ravi_patent

^ so airtel network will be congestion free( high arpu spenders will go there) ,whereas mtnl's will be unable to deliver 3g promise..

@kesav if patents can increase prices ,(from quallcomm experience) what benefit we indians will have if indian companies also secure patents? jus qurious

because of the qualcomm royalties cdma providers like reliance/ tata could not do fake activations and were denied the govt sponsered free lunch(spectrum based on numbers).anil ambani made attempts to convine quallcom ceo to reduce royalties to what chinese are paying.but failed. only then he decided to join gsm league!

@kesav: +1 for your analysis

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/07/08/stories/2010070853030700.htm Broadband wireless auction winners allotted spectrum The Government on Wednesday released broadband spectrum to those operators who had won broadband wireless access (BWA) auction. Only Qualcomm and Augere have not yet been given the permission to start using the spectrum as they are foreign players and have to fulfil the regulations under the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Qualcomm will also have to acquire an Internet service provider's licence and divest at least 26 per cent stake to an Indian entity before it can claim its spectrum. But others including Reliance Industries-owned Infotel have got at least a two-month head-start over 3G players. Telecom companies that won 3G spectrum during the recently-concluded auction will get air waves only by September. 3G spectrum will be given by September after BSNL finalises vendors for the Defence optical fibre cable network. The gap in allocation is because BWA spectrum is already available with the DoT while 3G air waves will be released by the Defence after BSNL issues the purchase order to suppliers for the optical fibre network. This gap in allocation means that Indian operators such as Reliance Industries-owned Infotel, Aircel, Bharti Airtel and Tikona can start rolling out their broadband network immediately. Industry sources said that Reliance could start services by Diwali. Market watchers, however, said that the two-month lead may not result in any major advantage to the new broadband players such as Infotel as they will to start building a network from scratch which takes time. Also technologies such as LTE, which is proposed to be deployed by most of the BWA winners, is still not commercially available. On the other hand, 3G technologies are already available and most operators including Vodafone have said that they will launch services by the end of this year. The Government has received more than Rs 1.06 lakh crore from the sale of spectrum. DoT said that the high cost of spectrum will not have any impact on tariffs. The Government is now looking to replicate the auction model for selling other public resources and for awarding contracts by various departments. DoT has been asked to give a detailed presentation to departments at the Centre and at the State-level.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/01/08/stories/2010010853280400.htm Mr Kishore Biyani is getting ready to unleash his mobile services. The business model is likely to be based on the MVNO platform( Mobile Virtual Network Operator) platform whereby a mobile operator does not own its own spectrum and usually does not have its own network infrastructure. Instead, MVNOs have business arrangements with traditional mobile operators to buy minutes of use (MOU) for sale to their own customers. ``We should be ready with the telecom services within the next six to eight weeks,'' stated Mr Kishore Biyani, Chairman of the Future Group. It was at the IRF (India Retail Forum) last year that Mr Biyani had disclosed his plans to enter the telecom space with plans of making Rs 1000 crore on the project. Currently, the telecom project is being handled by Mr Biyani himself and the services are now on the threshold of being launched soon through his retail outlets. “There are many thoughts on generating revenues, but it our telecom project which will be unleashed within a matter of weeks,'' added Mr. Biyani. Virgin Mobile model Currently it is the Virgin Mobile brand which has entered India through a franchise arrangement with Tata Teleservices. The Future Group is expected to be based on a business model similar to that of Virgin Mobile. According to sources, there will be SIM cards based on the GSM platform from the Tata DoCo o brand which will provide the back-end for the Future Group's foray into telecom. However, there are no plans to tap into the synergies which might exist in the hardware market considering the group already has a joint venture under Future Axiom Telecom which is into sourcing and wholesale distribution of mobile handsets. Hospitality plans The Future Group is also keen to enter the hospitality industry with its own chain of hotels. “It is just a thought at the moment and nothing has been formed up as yet,'' added Mr Biyani. Besides, the Future Group is also planning to upgrade its loyalty and direct marketing programmes. There would be new loyalty card which can be used across the group companies.

