Telecommunications & Technology
Reliance Jio Infocomm which won the bid for 4G Spectrum in 2.3MHz will face a steep uphill challenge to push its data services. The demand for High Speed Wireless Broadband in India can be classified in three broad categories, viz. (a) dongle users [EVDO / 3G], (b) fixed wireless terminal (FWT) and (c) users of … Read more
New Entrant, Aircel with a stronghold in Tamilnadu is struggling to gain 3G Subscriber Traction.
Aircel has announced it will provide to citizens of Tanjavur, Tamilnadu FREE UNLIMITED 3G between 6.00AM to 9.00AM for 30 days if subscribers sign-up for its 3G Offerings.
How to Activate Free Unlimited 3G from Aircel 3G Morning Plan ?
Just dial *122*456# from your cell and it should be activated in few minutes and then start browsing.
Aircel 3G Morning should in fact
The Thailand 3G Story is ahead of India as it reaches around ~40% penetration with almost 50% of the consumers having Internet-ready handsets (smartphone/feature-phones).
Thai Consumers appear to be willing to spend more for data services. This is contrary to our Indonesia and Philippine findings, where most aren’t willing to raise spending. Networks have deteriorated and now majority of the respondents are willing to raise their overall telecom spend for better network quality or faster download speeds. Poor network quality, we believe, is linked to under-investment
3G business in India currently has negative returns, but should turn positive by F2016. Airtel and Idea reported sequential nonvoice revenue growth of 5% and 13%, respectively, in F3Q13. Operators have been inching up their 2G data tariffs, while 3G data tariffs have come down by ~7x since the beginning of 2012. Data volumes in … Read more
3G spectrum auction in India led to a fragmented allocation across operators, with none of the operators winning pan-India. The incumbents (Bharti, Idea, Vodafone) were however, able to cover 65-75% of their revenue base. As a result of this fragmented allocation, these operators entered into intra-circle roaming arrangements with one another to provide a nation-wide 3G service using each others’ spectrum in circles where they didn’t win.
Idea appears best placed. Most of its important circles have been covered with 3G spectrum (74% of revenue). While it didn’t win the important Mumbai, Delhi circles, it should be noted that Idea is relatively a new operator in these circles, which is also reflected in its revenue market share. Late entry has resulted in relatively inferior quality subscribers who are less likely to use 3G services, at least in the medium term. This should moderate any impact from lack of high-speed data service in these circle.
Vodafone has 3.3mn 3G subscribers in India, representing 2.3% of its subscriber base (vs 3.4% for Airtel and 4.2% for Idea). However, note that whilst data traffic has increased by 165.1% YoY in FY13, data revenues have increased by only 19.7% over the same period, which may indicate that growth was driven by discounted data packages or freebies.
Vodafone reported India revenues of Rs 96.4bn, up 11.5% YoY, driven primarily by recovery in voice growth. Core voice revenues grew only 7% YoY despite a sharp QoQ recovery (+4.3% QoQ). Traffic growth came in at 9% YoY as against 11% in Q3. The SMS revenue decline accelerated to 14.5% YoY, while Data revenues grew ~30% YoY. EBITDA margins in 2H13 improved by 70bps to 29%.
The Supreme Court has placed the ban till May 9th, when the Court will hear the case on 3G intra-circle roaming (3G ICR) again. However, the operators can continue serving existing subscribers. Though it is not certain, the other GSM players (Idea and Vodafone) might also be prohibited from adding new subscribers in circles where … Read more
3GPP results show that LTE can push through 3.5x as much information into a given amount of spectrum than 3.5G. These results give the performance in 2000MHz frequency band for both LTE and 3.5G. We now have to adjust these values to the Indian context: 3.5G on 2100Mhz band and LTE on 2300MHz. These results … Read more
Along with relatively inferior 3G spectrum, high population density in India and relatively less amount of spectrum with each operator is also likely to necessitate higher number of towers. Indian telecom operators own very low amount of 3G spectrum, resulting in a need for higher number of towers due to spectrum scarcity. Telecom operators in … Read more
With none of the operators having pan-India 3G spectrum, there is a clear need for telcos to add 3G / data spectrum. separately the amount of spectrum (mere 5 MHz in 3G) is inadequate for operators in our view, once data demand picks up, although this is likely to take at least 3 years so … Read more