Dissertation Report Final-Sales of Data Cards

A

Dissertation report

On

ANALYSIS OF SALES OF MOBILE BROADBAND DATA CARDS

“To Identify the Market Leader in Mobile Broadband Data Card Service”

A report submitted to Amity University as a partial fulfillment of Full Time MBA Telecom Management (2010-12)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY: Miss Mamta Sharma KUMAR KISHORE KALITA Assistant Professor Enrollment No.: A1603710041 MBA Telecom Management MBA Telecom Management AITTM, Amity University Batch 2010-12

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the dissertation done on “Analysis of Sales of Mobile Broadband Data Cards” To identify the Market Leader in Mobile Broadband Data Card Service, submitted to Amity Institute of Telecom Technology & Management by Kumar Kishore Kalita in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of MBA Telecom, is a bonafide work carried out by her under my supervision and guidance. This work has not been submitted anywhere else for any other degree / diploma.

Date: Ms. Mamta Sharma Asst.Prof. (MBA TELECOM)

AITTM, AMITY UNIVERSITY

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, Kumar Kishore Kalita, state my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Marshal Sahni – HoD, MBA-Telecom AITTM, Amity University for giving me this opportunity to conduct a research work during my curriculum of MBA.

I express my cordial gratefulness to Miss Mamta Sharma for providing me guidance, valuable advice, constant encouragement and necessary facilities to complete this project.

I put across my heartfelt thanks to all faculty members of AITTM for their kind support and knowledge

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DECLARATION

This Dissertation Report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of MBA Telecom at Amity University. I declare that this Dissertation Report is my own work and it does not contravene any academic offence as specified in the University’s regulations.

I confirm that this Dissertation Report does not contain information of a commercial or confidential nature or include personal information other than that which would normally be in the public domain unless the relevant permissions have been obtained.

Name: Kumar Kishore Kalita

Date:

Program: MBA (Telecom) Marketing

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE……………………………………………………………………. I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………… II

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….. ....... III

Contents Page Number

Chapter 1: Introduction 4

1.1. Introduction to Broadband Industry 5

1.2 Dissertation Background 27

1.3 Objective of Dissertation 30

1.4 Rationale for Dissertation 31

1.5 Dissertation Plan 33

1.6 Limitations of the Dissertation 34

Chapter 2: Literature Review 35

Article: Data Card Market Showed Impressive Growth Of 52% With Revenues Of Rs 1077 Cr.- 2011

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Article: India Data Card And USB Modem Sales (Shipments) Cross One Million Units Mark In 12-M Period Ending June ’09

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Article: High Hopes On Data Cards For Last Mile Connectivity for FY 2011

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White Paper: India Broadband Wireless & Wimax Market Analysis & Forecasts, 2009 -2013

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Article: Mobile Services Market In India To Reach Us$30 Billion In 2016

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Article: A Matter Of Speed, Data Card Players Have To Seize The Huge Rural Opportunity By Offering More Speed-2010

Article: Facing Competition From Reliance, MTS Expands Broadband Network -2012

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52

Article: Mobile Broadband Computing, Device Market Forecasts & Business Model Scenarios-2008

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White Paper: India Broadband Wireless And Wimax Market Analysis & Forecasts 2007-2014 2nd Edition

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White Paper: India Broadband Wireless And Wimax Market Analysis And Forecasts: 2006-2012, 1st Edition

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White Paper: International Telecommunication Union Workshop On Promoting Broadband-2012

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Case Study: Broadband In Srilanka, Glass Half Full Or Half Empty?-2011

74

Case Study: Broadband As A Commodity: Hong Kong, China Internet -2012

80

Review: Reliance Netconnect v/s Tata photon v/s EVDO BSNL review of USB Data card -2012

84

Case Study: Reliance: a 'customer satisfaction'-2011 86

Article: Reliance Netconnect broadband plus coverage in - Delhi, Noida, Faridabad using EVDO -2012