We’ll be extremely aggressive on the price front of smart phones, we don’t intend to make vendor margin. http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=1066_MTS+to+introduce+smartphones+for+customers+in+July MTS, the CDMA mobile services brand of Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), plans to introduce smartphones for its customers next month. The smartphone line-up will include BlackBerry, Windows and Android devices. The company plans to keep prices competitive. Leonid Musatov, chief marketing officer, SSTL, told Telecom Yatra at the sidelines of a press conference held here, “We plan to make smartphones available for our customers beginning this July. We’ll be extremely aggressive on the price front, we don’t intend to make vendor margin.” He added, “We want to offer innovative offerings like dual technology smartphones. I also believe that Android is the most convenient way for a consumer to use mobile internet.” MTS will announce a few partnerships in the coming two to three months, which will focus on educating people on the use of mobile internet. The CDMA operator also expects that the Russian government’s investment of $677 million (over Rs 3,000 crore) in the mobile operator will close soon. “The Russian parliament Duma has approved the proposal and four or five ministries are currently involved in finalising things. We expect to close it by the end of quarter three”, Vsevolod Rozanov, president and chief executive officer, SSTL, told reporters. MTS currently provides CDMA mobile services in 12 of India's 22 telecom service areas and has announced that it has crossed the five million subscribers mark in the country. To celebrate the occasion, the company also announced Unlimited MBlazer and Win Win packs. While the former allows users to access unlimited data for 30 days at a price of Rs 999, the Win Win pack offers a mix of various packages from which the users can choose the features they want. Rozanov revealed that last month the operator successfully added nearly half a million subscribers and expects to double its subscriber base within few months. Talking about the company’s future plans, Musatov said, “We expect to break even in 2013. The business is going in the right direction. Our primary aim is to become the primary SIM of our subscriber base. We’ll also be introducing some innovative value added services in a few months.”

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2010/06/21/stories/2010062150020100.htm After the hugely successful 3G auction where the exchequer earned in excess of Rs 67,000 crore, the broadband wireless access (BWA) auction has brought in more cheer to the Finance Ministry. The earnings from BWA and 3G auctions combined, at Rs 1,06,000 crore, is more than three times what the government had initially budgeted from the sale of spectrum. This will help ease the large fiscal deficit of the government. First, let us understand what BWA spectrum is being used for globally. Globally, spectrum in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.3GHz is being used for WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). WiMax is a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL. Till now, there have been over 400 planned and commercial WiMAX networks across 118 countries. Companies are deploying WiMax to provide nomadic broadband or at-home broadband connectivity across whole cities or countries. Additionally, given the relatively low cost to deploy a WiMax network (in comparison with GSM, DSL or fibre-optic), it is being used to provide rural connectivity or connectivity in areas where DSL or fibre-optic is economically unviable. WiMax is also an alternative to provide backhaul for cellular (GSM or CDMA) networks. In a sample study of 17 markets in which WiMax licences were sold via auctions, it has been found that the median and average price per MHz per population for WiMax spectrum was $0.013 and $0.031, respectively. The cost of WiMax spectrum is affected by several factors, including population characteristics, buying power of potential customers, broadband and mobile penetration, spectrum allocation, and the competitive landscape. In India, with 20 MHz spectrum available in the 2.3 & 2.5 GHz band, operators are likely to adopt nomadic WiMax (802.16e). In the longer term, operators have an option to upgrade to TD-LTE at relatively lower cost as both the technologies are based on the OFDMA standard. The spectrum is likely to be used for both fixed residential and enterprise broadband access in urban areas and to provide connectivity to common services centres, education institutes and health centres in rural areas. The pan-India BWA spectrum is valued at Rs 12,848 crore, over seven times the reserve price of Rs 1,750 crore. Over and above the spectrum cost, operators will need to spend an additional $500 million to $1 billion over the next three-four years to deploy the network. The ratio of clearing price to the reserve price was 7.3x, higher compared with 4.8x in the case of pan-India 3G spectrum. Multiple reasons have contributed to this high ratio. In some circles, such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab, the bid for BWA spectrum has exceeded the 3G bids. In BWA, 20MHz of TDD spectrum has been auctioned against 2x5MHz in 3G, clearly allowing operators to launch much more data-intensive services, target many more subscribers with the similar level of network deployment as compared with 3G, ceteris paribus. Further, there were 11 bidders for two slots of BWA spectrum against nine bidders competing for three slots in the case of 3G. Other factors such as alternate uses of the spectrum like deployment of TD-LTE, deployment of voice, etc, could have also contributed to the high bidding intensity leading to high bid prices. Though the eco-system for TD LTE is at least two years away, winners are widely expected to use India as a large test market which could provide it sufficient scale and hence lower device costs for further deployment in global markets. For a change, India could be in a position to drive change in the global telecom eco-system. However, operators might have weighed in a couple of factors, which could have affected the bid prices negatively. The lack of an adequate and mature eco-system for hand-held based WiMax devices is the main one. As a result, the target market for WiMax is constrained to the PC/laptop population, at least initially (as compared with relatively medium to high-end subscribers in 3G with much higher scale). As anticipated, post the end of the 3G auctions, operators who successfully bid in multiple circles have been less aggressive in the BWA auctions. Quite like in 3G, the price of BWA spectrum has gone way beyond what most analysts had predicted. As a result, operators are likely to price services high to ensure returns. However, that could result in slower adoption of services among the masses. Therefore, operators will have to finely tread this thin line. That could be critical for BWA to take off in a big way in India. What BWA spectrum will do is enable India to move to the next level of broadband growth. Operators will be in a position to provide high-speed mobile data. The spectrum provides the ability to deliver quality knowledge content, e-governance, e-commerce and telemedicine services at affordable costs to people across the country. The digital dividend through broadband growth will help transform India into a global hub for telecom, media and Internet services.

