Telecom Tuesday: 3G Delay, Telecom Subscriber growth, Industry consolidation and more…
Wow ! Lot has been happening around Indian Telecom Industry and last week was no different. Many of our readers have complained that we are covering mostly Telecom and Technology – But we cant stay away from it – It just keeps buzzing all the time !
Here is a Telecom Round-up for past week.
Contents
3G Auction Delayed yet again ! Most likely to happen in 2011 !
Just fed up of this 3G auction delays ! It just ridiculous the number of times the auction gets delayed. Its a very shameful thing for our Telecom Ministry.
According to the latest report, the 3G auction may happen only by 2011. The real story behind this delay as confirmed by DOT sources is breakdown of inter-ministerial discussions on 3G spectrum availability coupled with the telecom industry’s disinterest.
DoT officials say the law ministry has recommended that DoT either only auction two pan-India 3G slots for which spectrum is readily available or wait till the entire spectrum for four slots is released by defense. DoT wants to auction all slots now and allocate spectrum whenever available. [source]
19 Million New Telecom Subscribers Added in December 2009
Whether 3G happens or not, the frantic pace at which the Telecom subscribers are growing does not seem to be stopping any time soon. December 2009 proved to be yet another bumper month with more than more than 19 million new subscribers addition in a months alone.
Here are the numbers released by TRAI
- Total Telephone subscriber base reaches 562.21 Million
- Wireless subscription reaches 525.15 Million
- Wireline subscription declines to 37.06
- 19.10 Million new additions in wireless
- Wireline subscription declines by 0.09 Million
- Overall Tele-density reaches 47.89
- Broadband subscription is 7.83 million
The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 562.21 Million at the end of December-09 from 543.20 Million in November-09, thereby registering a growth rate of 3.50%. With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches 47.89.
Telecom Subscriber addition – Company Wise distribution
The growth in subscribers was quite even in December as compared to previous months, even though Tata is still leading snapping close to 17.46%. Reliance Bharti and Vodafone were all between 14% to 15% range. Uninor, the new entrant has started making some headway in this Indian telecom market with 6.32% share of subscribers.
Indian Telecom Industry heading for Consolidation
Sunil Mittal, head of India’s biggest Telecom company expects that Indian Telcos will see consolidation in next 24 months. Here is the video interview taken by NDTV where he gives some interesting information:
