July 2009: 14.38M Mobile Connections Added In India; Landlines Sink; Broadband At 6.8M

From http://www.medianama.com/2009/08/223-july-2009-1438m-mobile-connections-added-in-india-landlines-sink-broadband-at-68m/ on August 24, 2009

By Preethi J

News of the reviving economy is reflected in the telecom sector in the month of July, which saw an addition of 14.38 million wireless connections compared to the 12.03 million in June, 2009. The total number of telephone connections in the country was 479.07 million at the end of July 2009.

• Teledensity rose from 39.86% in June to 41.08%.
• Wireless teledensity is up from 36.64% to 37.87%
• Total wireless connections rose 3.6% to 441.66 million
• Broadband connections swelled from 6.62 million in June 2009 to 6.8 million.

BSNL Loses 0.16M Landline Users; Bharti Adds 33,940

This segment continues to see churn with BSNL’s customers choosing the wireless route and disconnecting their landlines – the two oldest landline providers BSNL and MTNL lost a total of 0.17 million subscribers in July after losing 0.19 million in June 2009. MTNL lost 8181 to reach 3.54 million connections. BSNL lost 166,519 landline connections and now has 28.62 million; it accounts for 76.5% of the country’s landline userbase and will continue to be hit by negative growth even as private service providers such as Bharti Airtel and RCOM add users by bundling the landlines with other necessary services such as broadband and IPTV.

• Total landline connections in India – 37.41 million
• Wireline teledensity has reduced marginally to 3.21%

Downloads: TRAI Data (PDF)

Other operators offering landlines and their user base:

• Bharti Airtel – 2.86 million
• Reliance Communications – 1.13 million
• Tata Teleservices (Indicom) – 967,554
• HFCL Infotel – 163,399
• Sistema Shyam (MTS) – 111,069

Deutsche Telekom Eyes Indian ISP Space; Devas Multimedia Looks To Raise Funds

From http://www.medianama.com/2009/08/223-deutsche-telekom-eyes-indian-isp-space-devas-multimedia-looks-to-raise-funds/ on August 24, 2009

By Preethi J

German telecom conglomerate Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile in USA, is planning to join the Internet Service Provider arena in India. According to a MarketWatch report, the telco is planning to set up a high-capacity radio network for quick Internet connections in metropolitan areas of India come next year.

I wonder if we need yet another ISP in India, with already a number of incumbent players – Reliance, Tata Indicom, MTNL, BSNL, Hathaway, Tikona, Sify and Bharti Airtel, and France Telecom, Vodafone and DEN Networks also planning ISPs. With the last mile still closed, wireless is being seen as the way to go; which is where Devas Multimedia comes in.

Devas MultiMedia:Looking To Raise Funds

Deutsche Telekom received permission from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) last year to invest Rs. 317.85 crore into Devas Multimedia, a little known Bangalore-based wireless services company, which was working on a long term Mobile TV (DMB) project with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). DT has acquired 17% stake in Devas.

Interestingly enough, Devas is looking to raise funds. The company, which already has Telecom Ventures and Columbia Capital as investors, apart from Deutsche Telekom, has a proposal pending with the FIPB for permission to “induct fresh foreign equity participation with the induction of a new foreign collaborator.”

Devas is a curious case: little is known about it, and it still appears to be in stealth mode:  there’s no website and there is little information on it except of it’s work with ISRO and its backers.

India desperately needs a catalyst to boost Internet penetration: Internet growth in July 2009 in India has actually fallen to 2.7% from 3.4% in June and 6.3% in May 2009. Besides the well known issues of delinking last mile access and ISP licensing which are throttling growth, other issues Deutsche Telekom will need to grapple with are low PC adoption and lack of Indic language content.

Companies Eying ISP Space In India

Earlier this year, France Telecom also entered India through Equant Network Services, its joint venture with Emery Technologies with the intention of launching Internet services;  Vodafone too announced its entry. The latest to announce plans of becoming an Internet service provider is DEN Networks, a cable TV company which is planning to go public to raise funds.

The Wireline Alternative: Broadband Over Power

Research and experiments on Broadband over Power Lines have been on for years – news about it pops up every few months. Indian Express has the latest: about Bengal Engineering and Science University professors and CESC have implemented Broadband over Power in two housing estates in Kolkata. The copper wires that supply electricity to double as broadband connections and installing a customer premise equipment that decodes the signals and brings them to your computer. But if it’s that simple, why is it taking so long to materialise? The government recently deferred an application by Powermax Communications, a provider of power transmission  and distribution management systems and broadband over power services, to increase foreign equity participation.