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100528/4952124951197941098.htm Following the auction of spectrum for GSM mobile service providers, government of India is likely to undertake a similar exercise for releasing spectrum to CDMA service providers. Recently, the country witnessed first 3G spectrum auction for GSM service providers. The availability of spectrum will enable mobile operators to provide new services like TV on mobile, games, and music, while also improving voice quality and reducing call drops. “Currently, we are offering second generation (2G) services, which are on par with 3G service. But like GSM operators, we too are looking at further upgrading our services, for which we have to migrate to next generation technology, which is 3G. We are in talks with the government. We expect that a similar auction of spectrum for CDMA operators will happen in next six months to one year,” Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Sistema Shyam Tele Services Limited (SSTL) T Narasimhan told Sakal Times. SSTL, a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and the Shyam Group of India owns the CDMA mobile telephony brand MTS. The government has earned Rs 67,719 crore as its share of the revenue from the spectrum bid. In all, 71 3G slots were allocated over 22 telecom divisions in the country. However, Narasimhan said that for CDMA spectrum auction, the government may not earn such high amount. “The CDMA players are much lesser in number than GSM players, the number of bidders will be very less. This in turn may result in lesser revenues for the government. However, everything depends upon the spectrum available. We will go for very high speed services up to 7 mbps,” he said. The availability of more spectrum for CDMA players not only means enhanced services, but also saving more capital expenditure. “CDMA by its definition is better spectrum efficient technology. In case of data card, 2G GSM can't give more than 200 kbps speed, hence the user will not get broadband experience. CDMA 2G speed is 3.1 mbps. After availability of spectrum, GSM downloading speed can go up to 5 mbps. CDMA speed can reach up to 7 mbps. So the CDMA players will always have an upper edge over GSM service providers,” Chief Operating Officer of Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, SSTL, Suubodh Kumar Srivastava said. GOING HIGH Shrivastata said that the CDMA players are currently operating on 800 Mhz bandwidth and are looking at functioning at 1900 Mhz after release of spectrum

^ coz since 2003 all the telecom ministers hapeend to be from TN @hitesh idea was not a pan india operator ..in that sense

