TTML’s network rated ‘Congestion-Free’ yet again!

Mumbai, July 08, 2009: Tata Indicom press release

Reinforcing its claim as the best service provider, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), has once again emerged as the only congestion-free network, amongst all telecom operators, in the most recent survey commissioned by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

 In the report for Q4 –FY09, TTML’s network has recorded zero congestion across all its Points of Interconnect (POI). This is the fourth consecutive TRAI report that has rated TTML as the best network provider in its geographies.

Commenting on this achievement, Mr. Haridev Khosla, President–Network, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited, said, “This is a happy moment for us. We have not only achieved the status of being the only congestion-free network but also have managed to consistently ensure the best network for our subscribers as per 4 consecutive TRAI reports. This report vindicates our belief and our investments in our network.”

The network congestion report of all CMSPs for the period January, February, March 2009 is available on the TRAI website.

Revenue, not user base, to set telecom pecking order

17 Jun 2009, 0305 hrs IST, Rashmi Pratap, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: Subscriber numbers in India’s wireless story are losing their relevance today as far as determining the industry position of a service provider is concerned. t will be revenues and not subscriber numbers that could decide the pecking order in the world’s fastest-growing telecom market.

This is reflected in the latest revenue figures released by the industry regulator, Trai. Going by this, the top three operators in India are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL).

Airtel’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) from wireless and wireline operations was Rs 7,998 crore for the March quarter. Vodafone Essar, which offers only mobile services, had revenues of Rs 4,456 crore during January-March 2009 on a subscriber base of 68.7 million. Reliance Communications (RCOM), which has the second largest customer base, reported an AGR of only Rs 2,998 crore on 72.6 million users during the quarter, making it the fourth largest in terms of revenues.

The revenues for the state-owned BSNL stood at Rs 3,943 crore making it the third largest. BSNL offers mobile services on GSM apart from fixed line services. Besides showing the revenue capabilities of an operator, AGR is significant, as it is the basis on which service providers pay licence fee and spectrum charges. Operators pay a revenue share licence fee to the government ranging from 6% to 10% of their AGR. Increasingly, operators are targeting revenue growth instead of a larger user base.

According to Bharti Airtel’s vision statement, the company’s aim is 20% increase in revenue margin per subscriber in the next few years.

Analysts contend that with more and more low-end users signing up for services, it is becoming difficult for operators to maintain margins and improve ARPUs (average revenue per user per month). In such a scenario, those who continue to grow revenues along with subscriber base will be the clear winners.

“As the new subscriber base is primarily drawn from tier III towns and rural markets, the incremental subscriber addition is not leading to a commensurate revenue upside for telcos. The catchphrase to evaluate a telco’s performance will be quality of subscribers rather than the number of new subscribers,” Acsendia Consulting principal analyst, Alok Shende told ET.

A smaller player like Idea Cellular, which operates in 13 circles, had AGR of Rs 2,389 crore on a subscriber base of 39 million. This is just about Rs 600 crore less than RCOM on a base which is almost half of that company.

KPMG director (telecom) Romal Shetty said, “Initially, everyone was going after subscriber numbers. Now, they are looking at quality of subscribers. This explains the emphasis on value added services (VAS), which bring in higher revenues.” He pointed out that low-end pre-paid users are now bringing in monthly revenues of as low as Rs 70 per month.

Tata Teleservices reported revenues of Rs 1,889 crore during the quarter placing it at sixth followed by state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL). Aircel, a relatively new entrant, is at the eight position, which had AGR of Rs 721 crore during the quarter.

The Hindu Business Line : Seminar on rural telecom

via The Hindu Business Line : Seminar on rural telecom, Chennai, June 17

The first big revolution in rural telephony happened when STD booths were set up across the country, including in remote villages. Mobile telephones have taken rural India by storm. This mobile revolution is changing the way marketers can connect with their rural audience, according to the Rural Marketing Association of India. It says that a bulk of the anticipated growth in the telecom subscriber base will come from rural India because of the infrastructure support from the Government and aggressive marketing strategies of service providers and handset manufacturers. It is in this context that the association is organising a seminar on `Rural telecom’ in Delhi on July 3.

