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| Monday, September 29, 2008 |
| RCom GSM soft launch + Spectrum fees |
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Reliance Communications, which had earmarked around Rs 6,000 crore for GSM operations, has commenced soft launch of its GSM services across major cities in the country. The company is slated to officially launch the services in the next eight to 10 weeks, starting with Mumbai and Delhi circles.
Already under attack for distributing spectrum at throwaway price to new operators, the government may invite another barrage of criticism as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to propose a nominal fee for radio frequency allegedly hoarded by existing GSM service providers beyond 6.2 Mhz. |
Published on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:00 AM  |
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| Friday, September 26, 2008 |
| Airtel i-mate Jama 101 + Shyam TeleLink Services |
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Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it has tied up with mobile maker i-mate to offer its customers the latest smart phone JAMA 101. Suggested Retail Price is Rs12,900, the model will be available at all i-mate retail outlets and subscribers of Airtel will also get additional benefits for data download of 50 MB per month, the company said in a statement.
Shyam Telelink will be the first among the new operators to get the a pan-India licence to roll out telecom services in both GSM as well as CDMA space from September 30 in Rajasthan. Following Rajasthan, Shyam would start services in the southern circles in the next two-three months, sources close to the development said. |
| Published on Friday, September 26, 2008 at 8:21 AM |
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| Thursday, September 25, 2008 |
| Resale of IPLC + No auction of 2G Spectrum |
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In a bid to increase availability of bandwidth for the fast-growing small and medium enterprises segment, the Department of Telecommunications today permitted the resale of International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC). To boost competition and affordability in the IPLC segment, the DoT has created a new category of licence called "Resale of IPLC Service" that will be permitted to enter into agreements for leased line with access providers, national long distance service providers and international long distance service providers for provision of IPLC to end customers.
Telecom Minister A Raja on Wednesday ruled out auction of 2G spectrum and said that the department is in discussion with finance ministry to charge a one-time fee on the extra radio waves to the operators beyond the initial start-up spectrum. The Minister said,
It (one-time charge on 2G spectrum) has been discussed and is going to be discussed in the Telecom Commission in consultation with the finance ministry and one-time charges will be for the 2G spectrum for over 6.2 Mhz spectrum. This will only affect established GSM players[Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular] because companies like RCom and Tata Teleservices have gotten similar amount of spectrum under two different technologies, CDMA and GSM. |
| Published on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 8:27 AM |
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| Wednesday, September 24, 2008 |
| Can Etisalat clear FIPB Hurdle ? |
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Emirates Telecom's - Etisalat US$900 mn investment into Swan Telecom as an important development for the Indian wireless sector in a variety of ways.
- the equity infusion will enable Swan to raise debt and fund its initial roll-out ambition in
the 13 circles where it has licenses - the deal will likely provide a benchmark and accelerate further investments in some of the new licensees
- increased certainty of at least one new licensee in the competitive mix may intensify the subscriber-grab tactics
The transaction values Swan Telecom at US$2 bn. Etisalat operates in Pakistan, which will invite intensive scrutiny by the the Indian Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the approval may not be in place soon going by the current political situation. Recall what had happened to Orascom when it bought stake in Hutchison which gave the former an indirect control in Hutch India. |
| Published on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 6:47 PM |
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| Friday, September 19, 2008 |
| Foreign telcos can bid for 3G without Indian partner |
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Government today said it will allow foreign telcos to bid on their own without a domestic partner for the 3G spectrum but they have to find a local player before starting services. As per the Indian laws, foreign companies can own up to 74 per cent stake and thus they would be required to form a joint venture with an Indian company before starting the services, Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura told reporters here.
But the real issue is how effective the Telco can serve with only 3G spectrum as 2G spectrum is already gobbled up by existing players and there is hardly any left to accommodate any fresh applications.