@Hitesh videocon network varies between good to worse among newcomers idea, uninor, MTS are good in Chennai urban area

i had the experience with kshah who was putting into practice what he was preaching above.Kudos to KShah and for Dhiraj for raising this issue.My vote was for 1st option

^ good analysis

And it is also worthwhile to note that Bsnl doesnt hav fake activations like airetel and voda

@ i think the difficulty tehre is to sell cheap indicom phones to the one of the richest ppl in India

seems mts is launched in Andhra Pradesh http://mtsindia.in/andhra-pradesh/index.html

good find mate

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/RComm-in-talks-with-handset-cos-for-android-phones/614538/ To shore up its revenues from mobile wireless Internet usage, the country’s second-largest telecom operator, Reliance Communications (RComm) has entered into talks with handset makers, including Samsung, LG and Motorola, for procuring smartphones based on Android operating systems. Android is an operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a business alliance of over 50 firms, including Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung and LG, to develop open standards for mobile devices. Following the roll-out of its Android bouquet, RComm will be the only other operator besides Airtel to offer smartphone options across all segments. RComm plans to procure about 3 lakh Android smartphones in the GSM and CDMA space, with an estimated investment of about Rs 500 crore in the next three months. Besides, RComm is also expected to be in talks with Nokia to launch its Nokia Messaging Services (NMS) on its network. The NMS services will provide direct access to push enabled-email services of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo as well as support SME-hosted email solutions for corporate subscriber base. Mahesh Prasad, president, marketing, RComm said, “In the last two quarters, the adoption of smartphones has witnessed a surge. We have seen sales of smartphones including Blackberry on our network increase manifold.” Currently, RComm offers bundled handsets across operating systems like Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile smartphones. “Growth of smartphones will certainly drive up data revenues,” Prasad said. The firm intends to introduce fresh voice and data bundled plans across its existing portfolio of smartphones. “These new offers are aimed at high-end post-paid and pre-paid customers. We also plan to offer bundled Android handsets during the first quarter of this fiscal,” he added.

@kshah the petition is not seen .pl do the needfull

thanks for detailed review vinayak :clap:

dear manish can i have the nokia 2112(as standby) in case if it works for reliance cdma ruim card regs

^^^ :Contento:

opera 10 works fine with sbi/icici

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/04/08/stories/2010040853160400.htm British telecom giant Vodafone is hoping to tap into India's fast-growing mobile Internet market through the launch of a new Opera mini- browser for low-cost handsets on 2G networks. The company hasn't announced a specific launch date yet but said that India would be among the first markets where the Opera browser would be available along side South Africa, Turkey, Tanzania, and Egypt. Vodafone said it had developed the technology with Norwegian firm Opera Software to compress data by up to 90 per cent, requiring less processing power on the handset and less network capacity. The browser would be available on many of Vodafone's own-brand lower-cost phones, said a company spokesman. Hot competition The development comes as mobile companies in India seek new routes for revenue growth as hot competition has forced them to slash the price of voice calls and texts. India now has the lowest call rates in the world, while companies are finding that the new growth areas – customers in the less heavily populated “circles” of Indian telecom coverage – are spending less than those in urban areas, somewhat offsetting the gains from the growth in their customer base. Usage Mobile Internet use has been identified as a high growth area: British research firm mobileSquared estimates that 1.4 billion mobile users across Asia will frequently connect to the internet using their mobiles by 2015, with 260 million coming from India – a world away from the 38 million frequent mobile Internet users expected in the UK in the same time frame. Vodafone says the new browser would be the first time many users had proper access to the Internet, and it had, therefore, designed the phone to be as “intuitive as possible.”