According to the association, the seminar will help learn from approaches adopted by different stakeholders and debate on how best to design and implement telecom solutions. Dr J.S. Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, is expected to deliver the keynote address at the seminar, which will see the participation of representatives of service providers and handset manufacturers. – Our Bureau

TTSL achieves 5mn subscribers in Maharashtra – CIOL News Reports

TTSL achieves 5mn subscribers in Maharashtra – CIOL News Reports

From http://www.ciol.com on June 16, 2009

Shared via AddThis

MUMBAI: Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), today announced that its Rest of Maharashtra circle has crossed the 5 million subscriber mark.

The increasing subscriber base stands testimony to Tata Indicom’s constant endeavour to innovate and introduce smart products on a network rated No.1 on overall customer satisfaction in independent surveys commissioned by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the release added.

Commenting on the achievement, Rajesh Puri, president – Operations, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited said, “Rest of Maharashtra is a very important region for us. Our investments in network and consumer care hold us in good stead. We will continue to introduce innovative offerings for both existing and new consumers and be the brand of choice across segments.”

Customer grievances: Trai for monitoring system

From www.ciol.com on June 15, 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is considering introducing a grievance monitoring system to ensure proper redressal of the customers’ complaints.

According to a PTI report Trai Chairman J S Sarma said “We are looking at a Grievance Monitoring System where the regulator will seek update from the service providers on those complaints of customers which have not been addressed for a reasonable period of time. “
   
He said the system will be set up after consultations with the service providers to protect interests of customers.    

But the initiative will not be done through any ‘heavy hand’ rules, rather it would be a facilitating move to serve the customer better which is a win-win situation for everybody, Sarma said.    

At present, there is no such system to know if the customer’s complaint has been addressed or not, if not why, once a user lodges complaint with a service provider on any issues ranging from billing to quality of service.    

It is left to the telcos to look at complaints and act on it and sometimes there are long-pending complaints which go unadressed for a long time or not looked into at all and the customers become helpless and stop pursuing the solution.    

Trai has put in place a number of mechanism to protect consumers from any harassment or exploitation by the telcos but in absence of any follow-up action to ensure the redressal, it becomes a fragile assurance.

Number portability: Trai to seek views on tariff

8 Jun 2009, 0227 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai will float a consultation paper this week seeking views of stakeholders and experts on fixing tariffs for the mobile number portability service, which will be available after September.

“We will issue a consultation paper next week on the port and dipping charges of mobile number portability (MNP) service … We will have to see the service is affordable to customers,” Trai chairman J S Sarma said.

Subscribers can change their 10-digit mobile number without changing the service providers by October when mobile number portable services start. As per DoT roadmap, MNP services is to take off by September 20.

In most of the countries where MNP is prevalent, the subscribers are not charged for availing the service. Domestic service providers say they need to recover the huge amount of cost they will put in the MNP infrastructure of their network.

Sarma said afford ability will be a key consideration for MNP service and Trai has to ensure that. There is forbearance in telecom tariffs but Trai is the ultimate authority of the tariff related issues. MNP tariffs would be decided by Trai, he said. As per DoT’s roadmap for MNP service schedule, Trai will decide on all kinds of tariffs related to MNP, like the transaction fee to be charged from the customer for seeking change of number.

Sources said number portability charges are likely to be below Rs 300 and it will take maximum two days to change the service provider.

TRAI plans online consumer grievance redress mechanism

Thomas K Thomas  on The Hindu Buisiness Line on June 5, 2009

New Delhi, June 4 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is working on an online consumer grievance redress platform that will enable subscribers to lodge their complaints against any service provider through the Internet or an SMS.

The platform will automatically direct the grievance to the particular service provider after which the regulator will set a time for resolution of the problem.

Speaking to Business Line, the new TRAI Chairman , Mr J. S. Sarma, said, “The regulator needs to be seen as being effective in addressing consumer-related issues. As of now, there seems to be no real platform where consumers can voice their grievances and be assured of redress. We are looking at setting up an online mechanism that will make it easier for subscribers to get their problems addressed. This will also allow us to keep us track of the status of the grievances.”

Before taking charge at TRAI, Mr Sarma was Chairman of the Telecom Commission and then a Member of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

Quality of services

Mr Sarma said that improving quality of services is on the agenda.

“We are exploring the option of putting out the results of our quality of services survey in the form of advertisements in newspapers so that consumers are aware. This will certainly have an impact and in the competitive environment, the operators will try to improve. We are exploring this idea.”

The new TRAI chief said that his primary objective would be to make regulations conducive for sustained growth in the telecom sector.

