AirTel's 3G Roadpath

[ravi_patent 28]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/For-3G-operators-will-opt-for-sachet-approach-not-bucket-or-thali-plans/articleshow/6460158.cms

Bharti has always maintained that 3G will not come cheap. What does this mean for the consumer ? In metros such as Delhi and Mumbai, you may have to move your existing high-value customers to 3G networks to ease the spectrum crunch. But, with just 5 MHz or units of third generation airwaves, is this sufficient for moving these additional customers and also proving high-end data services?

When we say 3G will not be cheap, it means that customers here will not get those bundled unlimited plans that you see in the US and some other countries — such plans have completely clogged the networks of those service providers. When compared to unlimited packages that you get in other parts of the world, one may find 3G expensive here in relative terms. Even today, when you look at data, India is not as cheap as other countries, or these services are not as cheap as voice because of the spectrum constraints in India.

3G in India will continue to be around affordability and availability, but operators will opt for the sachet approach. Despite data being priced on the higher side on the current 2G platform, these services continue to sell. The same will happen for 3G, and customers who opt for specific options such as downloads, surfing in small packets will find the pricing very reasonable. What they won’t find is the bucket and thali plans that are common overseas . Again, if you compare our pricing to the thali plans overseas, then 3G in India will be expensive.

The 3G spectrum per say is about three to four time more efficient than 2G spectrum. Loading voice calls of high-end customers on to 3G may not therefore lead to high consumption of these airwaves . Today, technology allows you to segregate voice and data.So you may have a situation, where a high-end customer is on the 2G network for his voice calls and on the 3G for data. Such flexibilities are possible.

Are you worried that you may not get 3G spectrum in time (by September) as promised? If you get these airwaves next month, by when will you launch 3G? You bagged 3G in 13 circles , but will you enter into alliances to offer these services in other areas too?

We are banking on that promise that it will happen by September and I believe that for any reason if it does not, then government will compensate us financially . By the end of the calendar year, one should see 3G services in at least some parts of the country, if the airwaves are handed out in time. We are working on our 3G alliances as our endeavour is to be a pan-Indian player in this space — but for competitive reasons , I cannot reveal details as of now.

India continues to add record number of new cellular users every month, but the revenues for the sector combined continue to be lower than December 2008 levels. Will revenues for the sector continue to remain flat, going forward ? Does Bharti have a stronger balance sheet when compared to other listed competitors because the company refused to match discounts given by other telcos?

We have to consider two factors here. First is activity level in the market, and second, if this translates into revenues. The minutes that are being added to the network due to increased usage and the growth that is happening in rural India indicate that the activity level continues to be high. Even if you discount the number of monthly additions by 50% because of the duplicity of SIMs, India is still the fastest growing telecom market in the world. This proves that activity level is buoyant. But, the issue arises when you translate activity in the market into revenues.

In desperation to get numbers there are a lot of freebies and discounts that are being thrown into the market, which is causing a pain for the entire sector in terms of revenue growth. This can be explained by the fact that there are 14 players in the market, which means there are excess capacities at the moment. But, once consolidation kicks it — it already has — we will see a reprieve on this front.

All incumbents, including Bharti Airtel, did respond to the tariffs that were being offered by some of the new players in Q3 of last year. The discounts were pretty steep at that time, and any dominant brand in the market could not be seen offering a lesser value to their customers no matter how strong their brand was. In that euphoria the prices did came down — so it would be wrong to say that we did not participate. But, we have always been watchful of where elasticity exists and where it doesn’t . We also keep a very keen eye on free and overly discounted minutes in the market.

You said consolidation is already happening, in what sense?

Consolidation begins in the mind, for both customers and operators. The very fact that some of the operators have not rolled out the networks even after getting spectrum, the reality is some of the operators are no longer as aggressive in their rollouts and also that companies have refrained from bidding for 3G airwaves are all signs of consolidation in the minds of companies. World over we have seen that when it comes to choice of technologies and sustenance , when there is a 3G and 2G environment, having only 2G in the long run has not worked.