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Interviews/Safawis-target-100-m-more-RCOM-users-in-1000-days/articleshow/5761997.cms?curpg=1 Syed Safawi is just 100 days into the corner room of Reliance Communications, but he has already launched a strategic shift at India’s second-largest mobile phone firm. The chief executive officer (wireless business) says the tariff war plaguing the companies could well be over because new launches are getting more rational on the tariff front. Putting employees on top of the priority list, he has redefined winning as improving the revenue market share to 20% over the next three years from the current 12%. RCOM has set itself a target of getting its next 100 million customers in 1,000 days, which Mr Safawi believes can be achieved with its current pace of growth. Mr Safawi is changing the compensation structure in the company with an emphasis on target-linked pay across the board. The rewards and variables will no longer be on annual basis, but quarterly, he tells ET in an exclusive interview. Excerpts: It has been 100 days since you took over. What is your take on RCOM? We have mapped out where we were as a company, and having figured that, have chalked out a strategy of where we want to go, and how to get there. We have launched R2.0 — R stands for resurgence, reformation, revival and even Reliance, while 2.0 is the new version of the company. We are on a transformation journey, a 360 degrees initiative of being new. Is the new strategy, R2.0, born out of the realisation that RCOM was losing market share? Reliance topped subscriber additions in the first three months of last year, but since then has slid down. It is beyond that. R2.0 is about a change in strategy. We wanted to see if customers were the benchmark, or if it is something larger than that. R2.0 will measure our business health differently. We have just unleashed a new vision for RCOM, which we will make public within the next week to 10 days. Just what will change? We defined winning differently. Earlier, winning was all about customer market share, but now it will be only about incremental revenue market share leadership — this is a change in the way RCOM operates. We have defined nine strategic pillars and six enablers , which will get us there and also laid down the measures to define success. For example, some of the nine strategic pillars are say distribution — we are new into GSM, have a long way to go and therefore must enhance distribution. In CDMA, it is about value creation . Here, it is linked to handset and how do we play the handset game. Another critical pillar is people. Enhancing our network, customer experience are some of the enablers that will get us there. Everybody in the organisation will be measured against these parameters. RCOM has also automated its operational structure. A person sitting in Mumbai can see national, regional, local, cluster level and even picture what is happening at the site. If my traffic/customer base is dropping, or revenues are coming down at the site level, this can now be measured. Revenue market share has to come from the traffic and customer market share at each site — the performance of the organisation is a buildup of that. Next big change is everybody in the organisation, from foot soldier to the CEO, will have a significant portion of their salaries linked to meeting revenue market share leadership targets. This will no longer be calculated annually, but on a quarterly basis. If you are in a hyper competitive environment, you have to win every day and an annual performance linked incentive is therefore irrelevant. We have further empowered our employees as their performance targets and data are all SMS linked — the employee can pull out his performance data via SMS, evaluate where he stands and calculate his reward. How will RCOM attract better talent? The industry perception that the best of talent does not go to Reliance , is this a concern? The changes over the last 100 days should be testimony that we are changing and attracting best talent in the industry. The people who have joined us in our top management are all from competition. R2.0 is also employeecentric and proof we are changing with regard to our employees . The reward system we have put in place shows we are not only seeing a reformed RCOM, but also the new look and face to a transformed RCOM. What are the customer targets as part of R2.0? Next 100 million customers in 1,000 days. This can be met at current growth rates. It is therefore about incremental market share and this is a huge strategic shift. We are comfortable with current growth rates and we will retain it. We are not walking away from customer share, but focus will be on the quality of customers and what we need to do to increase usage. How do you increase the quality of customers? CDMA, your core base, suffers from a perception problem. On CDMA, we are upgrading handsets to give better choices to our customers. On GSM, we are increasing the quality of customers by focusing on revenue earning customers. For example, our focus will not be limited to acquiring a customer, but also giving him recharge options. Then you get much better quality customers from day one. Other telcos, whose tariffs are not as low or competitive , are doing equally well, or even better. Does the customer really understand a few paise lower here and there? On the acquisition side, all operators are adding the same level of customers. All top players are adding between 2.6 to 3 million and entry level tariffs are common for the