DoT proposes tax breaks for 3G winners

26 Aug 2009, 0044 hrs IST, Kalyan Parbat & Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/DoT-proposes-tax-breaks-for-3G-winners/articleshow/4934677.cms.

KOLKATA: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will ask the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on 3G-spectrum auction, headed by Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to consider a proposal under which successful bidders of pan-India 3G spectrum can enjoy tax benefits applicable under section 80-1A of the Income Tax Act.

The DoT’s rationale is that the 3G mobile broadband should be treated as a distinct infrastructure service and not continuity of telecom operations, especially in case of 2G service providers pitching for a pan-India 3G licence. The DoT will place the proposal during the second meeting of the EGoM scheduled for Thursday.

The proposal for tax benefits applicable under section 80-1A of the Income Tax Act is part of an internal note prepared by DoT that will be circulated to EGoM members, a senior DoT official told ET.

Currently, only telecom companies that kicked off operations between April 1, 1995 and March 31, 2000 enjoy income tax breaks under section 80-1A. If the EGoM were to accept the DoT proposal, it would imply that 3G operations of telecom companies will enjoy income tax breaks on 100% of their profits for initial five years. In the next five years, these telcos will enjoy a 30% tax break on their profits.

The DoT note to the EGoM also adds that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is of the view that it cannot spare any further airwaves for WiMax services. As reported by ET earlier this month, ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair had said that the Department of Space (DoS) has already parted with 40 MHz of airwaves for WiMax services in the 2.5 GHz band.

He said any interference from the WiMax services offered in this band in the future could “severely affect the very sensitive satellite services in the adjacent band”. Mr Nair had also added the DoS is now left with only 150 MHz of airwaves in the 2.5 GHz band, the bare minimum requirement for satellite services.

The DoT note to the EGoM was prepared by its joint secretary (T) and consists of demands from the industry, especially those of CDMA-based operators, and includes the views of the DoS on WiMax spectrum.

The EGoM is slated to settle all outstanding issues associated with the auction of 3G airwaves, vital for high-end services such as high-speed internet and video conferencing on mobiles.

It will take a final call on the reserve price for 3G and WiMAX spectrums and decide on the number of players to be allowed to offer these high-end services in each circle.

It is also learnt that the EGoM may also debate whether the government at all has the right to urge successful bidders of 3G spectrum to shell out an extra Rs 1,600 crore-plus for a separate pan-India UAS licence, especially when DoT knows only too well that there is no extra 4.4 MHz 2G spectrum available to bundle with new licences.

“At a time when the DoT’s wireless planning cell is well aware that it won’t be able to meet future 2G spectrum obligation for new UASL licencees, why should they be asked to shell out an extra Rs 1,600 crore plus full complement of the licence fees. While nothing has been finalised yet, a successful bidder of 3G spectrum, alternately, may also be asked to shell out a lower sum for a pure vanilla UASL without the bundled spectrum,” said a government official familiar with the matter.

Indications are that a section of E-GoM members are loathe to the idea of fixing the number of slots for 3G services to a maximum five (including BSNL) per service area. “Considering that, there are as many 11 to 9 slots available in some circles like Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, the E-GoM is likely to debate the rationale of uniformly restricting the number of slots (per circle) for delivery of 3G services. There is a feeling in the finance ministry that such restriction can tantamount to a loss of potential revenue for the government,” said a DoT official close to the developments.

NetworkPlay Signs On Airtel For CPM Advertising On DTH; Eyes Mobile, Video

From http://www.medianama.com/2009/08/223-networkplay-signs-on-airtel-for-cpm-advertising-on-dth-eyes-mobile-video/ on August 25, 2009

By Nikhil Pahwa

Capital18 funded advertising network NetworkPlay.in has inked a deal with Airtel DTH for advertising on DTH in India. Interestingly enough, NetworkPlay CEO & MD Rammohan Sundaram told MediaNama that the company is going to sell CPM based advertising on DTH. This obviously means that Airtel DTH needs to be able to measure the impressions and relay the data back to the advertiser – there has to be a feedback loop with Airtel DTH. So far, interactivity has been limited on DTH. The company will offer video and image based advertisements on the DTH boot screen, iTravel, iShop, iMatinee, iCity, iNews, iPizza, iAstro and other Airtel DTH services. According to Sundaram, Airtel DTH service has a penetration of over 1.3 Million households and growing at a rate of 16 percent month on month, and reaches a SEC A & B audience in over 4000 towns in India. The total DTH userbase in India is 13 million; Tata Sky (4 million) and Dish TV (5.07 million as of March 31, 2009) are the top operators.

