Telecom Tuesday: 3G Auction, BSNLs 10p per min plan, Mobile Number portability & more..

The buzz around telecom sector in India seems to never die down, be it the growth of Telecom Subscribers, innumerable delays in 3G Auction or Mobile Number Portability or for that matter even the Mobile Call rates – Lots has been happening over past few days – Here is the our Telecom Tuesday giving you dose of everything that is happening around Telecom Sector

Finally 3G Auction crosses all hurdles – Expected in a weeks time.

I am not sure whether to really believe it – However, A Raja has finally made a statement, that all pending issues {with Law and Finance Ministries} are now resolved and 3G Auction will commence within a weeks time.

The Department of Telecommunication will issue ‘notice inviting applications’ [NIA] by the end of this week inviting potential bidders to participate in the auction process. The auction would take 40-45 days from the date of issuing NIA.

However, given the track-record, I would not be surprised if some or the other issue crops up at the last minute – Just be ready :)

Low, Low even Lower – BSNL soon to reduce Mobile call rates to 10 paise per minute

We are already a nation with lowest call rates in the world (by a fair margin), but it seems BSNL is now raising (or should I say lowering) the bar even further.

mobile-phone-usage[1]

Another announcement made by Telecom Minister A Raja suggests that BSNL will launch a plan which will reduce current mobile call rates to 10 paise per minute. You can call anywhere in India for that piddly sum :). Imagine speaking for an hour on mobile and you have to pay only 6 rupees ! I remember the first time time I got my mobile in late 90s, I used to pay Rs. 16 per minute of mobile call !

Rs. 500 phones and 10 paise per minute call rates – What next ? God Only knows.

The thing that will be interesting to watch – How will other private telecom operators react to this? The ARPU’s are already very low, and with BSNL announcing call rates that are at least 6 times lower – Its going to be really really tough for these guys.

What say?

Now The Mobile Number Portability pushed to May: Chennai & Bangalore will get it first !

MNP or the Mobile Number Portability is again pushed ahead by couple of months – Earlier it was going to be launched in March 2010, but according to recent statement by Telecom Minister A Raja, MNP should come into existence by May 2010.

MNP[1]

This delay is attributed to Security issues raised – For various reasons, Department of Telecommunication has not been able to get security clearance for the imported devices for mobile number portability.

Chennai and Bangalore will be the first cities where MNP will be first implemented and later will cover other cities in phased manner.

Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

Tagged as: 3g auction, arpu, BSNL, finance ministries, Indian-telecom, MNP, Mobile call rates, Mobile number portability, Movile number portability, paise, private telecom operators, raja, rupees, telecom sector, Telecom Tuesday, time time

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Viral February 23, 2010 at 2:05 pm: Nice presentation of whole Telecom scenario in a single article. I would live to add a few perspective based on implementation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) as follows:
I feel, the said competition from BSNL’s offer or for that matter any other cheap offers of past by announced by any other service provider, the emergence of MNP will turn the table in favour of the service provider who serves best in the interest of the consumers, be it through world-class services or tariff rates.
I feel consumers are in for very favourable times once MNP is implemented as it would lead to concentration of consumers in the hand of top few companies which are able to provide very customer-friendly tarrifs and user plans along with after sales service. The ‘service’ factor will gain immense significance in the light of MNP.
The prime focus will be customer service and friendly appoach. The past instances of rude behaviour by service providers or their call centers will come for urgent review from the side of customers. In fact, with the implementation of MNP, some smaller companies or even newer companies in that can benefit in the form of customer poaching from bigger fishes through various lucrative and user-friendly offers to the final consumer.
All in all, with the implementation of MNP, it would boil down to three crucial aspects: Service, Service and only Service. :) Advantage Consumer!
2 Madhukar February 24, 2010 at 12:39 am: hello sir,
actually i am user of BSNL for the last two years and now i wanna change in to 3g so can u plz tell me the call charges that would cast me and the changing plan with the amount i need to recharge with plz…..