industry. What is different is the base as some operators may have a higher level of postpaid customers, translating into higher revenues. Does this put new entrants such as you at a disadvantage because the older operators have a huge base and they need not offer competitive tariffs to their existing customers as these subscribers cannot shift out? Our calculations show that Bharti has 30% revenue market share, while RCOM has 12% — so, in terms of customer market share, you are second, but in terms of revenues, you are at the level of Idea Cellular. We see this as an opportunity. Our CDMA customers are the core base and we are challengers in GSM. But the difference is that your core base may not give you revenues as compared to Bharti’s core base... RCOM also has a core base of data customers — data card users. We are market leaders here by a huge margin, this is a high-speed , 3G enabled service and brings in 6-7 times the ARPU of mobile customers . So, I am driving data, am aggressive in GSM and have core CDMA base which is very stable. Both GSM and our data offerings are expanding rapidly. Our high-speed data services will soon be data available in 100 towns while our 1x data services are offered in 10,000 towns. The data speeds in CDMA are far superior — combine this with the transformation, the new vision, the new people that are joining us and the new leadership team in place. Also, for the first time, the peak capex is behind us — our capex for the this financial year is Rs 3,000 crore, but we were spending about Rs 10,000 crore each over the last two years. We are now cash positive and at a position to drive growth. In there years time, our target is to achieve 20% revenue market share. We are at the takeoff point. But if the top 3-4 players are adding same number of customers, if acquisition tariffs are same for all players, then where is the differentiator that will help increase revenue market share? The stickiness of CDMA is far greater because of the handset and churn is much less. Unlike competitors, RCOM has a portfolio that has three wings — CDMA, data services and GSM — presenting us the platform to increase revenue market share. Again, one of your wings — data — will soon be with GSM competitors too as the 3G auctions are just round the corner. But we will also bid aggressively for 3G. These services will take time to roll out. It will first come to the top 100 cities. RCOM will compete in the first 100 cities on 3G, but difference is that by then we will have our data card services in 500 cities and CDMA-based 1x data services in about 20,000 towns. Does the survival of some of the operators depend on 3G? If 3G and number portability happens, high-end customers of operators who don’t offer these services may walk away. Telcos with 3G can ride the spectrum crunch by shifting customers to 3G networks. Yes, that may be the case with some operators . For us, 3G is a technology road map. Being new to GSM, we have enough headroom to acquire new customers here outside 3G. Same with our CDMA operations. Unlike, some players , RCOM doesn’t need 3G to shift some existing customers to that platform to relive 2G spectrum crunch. We have a road map for data though CDMA. Globally, 25-30 % of revenues come from data, but in India it is only about 10%. So there is ample scope for growth. Is the debt on your balance sheet a concern ? Even with Bharti’s $9 billion loan to buy Zain’s African operations, its debt will still be only as much, or a little more than what you are carrying currently. Look at it from the historical perspective. In the last two years alone, our capex was at Rs 20,000 crore. Now, that is behind us. We have a free cash flow and this year will be repaying some of our debt. Our EBIDTAs is more than adequate to take of debt. RCOM’s fixed costs are already taken care and going forward, the company’s balance sheet will improve. We are at that point of time when the peak is behind us. What do you see as the future for telecom in India? Can tariffs fall further? What about consolidation? What is the way forward for the sector? The peak tariff erosion has already happened. If you see recent launches, they have been rational on the tariff front. Everybody has realised that we cannot sell at below cost for ever. But there will be the normal erosion based on customers coming in, tariffs vouchers, etc. My personal opinion is that, there will not be a huge erosion on tariffs in the future. We clearly see termination charges as another opportunity to reduce tariffs further — this can go down to 10 paise/minute and ultimately zero. There is some value in lowering termination rates, especially because, operators are not in a position to lower tariffs further. In an indirect way, consolidation is already happening. All new players are not going in for pan-India rollouts — they have become very cautious and are opting for select rollouts. This is the first step in consolidation . The special audit report which alleged that RCOM had under-reported revenues had a big impact in the company and even its stock prices. The audit report of other operators did not have a similar impact. Do you think the new CAG audit will set the record straight? We feel vindicated after audit reports of the other telecom companies have come out. Whatever, the audit report have picked up for all operators is an industry issue. We have been maintaining that for months now. There is nothing in out accounts that is different from other operators. We were the first, whose report came out, and the impact, it had was unfortunate