India Business Blog | Funding & Telecom Trends | » Telecom Tuesday

TRAI’s new guidelines to Telecom Companies – How to publish Tariff Plans!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:35:27 +0000

From an Indian mobile consumer point of view, last few months have been great. TRAI has been coming up quite a few directives that are pro-consumers. At the same time, for telecom companies, it is a nightmarish period – these new TRAI directives are adding to their woes on already burdened Telco’s.

The new directive released by TRAI on 16th January 2012, make it compulsory for Indian Telecom companies have to adhere to certain rules and regulation while Publishing their Tariff Plans. These directive were put into place based on extensive consultations & Open House discussions.

Highlights of new guidelines released by TRAI

1.) All the tariff plans meant for pre-paid and post-paid subscribers shall be published in separate formats. These formats shall contain all the tariff plans offered by the Telecom provider in a service area covering all tariff items along with tariff for the same in proper tabular formats at one place for easy comparison of tariff plans.

2.) All the tariff plans shall be made available to the subscribers in the prescribed formats at their Customer Care Centres, points of sale / retail outlets as well as online on the website of the Telecom Provider.

3.) The Telecom access service provider shall ensure that the tariff plans published in the prescribed formats are updated on their website and customer care centre every time there is a change in any of the tariff plans, and make available the updated tariff plans in these formats by the 7th day of January, April, July and October at their points of sale and retail outlets.

4.) The Telecom access service provider have been mandated to publish all the tariff plans in prescribed formats in at least one regional language and one English newspaper at an interval not more than six month and provide compliance to the TRAI.

TRAI has been pushing for a improved transparency amongst the telecom providers and the directives passed by them recently clearly point to the fact that they want to make life easier for mobile consumers. Having said that, I believe TRAI needs to be more access provider friendly – and needs to introduce policies that help telecom providers as well!

What do you think?

Vodafone decides to disconnect mobiles inactive for 60 days!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:05:15 +0000

According to reports appearing in media, Vodafone, the 2nd largest Telecom Operator has decided to go ahead and disconnect the services of mobile users who have not used their cellphones to make or receive calls for over 60 days.

This is probably due to the fact that Department of Telecom (DoT) have recently come out with circular that put stringent guidelines on the number allocation criteria for mobile operators. Due to this, Vodafone seems to woefully short on the availability of Mobile phone numbers to be allocated to new users.

This announcement will effects millions of Vodafone users, especially the ones who have picked up Lifetime Validity connections. Currently they need to only make a single phone call in six months to keep the number active. However, going forward the will have to use it within 60 days to ensure that their number is not disconnected.

Having said that, I am not sure if Vodafone can legally disconnect these Lifetime users. The reason being – It is binding on Vodafone to honour the agreement that has been made during the time of procuring new connection (about keeping active once in 6 months). A lifetime subscriber has full right to fight back if their connections are disconnected only after 60 days of non-usage.

In India, especially in urban areas, many subscribers have 2, 3 or even 4 Sims. They pick these extra Sims due to some attractive offers or due to roaming or number of other reasons. Whatever the case, this announcement will really put millions of subscribers in jeopardy!

Vodafone has said that they will be intimating the existing “irregular” users by either SMS or phone calls. However, I doubt how effective this will be as many users start using the sim only when it is required and most of the time it is switched off.

We will have to wait and watch how Vodafone customers actually react to this announcement – It is very much possible Vodafone may be taken to court by one those disgruntled users whose connection may be disconnected.

What do you think?

Airtel’s new innovative “Call me Back” SMS Service can be boon in tough times!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:42:01 +0000

I am sure you have heard this phrase often – “Arre yaar mujhe missed call de de sirf” – Missed call phenomenon is rampant in India and it is for a reason. It helps millions of people in India communicate for free.

It is also something that Telecom Operators probably hate the most. Users using missed call feature, use up quite a bit of network bandwidth, yet operators are unable to make a single penny out of it and they cannot do anything about it.

It is reasons like these that India has lowest ARPU’s in the world. The call rates are so low, that it is nearly impossible for operators to lower any further. Competing on call rates is now thing of past – Mobile VAS is in thing. Every operator is coming up with a unique VAS service to entice users.

