Uninor – Rationalizing Tariffs with Deep Pockets

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Uninor / Telenor India Revenues for Q1-2013 degrew 30% affected from the scale of 13 to 6 circles, but organic revenues in the six operating circles grew 7%. Uninor added 1.4mn VLR subs in the 6 circles during the quarter, with a churn of 5% from 12% previously. Uninor does not look to lower the aggression which could cap any expected RPM hikes by incumbents like Airtel and Idea.

ARPU and MOU have also increased 5% and 10% respectively to INR94 and 401/subs/month. It has reduced the RPM by 3% during the quarter, offering current RPM of 24paise/min. With an arbitrage of 11 paisa./mins vs incumbents (idea, Bharti RPM at 35paise/min), it continues to fight for market share with lower price offering.

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Mediatek Expanding in low-priced tablet market

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The global tablet market is accelerating as low cost tablets are rapidly improving in functionality in the $40-200 price range, below tier 1 tablets. Initial demand is led by Chinese makers exporting to emerging markets with low PC penetration, with usage
mainly for entertainment (games, movies and music) but starting to offer productivity as keyboard attachments and Android apps proliferate.

Tablet chipset, component suppliers, and design houses believe published shipment estimates last year at 50 mn units may have been understatements and also believe this year builds may approach 120 mn units. The overall tablet market would have 120 mn
Apple/Samsung + 120 mn China tier 2/whitebox + 70 mn other foreign brands, about 310 mn units versus PC industry volumes in the 300-350 mn range.

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RCom raises price of its tariff vouchers significantly

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Reliance Communications has hiked prices of some of its special tariff vouchers (STV) significantly (over 20%). For example, a STV of Rs46 is now offering 140minutes of on-net minutes vs. 200minutes earlier. This is the second major tariff hike by RCom in the last 6 months. Earlier, in Sep’12 RCom increased the base tariff of … Read more

Airtel Introduces Video Downloads at just Rs 1

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India’s Leading Wireless Operator Airtel has introduced Video Downloads for its customers at just Rs 1. How can this happen ? To access Airtel’s all new Re 1/- video downloads library Option 1: Call toll-free IVR 52010, you will receive a WAP link of Re 1 Video Store in your SMS inbox. Upon clicking on … Read more

Vodafone 2G Mobile Voice Tariff Hike in April

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Vodafone IndiaLed by Airtel each and every Cellular Service Provider in India resorted to Tariff Hike by raising tariffs or reducing the benefits of STV or Pre-Paid Packs. Vodafone also did Tariff hikes selectively with its own Analytics stratgey preserving Traffic Minutes and yet trying to improve the realizations. Here is a list of Voice Call Tariff hikes by Vodafone in April 2013 in India.

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4G LTE to Account for Over $1 trillion in Revenues over 5 Years

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According to Juniper Research, 4G LTE mobile broadband service revenues over the next five years will account for over $1 trillion, representing approximately 17% of the cumulative operator billed service revenue from all mobile services. Nitin Bhas in the Report says, Along with the 4G network roll-out, the 4G/Wi-Fi combination will continue to provide a … Read more

When will Airtel, Vodafone, Idea introduce Share Everything Plan like Verizon ?

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Verizon Wireless in the US has introduced a Master Plan for Data services – Share Everything. How does the plan work? The “Share Everything” plans are structured around shared data and multi-device access. Customers choose a shared data allowance and then pay a monthly fee per device to access that data. The plans seem to strike a reasonable balance between stimulating demand and maintaining prices while limiting exposure to pressure on voice and text usage. Customers choose a shared data allowance and then pay a monthly fee per device to access that data.

Verizon’s “Share Everything” plans have been very successful and contributed to a reacceleration in mobile service revenue … this is in combination with maintaining the strongest mobile network in the US and the most advanced 4G roll-out in the US.

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China Mobile’s Fetion Public Account Platform – Advantages

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What is the Significance of China Mobile’s recently launched a Fetion public account platform ? The basic feature of the platform is straightforward in that users are able to add a public account as a friend. A large number of derivative services have been developed by account operators, leveraging Weixin’s features such as multimedia interaction and an internally HTML5-enabled internet browser.

These services include:
RSS-like feeds Media accounts such as Donews or Techweb push articles everyday to followers.

Mini tools This type of account allows users to take notes or arrange appointments by interacting with the account. E.g. Users send text or voice message to an Evernote Weixin account and the content is stored.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)Brands are able to use their Weixin accounts to communicate with customers on a one-on-one basis. Clients of China Merchants Bank are able to quickly check their credit card status via CMB’s Weixin account.

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