“There are various surveys that project that mobile subscriber base will continue to grow and there are others which say that the growth story is going to stagnate. I want to focus on making sure that there is no ambiguity on this issue and make sure that the growth story continues,” Mr Sarma said.

Telesoft Increases Media Platform Share In India

From www.efytimes.com

Friday, June 05, 2009:  Telesoft Technologies has won and already delivered an order to supply the OKEFORD Media Platform to a large operator in India. Working closely with a technology partner, the solution was deployed in five months.

The OKEFORD Media Platform provides interactive voice/media services for the mobile prepaid subscriber charging solution in the pan-India network.

India is the world’s fastest growing wireless market with 11.75 million new subscribers added in April bringing the total number of wireless subscribers to 403.66 million, according to the newest available data from the TRAI.

In order to attract and keep these new subscribers, a large proportion of which use prepaid tariffs, service providers install reliable and easy to use automated payment and customer care solutions. These include voice prompt, speech recognition and other media capabilities to aid interaction and improve the customer experience.

Telephone tariff will drastically come down: Raja

From Financial Express; ANI dated Jun 02, 2009 at 1539 hrs IST

New Delhi: Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, A Raja has said that the prospects of the further lowering of telephone tariff in India are imminent in the future.

He said this while assuming his charge of the ministry here on Monday.

He also said that as a result of a drastic tariff cut, the telecommunication facility will be available to people living in the lowest edge of the social strata.

“In the telecom side already we brought healthy competition. More operators were permitted as per the TRAI recommendations. I do believe once the new operators start their operations the tariff will drastically come down and the telecommunication facility will be available to persons living in the lowest edge of the social strata,” he added.

He also said that India would auction third-generation wireless radio (3G) spectrum by the end of this year.

Raja declined to say how much the government expected to mobilise through the sale. India was to auction the 3G telecommunications spectrum in January, but the sale was delayed.

The telecommunication ministry had earlier expected the auction to raise 300 to 400 billion rupees but the Ministry of Finance in February estimated the sale could bring just half of that.

Third-generation services allow voice, data and video to be transmitted at high speeds to wireless devices, and are seen as the next growth driver for telecom firms in India.

India’s Mobile Market Is Growing Despite Economic Slowdown

From http://www.pcworld.com on 02 June 2009

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service/Haarlem Bureau Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:00 AM PDT

India’s mobile phone market continues to be unaffected by the economic slowdown, with 11.9 million new mobile subscribers in April. That’s a 45 percent greater increase than in the same month last year, according to data released Monday by India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The mobile market has not been affected so far by the economic slowdown, as Indian consumers see communications as a necessity, said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager at analyst IDC India.

The mobile subscriber additions in April were however lower than the 15.64 million new connections in March, something the telecom regulator regards as a seasonal drop. In India, the monthly data is closely watched for signs of an impact of the economic slowdown on India’s booming mobile market.

The slowdown between March and April is seasonal, and does not reflect an overall slowdown in the mobile business in the country, a TRAI official said Tuesday.

As the Indian fiscal year ends in March, mobile service operators offer deep discounts and are more aggressive in their marketing in March, the official said.

“There have been drops from month-to-month previously, so the drop in April is more likely to be seasonal,” IDC’s Singh said.

The new additions in April this year helped take the total number of mobile subscribers in India to 404 million.

India’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million new mobile subscribers in April, taking its total subscribers to 96.74 million, while state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added about 1 million new subscribers to have a subscriber base of 53.17 million at the end of the year.

Reliance Communications, India’s second largest mobile operator, added 2 million new customers in April, compared to 3 million additions in March. The company saw high additions in the first quarter as it rolled out its new GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network in addition to its existing service using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).

The number of mobile subscribers in the country is expected to increase as mobile operators target rural towns and villages. The auction of 3G licenses, now rescheduled for the end of this year after a number of postponements, is also expected to give this market a fillip.

Airtel user base swells by 2.8 mn in April

2 Jun 2009, 0142 hrs IST, Durba Ghosh, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Leading GSM operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have added 2.8 million and 2.7 million subscribers in April, continuing their respective growth momentum. The second-largest mobile operator Reliance Communication added just over 2-million subscribers last month, according to data released by telecom regulator Trai on Monday.

