terms of agreement, Shyam Telelink will have the right to use the MTS brand in all its marketing communications and advertising in India.
SSTS has licences and spectrum to provide mobile telephony services on CDMA platform in all 22 circles across the country. It has already launched its CDMA mobile services in the Rajasthan circle under the brand name "Rainbow".
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dear srk
signal levels are measured on logarithamic scale...hence the -ve sign...
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bcoz we r the only country in the world wt weird spectrum allocation norms, all companies adopt diff strategies ...few days before i have seen Aircell offering lifetime sims free of cost here in chennai...
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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.
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while these plans are good, some maths based on IUC,that TATA has to pay
other operators assuming that all calls are offnet to prove that the IUC charges
are more than the expenses incurred by the service provider on whose network the calls
terminate
for BT1000
@30 paise/min for 1000 mins local offnet 300rs
@60 paise/min 500 min std offnet 300 rs
TATA's benefit 400 rs
for BT2000
@30 paise/min for 3000 mins local offnet 900rs
@60 paise/min 1500 min std offnet 900rs
TATA's benefit 200rs
i havent valued sms because it doesnt cost the operators a penny ,as per the latest TRAI
report.
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dear himanshu
i beg to differ wt u abt Hindu
anybody who has been following either this forum or indian telecom developments regularly
will be in the knowledge of datacom's problems or unitech's sell off or the undue favoritism
bestowed upon Swan...this report i believe has joined together all the known facts...
and fails to give worthy reasons for denying the customers more choice and the govt revenue.
every tom, **** and harry has been allotted spectrum by the responsible ,irresponsibly...
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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/200...11950030100.htm
On February 26, 2008, the Communication and IT Minister, Andimuthu Raja, gave his permission to issue licences to new telecom operators amidst a lot of opposition from existing players. Though the minister was criticised for giving away spectrum to the new players without conducting an auction, Raja pushed through with the decision and hoped that the new operators would launch their services to bring cheaper mobile services to consumers.
The companies that received fresh licences were Swan Telecom, Unitech, STel, Datacom, Shyam-Sistema, Bycell, Spice Telecom and Loop Telecom.
Soon after receiving the government nod, these companies declared war on the incumbents, to grab a larger share of the booming cellular market in the country. (See The call of competition in eWorld dated February 18, 2008). They sounded the bugle with a combined investment of over $10 billion and some innovative tariff schemes in the offing that promised to give the incumbents a run for their money. Some of them announced that they would get 10 million subscribers by the end of 2009.
However, even after a year since the licences were awarded, none of these companies is anywhere near fulfilling promises. Reeling under the combined effects of the liquidity crunch in a slowing economy, a highly competitive market dominated by the likes of Airtel and Vodafone and problems among various equity holders, the dreams of the new players seem to be going sour.
Take, for example, the case of Datacom. A feud between the two owners of the company — Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd and Videocon promoters Dhoot family — is threatening to cripple Datacom’s future.
Datacom was initially owned by Nahata-promoted Jumbo Techno Services. But when Videocon failed to get a licence from the Government, it picked up 64 per cent stake in Datacom. The dispute began after Nahata alleged that the Dhoots were not fulfilling their commitments made during the initial agreement. Sources in Nahata’s camp said that Dhoot had promised to pump in money into the company as equity but later offered a loan to finance the mobile services project.
This dispute between the two promoters has not only delayed the launch of Datacom’s cellular services by at least six months but also driven away prospective international investors from picking up a stake in the company. Etisalat, which recently picked up 45 per cent stake in another new telecom company — Swan — had earlier shown interest in Datacom. Similarly, Telenor, which struck a deal with Unitech to acquire a stake in its new telecom venture, was also close to partnering Datacom. However, the spat between the Indian promoters is keeping away the international investors.
The company has also lost its Chief Executive Officer, Ravi Sharma, who quit the company on the grounds that the dispute was delaying Datacom’s business decisions. While Nahata and Dhoots have put the discussions on a fast track, the delay is hurting the interest of Datacom. The company had earlier said that it was planning to launch services by the end of 2008. It has not even placed orders for buying network equipment until now.
