Indian Telecom News Digest [14-Feb-10]

Image by Spitzgogo_CHEN (Nokia 6230i) via Flickr Devices Nokia once again plans to do what it does best – Offer “value for money’” handsets at the lower portions of the pyramid. It has launched a 3G phone at less than Rs 5000 and also plans to have the lowest end handset at Rs 500 – Hope this gives a big push to their rural solution (Life Tools). With this kind of a pricing, local handset makers really would have a tough time at hand – irrespective of their marketing budgets . Apps & VAS “ Application Stores ” is the flavor of the season – Airtel has launched one , Reliance will soon launch one , Aircel & Idea had announced even before. The market too, seems ready for this now – After all India figures in the top-5 countries for Ovi downloads. (One note to make here is – Ovi downloads include ringtones, wallpapers etc so it is not really apparent how many application downloads are happening). Meanwhile, one more music store is also coming up – from mCarbon . We already have stores of Nokia & various partners of Hungama. With the rise of local application stores, even content providers get busy catering to this market. Balaji Telefilms plans to develop several applications (possibly based around their other content) for the App Stores. Hopefully some promising app development company grabs this opportunity – than letting Balaji have their own team. A very useful and IMO most important service for India – Mobile banking for the poor – seems to be coming up soon. India’s largest bank SBI is partnering with Eko, a financial service provider to offer this. I sincerely hope this news becomes reality soon and not remain a hyped up plan for long. Maha Khumb Mela is happening and I find it surprising that not many applications/services around it have come up – Hope they have and just that I have not noticed them. Idea seems to be the only company making some news there. Enterprise services from operators are slowly coming up. While Vodafone & Airtel have had such services already, even MTNL has come up with fleet management services . Airtel is providing innovative services in Srilanka – booking doctor appointments for example. Why not bring them on to India soon? Lack of partners? Operators Bharti’s next target seems to be Zain. All the best to Bharti – Hope we have a truly multinational mobile operator from India in 2010. They anyways are already firmly established in South Asia – India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Warid Bangladesh has recently been re-named Airtel Bangla and has started clearing its debts . Another quasi-MVNO (after Virgin) will soon launch services – T24, from Future Group (Big Bazaar). Interestingly, Tatas are again the ones who are giving them spectrum. Airtel still believes that there is enough room for growth in the Indian telecom sector – however, they feel the tariff are unrealistic and needs correction. But is it possible to “increase” tariffs now? Which operator is going to bell the cat? Telenor now owns about 68% of Unitech Wireless, the company behind the ‘Uninor’ brand. Telenor says, ab mera number hai. Regulation The final decision on 3G (of not holding the auctions this financial year) will be taken by the Government this week, it seems. It really is becoming a national shame. Meanwhile, TRAI has sought consultation from market players for 4G and Ernst & Young recommends the operators to move to 4G directly. Business Week carries an article on how the operators are fearing the 3G auctions now. MNP seems to be doubtful even for 31-March. DoT was confident that the state run operators would be ready by then but looks like even BSNL is not ready . New operators like S-Tel who have had much hopes on this should really worry about this now. Radiation tests may soon be mandatory for all handsets launched in India. Miscellaneous Subscriber addition statistics for January for the GSM operators can be seen here . For the sixth straight month, Tatas are the ones with most additions. Wipro seems to be interested in acquiring companies in the telecom & energy areas. Hopefully, they will also have products soon like Infosys’ Flypp. The Government’s plan to incentivize local equipment vendors using the USO fund is not liked (rightfully) by the operators who have paid this money for rural expansion of the services. Mobile advertising space in India sees an overseas buy – M2Junction has been taken over by SinglePoint. And InMobi has become the exclusive partner for Hi5 .

Excerpt from:
Indian Telecom News Digest [14-Feb-10]

Indian Telecom News Digest [14-Feb-10]

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