GSM operator Aircel added about 1.1 million new subscribers in April taking its total subscriber base to 19.5 million. Tata Teleservices, a CDMA operator, added about 0.6 million new users in the given month taking its subscriber base to 35.7 million. Idea Cellular and Spice Communications together added a notch over 1-million subscribers in April. State-owned telco MTNL added 47,045 new subscribers in April.

RCOM, the country’s largest telecom operator on CDMA technology platform

, had launched GSM-based services in January with schemes providing free talk time up to Rs 900 and this resulted in its subscriber numbers surging between January-March. The free scheme was taken away by March-end, which resulted in subscriber additions falling in April.

RCOM had outperformed the industry in these three months, it added 5-million new users in January and over 3-million new subscribers in February and March. In comparison, the largest mobile operator, Bharti, added 2.7 million new users

each in January and February 2009 and 2.8 million in March.

RCOM now has a mobile subscriber base of 74.8 million and Vodafone Essar’s total subscriber base stands at 71.5 million, while Bharti Airtel leads with 96.7 million total subscribers. Vodafone Essar also saw a drop of about 0.07 million users in its monthly additions in April and the telco added just over 2.7-million subscribers as against 2.84 million in March.

With this, Bharti Airtel regained the number one position in terms of subscriber additions by a few thousand users as it increased its customer base by 2.8-million users in April.

In March 2009, Vodafone Essar had beaten Bharti Airtel in monthly subscriber additions for the first time. Trai also said that India’s mobile base had crossed the 400-million mark in April, inching close to the target of 500-million users by 2010, set by the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The total wireless subscriber base now stands at 403.66 million, while the total telecom base, which includes that of landline is 441.47 million, Trai added. But, the number of new mobile connections added in April saw a 23% drop compared with 15.64 million new additions in the previous month.

Mobile subscriber base crosses 400 million

2 Jun 2009, 1419 hrs IST, AGENCIES on http://www.economictimes.com

NEW DELHI: The number of mobile subscribers in India crossed the 400 million mark in April, official data showed Tuesday, putting the country on track to reach it’s goal of 500 million customer by next year.

Some 11.90 million subscribers were added in April compared with 15.64 million during the previous month, figures posted on the Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) website said. The rise took India’s total wireless subscriber base to 403.66 million, TRAI said.

The slowdown in subscriber growth came after cellular operators withdrew special deals on offer during the final months of the fiscal year to March when the firms sought to boost revenues to help their annual accounts.

But India remains the world’s fastest-growing mobile market and analysts say the government’s target of 500 million mobile phone users could be reached ahead of schedule.

The total telecom subscriber base made up of wireless and landline customers stood at 441.47 million at the end of April compared with 429.72 million in March, TRAI added.

Total penetration stands at close to 38 telephones for every 100 people, TRAI said. India has nearly 1.2 billion people.

India has said it will stage its much delayed auction of third-generation (3G) wireless spectrum by year end.

Third-generation wireless service allows voice, data and video to be sent at high speeds to mobile devices and is viewed as the next major booster driving growth in India’s telecoms market.

The Congress-led government had forecast the auction could raise 400 billion rupees (8.5 billion dollars).

But since its re-election last month, it has backed off that forecast, saying the global financial crisis could reduce the windfall.

India’s newly reappointed telecoms minister A. Raja has also said he will seek to push cheap local mobile call rates even lower to spur cellular growth. Local mobile calls now cost as little as one cent a minute while long-distance rates vary from two cents to four cents a minute.

Raja says he wants to cut the local rate to less than half a cent a minute and long-distance rates to about a cent a minute.

Story in Financial Express on 1 June 2009

New Delhi: The country’s wireless subscriber base has crossed the 400-million mark in April this year with an addition of 11.9 million new users.

About 11.90 million wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL(F)) subscribers were added in April 2009 as against an addition of 15.64 million during the previous month, taking the total subscriber base to 403.66 million, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement on Monday.

The total telecom (wireless and wireline) subscriber base stood at 441.47 million at the end of April 2009 as against 429.72 million in March 2009, it added.

It now looks like the target of 500 million phones by 2010 (set by Department of Telecom) is very much achievable, even before the target period.

Total additions (wireless and wireline) in April stood at 11.75 million as compared to 15.87 million new connections in the previous month.

The wireline segment saw a slight decrease of 0.15 million in subscriber base to 37.81 million in April against 37.96 million wireline subscribers in March 2009, TRAI said.

TRAI added that the overall tele-density has reached 37.94 at the end of April as against 36.98 in March 2009.

