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

by

Telecom Towere Business IndiaThe 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

Read more

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

by

Reliance Jio 4G to Impact 3G in IndiaReliance 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

Read more

Why Just Dial Search Plus Launch Delayed ?

by

Justdial Search PlusAccording 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

Read more

5G Mobile Vision- MWC Shanghai

by

MWC China -5G TechnologyAt 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

Read more

JustDial Local Search up 33%, MasterApp by Sept

by

JustDial Local SearchJust Dial’s Search maintained a strong growth trajectory: searches were up 33% yoy in 1QFY16 with strong growth across business segments. Tier-II/III cities are growing at a very fast pace, supporting 20% growth for the top-5 cities. Steady growth in paid campaigns (ended at 346,000 in 1QFY16 in 15.3 mn listings) and steady pricing helped Just Dial sustain a 25% revenue growth in FY2015. Churn rate remains unchanged at 44% levels given high mortality and shift rate. Just Dial shared internet penetration limiting growth for the search business.

Just Dial aims to launch master app by September 2015 and is investing in back-end infrastructure in order to enhance

Read more

Idea Cellular Accelerates 4G LTE & Focus on IoT

by

Idea 4G LTE iOtIdea Cellular management was cautious about LTE initially. But a significant and unexpected acceleration in 4G device ecosystem in the past 18 months, increased affordability of LTE handsets and reduction in LTE equipment prices warranted up-fronting of 4G launch to 2016. Initially the launch will be in four circles, including Karnataka and TN where Idea has no 3G, as well as places with high 3G demand. Idea expects LTE to add

Read more

Mobile Network Quality & 3G Data Helping Incumbents

by

Airtel 3G NetworkAirtel’s overall voice market share is a better way to analyze the impact of smaller players’ lower tariff strategy on incumbents’ market share (given it is an incumbents across all the circles). The data shows that Airtel has managed to hold on to its share (~30%) despite smaller players’ pricing minutes at a discount (for example, Telenor’s voice RPM is 20% lower v/s Bharti/Idea, adjusting for their ILD/NLD/roaming revenue). Telenor has a 6.5% revenue share in its six circles and managed to gain ~170bps in the last nine quarters. Even Idea has gained ~220bps in 14 of its newer circles despite overall good execution. These 14 circles contribute 60% of the industry revenues and Idea currently has ~10% revenue share in them.

3G volume pick-up has helped incumbents’

Read more

Does Uninor has Business Case without Mobile Data Service ?

by

Uninor IndiaTelenor / Uninor India turned profitable in Q2FY15 with reported EBITDA of INR 192mn for the first time since starting operations in FY09, although revenue remains flat at INR 11bn QoQ. Traffic grew by 2.9% to 48.7mn minutes, led by healthy subscriber growth of 4.2% partly offset by a 1.3% MOU decline to 414 (unlike Idea’s 2.0% MOU improvement). Voice RPM fell by 1.8% to INR 0.226/minute, lower than Idea’ RPM fall of 2.9%. Management had said the company is a net payer of interconnect charges, due to its lower market share; the reduction in IUC gave a boost to EBITDA and has had a lower impact on RPM. RPM is still at one-third discount to Bharti Airtel & Idea Cellular, and is yet to reach profitability; this is contrary to Consensus view that low RPM may not allow Telenor to reach

Read more

4G LTE Progress – Reliance Jio vs Airtel

by

Airtel 4GIndia’s leading Integrated Telco, Airtel is doing the right thing by launching services before competition kicks in and trying to get users on its 4G network to maintain market share. However, Reliance Jio’s entry will increase the competitive intensity, putting pressure on data tariffs.

Reliance Jio Infocomm commercial launch will be around December 2015 as we had predicted, covering 80% of India’s population. Offerings will include voice, high-speed broadband, digital commerce, media and payment services. Over the last few months, Airtel has been ramping up

Read more

StayZilla Vs Zo Rooms – Hotels & Alternative Stay Aggregators

by

StayZillaStayzilla is an aggregator of hotels and alternative accommodation on the Mobile App & Web. The company’s focus is to build supply, which it believes is the most difficult issue to resolve. It believes that there is enough pent-up demand to fill in any supply that will come online. Traffic on the platform also depends more on having inventory across a wider geographical coverage (number of towns/cities) rather than deeper coverage (more hotels within a geographical area).

Importance of supply can be seen from the fact that the company believes that the property owners are customers rather than those booking the hotel. Further, Stayzilla doesn’t believe that hotel owners / operators need technology for booking as is

Read more