In a separate development, Mr. Siddharth Behura said,
The bidding for an agency that will overlook the rollout of the proposed mobile number portability (MNP) will open within a week. Six months from thereafter, we will roll out the MNP services in the metros initially and later in the rest of the country. Mobile Number portability the dream of many Indians since the last 2 years is inching towards reality. |
| Published on Friday, September 19, 2008 at 11:54 AM |
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| Monday, September 15, 2008 |
| Bharti Leads in August Wireless Subscribers Additions |
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GSM Operators excluding Reliance Communications added 6.31 mn subscribers in August-08.
Bharti Airtel's subscriber additions were flat 2.7 mn [m-o-m basis], 43% of the net adds.. Vodafone's and BSNL's improved steadily, while Idea's additions declined marginally. Aircel recorded its highest ever adds, rising 18% m-o-m to 0.65m. The key highlight in Aug was the launch of operations by Idea in Mumbai and Vodafone in Orissa. However, only by the end of Dec-08 we will know how both the companies are doing in these circles.
At the end of Aug-2008, the top 5 GSM Mobile Service Providers in India based on no. of subscribers are,
- Bharti Airtel -74.8 mn
- Vodafone - 52.8 mn
- BSNL - 38.5 mn
- Idea Cellular - 29.3 mn
- Aircell - 13.1 mn
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| Published on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 8:52 PM |
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| Thursday, September 11, 2008 |
| Equity Stake Changing Hands |
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Ahead of the 3G auction, struggling incumbents like Tata Teleservices and BPL Mobile are supposedly in talks for stake sale. Even new operators are desperately looking to divest their stake and are in a hunt world wide to even small countries like Norway.
- BPL Mobile sold 17% stake to fund Loop Telecom business. Buyer is a Mauritius based company [Safe Tax heaven for investments in India]
- Unitech is likely to offload 26% stake to Telenor for $500 mn
- Tata Teleservices may divest minority stake to NTT DoCoMo for $933 mn
- Dubai based Etisalat may pick up majority stake [51%] in Swan / Tiger / Zebra Tele Holding companies which once upon a time were linked to Reliance ADAG.
Looks like the telcos are set to bid aggressively for 3G Spectrum. |
| Published on Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 11:19 AM |
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| Wednesday, September 10, 2008 |
| Historical Rural Mobile Penetration Data |
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The following chart shows historical data on Wireless Subscribers in Rural and Urban India since 1996, the beginning of Mobile phone revolution in India.
Currently Rural India has an abysmal 6.4% penetration and will become the major thrust area, going forward. While Urban India enjoys a whopping 57% mobile phone penetration.
 Source: TRAI |
| Published on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 12:27 PM |
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| Thursday, September 04, 2008 |
| Reliance Communications - GSM Capex + Rollout |
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In a conference hosted by Citigroup at London, RCom has said that the incremental GSM capex @15% of a greenfield rollout as it will be riding on its existing passive infra, backhaul, distribution, billing and CRM systems.
RCom management believes that tariffs have already come down and may not be a sustainable strategy for new entrants. On a question on How RCom will try to gain the market share, the company emphasized on 3 points,
- Expansion of the addressable GSM market
- Prevalent high prepaid churn
- Mobile Number Portability which can be used to churn top-end users
It is easier said than done in our view because of simultaneous launch of operations by otherp layers and incumbents extending the reach to maintain their growth rates. |
| Published on Thursday, September 04, 2008 at 5:55 PM |
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| Tuesday, September 02, 2008 |
| Waive top-up cards Charges - TRAI |
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TRAI asks wireless operators to waive processing charge on top-up cards - Prepaid mobile subscribers now have more reasons to cheer as TRAI today asked the telecom operators to waive the processing charge on the top-up cards, resulting full talk time on such recharges. Users will now have to pay just an administrative fee not exceeding Rs 2 per recharge and other applicable taxes.
Following in the footsteps of the TataTeleservices-Virgin Mobile deal, state-owned telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has entered into a CDMA franchise agreement with Mumbai-based IOL Netcom. MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, has invited bids for its CDMA operations. IOL Netcom, which emerged as the winner in both circles, can scale up to 2 lakh codes (customers) in each circle, according to the agreement.Labels: IOL-Netcom-MTNL-Deal |
| Published on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 at 1:41 PM |
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