Tele-density means the number of people having phones per a population of 100.

India’s wireless user-base crosses 400-mn mark

On Hindustan Times on June 1, 2009

The country’s wireless subscriber base has crossed the 400-million mark in April this year with an addition of 11.9 million new users.

About 11.90 million wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL (F)) subscribers were added in April 2009 as against an addition of 15.64 million during the previous month, taking the total subscriber base to 403.66 million, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement on Monday.

The total telecom (wireless and wireline) subscriber base stood at 441.47 million at the end of April 2009 as against 429.72 million in March 2009, it added.It now looks like the target of 500 million phones by 2010 (set by Department of Telecom) is very much achievable, even before the target period.

Total additions (wireless and wireline) in April stood at 11.75 million as compared to 15.87 million new connections in the previous month.

The wireline segment saw a slight decrease of 0.15 million in subscriber base to 37.81 million in April against 37.96 million wireline subscribers in March 2009, TRAI said.

TRAI added that the overall tele-density has reached 37.94 at the end of April as against 36.98 in March 2009. Tele-density means the number of people having phones per a population of 100.

The total broadband subscriber base has reached 6.28 million by the end of April 2009 as compared to 6.22 million by the end of March 2009.

India, where local call rates are going as low as 50 cents, has been adding huge mobile subscribers as telcos like Bharti and Vodafone Essar are offering innovative tariffs to attract more customers.

The country is already the fastest growing country in terms of wireless-user addition.

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest mobile company by users, alone has 100 million customers.

Related story on http://www.ciol.com at http://www.ciol.com/technology/mobility/news-reports/indias-wireless-user-base-crosses-400mn/1609120368/0/

Number of new telecom subscribers dips in April

1 Jun 2009, 1321 hrs IST, PTI on http://www.economictimes.com

NEW DELHI: The Indian telecom industry saw a dip in the number of new subscribers in April – 11.75 million telephone connections were added, compared to 15.87 million in March, an official statement said here Monday.

The number of telephone connections reached 441.47 million in April from 429.72 million a month before, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement.

Overall tele-density reached 37.94 from 36.98.

The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and wireless local loop-fixed) base stood at 403.66 million with addition of 11.90 million subscribers in April, the statement said.

Additions to the number of wireless subscribers also dipped after reporting a record 15.64 million new connections in March.

In the wireline segment, the subscriber base decreased 0.15 million to 37.81 million in April from 37.96 million.

However, the number of broadband subscribers grew from 6.22 million to 6.28 million.

Additional story in The Hindu Business Line on 02 June 2009

Telephone subscriber growth rate dips in April

New Delhi, June 1 Telecom operators reported a dip in telephone subscriber growth rate with 11.75 million new users in April compared with 15.87 million in March.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the total number of telephone connections reached 441.47 million at the end of April compared with 429.72 million in March. With this growth, the overall tele-density has reached 37.94 per cent.

The dip in subscriber growth rate was primarily due to a slow down in the uptake of cellular usage. The total wireless subscribers — GSM, CDMA & WLL-F — base stood at 403.66 million. A total of 11.90 million wireless subscribers have been added during April against 15.64 million added during March.

In the wireline segment, the subscriber base has decreased to 37.81 million in April against 37.96 million in March, registering a slight decrease of 0.15 million.

According to market watchers, the dip in subscriber base may be because operators clean up their list of subscribers who may have given up their connection but they continue to show as a user. This usually happens in the months of March-April.

The total broadband subscriber base reached 6.28 million by April-end compared with 6.22 million in March.

MVNOs get nod to start ops

30 May 2009, 0010 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body of the communications ministry, on Thursday cleared the proposal to allow Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) to launch operations in India.

MVNOs offer mobile services without owning cellular networks or airwaves (spectrum) on which telecom signals travel. Their business model involves buying airtime from existing operators that own telecom infrastructure and selling it to consumers under their own brand. Companies, such as the UK-based Virgin Mobile, British Telecom and Japan’s KDDI, have based their telecom strategy on MVNO model. Currently, there are over 300 MVNOs operating globally. The entry of MVNOs is set to further increase competition in the world’s fastest growing mobile market.

Following the commission’s approval, the government will soon issue a formal notification along with guidelines for MVNOs to operate in India. In August 2008, Trai asked the government to permit MVNOs and said that entry of such players would be a ‘natural progression towards enhancing free market principles and contributing to the efficient use of existing telecommunication infrastructure’.