Unlike most countries, India has 95% prepaid subscribers, where mobile subscribers recharge their mobile very frequently. There are mobile recharge available as low as Rs. 10 (approx. 20 cents), where a user can make about 10 -15 calls and receive calls as well.

The downside of these low denomination recharges - you are caught stranded when you have no balance in your account. No outgoing calls or SMSes are possible.

Now, Airtel’s new innovative “Call me Back” service is planning to capitalize exactly on this issue. Even when out of balance, Airtel prepaid customers can now send an emergency ‘call me back’ SMS alert to a friend, This is possible even when the customer has no balance, and is unable to even make a ‘missed call’.

To avail this, Customers simply need to dial *141#. This service allows an Airtel prepaid mobile customer to send upto 5 call me back SMS alerts per month to other Airtel customers absolutely free of cost.

Additionally, Airtel has also launched a “Gifting Service” where subscribers on the Airtel network can send and receive talk time to each other and even give away mobile services’ gift packs anytime.

Both these services can really be a boon to Airtel pre-paid users when you are stuck with zero balance and want urgently make a call or send a sms! This is an useful service and I am sure other mobile operators will follow suite as well!

what do you think?

Tata unifies all CDMA, GSM and Photon consumers on brand Tata Docomo!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:43:55 +0000

This is an excellent move by Tata Teleservices. According to the latest press release sent to us – Tata has decided that it will bring all their CDMA, GSM as well as Photon consumers all under one brand – Tata Docomo!

Over last couple of years, Tata’s focus has been mostly GSM services under Tata Docomo brand, while their CDMA services were managed and marketed under Tata Indicom brand. With this brand unification, brand Tata DOCOMO now moves into the CDMA space, and all Tata Indicom customers shall be migrated to Tata DOCOMO starting as early as tomorrow (20th October). Tata’s 3,000-plus-strong CDMA retail footprint will now become accessible for GSM as well, and vice versa.

According to the press release, following strategies will be adopted under the unified Tata Docomo brand.

Company migrates all Tata Indicom customers to Tata DOCOMO
Evolved strategy built on belief that phones are not just for talking
CDMA, GSM, 3G & Photon platforms available under new, unified brand
Products & services available through a single, strong retail network
To upgrade strong CDMA network to unlock next level of data usage
Unveils exciting range of cutting-edge CDMA handsets & Smartphones

Tata Docomo Press Release

Tata Teleservices Limited has adopted a future-facing strategic approach to ring in the next growth wave in the Company, unveiling an integrated technology-agnostic structure to leverage emerging market opportunities. The Company will leverage its wide range of products and services and reach out to customers with one common brand—Tata DOCOMO—cutting across the CDMA and GSM platforms. With this move, brand Tata DOCOMO now moves into the CDMA space, and all Tata Indicom customers shall be migrated to Tata DOCOMO from tomorrow.

Tata DOCOMO believes that phones are not just for talking and the new strategic approach will bring in the full might of TTL’s telecom experience to customers through an elevation in the promise from ‘only telecom’ to seamless Access, relevant Content and differentiated Solutions. The Company’s new portfolio of products, applications and solutions will allow consumers to access cutting-edge voice and data services, enjoy content of their choice, and avail of a host of solutions, ranging from mere conveniences to life- and lifestyle-assistance services. The company has consolidated all organizational assets—spectrum, retail touch-points, digital footprint and consumer franchises across technology platforms under a single brand, Tata DOCOMO.

“These are exciting times at TTL and mark the Company’s evolution from being just an access provider to a multi-platform telecom applications and solutions organization, with one single brand—Tata DOCOMO—for customer connect, ease and delight. This is the birth of Telecom 2.0,” Mr Deepak Gulati, Executive President, Mobility Business, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. “Our new strategy will unify our brands and unlock the synergies across the CDMA, GSM & 3G platforms. We are pleased to welcome our Tata Indicom customers into the Tata DOCOMO family, offering them a new world of telecom and lifestyle-impacting experiences,” he added.

TTL has also put in place a new integrated go-to-market approach—across the sales, marketing and customer service domains. For instance, the Company’s 3,000-plus-strong CDMA retail footprint will now become accessible for GSM as well, and vice versa. This is in line with the Company’s stated objective of streamlining operations and creating a strong consumer-facing organization. The migration of services to the unified Tata Docomo brand will happen in Delhi-NCR at a later date.

