EVDO Wireless Broadband

Bharti Infratel Tenancy Sluggish, Reliance Jio’s Light Weight Towers

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Bharti Infratel Growth SluggishBharti Infratel saw reduction in tenancies currently as the smaller operators are exiting the market. There was a reduction of 1,179 tenancies in this quarter due to such smaller operator exits (Largely Videocon’s Exit). But even excluding the impact of such exits, gross tenancy addition of 2,546 is muted vs the prior four-quarter tenancy addition of 3,185. This suggests that even the Big 3 (Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) have been slow in rolling out tenancies/towers in this quarter, in part seasonal and in part due to the nearness of the upcoming spectrum auctions.

Strong loading on existing sites has led to a ~3% Y/Y increase in average rentals (~Rs 35,039 for Jun-16). Almost all 3G/4G build-out by operators

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What is Reliance Communications 3G / EVDO Mobile Data Strategy ?

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Reliance communications 3G Mobile Data StrategyReliance Communications has divided all the telecom circles in 3 categories – 3G metro, 3G circles and 3G dark circles (where RCom does not have 3G spectrum). RCom plans to use a combination of 3G and CDMA to penetrate the data users in 3G metros and circles according to the requirement of subscribers (for example dongle users will stay on CDMA, while smart-phone users will rather use 3G H+ Network).

The company intends to use CDMA in 3G dark circles, where RCom has not

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Free Municipal / City Wi-Fi Network Hype in India

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In coming months, we will likely see efforts being made to provide free WiFi hotspots by State/Central governments and R-Jio across key cities in India. For instance, 1) The newly elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi is looking to offer free WiFi in public places across Delhi, as per its Manifesto; 2) Telecom Minister recently inaugurated BSNL’s free WiFi in Varanasi.
What is Offered in the Free Wi-Fi Package in varanasi ?

  • Free Wi-Fi limited to 30 minutes per day ; multiple sessions allowed
  • Recharge options of

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Reliance JIo LTE – A Serious Threat to Reliance / MTS / Tata Photon EVDO Broadband

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Reliance Jio to Compete with EVDO BroadbandReliance Jio Infocomm‘s 4G LTE and FTTH is a serious threat to hi-speed EVDO based broadband dongles as a natural initial market. The dongle business marries well with the expected USP of Reliance Jio’s service offering – speed. High average usage on dongles (we estimate usage of around 1.5-1.8 GB/month/sub across the estimated EVDO dongle subs base of 8-9 mn in the country), low customer expectations on seamless coverage (versus handset customers), and no need for voice capabilities makes dongles a natural market for Jio to focus on.

EVDO Broadband offerings from Reliance NetConnect, Tata Photon and MTS MBlaze have a lion’s share of the dongle market

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Is Wi-Fi Friend or Foe of Airtel / Vodafone / Idea ?

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WiFi can do the heavy lifting on mobile data traffic. The way your Android devices are configured by default says more about this – all your App updates have to happen through Wi-Fi network, thus can be used as a service differentiation tool.

WiFi usage is gaining a lot more traction – as unlimited 3G data packages become rare for consumers and WiFi is often considered ‘free’. Operators benefit from offloading traffic from macro networks. But not every telco can do this – fixed line connectivity is still critical, hence integrated telcos are relatively better positioned.

WiFi deployment has been widely considered as a cost avoidance / saving strategy, with little evidence of stand-alone revenue contribution so far. Gartner estimates that WiFi

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How Airtel, Idea Telecom Operators OffLoad Mobile Data to Wi-Fi & Cells

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WiFi offloading is being increasingly adopted with heavy mobile data demand in Urban Areas. Given that a substantial portion of mobile traffic occurs inside buildings, telcos are investing/patterning for offloading data to WiFi hotspots.

As mobile and fixed broadband becomes more complimentary, WiFi can do the heavy lifting on data traffic, which can stimulate fixed broadband usage and support total ARPU. This can also be used as a service differentiation tool. But not every telco can do

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Will Indian Regulators Encourage Entrepreneurs like Wireless Gate in Japan ?

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Wireless Gate Mobile InternetWireless Gate Japan is run by Ikeada, a former NTT DoCoMo wireless engineer who envisaged exploding data usage and established the company in 2004. Wireless Gate (WG) employs only 11 staff but sees this as plenty, despite 30% annual subscriber growth. Wireless Gate has 380,000 customers and remains confident growth will remain sustainable as consumer data needs, much like memory, tend to remain sticky to the downside.

Spectrum and Infrastructure of Wireless Gate [WG]
WG leases lines from carriers and resells to its own customers. The contracts with the carriers are billed on a ‘usage’ basis. WG sees no benefit being in the infrastructure game as it

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Reliance NetConnect / Tata DoCoMo E-VDO Dongle Business Saturating

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Reliance NetConnect Wireless BroadbandIdea Cellular Executives who discussed 3G Data Uptake in India are of the view that the Dongle or Data-card business (dominated by CDMA EV-DO operators: RCOM, Tata, MTS) may face growth-constraints over the medium-term due to the following factors,

  1. Slowdown in laptop and Desktop PC sales
  2. Growth in Tablets and Phablets [Mobile Smartphones with 5-to-6inch screen]
  3. Growing tendency to use 3G-activated smartphones as personal Wi-Fi hotspots and
  4. Narrowing of the price-performance and network coverage gap

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Hotspot 2.0 – Threat of ubiquitous Wifi for Telcos

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Hostpost 2.0 WiFi CoverageResearch estimates that only 17-18% of wireless data is actually consumed while in transit. The majority of data is consumed at home, office or semi-stationary locales like restaurants, cafes, parks etc.

Smartphones and tablets are generally capable of accessing both networks – cellular and WiFi. With the proliferation of smartphones, the WiFi industry is developing a new network standard (Hotspot 2.0), which would alleviate much of the log-in and authentication

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