Why LTE – Voice Fallback Crucial for Reliance Jio ?

Few countries offer both TD and FDD simultaneously – US and Sweden are the two markets. LTE ecosystem is well developed across multiple bands ranging from 800/900/1800/1900/2100/2500/2600MHz. In fact, 2300MHz doesn’t appear to be a very popular band amongst the sample set of 18 countries.

LTE was launched on an average seven years after 3G launch and when data contribution to revenue averaged ~27%. Assuming Reliance Jio’s launch by end of CY15, the data contribution in India would be ~20%. While it may seem slightly early, we believe the key is the development of the right (more…)

BSNL Tower De-merger to Help 4G-LTE Operators

The Government is planning to hive off BSNL’s tower business into a separate subsidiary with estimated valuations of cUSD3.8bn. BSNL has a total of c60,000 towers with a good mix of towers in rural and urban markets. Furthermore our industry analysis suggests these towers have good fibre connectivity as well. With all telcos focussing on enhancing data coverage, BSNL’s focus on the tower business via a separate subsidiary will increase tower supply to the sector and key beneficiaries in our view will be 4G entrants.

One of the challenges for 4G entrants has been network coverage given their dependence on the 2.3 GHz spectrum. We highlight coverage issues can be resolved in two ways: (a) adding sub1 GHz spectrum and (b) adding more towers.

With not much clarity on possible auctions of spectrum (more…)

Reliance Jio Testing Enters 2nd Phase, Massive Beta Launch Soon

Reliance Jio Infocomm is conducting pre-launch testing of the telecom network. A beta program is to be initiated in a few weeks to test the network and upgrade it for commercial launch of operations. Jio has demonstrated pan-India Lawful Intercept and Monitoring (LIM) facilities for LTE Services to the DoT. It has also participated in the acceptance testing of its network with DoT for intra-and inter-circle MNP. Jio has completed interconnect with all operators across circles. Jio says it has faced no issues in the interconnect of VoLTE calls with 2G/3G networks.

Jio services will include voice, high-speed (more…)

Why Just Dial Search Plus Launch Delayed ?

According to Just Dial management, the delay in the launch of Search Plus has arisen because the company is working on a better user interface and plans to launch the product when it is fully ready. Monetization remains a secondary focus; the primary focus is on driving usage and transactions on the platform once it is formally launched in Sep-2015. The company plans to launch its services and host an analyst meeting after the launch.

According to management, the top 11 cities have shown revenue growth of 20-22% yoy, primarily volume-led, and the revenue growth in non-top 11 cities has been upwards of 70% yoy. Management believes that non-top 11 cities start with a low yield (revenue per campaign) but that moves up significantly over a period of time as (more…)

5G Mobile Vision- MWC Shanghai

At MWC Shanghai, 5G mobile was a major topic as it serves as the underlying enabler for more bandwidth, IoT, and new applications across industry verticals. Major industry participants, including Huawei, LG Uplus, Government of Australia, and Nokia, all presented their views for 5G mobile services. Many presentations, rather than focusing on the technology itself, centred on the potential value 5G could bring to consumers.

The value of 5G mobile is not confined (more…)