So far, the communications ministry had been unable to release the guidelines for MNVOs, as the department of telecom (DoT) and regulator Trai had not found consensus on key issues. The commission, while clearing the proposal, has said MVNOs cannot go for multiple parenting in India. This means, an MVNO can tie-up with only an operator in an area for their services. On the other hand, an existing operator can tie-up with any number of MVNOs.

The commission also said that MVNOs would be given licences for a 20-year period.

DoT executives had earlier told ET that several MVNOs from across the world had shown interest in launching operations in India. The auctions of 3G spectrum and the launch of these high-end services is expected to serve as a catalyst and attract virtual operators to India, as many players that operate in this space globally specialise in high-end value-added services. Many of the new telecom companies, who were granted telecom licences last year, may partner with MVNOs, as it would bring them additional revenues and help contribute towards the creation of sizeable capital value especially in a sector where margins are razor-thin and further reduction of tariffs is not feasible.

Telecom policy awaits TRAI nod

30 May 2009, 0029 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The communication ministry will seek telecom regulator TRAI’s endorsement before going ahead with the new policy, which will determine the allocation of additional airwaves to all existing telecom companies, a top government official said.

The spectrum panel, in its report submitted last month, had said that all telcos should be allowed to buy, sell and transfer airwaves for a fee, while adding that the country should adopt the internationally-accepted auction system for issuing additional airwaves to telcos. The panel comprised representatives of the government, telecom regulator TRAI, telecom technology experts and industry executives.

“We will send the panel’s report to TRAI. Since TRAI had earlier made recommendations on the issues addressed by the panel, we feel that their views should be sought on the report too,” telecom minister A Raja told ET. The panel had also suggested several changes in India’s telecom M&A norms to allow consolidation and had criticised the current policy stating that it had led to fragmentation of the sector by allowing about 15 players per circle.

Currently, India follows a controversial practice of allocating spectrum based on companies’ subscriber base, and is the only country in the world that follows this method. The panel had said that only the start-up spectrum, which is the minimum amount of radio frequencies that is required to launch mobile services, should be given for free to existing telcos.

All subsequent allocations should be only through auctions, it said. As per the current policy, all telcos share 2-6% of their annual revenues with the government as a fee for using the radio frequencies allotted to them. The committee had said this fee should be a flat 3% irrespective of the quantity of radio frequencies that is held by a telecom company.

In another development, the communications ministry has also decided to oppose the finance ministry’s demand of doubling the 3G auction base price to Rs 4,040 crore. DoT has told the Prime Minister’s Office that the base price must not be higher than Rs 2,020 crore for pan-India 3G spectrum.

Differences between several ministries over the floor price for the auction of 3G airwaves and also over the number of players to be allowed to offer these high-end services in an area had forced the cabinet to refer the matter to a Group of Ministers just prior to the general elections. The auctions could not be held prior to the polls as GoM failed to meet to find a solution to these issues.

While DoT in its 3G policy has said that the base price for pan-India 3G spectrum would be Rs 2,020 crore and that for broadband access technologies, such as WiMAX, would be Rs 1,010 crore, the finance ministry had demanded that this price be doubled. The issue got further complicated as the planning commission, the department of industrial policy and promotion and the IT ministry opposed doubling of the base price.

Govt to step up rural wireless connectivity

29 May 2009, 0050 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The communications ministry has drawn up detailed plans to spend part of the Rs 25,000 crore in the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

The plans include setting up over 5,500 telecom towers in far flung areas, providing wireline broadband connectivity to all rural kiosks, rolling out WiMAX services in rural India, augmenting the optic fibre cable connectivity of the country and funding technology innovations.

From 2002, all telecom operators have been paying 5% of their annual revenues towards this fund, and so far, the unutilised amount in the USOF has crossed the Rs 25,000 crore.

Every consumer, who makes a phone call (mobile and landline) contributes towards the USOF. It has been a long pending demand of the industry to reduce or do away with the levy especially since studies by sector regulator Trai has shown that it would not cost more than Rs 12,000 crore to connect the whole of rural India.

The department of telecom (DoT) will soon invite bids from companies who run long distance networks where the government will fund up to 40% of the optic fibre expansion plans of successful bidders.

All telcos have long distance arms that carry STD traffic on optic fibre. An STD call on the mobile is first carried to the nearest telecoms tower and transferred along the optic fibre to the tower that is closest to the person who receives the call. But, telcos who receive support from the USOF for setting up towers and laying fibre must compulsorily share their infrastructure with other operators.