Again, when it comes to customers mind, the very fact of resurgence of traffic with larger operators is an indicator of consolidation in the customer’s minds. Even in a much crowded market, the very fact that 5-6 operators account for almost the entire revenue market share is another sign of consolidation — the customer recognizes the bigger and stronger brand when compared to the smaller players.

But many analysts say the return or resurgence of minutes may not be the best indicator of incumbents striking back. They claim that minutes increase is linked to many packs floating around such as free night calls, reduced tariffs for weekend calls and so on.

To some extent what you are saying has merit. That is why I will always look at the return of minutes in conjunction with sustenance of the rate per minute. If minutes were coming because of packs, freebies then the price per minute would have fallen . But, what has been encouraging over the last couple of quarters is that minutes have come back without the rate per minute going down further — or, the rate per minute’s decline has been minimal.

For a company like Bharti, what are the key challenges going forward? You are adding almost the same number of customers every month, the market has stabilised; there is no price war now. How can you increase revenues and get back to the levels of growth as in say 2008?

Participation in the market and being competitive in the market is a way of life. The leadership team is marked on market parameters and we are fairly aligned to what happens in the market. What we can’t control is the euphoria that sets is which is not determined by economics, discounting of prices and free minutes — we don’t have full control of that. When a company like Bharti moved from zero to 100 million and now from from 100 million to 200 million, most of systems and process that we pick up are designed and experimented by us because we don’t have similar models globally to choose from.

Therefore, we end up designing a lot of redundancies , business continuity plans, systems and process based on our learning and that obviously is challenging for any leadership team. Next challenge is that we want to move from voice centric to lifestyle delivery centric company, this transition is unchartered as there are again not many examples available worldwide. We are building various new vertical streams into the business so that your future dependence on voice reduces.

When you do that, whether it is entertainment, commerce, advertising, health — the knowledge of these domains does not exist internally, and the complexities that arise due to this is something that you have to learn to manage . So, the big challenge going forward is how do develop these complex ecosystems all within one company, how do you track people in these verticals , how do you grow and reward them and how does the knowledge transfer happen.

Is it also a challenge that going forward, you will have to compete with existing partners for the same pie? For example, Nokia Siemens and Ericsson are now developing services — a space that belonged to mobile operators. Apps are now being developed by both telcos as well as handset makers. When you launch mobile money transfers, you may have to compete with Nokia Money.

As the ecosystems begin to develop, I think all stakeholders will complement each other. For example , when we got into music, the traditional music companies feared that we would eat into their revenues. There was also this issue of piracy.

Our entry ensured that we brought in new revenue streams into largely stagnant industry as telcos began to work with the existing players in this space. We grew, but they grew as much and even the exchequer began to gain from the growth. I believe that as telecos migrate to many of the newer revenue streams, one will see similar benefits to the society, ecosystem at large and also for the government.

Customer additions appear to have slowed down. Has growth peaked in India? We have over 55% tele-density and 600 million SIMs — where does the industry go from here?

I can’t forecast the future for simple reasons — in this industry, the reporting standards are not standardised . All companies use their own parameters to report their customer addition. All I can say is that we are probably going through the weakest period in terms of customer addition. But, if you look at the figures for the last three years, then Q2 has always been the weakest in terms of customer adds and therefore there is a seasonality to this.

Many analysts in their outlook say that India say that India will have a billion SIMs. However, what got revealed in Barcelona in the last GS M conference was very interesting , when the CEO of Ericsson predicted that the world will have 50 billion SIMs by 2025. What he was drawing the attention to was the machine to machine (M2M) communications — if such numbers can be true, then Indian will have 6-7 billion SIMs in this period. Then we are far from reaching any sort of saturation.

