3G Service To Cost Rs.700-900/month : Sunil Mittal

[ravi_patent 28]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Telecom//articleshow/6154662.cms

Market leader Bharti Airtel today cautioned that 3G mobile services will not come cheap, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers had to pay dearly for spectrum.

"Take the example of Delhi itself, or Mumbai. The amount for spectrum that has been charged is close to Rs 3,500 crore each... Just to recover license fees and input cost, it works out to be Rs 700-900 per month," Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal said.

Amid highly aggressive bidding for 3G spectrum, Bharti Airtel won 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, paying Rs 12,295.46 crore, the highest among service providers.

The company could not achieve the objective of a pan-India 3G foot print as the prices rose beyond a reasonable level due to various factors like the auction format, a severe shortage of spectrum and also ensuing policy uncertainty, it had said.

Asked by when the service would be launched by Bharti, Mittal said, "Some time later this year. We will wait for the spectrum allocation, which is promised in September, a few months after that."

In fact, not only Bharti, but no operator could bag the pan-India 3G spectrum. The three leading mobile operators -- Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance Communications -- managed to win 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, which could lead to a tariff war in these two metros.

In the rest of the circles, especially in the C-category, the tariffs may not be very high.

Elaborating on the rationale for differential tariffs, Mittal said "My view is that certain circles, it would be circle dependent, like C circle and all will not be very expensive, but in circles that have gone very high in the 3G auction, price will have to adjust for itself."

"The pricing of subscriber tariffs have to be based on the input cost. Any industry relies on input cost and here, the input cost is spectrum and it has gone high," he said.

Since Bharti did not get pan-India spectrum for 3G, the company has started a dialogue with operators in circles where it is not present for an arrangement to offer undisrupted 3G services to its subscribers.

Asked which are the operators with whom Bharti has started talks, Mittal said, "We are talking to anybody whoever is in a particular circle, because there are different operators in different circles.

"In nine circles where we are not present, our teams are talking to the people who have the spectrum and we are going to build the network. Nobody has got pan-India license. So people will need something from us. We will have to give something back. All I would say is informal discussions, it's still early days, have started," he added.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Don't worry friends, our beloved RCom also has got 3G spectrum in Metros... So it will start a price war in 3G there.. (If RCom <who paid relatively low spectrum fees comparing Airtel/Vodafone> didn't do so initially and follow the same steps as Airtel, then no body will take their 3G connection considering their pathetic GSM network and THEN RCom will start 3G tariff war, as it has done on 2G-voice and SMS on Airtel)

[HetalDP 947]

Bharti, Idea and Vodafone is Rippers

wait for BSNL Reliance DoCoMo

[faizone 15]

3500 crore for a license.. All these telcos should have worked as a group and kept the auction price at a certain limit.. they let it skyrocket and now they want the customer to pay for their foolishness..

Rather stick to mobile broadband over cdma.. atleast signal problems wouldnt be there and we would get better value for money...

[HetalDP 947]

3G-GSM

i know how AT and T customer are Getting 3G in New York like City on 2100 Mhz Band (s**ks)

3G-CDMA (EVDO) rocks on 800 mhz Band

[kshah 452]

^^^

Yes, EVDO on reliance ROCKS....

[dkaile 1,051]

^

akele akele chida lo... LOL

[ipkonfig 10]

Please bear in mind that this comes from the same guy who had previously stated that the opportunity for cheap broadband is lost for India. ( Check out http://bit.ly/c8juxx )

Airtel is looking for methods to increase their profit levels - by any means viable. Just take a look at the broadband plans from Airtel. Every existing broadband plan was revised and now comes with a fair usage policy that ranges from 3GB to 20GB. It seems these guys still think we are in 2002!

Edited July 13, 2010 by ipkonfig

[raccoon 53]

Any means is right!! But I don't know about the viability part - do multiple instances of outright looting of subscriber's balance amount to "viable" methods of increasing profit?

[kshah 452]

^

akele akele chida lo... LOL

Tum khamkha paise waste karte ho, pahele hero, bad mein incredible. where as I invested wisely isiliye akela hun.

[dkaile 1,051]

^

I dont waste money. I make money.... money begets money... LOL

[Dj 25]

sorry but i had to add...

to earn big you need to spend big !!

i live by this paradigm... adds the interest in earning then

[commonman 228]

If Airtel asks for 700/mth for 3G services in Delhi, people will switch to MTNL which is already offering 3G to all customers at no extra cost

[ravi_patent 28]

^

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

[srk006 21]

MTNL/BSNL is never going to keep their prices at the current level for long. Once private players start 3G services, PSUs will bring their prices to the same level; I feel.

Both PSUs where never price makers, they always followed on others pricing(at least most of the time). Remember when one-second billing was launched, BSNL came up with 1p/s to all networks. But once Airtel,Voda and Idea launched differential tariff to other networks, BSNL too changed their tariff to 1.2p/s to off-nets.

[srk006 21]

and regarding Sunil Mittal's comments, I feel, Mr.Mittal is trying to psychologically tamper the minds of new players who won 3G spectrum so that at least on 3G front these new comers follow incumbents pricing. He's just trying to artificially hold the prices high, see the recent Fair Usage Limits by Airtel in broadband; 5/8/15/25 GBs- joke!

[kshah 452]

Indian telecom is bleeding due to smart Indian consumer and due to TRAI's effort to make telecommunication affordable. Just to save their IJJAT all companies paid extravagantly for 3ZG spectrum and I am sure they will have tough time. In no time government will come out with package for telecons.

[parin 857]

If 3g Cost is more

India me nahi chalega

i dont think much people are using BSNl 3g because of its cost

[retro182 1]

Can anyone pls explain me that with the onset of 3G will RCDMA be better with the EVDO? I mean I use BB services and have currently the Rs. 299/- PM plan for emails and messenger but I want the full internet service and reliance charges Rs. 1099/- PM for full services compared to Rs. 899/- PM by GSM players. Also with the advance rental scheme RCDMA works out to to be Rs. 825/- PM (i.e Rs. 9900/- for the entire year) compared to this GSM players have a advance rental scheme of Rs. 583/- PM (i.e. Rs. 6999/- for the year)

RCDMA has always been a value proposition player when you look at its terrific call and sms tariffs but when it come to BB services I dunno why it is refusing to match GSM players tarrif plans?

Can any one share their inputs on the same and also if some one know about the advance rental BB scheme of RCDMA?

Thanks in advance.

[kshah 452]

^^^

For data services CDMA till date is better than GSM. BB services on EVDO would be better. EVDO RevA do not offer Voice data Simultaneous, so here GSM 3G is definitely better.

[retro182 1]

^^^

For data services CDMA till date is better than GSM. BB services on EVDO would be better. EVDO RevA do not offer Voice data Simultaneous, so here GSM 3G is definitely better.

Sir do you have any idea as to why BB tariff's of RCDMA aren't at parity with GSM players?

I mean I simply don't understand the reason for such a major discrepancy from RCOM especially when BB customers are generally high ARPU customers for it?

Pls share your thoughts. Thanks once again.

[vishalsheth 19]

If Airtel asks for 700/mth for 3G services in Delhi, people will switch to MTNL which is already offering 3G to all customers at no extra cost

MTNL 3G service should be worth for people to switch. It's pathetic in Bombay. I had a connect, I've stopped using it. The download speed is 200/400kbps. But it's yet draggy.