The DoT has also decided to fund the commercial rollout of products linked to improving quality of services or making telecom operations more economical. It has shortlised about 10 companies who have been asked to demonstrate their products on a pilot basis in rural India, following which it will fund the commercial rollout of successful pilots.

These companies include Telsima Communication for WiMAX services, Artheon Electronics, STM Softech, Radio Innovation Sweden, Vanu, Tulip IT services, Param Hasna System and software, Vedekon from Ukraine and Measurement & Controls India Ltd. Radio Innovation Sweden has been shortlised for its solutions that enable super economical coverage of GSM, Vanu for its multi-operator shared telecom towers concept, Vedekon for its WiMAX solutions.

The communications ministry is of the view that these new avenues to disburse this fund will help increase the country’s tele-density, especially in rural India. While the overall tele-density of the country is just under 40%, rural tele-density is still under the 10% mark.

DoT panel opposes lock-in on stake sales

21 May 2009, 0336 hrs IST, Kalyan Parbat & Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: A government panel is opposing a safeguard measure aimed at preventing owners of companies which acquired telecom licenses in early 2008 from making windfall profits, laying itself open to criticism on an issue which has already resulted in a lot of controversy. The department of telecom’s (DoT) high-powered committee is citing the long-term interests of the sector to argue against the telecom regulator’s recommendation of a three-year lock-in on stake sales by the owners of companies which were allocated spectrum allegedly at throwaway rates.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendation was made in March based on a proposal by DoT. A panel of the department is now objecting to the regulator’s suggestion. The telecom department will soon ask the regulator to reconsider its recommendation. The government does not have the power to overrule Trai without first referring the matter back to the regulator. But in case Trai refuses to change its stance, the government can go ahead and do away with the lock-in requirement. DoT’s high-powered committee, which was asked to take a final call on TRAI’s views, said in a report dated May 9 that the lock-in should apply only to future telecom licensees and not any of the existing players.
“In case the lock-in condition is at all to be introduced, under no circumstances should it be enforceable with retrospective effect for existing license holders. Such lock-in, if introduced by the government, should only apply in case of new licensees and be incorporated into the future license conditions,” the panel wrote. Among those who will benefit from the panel’s view are Datacom, Swan, Unitech, Loop and S Tel, which acquired their licenses in early 2008. A top DoT official confirmed that its internal committee was against the lock-in and that the matter would be referred to Trai after the new minister takes charge.

Faced with severe criticism of the then telecom minister A Raja’s decision to award pan-India licenses for Rs 1,651 crore (about $400 million), a price fixed in 2001, DoT had proposed amending licensing norms to impose a 3-5-year lock-in on the sale of promoters’ equity for new entrants. DoT referred this proposal to TRAI. The telecom regulator agreed with the communication ministry’s proposal saying that the main objective was “to block the unearned gains arising from transaction in stakes of promoters, particularly when the value of spectrum is not getting correctly reflected in the entry fee.”

Going a step further, TRAI has also asked DoT to seek the finance and the law ministries’ views if the three-year lock-in can be imposed retrospectively. But TRAI had also clarified that the lock-in would not apply if these telcos were to issue fresh share capital to investors and foreign telcos.

This implies that even in the event of a lock-in, it would not have impacted the deals which have already been entered into by companies such as Swan and Unitech.

Swan offloaded a 45% stake to UAE’s Etisalat for $900 million and Unitech divested up to 67.25% in its telecom venture to Norway’s Telenor for $1.1 billion. These companies maintain that they did not offload stakes but only issued fresh equity to the foreign partners.

TRAI promises converged networks

On www.ciol.com on Monday, May 18, 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Intellectual property rights issue regarding converting broadcasts into content for IPTV which has been under discussion will be resolved in the near future in the best interest of all the parties concerned said R N Prabhakar, member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

He was speaking at the inaugural session of IPTV India 2009, 4th International Conference. The one day seminar was organized by New Delhi-based BE Exposition Pvt. Ltd.

“The recommendations for converged networks that would provide consumers access for different type of sernote address vices on a single network, will be announced soon and the spectrum for 3G, IPTV and other services would be settled very soon,” he added.