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology 89

3.1 Research Design 90

3.2 Defining Data and Sources of Data 92

3.3 Methods of Data Collection 93

Chapter 4: Presentation and Analysis of data 94

Chapter 5: Conclusion 99

5.1 Major findings of the Research 100

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5.2 Conclusion 102

Chapter 6: Bibliography

103

Chapter 7: Annexure 106

Annexure-I Questionnaire 107

Annexure-II Details of Retailers 108

Annexure-III Tariff Plans 111

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1GENERAL INTRODUCTION: BROADBAND INDUSTRY

Background of Telecom Industry The Indian Telecommunications network is the third largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world. The telecommunication sector continued to register significant success during the year and has emerged as one of the key sectors responsible for India’s resurgent economic growth. Growth in Telecom Sector This rapid growth has been possible due to various proactive and positive decisions of the Government and contribution of both by the public and the private sector. The rapid strides in the telecom sector have been facilitated by liberal policies of the Government that provide easy market access for telecom equipment and a fair regulatory framework for offering telecom services to the Indian consumers at affordable prices. Types of Services: Wire line Vs Wireless It has also undergone a substantial change in terms of mobile versus fixed phones and public versus private participation. The preference for use of wireless phones has also been predominant in the sector. Participation of the private entities in the telecom sector is rapidly increasing rate there by presenting the enormous growth opportunities. There is a clear distinction between the Global Satellite Mobile Communication (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technologies used and the graph below shows the divide between the two. Segment wise Status Wire line Services With increasing penetration of the wireless services, the wire line services in the country are becoming stagnant. On the other hand, Broadband demand has picked up and promises to stabilize fixed line growth. GSM Sector In terms of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) subscriber base this now places India third after China and Russia. China had 401.7 million GSM subscribers.

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Fig: GSM Service Providers in India. CDMA Services CDMA technology was introduced in India as a limited mobility solution. The introduction of CDMA services has created competition, lowered tariffs and offered many citizens access to communication services for the first time.

Fig: CDMA Service Provider.

Market size of Telecom Industry in India

The sale of mobile devices in India will show of rise of 8.5 per cent in 2012 by growing up to 231 million units from 213 million units last year, according to a research report from Gartner. The research firm says that the Indian mobile handset market is expected to show steady growth through 2015 when end-user sales will surpass 322 million units.

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The Indian mobile device market is very competitive with more than 150 manufacturers. Smartphone sales in India made up 6 per cent of device sales in the first three quarters of 2011, and this share is expected to increase to 8 per cent in 2012. The Indian mobile device market is driven by the lowest call rates in the world and dominated by low-cost devices, which account for 75 per cent of sales in India in 2011.

Manufacture of Telecom Equipment Rising demand for a wide range of telecom equipment, particularly in the area of mobile telecommunication, has provided excellent opportunities to domestic and foreign investors in the manufacturing sector. The last two years saw many renowned telecom companies setting up their manufacturing base in India. Ericsson has set up GSM Radio Base Station Manufacturing facility in Jaipur. Elcoteq has set up handset manufacturing facilities in Bangalore. Nokia set up its manufacturing plant in Chennai. LG Electronics set up plant of manufacturing GSM mobile phones near Pune. The Government has already set up Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Forum and Telecom Testing and Security Certification Centre (TETC). A large number of companies like Alcatel, Cisco have also shown interest in setting up their R&D centers in India. With above initiatives India is expected to be a manufacturing hub for the telecom equipment.

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OVERVIEW OF SERVICES: TELECOM SECTOR IN INDIA

TELECOM

SECTOR

WIRE LINE SERVICES WIRELESS SERVICES

VOICE SERVICE

DATA SERVICE VOICE SERVICE

BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS

LANDLINES INTERNET SERVICE GSM SERVICE

CDMA SERVICE

MOBILE BROADBAND SERVICE

2G and 3G

WIMAX SERVICE

4G

LTE SERVICE

4G

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INTERNET IN INDIA: Internet Services in India Internet services were launched in India on August 15, 1995. In November 1998 the government opened up the sector to private operators. A liberal licensing regime was put in place to increase Internet penetration across the country. The growth of IP telephony or grey market is also a serious concern. Government loses revenue, while unlicensed operation by certain operators violates the law and depletes licensed operators market share. New services like IP-TV and IP-Telephony are becoming popular with the demand likely to increase in coming years. The scope of services under existing ISP license conditions is unclear.