There are many experimentations and many live applications that are already available in the M2M space — for us, there are many of our enterprise solutions that we offer are not entirely M2M, but are headed in that direction. I can give other examples how even without the intervention of big players, developers are already moving into this space. If you go to buy a lock in a place like Gurgaon, they will offer you a SIM-based lock, where you get an SMS if anybody tries to tamper with it. So, image the potential when big players are enter this space.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

It is very very TRUE that, 3G will NOT be cheap for Airtel customers... Because even with huge competition and tariff wars, 2G is NOT CHEAP for Airtel customers..

[Mukeshlst 5]

It is very very TRUE that, 3G will NOT be cheap for Airtel customers... Because even with huge competition and tariff wars, 2G is NOT CHEAP for Airtel customers..

True calculation friend..

[Deependra 0]

It is very very TRUE that, 3G will NOT be cheap for Airtel customers... Because even with huge competition and tariff wars, 2G is NOT CHEAP for Airtel customers..

it has put bravefront 2G internet 2GB @98/- which is idustry rate (pioneered by aircel)

yes, it is for sure , it will not be cheaper for vodafone .

vodafone users charging 95/- and getting only WAP after os much comptition

still need to spend Rs 199+ 5p/10kb for true gprs

[rajeshkatiyar 3]

Dear Friends

All providers will remove suffocation of 2G spectrum by utilising 3G spectrum They are planning to impose premium on data users as they had paid much

for 3 G . Air tel is the leader

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Imho, now it is too early to predict the 3G tariffs...

All customers are used to lower tariffs now (Blood smell was shown to veggie-tigers now , to be precise).. So higher tariffs may attract few users only, which itself will delay the 3G cost recovery by telcos..

Let us all wait and see...

[Arun 795]

Airtel to launch 3G services by December

September 3, 2010

New Delhi

With 3G spectrum allocation on schedule, mobile operator Bharti Airtel has put its 3G launch plans on high speed.

Bharti is expecting to launch its 3G service by December this year. 3G spectrum will allow telecom operators like Bharti Airtel to provide mobile users data at high speeds allowing them to watch movies, games and a host of new services on their phones.

3G allows high-speed mobile broadband access, enabling users to download full length movies, make video calls and watch live television programmes.

To try and keep tariffs low Bharti is looking at customised plans for different users and would be looking to sell talk time bundled into small affordable packages.

Bharti which paid over Rs. 12,000 crore for the right to provide 3G services in 13 circles in the country however agrees that keeping tariffs low will be a challenge.

Most experts agree that 3G tariffs will be at a much higher premium than the existing mobile tariffs. So Bharti's main focus will be on Metros to launch its service.

After all 3G services may not see too much competition as only a maximum of four players are being allowed per circle but the high price paid for spectrum means that making money on 3G will still continue to be a challenge for most mobile companies.

The 3G spectrum has been allotted to AirTel, Aircel, Vodafone, S Tel, Reliance, Idea Cellular and Tata Cellular Services, who won the bids through the e-auction

In the two metros of Delhi and Mumbai, three operators – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communication – had emerged as the winners of 3G licences, while no operator could bag pan-India spectrum under the auction that was conducted between April 9 and May 18 this year.

[kshah 452]

Current rates offered by BSNL and mtnl are indicatots. Imo

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Though current 3G tariffs of BSNL/MTNL is relatively higher than that of 2G, I don't think these tariffs will follow after pvt operators started 3G services.. I mean, the third men BSNL/MTNL will increase the 3G tariff at par with Airtel/Vodafone's just like they have done with 1.2p PPS earlier...

So imho, the current relatively costly 3G tariff is still cheaper than upcoming 3G tariff...

[viper_in_blood 4]

:previous:

yaar kyun bache ki jaan le rahe ho.... :'( :'( :'(

[xuketo 7]

Well... whose pocked do you think the 67710 Crore 3G license fee will come from ?

Yours and mine, buddy.

[raccoon 53]

Though current 3G tariffs of BSNL/MTNL is relatively higher than that of 2G, I don't think these tariffs will follow after pvt operators started 3G services.. I mean, the third men BSNL/MTNL will increase the 3G tariff at par with Airtel/Vodafone's just like they have done with 1.2p PPS earlier...

