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| Friday, July 25, 2008 |
| IDEA Cellular - Wireless the Only Revenue Stream |
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Idea Cellular's 1QFY09 EBITDA at Rs7.2bn was aided by strong elasticity which offset the decline in rev/min and the pressure on EBITDA margins, which were impacted by 130bps (Rs299m) due to 7 circles moving to 2% higher license fee from 1Q.
Consolidated net profit at INR 2.6 bn fell by 4.9% Q-o-Q, primarily on account of a 26.6% increase in net interest costs and higher tax rate. Net debt has increased sharply by 49.5% to INR 97.5 bn. Besides the company has also reported foreign Exchange loss amounting to INR 152 mn. Tax rate increased to 10.1% in Q1FY09 from 5.6% in Q4FY08.
Elasticity continues to remain strong for a 2nd quarter in a row (though lower than Bharti) with 5% jump in MoU (428 mins) as rev/min declined 7% qoq. Decline in rev/min was in line with what Bharti reported earlier. EBITDA losses in 3 circles widened, still to breakeven after 21 months since launch. We are not very bullish on Idea Cellular since it is not an integrated Telecom company like Bharti or RCom nor it has communicated its intentions to be so. Going forward the company will face stiff competition from new operators as idea is also fairly new in 6 to 8 circles.
Bharti Airtel has also announces its results and the same can be referred here. |
Published on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:29 PM  |
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| Wednesday, July 16, 2008 |
| Telcos oppose regulations of VAS |
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Indian Telecom companies are against the idea of any more regulations or guidelines in value added services (VAS) segment. Companies feel that informing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regarding starting a VAS and availability of logical Information Machine (LIM) is sufficient. VAS accounts for nearly 10% of the industry's revenue and companies fear that any more guidelines may pose unnecessary delays in providing VAS.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) believes that the current rules and regulations in this regard are sufficient and there is no need for any further guidelines. However, VAS operators have different ideas on the matter.
They believe telecoms should be mandatorily required to share the data on usage and downloads etc. Content providers' representative body, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), also wants regulations towards more transparency in availability of short codes and access and interconnect norms.
TRAI is soon expected to decide regarding whether it wants to bring in more regulations in VAS segment or not. |
| Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 11:17 AM |
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| Tuesday, July 15, 2008 |
| Vodafone, Idea asked to pullback STD tariff plan |
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked Vodafone and Idea cellular to remove its latest tariff plan of Rs 1.30 per minute as it considers the tariff plan to be "discriminatory" since it is applicable only to those subscribers sending an sms asking to be placed under the special tariff plan and this was considered discriminatory by Trai as there would be consumers who did not know how to send an sms.
This plan was introduced by Vodafone and idea cellular after the countries largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel slashed their STD tariff rate to Rs 1.50 per minute which did not have any conditions.
According to resources the two operators have been asked by TRAI to either provide the plan to all the subscribers or revert to the earlier rate of Rs 2.40 per minute.
Vodafone officials said that they have taken off the plan and are working on other ideas to cut the tariff rates. Idea cellular has not responded to any queries. |
| Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:24 AM |
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| Saturday, July 12, 2008 |
| Strong Q1 for GSM Service Providers |
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 Indian GSM Wireless operators added 6.32m subs in June 2008, up from 6.28m subs in May 2008 (excluding RCOM GSM).
Bharti Airtel continues to top the chart in net additions with 2.56m new subscribers followed by Vodafone India which added 1.73m. Idea Cellular added 1.05m customers [does not include Spice communications].
BSNL saw a big slowdown in subscriber additions with mere 0.37m new additions. Aircel added 0.43m. At the end of June-08, India had 212.14m GSM mobile subscribers.
Subscriber numbers of various GSM cellular service providers in India [June-08],
- Bharti Airtel - 69.38m
- Vodafone India - 49.20m
- BSNL - 37.36m
- Idea Cellular - 27.19m
- Aircel-11.92m
- Reliance GSM - 7.71m [May-08]
- Spice - 4.55m
- MTNL - 3.44m
Will the net additions in mobile space slowdown with rising inflation and slowing Indian economy ? |
| Published on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 8:17 AM |
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