Internet country code: .in

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 180 (2010)

Internet hosts: 4,536,000

Internet users: 121 million

Broadband Internet users: 13 million (October 2011)

Internet access in India is largely provided by the private sector and two state-run companies and is available in a variety of forms, using a variety of technologies, at a wide range of speeds and costs. The country has the world's third largest Internet users with over 121 million users (of whom 59% who only access the internet via mobile devices) as of December 2011.However, the Internet penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world and only accounts for 8.4% of the population compared to OECD counties where average penetration rate is over 50%. The number of broadband Internet subscribers in India has started to become more significant, having more than doubled in the two-year period to end-2009. DSL, whilst holding slightly more than 75% of the local broadband market, was steadily losing market share to other non-DSL broadband platforms, especially to wireless broadband platforms. The 3G auction was followed by an equally high profile auction of 4G spectrum that set the scene for a competitive and invigorated wireless broadband market. The growth in number of broadband connections in India has accelerated since 2006. As of October 2011, total broadband Internet connections in India had reached 13 million constituting 1.0% of the population. India has one of the lowest penetrations of broadband connectivity in the world.

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A number of private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer services in India, many with their own local loop and gateway infrastructures. BSNL and MTNL have continued to dominate the ISP market because of their existing massive copper infrastructure in the last-mile across the nation. An estimated 60% of Internet users were still regularly accessing the Internet via the country's more than 10,000 cybercafés.

According to International Telecommunication Union, the international average broadband speed is at 5.6 Mbps, whereas in India the average speed hovers at 256 kbit/s which is the minimum speed set by TRAI. The government declared 2007 to be "the year of broadband." Four years later, Indian broadband failed to deliver download speeds of which other developed nations delivers. South Korea led the list with an average of 43 M bit/s, followed by Japan (10.6 M bit/s) and United States (4.6 M bit/s).

India broadband growth is hampered by various challenges, including a complicated tariff structure, metered billing, higher charges for right of way and absence of local-loop unbundling. Average Internet speed in India is as low as 0.8Mbps.Out of the total Internet population 35% are still below 256Kbps.To compete with international standards of defining broadband speed the Indian Government has taken aggressive step of proposing the $13 billion national broadband network to connect all cities, towns and villages with a population of more than 500 in two phases targeted for completion by 2012 and 2013.The network will be capable of handling speed up to 10Mbps in 63 metropolitan areas and 4Mbps in additional 352 cities.

MOBILE BROADBAND Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access through a portable modem, mobile phone, USB Wireless Modem,(called "cell phones" in North America and South Africa) or other mobile devices.

Description

Although broadband has a technical meaning, the phrase "mobile broadband" is a wireless carrier marketing term for Internet access. Bit rates of broadband support voice and video as well as other data access. Devices that provide mobile broadband to mobile computers include: PC cards also known as PC data card or Connect cards, USB modems, USB sticks often called "dongles", and portable devices with built-in support for mobile broadband (like notebooks, net books and Mobile Internet Devices). Notebooks with built-in mobile broadband modules are offered by many laptop manufacturers. The GSM Association of telecommunication manufacturers, mobile phone producers, integrated circuit manufacturers and notebook manufacturers have

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joined forces to push built-in support for mobile broadband technology on notebook computers. The association established a service mark to identify devices that include Internet connectivity with devices not usually associated with it. North America refers to mobile phones as cell phones. However all non-satellite mobile access technologies are cellular designs, but only CDMA-1 (EVDO related), GSM (GPRS/EDGE), UMTS/WCDMA/3G/FOMA/T-CDMA (HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+) were originally intended for voice telephone calls. LTE and Mobile Wimax are data only, using VOIP for voice. Flash-OFDMA, IPW (derived from CDMA) and iBurst are also Data only networks. In theory also you could have an ERAN based EDGE2 network with no GPRS or GSM voice. Voice and SMS pays for the mobile phone networks. Various network standards may be used, such as GPRS, 3G, Wimax, LTE, Flash-OFDM, IPW, iBurst UMTS/HSPA, EV-DO and some portable satellite-based systems. However mostly the term refers to EVDO (sister system to CDMA-1), EDGE on GSM and HSPDA/HSUPA/HSPA on UMTS/3G/Foma. Such systems piggyback on the mobile phone infrastructure (EDGE, HSPA etc. actually share spectrum with voice calls, which have priority). The actual "non-Mobile Phone" Mobile networks are very small subscriber base (Mobile Wimax, iBurst, Flash-OFDMA, IPW and portable Satellite terminals) compared to fixed wireless broadband. A common vendor tactic is to quote the peak speed for the entire channel. This capacity can be shared among other users, or limited in other ways as the network becomes more popular.[