TTL’s new strategic direction in the Access, Content and Solutions spaces, enables the Company to offer compelling propositions to customers in a market that has been witnessing far-reaching changes in terms of usage trends and customer preferences. The growth of the Internet usage on phones, the arrival of Smartphones, the explosion of social-networking and the evolution of the Indian consumer—all will lead to a fundamental shift in the role of the mobile phone in everyone’s life. The phone is no longer just for talking; it holds the potential to impact lifestyles, even transform lives.

[Disclaimer: Tata Docomo is a regular advertiser on trak.in as well as TGF]

What’s wrong with BSNL – They have disconnected IDEA, Vodafone & others from their network!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:37:00 +0000

Since last Saturday I am unable to make calls from my idea connection to any number on BSNL network connections. This is most likely due to the non-payment of interconnect usage charges (IUC) by Private Mobile Operators. IUC are essentially the charges paid by one operator to the other for using its network to complete calls and send SMSes. So when Idea consumer makes a call to BSNL network – Idea has to pay certain charges to complete its call to BSNL and vice-versa.

Here is the recording of message that I get when I try to make calls from my Idea Network to BSNL.

BSNL has lot of outstanding from various operators for very long time, and there is no doubt that private operators are responsible to pay BSNL, but that does not mean that users should get screwed for this issues between operators.

Infact, BSNL has defied the ruling of the appellate tribunal which has directed BSNL not to disconnect users from its network and had clearly stated that the operators shall continue to pay intra-circle carriage charges to BSNL at the same rate that they had been paying since July, 2010.

The question is – What should consumers do in such a scenario? Any answers?

One thing for sure, this move is going to hurt BSNL most…. What do you think?

India crosses 800 Million Telecom Subscribers –Adds 19m mobile users in Jan!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:31:00 +0000

The Indian Telecom subscriber count has reached 806.13 Million by end of January 2011, thanks to unabated growth in mobile subscribers. India added 18.99 Million new Mobile subscribers in January to take the total mobile subscriber count to 771.18 Million.

According to the latest report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has 538.38 million Urban Subscribers while 267.74 million Rural subscribers. The mobile growth in rural areas is higher at 3.07% as compared to urban which was about 2.06% in January. The share of Urban Subscriber
has declined to 66.79% from 67% where as share of Rural Subscribers has increased from 33% to 33.21%. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches 67.67 percent.

Telecom Subscription Data Highlights as on 31st Jan 2011

Interestingly, according to the new VLR data released by TRAI, out of total 771.18 Million mobile subscribers, 548.66 Million were active subscribers. So roughly about 71 percent of all the connections sold are being actively used. It is also interesting to note that Bharti Airtel has maximum active subscribers (92.63%) closely followed by Idea (90.34%). When it comes to region, Mumbai has lowest proportion of active subscribers (59.59%), while Jammu & Kashmir has the maximum (81.26%)!

I was also looking forward to see the churn in between telecom providers due to onset of Mobile Number Portability. It seems from the report that instead of actually being beneficial to smaller providers, it is exactly the opposite. They have lost more subscribers to their larger counter-parts than other way around. Infact, Videocon and HFCL are actually showing negative growth!

New Subscriber Additions in January 2011

Bharti maintained the lead adding 17.38 percent of all subscribers followed by Reliance (16.95) Vodafone (16.37) & Idea (13.22%). None of the newer Operators are able to make the mark with all of them put together adding less than 5% of all subscribers.

Telecom Operator Market Share

Bharti leads the pack with over one-fifth of Indian Telecom market under its fold, followed by closely placed Reliance (16.71%) and Vodafone (16.52%).

Broadband Subscriber growth in India

Broadband growth remains subdued – In the month of Jan total of 0.29 million broadband subscribers were added taking the total kitty to 11.21 million, thus showing a growth rate of 2.70%.

Which Indian Telecom Provider offers Best 3G mobile services? [Poll]

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:18:47 +0000

I have already got on the 3G bandwagon – Have used 3G data card and also 3G sim card on mobile and I have not been too happy with it. I am not going to name the provider – But this post essentially is to find out from collective wisdom of readers as to who is the best 3G service provider in the country.

