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Monday, May 18, 2009
Spectrum charges haunt GSM players

After raising concerns over the DoT's proposed reduction in spectrum charges to a uniform 3% of annual revenue, GSM operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular are in a fix over the issue. DoT has proposed that only those GSM operators agreeing to pay a one-time fee for all excess radio frequencies beyond the 6.2 MHz will be eligible for this reduction on spectrum charges.

As of now, all telcos have to cough out 2-6% of their annual revenue to the government as a fee for using the radio frequencies allotted to them.

The spectrum charges must be equivalent to the market value of the extra radio frequencies command. A DoT committee has said that this one-time charge must be established through the upcoming 3G airwaves auctions.
Published on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 11:04 AM   0 comments
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mobile Net adds Cool in Summer (April) + Idea Hit by Churn

April-09 saw GSM adds fall m-o-m to 8.9m (10.8m in March ex- RCOM) primarily a result of BSNL’s adds coming off at 1m v/s 2.5m in Mar-09, although these had been distorted by the year-end effect (BSNL's net adds typically spike up in March before falling off in the following months). Net adds for Bharti remained flat at 2.8m and given our FY10 estimates at 2.3m, leave room for upside. Aircel too remained flat at 1.1m

Idea Cellular's net adds fell to 1.1m, as a result of 1) churn in Bihar, Delhi and Punjab and 2) slippage in Maharashtra, UP (W) and Kerala. The next leg up should come from Orissa (launched in April) with TN and WB slated in the coming few months. Our FY10 net adds estimates for Idea are currently at 1.6m

RCom has not yet announced, though we expect weakness compared to the previous three months as it has now started discontinuing the “trial offer” across various circles. The size of GSM Mobile subscriber base in India now stands at 297.73 mn [assuming net add of RCom to be the same as that in March-09]
Published on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 7:51 AM   0 comments
Friday, May 08, 2009
BSNL Knocks Retail Doors

State owned telecom giant BSNL is all set to woo prospective customers while they are shopping at Malls or other Retail Stores. The company BSNL looking for tie-ups with big retail chains in the country to sell its products and services under an aggressive marketing strategy. The company is inviting proposals from interested retail chains directly or through consortium to sell BSNL's products and services from their outlets, a senior official of the PSU said.

The initial agreements will be entered into with the successful retail chain or with the lead partner of a consortium for two years, which can be extended further as per performance. BSNL has operations across India except Delhi and Mumbai.

Will Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications the only other two Integrated Telecom operators in the country join the race ?
Published on Friday, May 08, 2009 at 8:45 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Wipro + Unitech Telnor Outsoucing Deal

Wipro Infotech didn't take much time to understand the domestic growth in the Indian IT industry. The company has bagged the IT outsourcing deal of Wireless license holder, Unitech Telnor planning to rollout nationwide 2G GSM Operations.

Though the companies refused to reveal the financial details of the deal, reports quoted that the contract is estimated to be worth in between Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 2,800 crore.

As per the deal, Wipro will set up a component-based service delivery platform (SDP) for Unitech Wireless to enable it to deliver a wide range of services for its customers.

This is a landmark deal for Wipro as this will enable the company to compete in further such deals and put the company in the big league of software companies such as IBM.
Published on Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 11:02 AM   0 comments
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