Developments in Mobile Broadband Technology

In 2002, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established a Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) working group. They developed the IEEE 802.20 standard in 2008, with amendments in 2010. Another working group, IEEE 802.16, produced standards adopted in products using the Wimax trademark. A barrier to mobile broadband was the coverage the mobile phone networks can provide. In many areas customers will not be able to achieve the speeds advertised due to mobile data coverage limitations. In addition, there are issues with connectivity, network capacity, application quality, and mobile network operators' overall inexperience with data traffic. Demand from emerging markets fueled growth in mobile broadband. Without a widespread fixed line infrastructure, many emerging markets leapfrog developed markets and use mobile broadband technologies to deliver high-speed internet access to the mass market. The global Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of standards - which includes GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE – is the most widespread way to deliver mobile broadband. 3GPP standards are serving about 90 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers. After mobile broadband subscribers hit 500 million in 2010, at the end of 2011 Ericsson predicted it will be doubled to a billion. 400 million come from Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe with more than 200

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million subscriptions each. In the United Kingdom, a steering group known as Digital Britain was set up, with the aim of promoting digital telecommunications in October 2008. The conclusion of the steering group was a recommendation that the government took up, namely to have 100% broadband coverage, with a minimum speed of 2Mbps in the United Kingdom by the year 2012. Mobile "broadband" using 3G is not now expected to be able to ensure 2Mbit/s broadband coverage to the more remote areas of the UK as coverage is too poor and contention too high. Another suggestion is Ka Satellite for Rural areas, which may be very cheap by the end of 2010 if Eutelsat's KA-SAT is successfully launched.

Types of devices used for accessing Mobile Broadband Service:

• PDA • Smartphone, Mobile phone • USB flash drive, (dongle) • Compact Flash • PC Card, Express Card • SDIO • MiFi

Indian Mobile Broadband Service providers:

• MTNL • BSNL • VSNL • Airtel • Aircel • Idea Cellular • Loop Mobile • MTS India • Vodafone Essar • Tata Indicom • Tata Docomo • Tikona Digital Networks • Reliance Mobile • Spice Telecom • S Tel • Virgin Mobile India

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Device manufacturers for Mobile Broadband Service:

• ZTE Corporation • Cherry Mobile • Danger • Freewave Technologies • HTC Corporation • Hewlett Packard (HP) • Huawei • LG Electronics • Motorola • Nokia • Qualcomm • Novatel Wireless • Option N.V. • Panasonic • Research In Motion (BlackBerry) • Samsung • Sierra Wireless • Sony Ericsson • Telit

Technologies available for Mobile Broadband Service:

• GPRS (2.5G) • CDPD • CDMA2000 • EDGE • UMTS (3G) • GPRS Core Network • IP Multimedia Subsystem • HSDPA (3.5G) • iBurst (pre-4G) • HiperMAN (pre-4G) • WiMAX (pre-4G) • WiBro (pre-4G)

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MOBILE BROADBAND DATA CARDS IN INDIA

There are two types of data card available in India:

• High speed data cards: All data card except 1x, which gives more speed are high speed data card. These data card like BSNL evdo data card 2.4 MBPS or reliance data card 3.5 MBPS comes under this category.

• Low speed data cards: All 1x data card which gives speed from 144 kbps to 250 kbps are comes under low speed data cards.

Companies which majorly provide wireless net connection in India are:

• BSNL EVDO data card

• Reliance data card

• Tata indicom photon

• Idea data card

• Airtel data card

All these companies are providing Internet connection in different plans, which have different needs depending on different customers.

