2G GSM / CDMA

2G GSM Spectrum / License Expiry in Next 3 Years

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Since the expiry date for licenses in several circles will come up in Nov-14, the government will have to take the decision for auction of renewal spectrum prior to that. The following Chart Shows License / Spectrum Expiry Dates for Incumbents – Airtel, Reliance GSM, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular in the next 3 years 900MHz … Read more

Energy Cost Impact on Telecom Tower Companies

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Telecom companies’ power cost has three components – grid power, batteries and diesel. Grid power is the cheapest source of power and is the main source in most urban sites. Telecom sites need upwards of 99% uptime, but round-the-clock grid power is not available for most towers. When grid power is not available, the cell site shifts to battery backup. In rural India, most sites either do not have grid connectivity or have grid power availability for a very short period, and grid and battery are not sufficient to provide the high uptime levels required for a cell site. Therefore, most of these sites run on diesel generators

Power and fuel cost is the single-largest cost head for a telecom operator (8-10% of revenue for the most efficient operators). Reading into the Balance sheet of Pure telecom Infratel Player,

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Churn Declines Quality of Subscriber Base Improving

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The churn level in the Indian Wireless Industry has started to decline sharply, in line with our expectations, driven by – Stricter subscriber verification norms set by the regulator in November 2012. Hike in the prices of SIM cards by distributors (as indicated by our checks) to cover up for the declining volumes, thus discouraging … Read more

Indian Mobile Sector – Cloud of Spectrum Uncertainity

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Overall we are still relatively cautious on Indian Telecommunications given high valuations, regulatory drama and clearly the 2G auctions continue to drag on. The regulatory landscape has never been easy to call, but with every delay in 2G auctions, the risk of large license renewal payments is reducing. For the upcoming auctions scheduled in March, … Read more

Airtel Leads Revenue Market Share in 2012

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Telecom regulator TRAI released operator wise gross revenue data for 3Q FY13. Revenue market share for incumbent operators (including Bharti, Idea and Vodafone) increased to 67.7% in 3Q FY13 from 66.9% in 2Q FY13. Bharti and Idea gained ~50bps and ~20bps market share QoQ. RMS for Vodafone remained almost flat whereas other operators like Rcom, … Read more

CDMA auctions may add a new competitor

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The Cabinet will decide on the proposals to reduce the base price on the 800MHz CDMA spectrum by 30-50%. Although the auctions for CDMA did not attract any participants in November, we believe that Sistema could likely expand its footprint in the CDMA category, since it already owns 2.5MHz of spectrum. The recently concluded auction … Read more

Indian Telecom M&A Policy ensures no new entrant at low costs

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Along with the one-time spectrum charges, the Cabinet also approved the M&A policy. This policy suggests that if the acquiring company holds spectrum against the entry fee paid, then the resultant entity would have to pay to the Government the difference between the auction-determined price and the entry fee paid earlier.

This key policy move eliminates

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How do Mobile / Wireless Tariff Work in India – Beginners Guide

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In India, different type of prepaid vouchers are available and 95% of the Indian Mobile / Cellular Market is Pre-Paid. We’d like to discuss on the Various types of vouchers in India and How Telecom Tariffs Work ?

What is New Sim card + first recharge (FRC)
New sim card sales provide a customer with a new sim card, a new mobile number. This pack generally provides some talktime and a
basic headline tariff structure valid over a given period.

What is Plan Voucher
After the initial validity is over, the customer uses the plan voucher to enrol in a tariff plan for a certain validity. It does not provide any monetary value.

What are Top-Ups ?
Top-ups only offer monetary value to customer’s account and do not change the tariff plans or validity.

What are Combo Plans
Combo Plans alters one or more items in the tariff plan of the consumer and adds

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