Sundaram says that the tie-up with Airtel is exclusive and they have been working on the deal for 6-7 months now; they are also actively pursuing deals with other DTH operators as well. The company is looking to launch Video and Mobile advertising solutions in the next couple of quarters, but Sundaram declined to comment on further plans.

Of late, we’ve seen a significant amount of collaboration between Internet, Mobile and DTH companies, with multiple services like ticketing, shopping, matrimonial, job classifieds and others being enabled on DTH. The increasing digitization of platforms means that digital services can be enabled across Internet, Mobile, IPTV, DTH etc; it doesn’t have to be about the world wide web alone.

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.

Tata Tele in talks with PC makers

Adith Charlie

On August 22, 2009 on the Hindu Business Line at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/08/22/stories/2009082250720400.htm

Mumbai, Aug. 21 Tata Teleservices looks to partner with laptop and netbook makers for promoting its mobile broadband service, Photon, among buyers of new computers.

The Mumbai-based firm is currently in talks with companies such as Lenovo, HCL, Dell, Toshiba and others for the same.

“We are looking to sign up with laptop manufactures to see whether they can incorporate the Tata Photon as a purchase device along with their laptops and also give special offers on the same. The days of people buying a laptop without going in for connectivity options have clearly gone,” Mr Lloyd Mathias, President- Business Development, VAS & Chief Marketing Officer told Business Line.

Tata Tele already has a tie-up with Hewlett-Packard; consumers can get a Rs 3,500 Photon Plus for Rs 1,200 when they buy a HP/Compaq laptop.

The company is expected to sign up with at least two more laptop manufacturers in the next few months.

ECI Telecom DSL deployment in India and Africa with Tata and Togo

From Current Analysis Reports – Broadband Infrastructure by Keith, Erik on June 20, 2009

ECI Telecom, which has seen its DSL market share decline steadily over the past several years, has just expanded its customer bases in India and Africa, potentially paving the way for ECI to regain lost ground in the overall fixed access market.

TTSL to deploy ECIs IP-based broadband n/w – CIOL News Reports

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and ECI Telecom, a global provider of networking infrastructure solutions optimized for NGN migration, partnered to deliver fixed-broadband access network supporting speeds of up to 18 Mbps.

As part of the agreement, TTSL will deploy an all-IP next-generation network featuring ECI’s, award winning, Hi FOCuS multi-service access node (MSAN) and SR9000 carrier Ethernet switch router (CESR) platforms.

This broadband access solution has already been deployed across eight cities: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Vijayawada, Surat and Baroda; for TTSL’s ‘Photon Pro’ network.

ECI’s solution, part of the company’s 1Net framework to simplify networks and allow smooth transition to NGN, represents one of the most comprehensive multi-service, IP-based, broadband access networks that simultaneously supporting next-generation data, video and voice over both fibre and copper infrastructure.

The solution will enable TTSL to enable IPTV, video on demand, high speed broadband Internet, VoIP and other bandwidth intensive services.

A G Rao, president & CTO, Tata Teleservices Limited, said: “ECI’s solutions will allow us to deliver a full spectrum of next-generation services today, well ahead of other operators in the market, while addressing our evolving needs as network architecture and technologies change in the future.”

Rafi Maor, president and CEO, ECI Telecom, said: “ECI brings proven experience and excellence in the broadband access market, servicing and supporting some of the world’s largest tier-1 networks.”

via TTSL to deploy ECIs IP-based broadband n/w – CIOL News Reports.