SOFTWARE PROTECTION DONGLE USED FOR MOBILE BROADBAND FOR PC/LAPTOP USAGE:

A software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will run only when the dongle is plugged in. The term "dongle" was originally used to refer only to software-protection dongles; however, currently "dongle" is often used to refer to any small piece of hardware that plugs into a computer. This article is limited in scope to dongles used for the purpose of copy protection or authentication of software to be used on that system. Electrically, dongles mostly appear as two-interface security tokens with transient data flow that does not interfere with other dongle functions and a pull communication that reads security data from the dongle. These are used by some proprietary vendors as a form of copy protection or digital rights management, because it is generally harder to replicate a dongle than to copy the software it authenticates. Without the dongle, the software may run only in a restricted mode, or not at all. As of July 26, 2010 it is legal in the United States to use programs

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protected by this method without a dongle, if the dongle is no longer working and a replacement not available.

SAMPLE IMAGES OF MAJOR DATA CARDS IN INDIA:

Tata Photon (Tata Indicom)

Reliance Netconnect (Reliance Communication)

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MTS MBlaze (MTS)

Idea Netsetter (Idea Cellular)

BSNL/MTNL Data Card

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PRICE COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT DATA CARDS IN INDIA:

• Reliance Netconnect 3G Data Card

Price of Device/Dongle: 1699 INR

• Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ Data Card


• Reliance Netconnect 1X Data Card


• Idea Netsetter 3G Data Card


• Tata Photon Plus Data Card


• MTS MBlaze Data Card


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COMPETITION OVERVIEW

Major Players There are three types of players in telecom services: • State owned companies (BSNL and MTNL) • Private Indian owned companies (Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices,) • Foreign invested companies (Hutchison-Essar, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Escotel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile, Spice Communications) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

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Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)

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Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL)

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Bharti

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Reliance Communication

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Tata Teleservices

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Vodafone

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Idea

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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TELECOM SECTOR

• The telecom sector has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy in the past 4 years. This has been witnessed due to strong competition that has brought down tariffs as well as simplification of policy environment that has promoted healthy competition among various players.

• The mobile sector alone has been growing rapidly and has emerged as the fastest growing market in the whole worlds. Currently of a size nearing 70 million (GSM and CDMA), this sector is expected to reach a size of nearly 200 million subscribers by financial year 2008.

• The government has eased the rules regarding inter circle and intra circle mergers. This has led to a slew of mergers and acquisitions in the recent past. Also as the sector is moving closer to maturity, further consolidation is a reality and this will lead to the survival of more profitable players in this segment In order to further promote the use of Internet in the country the government is taking proactive steps to develop this sector with the help of the various players in this segment. For this purpose, the use of broadband technology is being mooted and this will go a long way in improving the productivity of the Indian economy as well as turn out to be the next big opportunity for telecom companies after the mobile communications segment.

• Non-voice services and VAS are the gold mines. The big takeoff is expected with the rollout of 3G services in early 2007, once the spectrum issues are sorted out.

• Internet users base fast reaching near the English speaking population base. Local language and content required for further growth.

• Infrastructure equipment cost is down to a fraction of what prevailed just a few years ago.

• Increased viability for the operators to expand to semi-urban and rural markets, hence, accelerate growth further

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1.2 DISSERTATION BACKGROUND This Dissertation research was conducted based on the fact that, the Sales figures are one of the most important indicators of a company performing well or below average. The Indian Telecom Market is a perfectly competitive type of Market scenario and operators are fighting a cut-throat competition for grabbing maximum market share, and also adhering to the guidelines and recommendations from the TRAI and the DoT of India. Henceforth, Operators slowly shifted from pure Voice based services to Data Services, and Mobile Broadband being one of the services that is in the trend of Indian Telecom Industry. The following can be the factors that I have identified, as major drivers for Sales of Mobile Broadband Data Cards.

• Broadband penetration in India is extremely low.

Factors that have prevented widespread adoption are failure to make the medium sufficiently attractive and a lack of availability. A third element, affordability, was a significant barrier in the past, but new technology developments have driven down the costs of PCs and Internet subscriptions, making pricing less of a hurdle today.

• Most broadband customers in India today are primarily concentrated in urban areas.

