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| Friday, December 22, 2006 |
| Hutch Essar Sellout - Indian Telecom Regulations |
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 Troubled Emerging Telecom, Hutchison Essar in India is for SALE. However, HTIL and Essar both have so far denied sell out talks and guess what could be the morale of the employees working at Hutch - just like Zombies in Unix ? Parentless Child ?
Lets look at the regulations affecting or favoring the interested parties in Hutch.
- India allows 74% Foreign Direct Investment in Telecom.
- If an existing Telecom operator buys stake in another operator operating in the same circle, it will have to limit ownership at 10% or BUY the entire 100%.
- The combined entity cannot hold more than 15 MHz of spectrum in Metros and Circle A and 12.4 MHz of spectrum in Circle B & C.
- The total market share of the combined entiry should not exceed 2/3rd in any circle.
Maxis: Maxis of Malaysia is promoted by Person of Indian origin and has bought stake in Aircel India and has plans for PAN India operations. Aircel has also secured licenses in 16 other circles and hence makes strategic sense to bid for Hutch to get a PAN India presence.
Reliance Communications Limited: RCom already has PAN India presence in CDMA segment and wants to expand its GSM division by buying out Ruisas and HTIL of Hutch Essar. RCom overlaps Hutch operations only in West Bengal and Kolkatta, a issue that can be sorted out.
Vodafone Group Plc: All complexities are surrounding this cash rich company that was turned down in negotiaons by Bharti Airtel Ltd chief, Sunil Mittal for a joint bid. Vodafone bought 5% stake fromWarburg Pincus and another 5% stake in Bharti Enterprises, holding company of Bharti Airtel from Mittals earlier this year at $1.5 Billion. Sunil locked Vodafone in a Non-compete clause while divesting his stake - Vodafone shall not operate or buy stake in any competing operator for 12 months after they have sold their stake in Bharti Airtel Ltd. Any aggressive move by Vodafone to bid for Hutch will certainally upset the Mittals and they may invoke the non-compete clause.
Tags: Telecom India, Telecom Merger and Sellout, Hutchison Essar, Vodafone
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Published on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 1:51 AM  |
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| Tuesday, December 19, 2006 |
| Lifetime Validity Mobiles - A Success in India |
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 It has been a year since Indian Mobile service providers launched a scheme that offered lifetime validity to pre-paid subscribers. What it essentially means is the subscriber can receive calls for lifetime [lifetime is until the year the service providers license is valid, 5-10 years]
Sure, the mobile service providers needed some harsh treatment from TRAI to explain all other hidden charges [Outgoing charges were hefty]. TRAI conducted a study and has found that Lifetime Validity scheme was a tremendous success.
- This scheme managed to garner 16.1 Million subscribers in the first 6 months.
- Average Revenue Per User [ARPU] in this scheme was Rs 218 / Month while all India ARPU in the pre-paid segment is Rs 261 / Month.
- Revenue per minute to the service provider from this scheme was higher atRs 0.80 while all India average is Rs 0.77. This means the operators have very softly ripped the consumer.
Via [TRAI]
Tags: Telecom India, Mobile India, Pre-Paid Mobile, Mobile
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| Published on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 1:33 PM |
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| Friday, December 15, 2006 |
| Aperto Networks Powers WiMax in India |
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 Aperto Networks, Wimax certified gear vendor will power BSNL's WiMax network in 6 Indian cities. Bangalore had some trial runs about WiMax in October.
The 6 cities that will be lighted by WiMax are Ahmedabad, Bangalore / Bengalooru, Chennai, Kolkatta, Hyderabad and Pune. Apart from these centers, BSNL always keeps in mind the universal service obligation and has chosen 4 rural centers in Haryana to light with WiMax.
The rollout is expected to be completed by end of Jan-2007 and will enable BSNL to offer services such as High speed internet, VoIP, e-governance, etc. Don't expect the services and end user equipment to be cheap.
Tags: Telecom India, Wimax India, Aperto Network, BSNL WiMax
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| Published on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 6:41 PM |
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| Thursday, December 07, 2006 |
| Idea cellular Pre IPO placement |
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 Kumarmanglam Birla controlled Idea Cellular has been continuously offloading stake in the company to various Venture Capital and Private Equity investors since August-06. Just a while ago, Idea has sold 1.5% stake to Sequoia Capital at $40 Million.
With this Sequoia Deal, the valuation of Idea cellular has moved up from $2.0 Billion [when Tata's exited Idea] to $3.2 Billion.
Idea Cellular has also filed with SEBI for a $500 Million Initial Public Offering. Why is Idea Cellular in such a hurry when telecom valuations are improving ? The Birlas badly need $1.5 to $2.0 billion to fund their Retail dreams. Ultimately, Kumar Birla will hold controlling stake in Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd which has 30% stake in Idea Cellular and thus retain management control of both the companies.
Tags: Telecom India, Idea Cellular, Venture Capital India, Sequoia Capital
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| Published on Thursday, December 07, 2006 at 8:30 AM |
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| Tuesday, December 05, 2006 |
| Reliance Communications to float largest telecom tender |
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 Anil Dhirubhai Amabni groups biggest company, Reliance Communications Ltd [RCom] will float the worlds largest Telecom tender in few weeks. The size of this tender is estimated to be around $9 Billion for 100 Million phone lines much larger than BSNL's Mega tender of 45 Million lines.
The tender is likely to be awarded to 4 or 5 companies as their is no single company in the world which can fulfill the needs of RCom. RCom which is adding close to one million users a month [most of them in CDMA] is all set to achieve greater landmarks in 2007 as it will roll-out its GSM services on PAN-India basis. This will most likely include RCom's equipment and gears required for 3G rollout.
In a separate development, RCom which previously had bid unsuccessfully for telecom licenses in Egypt and Bhutan earlier this year has now placed its bid for providing fixed wireless service in Bahrain. Vodafone is also one of the contenders in the race. I would really like to see RCom expand beyond India in wireless services and emerge as the leading Telecom company globally.
Related Reading: On Reliance Communication's RoadMap here.
Tags: Telecom India, Telecom Tender, GSM CDMA, Telecom Gear
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| Published on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 8:37 AM |
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