So imho, the current relatively costly 3G tariff is still cheaper than upcoming 3G tariff...

Hmm... I don't think they can increase tariff beyond a point, if at all. The higher the tariff, the lower will be the subscriber base. Personally, I don't care much what fees they have paid or what tariff they gonna charge. If its low enough I may subscribe, else I can always live with EDGE. In fact if even EDGE isn't cheap enough, I can live with a net connection on my comp. In fact life will be more peaceful.

[sougatadc 358]

Hmm... I don't think they can increase tariff beyond a point, if at all. The higher the tariff, the lower will be the subscriber base. Personally, I don't care much what fees they have paid or what tariff they gonna charge. If its low enough I may subscribe, else I can always live with EDGE. In fact if even EDGE isn't cheap enough, I can live with a net connection on my comp. In fact life will be more peaceful.

I agree.

[commonman 228]

Though current 3G tariffs of BSNL/MTNL is relatively higher than that of 2G, I don't think these tariffs will follow after pvt operators started 3G services.. I mean, the third men BSNL/MTNL will increase the 3G tariff at par with Airtel/Vodafone's just like they have done with 1.2p PPS earlier...

So imho, the current relatively costly 3G tariff is still cheaper than upcoming 3G tariff...

I have MTNL 3G prepaid with lifetime validity for base tariff. (1p / 10 KB)

Don't think they can change that.

[Karthik R 246]

I am hoping that the relatively new operators - Aircel and DOCOMO introduce game changing tariff in 3G tariff just like they did with call rates and current GPRS rates

[Karthik R 246]

We can very well predict by now that Airtel and Vodafone customers will be shelling out the most for 3G plans. Reliance and Idea's 3G plans is the one to look out for.

[Arun 795]

AirTel now has a separate section for 3G on their website: http://airtel.in/Airtel3G/

From the drop-down in the page it looks they will start in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore first.

[Karthik R 246]

Delhi and Mumbai will have to shell out the most for 3G as their auction burnt Airtel/Voda/Rel hand.

[kesav 127]

It looks like 3G deployment from Airtel & Aircel will take longer time than expected.

Grapevine says they're in 3G-4G marriage dilemma. They want to deploy both 3G & 4G in a single go rather than doing double work in the circles where they've won both spectrum.

Launch by TATA, Reliance, Idea & Vodafone will be faster since they've not won any 4G spectrum.

Edited October 21, 2010 by kesav

[kesav 127]

Airtel 3G Network Goes Live Over Places

Paritosh Bh from Delhi has spotted Airtel 3G signal in Rajouri Garden.Airtel has bagged 3G spectrum in 13 circles.

These 13 telecom circles which includes key metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.Airtel has deployed high speed HSPA networks provided by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei.

We believe the High Speed Packet Access network will be the best in world in terms of technology and will enable high peak user throughputs.We’d like you to let us know if you have also come across Airtel 3G signal in your area. Just follow the simple steps to find out if there is 3G services awaiting for you.

Get a 3G handset and go to phone settings > set Network Mode to WCDMA/UMTS > then search for Networks Manually > It is expected that u will have Cellone/Dolphin (thats BSNL/MTNL) and Airtel 3G if available.

You can also email us screenshots with your area name and we’d be happy to post them in this post.

In New Delhi Airtel 3G signal was spotted by @ParitoshBh in – Rajouri Garden.

source:: http://telecomtalk.info/airtel-3g-network-goes-live-over-places/46426/

[KAPILKDEV 68]

Airtel changed their logo

[Greatest 55]

^^^ source??

[Ashokjp 15]

Airtel will be launching services in Kerala by December 2010

[srk006 21]

^ But Airtel doesn't have spectrum in Kerala! Did you mean they will launch through other operators?

[KAPILKDEV 68]

^^^ source??

http://telecomtalk.info/