Combining video and interactivity, IPTV’s “power is expected to be phenomenal” in areas like education and healthcare for the public. There was also the advantage that IPTV bypasses computer literacy and thus more relevant to Indian environment where PC penetration was very low.

Shashidharan, MD, BE Exposition Pvt. Ltd., said: “Service providers in India have realized the importance of shifting from voice-centric model to an IP centric model in which, video and other content rich interactive services play an important role. IPTV in India is all set to unleash the potential of fundamentally transforming the experience of watching television by bring in two-way interactivity, storage of content and greater control over the television experience, while tzling on “Strategic Challenges & Opportunities for the introduction of IPTV in India”

IPTV would also help reduce dependence on information via Internet as information on video could be reached out to the masses. Yadav saw IPTV reversing the high bandwidth requirement of Internet as IPTV Service providers have a repository of content . Video browser would now be available for TV. This would open up many new business opportunities with new technologies due to the time shift advantage of IPTV—that is capacity to view programmes according to the requirement of the customer.

Puneet Garg, VP (Technical), Bharti Airtel, said that the biggest challenge was not to monetize the interactive content that IPTV offered. “from push model, IPTV creates a pull model for consumers which is a paradigm change.”

Listing the problems in adopting IPTV, Internet Service Providers Association of India president Rajesh Chharia called for more content in local languages. He also felt that customers were not willing to invest in set top boxes especially in rural markets. With several different modes of service, convergent service was the need of the hour. The insistence that ISPs need to have a capital base of Rs 100 crores to provide IPTV service was restricting the service to only four or five players leaving out the ISPs at district and regional levels. Broadcasters were putting restrictions on the number of channels the IPTV service providers could give to consumers, due to unsolved IPR issues.

IPTV service would lead to development of a “strategic eco system “covering other areas like m-commerce and e-commerce, more content development and aggregation of data. These exciting possibilities were under discussion with different ministries to enable IPTV to take off said Prithipal Singh, vice-president, IPTV India Forum.

He also expected that Commonwealth Games to be made available on mobile TV for which guidelines would be shortly available. Experts at the conference described IPTV as a “new age television experience in India” that could spread to 700 million people, a base far in excess of even mobile phone, as Mr. Yadav put it.

Doordarshan plans to offer Mobile TV services

Thomas K. Thomas, Meera Mohanty on www.thehindubusinessline.com on 14 May 2009-05-15

New Delhi, May 14 State broadcaster Doordarshan has decided to offer mobile television services on a private-public partnership (PPP) basis. It has invited expressions of interest from prospective consultants to draw up a roadmap for implementation.

Mobile TV services make it possible for subscribers to view TV programmes on handheld or portable devices. Doordarshan had earlier launched Mobile TV services on a pilot basis in parts of Delhi using the DVB-H technology from Nokia.

For accessing the service, consumers will need a handset that supports the technology. Unlike 3G technologies, wherein TV and entertainment services may be in the form of short clips or two to three channels, mobile TV enables users to get as many as 30 high quality channels on a handset. But at present no one else offers the service because there is no clarity in policy.

Though the telecom regulator has given recommendations in favour of opening up the sector to private players, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has not taken a decision yet. In order to allow private players, the Government will have to open up terrestrial transmission in the broadcasting sector.

Currently, only Doordarshan is permitted to do terrestrial broadcasting while private players have to use satellite network. One of the objectives for proposing the PPP model by Doordarshan is to keep terrestrial system under exclusive control of the Government-run broadcaster.

There is also as yet no clarity on the technology to be used for the service. Though TRAI had suggested keeping the policy technology-neutral, DD wants to go ahead with only DVB-H – a technology being promoted by Nokia. But recently Nokia sold its DVB-H network division to Wipro, raising doubts over the future development of the technology. Analysts have also pointed out that Nokia has not launched any new handset that supports DVB-H, which could dampen Doordarshan’s proposed plan.

According to the expression of interest floated by Doordarshan, it is planning to launch the service in 17 cities having population of over one million.

The roll out will take place in five phases, starting with the metros. It is proposed that out of the 16 programme channels, the private partner will be given capacity for offering 12 channels on a revenue sharing basis. The private partner will be responsible for content aggregation, marketing, operation and maintenance. DD will provide the infrastructure in terms of TV tower, power supply and spectrum. The private player will have to invest in setting up transmitters, antennae and other equipment required for mobile TV technology. The partnership will be signed for a period of 5 years after which a new revenue share arrangement will be worked out between the two sides.