Related stories at

• http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/06/18/stories/2009061851710400.htm
• http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=RSSFeed-Business&id=c643b378-d957-4268-9217-e3284c521217&Headline=Tata+Teleservices+in+pact+with+ECI+for+broadband+services
• http://efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnewsxml.asp?edid=35209

Excerpt from the above:

“ECI’s expertise and in-depth understanding of broadband access solutions were key factors in our decision to choose ECI for this important project. The company’s market-leading solutions allow us to deliver a full spectrum of next-generation services today, well ahead of other operators in the market, while addressing our evolving needs as network architecture and technologies change in the future,” commented A. G. Rao, president and chief technology officer, Tata Teleservices Limited.

Israel-based ECI has been providing the India communication conglomerate with network infrastructure solutions, such as wireless backhaul, WiMax backbone, and broadband access and transport solutions for over five years.

“We are proud of our long-term partnership with TTSL and honoured to be chosen as a trusted partner for this inaugural project. ECI brings proven experience and excellence in the broadband access market, servicing and supporting some of the world’s largest tier I networks,” commented Rafi Maor, president and CEO, ECI Telecom.

Now Yahoo goes mobile in Asia-Pacific

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

SINGAPORE: Internet giant Yahoo! Tuesday expanded its mobile platform in the Asia-Pacific region region in a bid to attract users who prefer to access the web from their phones instead of computers.

Yahoo! Mobile is now available in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan as well as Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Spain, company officials announced at the CommunicAsia 2009 trade fair in Singapore.

Featuring customisable home pages and localised content, Yahoo! Mobile can now be accessed on over 400 mobile devices, a company statement said.

“With products like the new Yahoo! Mobile, we’re invigorating the mobile industry and creating consumer demand for compelling Internet services across a variety of mobile platforms,” David Ko, senior vice-president of Yahoo! Mobile, told a news conference.

Matthias Kunze, managing director for Yahoo! Mobile Asia-Pacific, said that in Asia, “it’s more likely that new users of the net will be on the mobile phone instead of the PC.”

Yahoo! Mobile is now available in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, and additional localised versions are expected to be launched over the next several months, the company said.

It was earlier rolled out in the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Zylog Systems eyes 2 overseas buys in governance space

By Bijoy Ghosh on The Hindu Business Line on June 15, 2009

Our Bureau

Chennai, June 14 To ramp up its operation in the e-governance segment, Zylog Systems plans to acquire two overseas companies by the year-end.

On the sidelines of launching the ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services, Mr Ramanujam Sesharathnam, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Zylog Systems, said that the company was in talks with a couple of companies with revenues of less than $10 million (about Rs 50 crore) in the e-governance and managed governance space.

The company had acquired PEQ Consulting, an infrastructure management company, and Fairfax Consulting in November 2008.

Zylog Systems India, a subsidiary of Zylog Systems, will invest about Rs 200 crore in expanding its ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services in five metropolitan cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata – in two years.

With 250 wireless nodes installed across Chennai, 4,000 more nodes are expected to be operational in the city in 12-15 months.

On why the company chose Wi5 technology and not the more advanced Wi-Max technology, Mr J. Shivkumar, Chief Technology Officer, Zylog Systems India, said most handheld devices such as mobiles, laptops and notebooks were only Wi5-enabled.

In terms of cost, coverage and capacity ‘Wi5’ was competitive, while the Wi-Max technology was expensive. The newly launched ‘Wi5’ retail packages are available at 1 mbps, 2 mbps and 4 mbps at Rs 550, Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,750.

Related stories at

• http://www.ciol.com/technology/networking/news-reports/zylog-systems-launches-wi5-services/15609120967/0/
• http://efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnewsxml.asp?edid=35145

Excerpt from the above

Ramanujam Sesharathnam, managing director and chief operating officer, Zylog Systems, said, “We are delighted to launch Wi5 services in Chennai, as it is a city with high laptop and mobile internet population, familiarity with working online is implausible. Due to Wi5’s inherent technological superiority, the speed will be many times faster than conventional broadband and offers a minimum data speeds of 1 mbps.”

Zylog’s Wi5 services works by creating a Wi5 mesh network, which is done by setting up intelligent Wi-Fi nodes on roof tops in select buildings across the city, making the area a Wi5 zone. The company offers a pre-paid connection to its customers and to access the Wi5 services, users need a Wi-Fi enabled laptop personal computer or a mobile device or a separate Wi-Fi card. Called as the ‘metro wi-fi’, Zylog’s wi-fi model will work like the mobile telephony network.