Global players find MTNL’s WiMax project terms unattractive

Disincentives

Operator will have to partner a company that has no expertise in the area

MTNL asking for too much of revenue share and branding

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Thomas K. Thomas on August 15, 2009 in The Hindu Business Line at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/08/15/stories/2009081551020400.htm

 New Delhi, Aug. 14 International WiMax operators eyeing MTNL’s franchisee contract are unhappy with the conditions specified by the state-owned company in the tender document.

Some of the operators have told MTNL that the terms were restrictive as they permit only system integrators (SIs) or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bid.

“We met senior MTNL officials and have told them the disadvantages of allowing only SIs and OEMs to bid. This will mean that an international operator, who has all the experience to take forward MTNL’s WiMax services, will have to necessarily partner with a company that has no idea of rolling out broadband services,” said a foreign operator looking to bid for the WiMax project.

Another operator said that while an SI did not have any idea of rolling out a WiMax network, OEMs would not like to partner with MTNL and become competition to the private players, who could be their clients. “An equipment vendor can never become an operator. It will lead to a clash of interest with its other customers,” said the operator.

Foreign players have also pointed out that MTNL was asking for too much in terms of revenue share and branding conditions whereby it has been made mandatory to use the PSU’s name to sell service.

“Why would a foreign player invest in setting up a network if it has to offer services in MTNL’s brand and also offer a large part of the revenue to the PSU?” asked a foreign player. However, MTNL officials said several system integrators and original equipment manufacturers have expressed interest.

“We are not forcing anyone to bid. These are the terms and conditions that we have put out for the benefit of MTNL. We are not responsible for another operator’s business case. Having said that, there are a number of OEMs in the WiMax space who are adopting new business models whereby they set up the network and also manage it. There are foreign players we know who are talking to such OEMs to jointly bid for this project. We hope to get a good response,” said an MTNL official.

A number of players, including SOMA, Yota, UQ Communications and Spice Group, may bid for the MTNL project, which envisages wireless broadband services in Delhi and Mumbai. But foreign companies such as Yota and UQ will have to partner a system integrators or an original equipment manufacturer if they want to bid.

SOMA is on a stronger wicket because it is both an operator and an original equipment manufacturer.

MTNL will enter into a revenue sharing agreement with successful bidders.

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.

CBI arrests 2 senior MTNL officials on graft charges

From The Financial Express on June 16, 2009

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested two senior officers of the MTNL for allegedly demanding a bribe for releasing pending bills of a complainant.

A CBI spokesperson said Vinay Kanwal, Deputy General Manager (Finance), posted at Rajouri Garden, and R K Gupta, Chief Accounts Officer, were allegedly caught while accepting Rs 32,000 — the first part payment of bribe amount of Rs 60,000.

The CBI said a private contractor was given contract for house keeping work for the office of GM, MTNL, Rajouri Garden for the period from July 2008 to May 13, 2009.

“As the two accused officials were demanding a bribe of Rs 60,000 to release the payments of pending bills and also for extension of the contract work, the contractor lodged a complaint with the CBI,” the official said.

He said searches were also conducted at the residence of accused persons.

“Cash amounting to Rs four lakh, five bank pass books having a balance of Rs 3.2 lakh, documents of two flats and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence of Gupta, while certain incriminatory documents were recovered from the residence of Kanwal.

“Both the accused persons were produced in the court of CBI Special Judge, Tis Hazari, and remanded to judicial custody,” the official said.

Vodafone approaches FIPB for NLD, ISP licences

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

NEW DELHI: Mobile services company Vodafone Essar has applied for Internet Service Provider

and national long distance licence and has approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for approval.

The company officials confirmed that the operator has applied for these two licences and aims to become a full-fledged communication service provider

in the country.

FIPB, on June 19, may take up the proposal, sources said. If Vodafone Essar, in which the UK-based mobile firm Vodafone holds majority stake, gets the national long distance licence (NLD) it will help the company save operating expenses for carrying STD traffic, instead of hiring other mobile company’s network for the purpose.

All the top mobile operators like Reliance Communications, Bharti, BSNL and MTNL have their own NLD infrastructure.

The company is also planning to enter the internet service segment in which all other major mobile operators like BSNL, Reliance Communications and MTNL has a presence.