Telecommunications & Technology
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
Our recent channel checks suggest that operators across circles continue to withdraw / reduce discounted / free minutes; however, the pace appears to have slowed. While we also picked up increasing instances of rising discounts (i.e., a reduction in RPM), the overall trajectory still remains with an upward bias on realisations. Our discussions with retailers also indicated that commission levels have remained stable over the past 6-8 months (possibly indicating this cost may not be squeezed any more).
Airtel India Increased tariffs across 16 Circles in Pre-Paid Segment leading to higher RPM while it had to offer Discounts to Competition to maintain the Average MoU Traction in 6 Circles where it reduced tariffs
Many Mobile apps now offer either voice messaging (Wechat) or straight VoIP functionality (Skype, Viber, Line). While it is difficult to prove a direct linkage between usage of these apps and usage/revenue trends within the traditional telcos, there is at least anecdotal evidence that, on average, rising 3G / 4G penetration rates are usually associated with falling voice minutes of use.
We do not attempt to prove that messaging apps are cannibalizing voice. Instead, we attempt to quantify the cost savings to users (and therefore the voice revenue risk to operators) were subscribers to move their current voice usage over to a VoIP data based pricing model.
Compression ratios for the various CODECs used by VoIP providers vary, but we understand the most frequently used is the G.729 CODEC. Adjusting a minute
GSM incumbents led by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have regained the market share after seasonal weakness – in line with historical trends. On a structural basis CDMA / PSU operators have found it difficult to defend their market share despite 10-11% industry growth. Healthy execution and strong brand positioning, we believe, would drive market share gains for top 3 operators (Airtel, Vodafone and Idea). We believe Idea Cellular – as a pure-play wireless operator – will be the biggest
Airtel has announced acquisition of Loop Mobile, an incumbent in Mumbai circle, for Rs7bn. Airtel will pay Rs3bn and acquire Rs4bn of Loop’s debt.
Loop Mobile is one of the 2 incumbent operators in Mumbai (Vodafone is the other) with ~3m subscribers, ~Rs150 ARPU and 5.5% revenue market
India’s Largest Cellular Service Provider, Bharti Airtel hiked voice call tariffs across the board so as to have a net gain RPM impact between 3% to 100%. The following chart shows how tariffs have increased in August / September represented by circle name, old tariff followed by new tariff, the change and the impact
Airtel Mobile is increasing voice tariffs for post-paid customers under one of its per-minute billing plans, Advantage 199, with effect from 8 Sep. This is in-line with our thesis of expected ARPM increases going forward.
Adhering to TRAI guidelines, Bharti Airtel has informed its customers that it will raise tariffs on the Advantage-199 plan. Under this plan, per-minute on-net local and STD rates will be raised to 60 paise from the current 50 paise. Rates for calls to
Indian Telecom Saga is still about 2G Voice as operators strive to bring in the most interior rural parts on to the telecom network. Apart from expanding the number of cell sites, the operators have alternative methods to boost capacity. These include usage of 3G network, fluid ICR agreements and vertical expansion. The following 4 Methodologies are Widely used by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance to optimize and enhance the Voice Services in India
Vertical expansion – Cell sites can be expanded vertically by adding
We expect sustained improvement in the Indian wireless industry’s fundamentals as basic scale economics of the business catch up and both the scope and intensity of competitive pressure reduce. The A-Vo-Id group is very well-positioned to benefit from this theme and expect sustained market share gains for these company over the next few years. We also believe that incremental regulatory developments should be in favor of the industry as spectrum pricing and allocation start falling in sync with
All telcos expect RPM to inch up marginally in 1Q as everyone is curtailing free minutes/freebies, which is pushing the implied RPM up. Going forward, we expect competitive intensity to further decline as we expect some of the smaller telcos to further reduce their footprint and close operations in a few more circles. This would likely lead to continued MOU shift in favor of larger telcos, like Bharti, Idea, etc
3G Data growing slowly and steadily – Expect continued data increase (off low base) led by improving 3G coverage and increasing smartphone penetration. However, we do not expect any Indian telcos to show a hockey stick increase given limited capex investments and only 5 MHz spectrum per operator. Based on our meetings, we believe larger telcos are seeing a temporary slowdown in addition of new subs given the court order on