Another company whose entry into the telecom segment had attracted a lot of excitement was real-estate major Unitech. The company, which has no experience in the telecom sector, made all the right moves initially after it got the licences. First, it appointed Rohit Chandra, the then Northern region head for Aircel, as the CEO for the new venture. In October, Unitech also struck a strategic deal with Norway-based mobile company Telenor wherein the European company agreed to take 60 per cent stake for Rs 6,120 crore.
The deal was a great one for Unitech as the company had not set up a single tower or owned a subscriber and still managed to get that valuation. Trouble started after Telenor’s shares crashed to a five-year low on the news of its investment in Unitech’s telecom project. Also, Telenor said its Q3 profits fell 33 per cent to 3 billion kroner.
The Nordic company had plans to finance the acquisition by selling approximately Norwegian kroner $12 billion or $1.8 billion worth of its shares in a rights issues in the first quarter of 2009. But investors signalled they would rather see a cut in dividend than a dilutive share issue or asset sales. It then decided to evaluate alternative ways of funding the investment, including the previously announced rights issue.
Due to a melting market Unitech itself has seen over 90 per cent erosion in market capitalisation from its peak in January. Even though the company said that the deal with Telenor will be completed this month analysts pointed out that the absence of a viable funding plan makes the future uncertain for Unitech’s telecom project.
Other new players are also nowhere near launching their services. Loop Telecom, partly promoted by the Ruias, is still looking for a partner. When contacted by eWorld over its future plans, Loop’s spokesperson sent a one-line response indicating that the company did not have much to say on its rollout as of now.
One of the new players has run into trouble with government authorities. Swan Telecom had got a foreign partner through a deal with Dubai-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) which agreed to buy 45 per cent stake for $900 million. But the money has not flowed into the Indian company as it is yet to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
Swan has also been dragged into another controversy with the Prime Minister’s Office asking the Department of Telecom to look into allegations of undue favour shown to Swan Telecom. The company had got into a roaming agreement with BSNL, which will allow it to use the state-owned firm’s national network to offer mobile services. While Swan has agreed to pay a fee to BSNL for using the network, concerns have been raised since BSNL has so far refused to open up its network to any private telecom companies for roaming agreements.
The PMO’s order followed complaints by at least two Members of Parliament that Swan may have been given undue favours. Swan was owned by Reliance Communications when it applied for licence. However, RCom has since maintained that it has sold off majority of its equity shares in the company to Dynamix Balwas Group, which is a real-estate firm based in Mumbai. Analysts say that the new players, even if they were to launch services, face a bumpy ride ahead, given the falling average revenue per user and aggressive incumbent operators.
Some help from govt
In a bid to bring the new operators’ plans back on track, the Ministry of Communication is taking steps to make the business case stronger for them. It has proposed to dilute the rollout obligation for the start-ups by doing away with the target to be achieved at the end of one year after getting the licence.
Under the current rules, the new players are required to cover at least 10 per cent of each district headquarter in a circle by February 2009. Failure to do so would attract a penalty which would make all the new entrants liable. But Department of Telecom has now proposed to dilute the norms and give the operators three years to complete the roll out.
In another move, the Ministry has asked the telecom regulator to review the current interconnection norms to reduce the termination rates. Termination charges are paid by the operator on whose network the call originates to the operator on whose network the call ends. At present operators pay each other 30 paise a minute as termination charges. The regulator has indicated that this fee could be as low as 13 paise a minute. A lower termination charge will give the new players more head room to compete with existing players by bringing down tariffs. It will also help in keeping their operating expense under control because they will end up paying out a lower charge to incumbent players.
DoT is also planning on allowing mobile number portability, which will enable subscribers to retain their phone numbers even after changing their operator. New players are banking on MNP to take away subscribers from existing players by offering them cheaper rates and better quality of service.
Another policy decision that could make the new operators business-viable is the introduction of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO).
Virtual operators do not own spectrum or infrastructure. They lease out capacity from mobile companies and then sell tariff packages under their own branding and focused at a specific consumer segment. MVNOs are expected give new telecom companies an opportunity to roll out quicker and utilise their freshly laid out network more efficiently.