So, I urge you to take the following poll and let us (as well as our readers know) who is the best 3G service provider in the country. You can vote based on what you have experienced yourself or based on what you have heard from your friends who have used 3G services.

Take Our Poll

We will run be running this survey for about a month. Do help us in finding out who is the best of all.

Please do share it on your facebook & twitter :) !

Bharti Airtel Net Profit slips by 41% – but Outlook positive!

Viral Dholakia — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:19:12 +0000

Bharti Airtel commenced its journey in India more than a decade ago with a promise of delivering world-class and affordable services. Now, the company has fulfilled those aspirations and moves on to the global stage with a new brand identity.

Even as the debate continues as to which telecom operator will benefit the most from the implementation of MNP, India’s top mobile phone carrier Bharti Airtel today announced its third quarter earnings which lagged market forecast on the back of weaker margins in its African operations.

Bharti’s consolidated net profit for the December quarter came in at Rs.13.03 billion, down 41% from Rs.21.95 billion logged during the year ago period. Even on QoQ basis, the Q3FY11 consolidated profits were down by 22% from the second quarter’s Rs.16.61 billion. Analysts had estimated profits at around Rs.15-16 billion for this quarter.

Recently, Airtel had unveiled a new logo to make the next big leap in a bid to attain new brand identity and present itself as single and unified face to customers. However, this huge one-time re-branding exercise has come at a cost of Rs.3.4 billion to the telecom major.

The company also witnessed foreign exchange loss of Rs.1.5 billion on account of adverse currency movement in India and Africa, leading to further erosion in its consolidated net income.

Bharti’s revenues surged by 51% to reach Rs.15576 crore for Q3FY11 from a year ago period. However, the company has provided positive forecast with improved prospects in Africa and launch of 3G services in India.

Will Bharti be able to continue its good run in Africa and India?

Telecom Tuesday: Tata Tele growth, BSNL MNP Implementation, Rural Internet Penetration

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:35:42 +0000

Tata Teleservices has not become the 4th largest Telecom Operator in India

Tata Teleservices has crossed the 75 million subscriber mark to become the fourth largest telecom operator in the country leaving behind state operated BSNL. The three telecom operators Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance have all over 100 million wireless subscribers with Airtel at the top.

The growth of Mobile subscribers has been primarily led by Tata Docomo, the GSM based offering which has constantly launched path breaking pricing plans as well as innovative data schemes. Infact, Tata Docomo launched last year with “one paisa per second” plan which set the tone for Entire Indian telecom Industry.

Tata Tele has doubled its subscriber base in last one year going from 38.1 million mobile subscribers in July 2009 to 76.9 Million in August 2010.

BSNL says it is ready to offer MNP to its subscribers

Mobile Number Portability has been already seen postponement of dates more than 4 times. But, it seems that we may get lucky the 5th time. There are signs that MNP will be implemented this time.

BSNL has gone ahead and announced that it is ready with its infrastructure to implement MNP for its subscribers.

Having said that, it does not necessarily mean that larger Operators will be ready by then…Infact, they are quite reluctant to offer MNP to their subscribers and fear that the service may lead them to lose a significant number of subscribers to their competitors. Also, some of these Telecom operators want compensation from the government in lieu of possible financial loss that they will suffer after implementing the MNP.

Guess, only time will tell if MNP will be implemented by Oct. or we will see yet another postponement.

84% of rural India are unaware of Internet

Although, Urban India has adopted Internet in large numbers (especially younger generation), Internet penetration in Rural India is close to zilch. Even though Government is making huge efforts to increase the penetration, it seems to be failing miserably.

According to the survey conducted jointly by IAMAI and IMRB, about 84 percent of people in rural India are not aware of Internet. The organizations believe that this lack of awareness is the primary reason that has prevented internet take-up in rural India.

The research further found that 38 percent of rural inhabitants feel no need for internet access. Further reasons for not using the internet include lack of an internet access point (31%), unfamiliar with computers (31%), no computer available (28%), need for guidance (28%), no electricity (22%), and not being able to afford internet (10%).

At present, common service centers and cyber cafés serve as the primary mode of accessing internet, with more than 70 percent of the rural population accessing the internet this way.