Zylog Systems has also implemented Wi-Fi in Ripon Building (Chennai Corporation) and a trial run is in progress.

India among top 2 emerging markets for Yahoo!

Press Trust Of India, New Delhi, June 14, 2009 on The Hindustan Times

 

Internet search giant Yahoo! on Sunday said India is one of the ‘top emerging markets´ and it would release a slew of products over next few months for further consolidating its position in the country.

“India is one of the top two countries in the emerging markets segment and holds a lot of promise for us … Products developed in the Indian lab and centres abroad are part of the pipeline of innovative products that will help us in the

Indian market,” Yahoo! Head of Audience (Emerging Markets) Gopal Krishna told PTI. He, however, declined to comment on the details of the products.

“Innovations around mail, instant messenger and front page (landing page) would be prime focus areas. We would also look at news properties like News, Bollywood and Buzz,” he said.

Emerging markets contributes up to 65 per cent to the total users for some of the key global Yahoo! properties and is the fastest growing region from business perspective as well, he added.

One of the leading properties/products is Yahoo! Cricket, which attracted 2.4 million unique users per month emerging as the top cricket site in India, according to Comscore April 2009 data.

Tata Comm, Qtel Announce Strategic Alliance

Wednesday, June 10, 2009:  Tata Communications and Qtel have entered into a strategic alliance that will strengthen both companies’ network reach in the region and internationally. Under the terms of the agreement, both the companies will align their infrastructures and work together to provide secure, scalable and flexible connectivity solutions including Ethernet, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) and a wide variety of managed services to their global customers.

Eng. Khalid Al Mansouri, executive director, business solutions, Qtel, said, “This is a landmark agreement which will help to position Qtel at the heart of one of the most robust communication networks in the world today.”

“Joining hands with Qtel is a winning proposition for Tata Communications as it lends an invaluable perspective to our mission of delivering seamless connectivity and flagship communications services to customers with diverse and widespread network needs,” added Vinod Kumar, President and chief operating officer, Tata Communications.

Over time, the agreement will enable Tata Communications to deliver Layer 2 Ethernet over SDH, Ethernet over MPLS and a range of configurations including Dedicated Multipoint Ethernet services to its international network of customers through Qtel.

In return, Qtel customers will have access to a range of new MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) certified services, delivered via Tata Communications’ major networks of submarine cables and its Tier-1 IP network that spans across five continents.

Related story at

• http://indiatelecomnews.com/?p=236
• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Tata-Communications-signs-pact-with-Qatars-Qtel-Text/articleshow/4632852.cms

“Our business is a bit broader than just providing network or pipes”, says Sunil Joshi

From India Telecom News on June 10, 2009

Sunil Joshi, President, Tata Communications Enterprise Business, Emerging Markets says: “Our business is not a single line of business. We have multiple lines of business to de-risk ourselves in how we engage. We have a voice business which, by virtue of that, we are the world’s largest wholesaler of voice. “

“And about 24 billion minutes of voice run on our backbone. Now what that gives us is steady cash flow to run and operate our business and invest in other areas of growth. Our global data and mobility services business is the next largest business, which is a growth business for us. That has grown 29% year-on-year. ”

The voice business grew 12% year-on-year. This is the last 12 months, the fiscal year ending 31st of March, 2009. Our EBITDA in the last year has grown 53% year-on-year.

So there are two things. You are right about the cost pressures because the deregulation drives prices down. And our legacy organisation was such that they enjoyed the benefit of a really regulated market. But in a competitive world, it does have impact to the prices, which does end up going to the consumer or the business that leverages that service. Then it’s for us to optimise our infrastructure, whether, it’s our IT, our engineering, our procurement. And we’re spending a lot of time in making sure that our costs are managed, while the price points are also seeing pressure to come down in the marketplace. This is within India, specifically.

We also have some growth engines, what we call start-ups, if you like. So our investment in NeoTel in South Africa, we have increased our stake last year from 26% to 56% in NeoTel. NeoTel is the second largest telecommunications company in South Africa. And that’s part of our emerging market strategy. A lot of our enterprise customers are looking at the African continent to now look at also growth, while they’re looking at Asia and some of the other economies.