However, the new players will first have to launch their services if they have to take advantage of these initiatives. The delay is, of course, benefiting the incumbent players. The existing operators are adding close to 8 million new subscribers a month.
They have already added close to 80 million new subscribers since the licences were awarded to the new players. The more the new operators delay launching their services, the smaller will be the market size left for them.
The only company that seems to be on track with its plans is Shyam-Sistema. It has already launched services in Rajasthan and is planning to begin mobile operations in Tamil Nadu by March under the MTS brand, which is owned by the Russian conglomerate Sistema.
Others including STel and ByCell have not announced any plans yet. Communications Minister Raja would be hoping that his decision to bring in new players will offer the consumers more choice before going into the general elections later this year.
Status check
Datacom: Caught in a feud between promoters. Launch plans delayed by at least six months.
Unitech: Uncertainty over funding. Both promoters are reeling under the impact of market meltdown and liquidity crunch.
Swan: Has been caught in controversy over alleged favours shown by BSNL. PMO has sought an investigation. FIPB yet to clear deal with Etisalat.
Loop: Still looking for a strategic partner. Launch plans are unknown.
Spice Telecom: Has been acquired by Idea Cellular.
Shyam Telelink: Rollout plans seem to be on track. Has launched services in Rajasthan and is planning to enter Tamil Nadu by March.
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some usefull info on number portability
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/200...11250160300.htm
Indian mobile users will soon get the benefit of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which will allow them to change their operator without having to give up their phone number.
Navin Suri, Vice-President, Telcordia, one of the companies that has shown interest in implementing the system in India, explains the relevance of number portability. Excerpts from a chat:
India already has a lot of competition in the mobile space. Do we need number portability? What are the benefits to a consumer other than having the choice to retain number?
Number portability benefits consumers. It empowers the consumer to be a lifelong owner of his phone number and fosters additional choice and convenience in communication services and providers with whom they do business. With number portability, operators will look to differentiate themselves on service quality and by accelerating the creation and deployment of new services, all of which will benefit consumers.
Should number portability be introduced across fixed line telephones and cellular phones simultaneously? Is there any risk in introducing mobile number portability alone?
Fixed line and Mobile number portability can be implemented independently. The decision on the best way to roll out number portability varies by country and is subject to how swiftly the operators and the regulator want to implement the service. For instance, across most of the 27 European Union countries and Mexico, both fixed and MNP was implemented together. With that said, there is no risk in implementing MNP by itself.
Several countries have done so, e.g. Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan, to name a few. With the successful deployment and adoption of mobile number portability these countries are now looking to bring the value and convenience of number portability to fixed lines as well.
Does number portability increase the rate of subscribers leaving one network for another?
Subscribers do not churn because of Number Portability and portability does not increase churn rates. The reality is that consumers change service providers for better services, price or quality. Number portability simply lets them switch carriers and keep their phone number, which is an added convenience and value to the subscriber.
Interestingly, empirical studies have shown that only a small percent of ‘churn’ customers actually port their number — futher underscoring that number portability does not drive customer loyalty in the way that services, quality and prices do. In the US, the annual churn rate 14.7 per cent only turned into 5.4 per cent of ported numbers. In Germany, the churn rate was 20 per cent, of which only 0.4 per cent ported their numbers.
Some insights into how it has worked in other countries…
Number portability varies dramatically by country. There are several factors that contribute to the success of portability. Some of them are:
Customer Satisfaction: Service choice, price and quality are the driving factors as to which service providers customers use. When they feel that they are getting high-quality services at the right price, they are less likely to churn.
Simplicity and Speed: The process to port a number should be simple and quick.
Zero to low porting cost: Regulators in some countries do not permit fee to be charged to subscribers — Denmark, Finland. In other countries, although a subscriber fee is allowed, market forces are driving the porting fee to be free — Hong Kong, Switzerland, Ireland.
Operators in some countries cover the porting fee as subscription fee to all users — US.
