Telecommunications & Technology
Airtel Mobile Data continues to grow vigorously (67% revenue growth Y/Y) and now contributes over half of the overall Y/Y India wireless revenue growth rate of 10% (5.4% of this 10%). Therefore, data is helping to offset the tepid voice minutes growth pattern. Notably, data ARPU at Rs25 (averaged across the entire customer base) now contributes 13% of the overall ARPU (of Rs202). This percentage is rising, thus helping overall ARPU.
One should note that Airtel India has not
Reliance Communications 3G services has expanded footprint across the circles of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and UP-East from June-20th. Aircel is the 3G License Holder in all the 5 circles where Reliance has started providing connections. This is potentially due to the positive stance given by the DoT for Intra-Circle roaming arrangements for 3G Data Services. Reliace 3G is already available in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir.
Reliance 3G will now be available
Reliance Communications has introduced a new ONE INDIA, ONE RATE plan which offers uniform Local / STD Rates across India even when you are roaming in any part of the Republic of India. Reliance GSM Mobile Users can avail the benefits of the said plan. It is not available for Reliance CDMA users.
The Details of the Plan as released to us are as follows,
One India, One Rate Rs 599 Post Paid Plan: 1,200 mina of free outgoing calls (Roaming, STD, Local; subsequent charge of 30 p/min for Roaming, STD & Local; unlimited national incoming roaming free; 2GB data and 100 SMS’ free Plan Rent of Rs 599 / Month.
One India, One Rate Rs 350 Post Paid Plan: 700 mins of free outgoing calls (Roaming, STD, Local);
subsequent
Beleaguered Integrated Telecom company, Reliance Communications’ has raised its headline voice tariff by ~6.7% to 1.6 paise/ sec (vs 1.5 paise/ sec currently). It is also increasing tariffs on discounted plans by up to 20%. eg.1) Reduced 100 mins of STD to 80 mins of STD on Rs45 voucher; 2) talk time reduced to 400 mins from 500 mins on Rs 148 voucher; 3) talk time reduced to 2,500 mins of on-net from 3,000 mins on Rs 259 voucher.
Incumbent Operators Keep the Indirect Onslaught on Consumers
Though incumbent operators have not
India’s Leading Wireless Operator, Airtel has decided to make the right use of Unused Spectrum and Network at Night.
Airtel launched Night Unlimited Calling pack at just Rs 7 / Month where in you can make Local Calls to any Airtel Mobile and talk for unlimited time between Midnight 00:00 to 06:00 Hours every day.
In order to develop taste for Indians towards Data Services, you can surf and browse as much as you want on Airtel 2G GPRS Data network with the
Voice continues to be the major Revenue Engine for Telecommunications Companies in India. Telcos move tariffs in India on a circle-by-circle strategy using Big Data Analytics to improve their ARPU realizations. Excerpts from our Database are as under on how Vodafone India moved its Voice Tariffs in the first 2 months of 2014.
Mobile phones have increasingly become more than a communication device – 40% of the respondents in a survey across urban/ semi-urban and rural areas claim that it is currently their primary means of entertainment. While people are upgrading their phones to smartphones and increasingly using their phones to watch videos, listen to music or take photos, having a smartphone does not equate to having a mobile data plan yet. People quite frequently buy pirated content (videos/ music) from local retailers; which is then shared among friends. Moreover, the rise in the number of people that have smartphones, but no data subscription is leading to the growth
Idea Cellular CEO Mr Himanshu Kapania and CFO Mr Akshaya Moondra hosted an Analyst call in which they highlighted the company’s strategy going forward.
On Spectrum
First, the company believes it is important to have a data offering for customers in the metro markets, and Idea’s top preference was Delhi. Idea chose Delhi because one additional block of 5Mhz spectrum was available, it is the No 3 operator by revenue market share, and it
In the Global telecom industry, only the Indian market was able to generate double-digit YoY revenue growth, driven by both a recovery in voice Revenue per Minute (RPM) as the competitive environment among the players improved, and an additional kicker from data growth—in other words, both growth engines were still working.
From a revenue perspective, at least for the time being, the advent of smartphones has created an additional growth driver for the sector, in the form of data revenues generated. Thus, to date in the region, the amount of SMS and voice revenue cannibalised by OTT mobile messenger applications, such as WhatsApp, WeChat and LINE, has been more than offset by the data revenue generated.
OTT voice a further cannibalisation threat
Three things have changed over the last 6-12 months that in our view
Idea Cellular the plain vanilla voice operator hiked 2G Voice Tariffs for its large pre-paid subscriber base (95%) across 12 circles based on Big Data Analytics of its Billing Team so that the pinch is not felt on the pockets of consumer and yet Revenue Per Minute [RPM] goes up marginally across each circle. The Analytics team chooses the most optimal way to do this so that the company doesn’t lose consumers as well yet maximize the profit in the cluster / circle.