So to back that up, we are also investing in what we call the [Seacon] cable. Seacon cable is expected to come up in the next month or so. And that will enable connectivity from Mumbai, right across the east coast of Africa, to South Africa. We’ve also announced an investment in [WACS], which is the West Africa Cable System. And that will take the connectivity of South Africa on the west coast of Africa into Europe, thereby connecting what is the other new emerging geography. And you’ll find that that enables us to connect enterprises and carrier customers and continue to drive our revenue [through].

The few other small organisations, like the broadband unit that we have, [TCISL], which is predominantly focused on retail broadband and the growth. And we have about 315,000 subscribers on the retail broadband [shop] and growing. We have investments in other small organisations, an in-house subsidiary called [TCTSL]. It’s Transformation Services Limited. So what that does is, it supports telecommunications organisations and outsources that with the [BSS] infrastructure.

So our business is a bit broader than just providing network or pipes. And with that infrastructure providing value-added services and managed services, it allows us to continue to move up the value chain for our customers. Sorry about the long answer to that.

Orange Bags 2 Asia Pacific Awards

From www.efytimes.com

Monday, June 08, 2009:  Orange Business Services, France Telecom Group’s division for worldwide enterprise services, has been named Managed Service Provider of the Year as well as Data Communications Service Provider of the Year at the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards. This is the second time in three years that Orange has been named Data Communications Service Provider of the Year.

The awards recognise the company’s commitment to Asia Pacific and its focus on the business needs of its multinational enterprise customers. Orange Business Services recently enhanced its next-generation converged IP network in Asia Pacific to deliver greater coverage, capacity and performance to its customers. It integrates future-ready innovations like Multicast, IPv6 and Telepresence, as well as in-the-cloud application acceleration and security.

Commented Yee-May Leong, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Orange Business Services, “The awards reinforce our leadership in the Asia Pacific market that is built on strong commitment to our customers and service excellence. We continue to invest in network expansion, technical expertise and innovative solutions to meet enterprise needs for greater cost control and rapid presence anywhere, anytime as the business requires.”

Nitin Bhat, senior vice president, ICT, Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific, added, “Orange Business Services undoubtedly has one of the most extensive network reach and strongest network backbones in Asia Pacific. The company’s robust network, complemented by its equally extensive global presence, dedicated 3,000-strong workforce in Asia-Pac, and strong suite of managed service offerings ensure that the company is able to deliver seamless and exceptional service and business value to its customers.

Orange Business Services was measured against its competitors on a variety of actual market performance parameters, market share and growth in market share, leadership in product innovation, next-generation service strategy as well as breadth of products and solutions

 

BlackBerry gets an Indian rival

29 May 2009, 1008 hrs IST, IANS on www.economictimes.com

MADURAI: The little-known maker of Red Chery – a mobile application used for receiving mails from free and corporate email accounts – is dreaming big: eating into a market straddled by BlackBerry of Canada’s Research In Motion and other similar service providers.

To make this happen, the Rs 15-crore software product company, AJ Square Consultancy, is banking on an aggressive pricing strategy, and hoping to rope in two million (20 lakh) subscribers by this fiscal-end.

“With an average revenue per subscriber of Rs 110 per annum, which is about a tenth of what existing players charge, we hope to earn around Rs 22 crore from 20 lakh subscribers by the end of this fiscal. We may even offer this service free at a later stage,” AJ Square managing director Boaz Augustin said.

Like other similar products, Red Chery is a mobile application used for receiving mails from any of the free email accoun accounts (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and Rediffmail) and corporate email accounts (MS exchange and IBM Lotus servers) on a mobile handset.

“Red Chery is platform, telecom and mobile instrument independent. One can read emails like a short messaging services,” Augustin added. AJ Square will be focussing on the corporate sector to push Red Chery. According to Augustin, the company will offer services in Singapore and Europe once it stabilises its Indian operations and gets venture capital to the tune of $25 million.

“We are open to dilute up to 45 per cent stake.” The 200-employee Madurai-based AJ Square is into development of e-commerce and gaming software for European companies.