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| Tuesday, May 27, 2008 |
| Peek into Vodafone's Operations in India |
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 Vodafone's 4QFY08 KPIs followed a trend similar to those of other GSM incumbents (Bharti/Idea) with a 5% sequential jump in MoUs in response to rev/min decline of 5%qoq. ARPU remained flat sequentially at Rs350. EBITDA margins decline (32% vs. 34% in 1HFY08) is in-line with Bharti and could be a likely result of increased marketing expenditure on higher sub adds. However, absolute margins remain low, still constrained by the circles acquired from Essar.
Vodafone is the only GSM player currently providing its own branded handsets at US$20, though management indicated that no handset subsidies are being given, which is in sharp contrast to the CDMA peers (RCOM/Tata Tele). Besides, MoU trend in the last 2-3 quarters also does not point to any free min schemes to attract users. |
Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 9:37 PM  |
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| Monday, May 26, 2008 |
| Reliance Globalcomm acquires VANCO Group |
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Reliance Globalcom, subsidiary of India's largest integrated telecom service provider Reliance Communications today announced signing of an agreement to acquire the London headquartered pioneering global managed network services, VANCO Group through one of its wholly-owned subsidiary.
Reliance Globalcom would pay $ 76.9 million to acquire 100% equity of VANCO Group free of debt. The acquisition of VANCO would add $365 million to the annual revenue of Reliance Globalcom through secure long-term contracts with largest enterprise customers.
VANCO is amongst world's top 5 managed global network players with over 220 MNC customers. VANCO increases the Reliance Globalcom's tally of enterprise customers to over 1,400. VANCO has been rated as Worlds best network service provider for three years in a row since 2005. |
| Published on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 12:51 PM |
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| Friday, May 23, 2008 |
| Idea Cellular + Providence Deal - Insight |
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 Aditya Birla Telecom (ABTL), a subsidiary of Idea Cellular will issue compulsorily convertible preference shares for $640m to Providence which on conversion will translate to a 20% stake in ABTL. ABTL owns a 16% stake in Indus Towers (a joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea in 16 service areas to share passive infrastructure) and owns a telecom licence for the Bihar service area.
The Providence transaction that values ABTL's equity at US$3.2b (vs. Idea's current market cap of US$6.6b), suggests that Providence paid an uncalled premium when the Indian Telecom market is headed for extremely low margins, really especially in the Wireless business. Only Integrated Telecom players will see higher EBITDA and growth while smaller ones need to change their business strategy to survive post 3G license auctions.
Idea management has raised money for expansion as well as monetized its 16% stake in Indus Towers. |
| Published on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 12:24 PM |
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| Monday, May 19, 2008 |
| Bharti's Global + TRAI differs with DoT on mobile number portability |
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Merger talks between India's biggest mobile phone services firm, Bharti Airtel, and South Africa's flagship MTN Group could wind up this weekend. Bharti Airtel is also planning to launch its operations in Sri Lanka by the end of this year.
Department of Telecom is understood to be exploring the option of selecting four Mobile Number Portability Operators on a regional basis as opposed to TRAI recommendation of a single centralized agency for offering MNP solutions across India. |
| Published on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 7:56 PM |
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| Monday, May 12, 2008 |
| Reliance Communication + Alcatel - Lucent JV |
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Reliance Communications, India's largest integrated telecommunications service provider and Alcatel - Lucent have formed a global joint venture. The JV company would foray in the fast growing $ 16 billion Managed Network Services Industry and will cater to telecom operators, both CDMA and GSM, across the globe.
The first assignment of this joint venture will be to provide Managed services for Reliance Communications nationwide CDMA & GSM networks in India. The joint venture will support the expansion and growth of Reliance Communications, within and outside India, bringing predictability of the operations and related expenses, while maintaining the highest standards of customer experience.
Hopefully this will bring some good quality Network and Process into RCom. |
| Published on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 10:43 AM |
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| Friday, May 09, 2008 |
| Bharti Airtel + MTN + TDSAT |
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 Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal's bid for telecom major MTN Group has to contend with some tough negotiations with Lebanon's former prime minister Najib Mikati, one of the wealthiest men in his country, as well as stiff black economic empowerment policies in South Africa that provide for a major share in the management of companies located in the country to blacks. [ You must note that under the leadership of Sunil Mittal as head of CII, they successfully lobbied against Race based reservation in India]
In related development, Bharti plans to raise up to Rs 28,000 crore to part-finance the acquisition thus diluting the equity. MTN has made clear that they want present executives to continue and lets see how the negotiations take shape.
In view of inordinate delay by the Delhi High Court to adjudicate on COAI's petition challenging spectrum allocation and cross over technology, the telecom tribunal TDSAT on Thursday said it will go ahead with the final hearing on the issue. |
| Published on Friday, May 09, 2008 at 11:47 AM |
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