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dear kumar
u hav guessed my requirement correctly...i dont need mail on mobile...and has already written to chairman's office...the reason for postinghere is the dissection which takes place here and the consequent benefit to all of us...
dear Dr. mufaddal
thanks for the suggestion
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todays times of india has this advt
can anybody pl clarify me on this points
tariff along with the detailed terms and conditions for this offer . pl let me know if i can migrate from the present unlimited 770 plan to this plan .
if for some unfortunate reason the lg9800 develops problem or is lost will i
be permitted to use any other reliance authorized handset without loss of 1500 rel-rel std mins benefit
if i were to move to another state from tamilnadu ,can i continue have
the 1500 rel-rel std mins benefit
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thanx for the usefull info
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launched in hyd yday as per the vernacular press ...free tt only 5 /day ...
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oldwine in newbottle for higher price..
this scheme was avlbl in chennai atleast from nov 08 with no monthly rental and 10 paise
tariff..
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sometimes homeshop18 gives better price than the most competitive seller in chennai. indiaplaza.in is also worth a try in addition to ebay....
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4 gsm operators and 2 cdma operators are in the 2g service now. are the prices/tariffs of cdma providers are not comparable wt the gsm? fears for higher prices in 3g cdma are uncalled for.everybody wants to attract the customer, moreso the 3g cdma providers!
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dear indyan
thanks for the reply
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dear kumar shah
ur analysis is good and quite laugh inducing,however i am not sure abt the revolt of the towers! usually i carry gsm and cdma mobiles together in my pocket and couldnot make out
any revolt till date!!!
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agreed that there will be birthday pangs ...but the way anil was making tall claims abt
the completion of the work...
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the discount offered may be small,but recycling is a lucrative proposition
Cell Phone Makers Propose Free Handsets To 50 M Poor Families
in Indian Telecom / General News
Posted · Report reply
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/0...13151940100.htm
Mobile handset makers have sought Rs 5,000 crore from the Universal Services Obligation fund to give free cellular phone and a connection to families under the below poverty line.
In a representation to the telecom regulator, the Indian Cellular Association (ICA) said that the subsidy should be given to 50 million BPL families which will help in removing the digital divide. ICA is the industry association representing handset makers including Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
At present, support from the USO fund is being given only to telecom operators. ICA suggested that support should be given directly to consumers to make it more effective in achieving the objective of reaching communication services to the rural areas.
“Invest in the 50 million BPL families by providing free of cost mobile handsets and connections with 100 free calls per month. The mobile handset provided can be a basic phone with an AM radio, which can be useful for listening to relevant local language content. These radio stations should be made interactive and calls to these radio stations should be made free of cost. This investment of approximately Rs 4,000–5,000 crore has the potential of transforming the life of many families and individuals in this category,” said Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, President, ICA.
ICA suggested that along with a free calling package bundled with handset, skills mapping of these families should be done at the time of providing the connection. “These families have unutilised skills and competencies which can be used, provided these are mapped out and then aggregated in a particular geographical area, say 20 sq. kms. These skills can be made available based on requests received through voice calls and SMS. The IT backbone along with local language call centres need to be created,” said Mr Mohindroo.
The industry body has estimated that free calls will enable these families to save around Rs 15-20 a month, which they would have spent on transportation as access to information in local languages on their mobile phone will cut down on their need to travel. “As saving starts accruing to these families, after the initial period of two years they would be willing to start paying for the mobile services at the rate of at least Rs 25 per month,” ICA said.
Mr Mohindroo said that content providers should also be provided funds out of USO to develop relevant applications in collaboration with rural institutions. To deal with handset repairs and educating the BPL population about mobile usage, ICA suggested that theUSO fund should be utilised to set up service stations in rural areas. “Repairs i.e. after sales service is a key factor in the success of mobile handsets penetration and acceptance: Service centres are virtually absent in the rural areas. The USO fund should be utilised in setting up anchor service stations after a proper study,” ICA said in its letter to TRAI.
In addition to the USO subsidy, handset manufacturers have sought abolition of value added tax of 4 per cent which would enable them to bring down the cost of handset to under Rs 1,500.