Semi-urban and rural areas are virtually excluded. To date, market forces have not been sufficient to spread the technology beyond urban areas due to cost constraints, lack of compelling local content, limited availability, and a fragmented group of industry operators. Absence of a comprehensive wired infrastructure in India has made wired broadband expensive in semi-urban and rural areas. Setting up a wired communication network is expensive and demands considerable amount of time. A TRAI estimate indicates that a rural fiber infrastructure to connect 375,552 villages, for example, requires an investment of roughly Rs 32,295 crore. Therefore operators are hesitant to invest in villages and remote areas. For broadband to have a reach across the country, service providers have to consider technologies such as wireless. Wi-Fi and Wimax, for example, can help take care of last mile connectivity issues and help bring down costs. The other challenge for broadband penetration is that nearly 70 per cent of the market in India is controlled by state-owned BSNL and MTNL, so private players have found it tough to penetrate the market. However, auction of 3G and WiMAX

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spectrum, coupled with the new draft telecom policy, has now set the scene for a competitive wireless broadband market. However, India still lacks a critical mass of high-demand applications that can generate new users in areas of entertainment, education, and e-governance. Although some content has started migrating online, content that is locally relevant and available is still in shortfall. One ray of hope exists in the entertainment space, where Internet access is being spurred by video and peer-to-peer applications, representing a powerful force that can increase demand for high bandwidth. Additionally, the Government's investment in the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to cover projects including automation of land records, tax, driving licences, passports and common service centres; the Unique Identification (UID) project and other e-governance projects such as e-Passport, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) and treasury management initiatives will help drive demand for broadband and promote inclusive growth in rural and semi-urban India.

• Mobile broadband

Meanwhile, mobile broadband has started gaining traction in India. The introduction of 3G and reduced calling costs are expected to drive mobile broadband in the country and increase the demand for broadband availability. Advanced technologies such as 4G are expected to enhance subscriber interaction with the network because people can access Internet services, such as online television, blogging, social networking, and interactive gaming, easily, on-the-go. This is expected to further drive demand for mobile broadband services. However, industry and government need to address underlying issues of concern that prevent the rollout of a fixed-line network. From a pricing perspective, broadband users have to pay for access platforms (e.g., PCs/laptops and mobile devices) and a monthly Internet subscription. Although subscription charges in India are among the lowest globally, they are the outcome of price competition in a currently irrational market (where competition forces operators to sell broadband access at or below actual cost). This poses a significant hindrance to future market growth because sustainable growth requires bringing prices to a more sustainable level while simultaneously reducing operating costs. Operators (telecom and cable) must work to ensure ubiquitous supply by understanding the strengths and competitive positions of various broadband technologies and their applicability across different segments. The government needs to provide more civic services online, establish a policy at the national/local levels to streamline access and advance the rollout of the fixed network infrastructure besides encouraging digitization of the cable industry.

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According to the draft of the National Telecom Policy, the Government will provide 'broadband on demand' by 2015 and achieve a target of 175 million broadband users by 2017 and 600 million by 2020. The draft policy proposes to revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 kbps to 512 kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 with higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps thereafter. Part of the policy is also to increase rural tele-density from 35 per cent to 60 per cent by 2017 and to 100 per cent by 2020. The Government spending on e-governance projects and SWAN initiatives is likely to drive the growth of the networking market further.

• Allocating spectrum for Mobile Broadband will have a huge impact on India's GDP by 2015

Broadband connectivity is a driver of socio-economic improvement, fuelling economic growth across all industry sectors and contributing to enhance GDP. According to Analysys Mason, a 10% increase in broadband penetration will lead to net growth revenue increases of 42% in the healthcare sector (equating to an additional INR 1,215 billion or US$ 27.4 billion), 36.8% in education (an extra INR 1,402 billion or US$ 31.2 billion) and 18.8% in the transport sector (an additional INR 889 billion or US$ 20 billion). Currently broadband penetration in India is 1.7%(1), and is forecast to rise to 12.5% by 2015. However, to achieve this it is essential that additional spectrum is released quickly, most notably the 700MHz and 2.6GHz bands, so that mobile operators can roll out next-generation Mobile Broadband networks and services and meet demand.

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1.3 OBJECTIVE OF DISSERTATION

The objectives that I have identified to conduct this research for analyzing the Sales of Wireless Broadband Data Cards available in Delhi and NCR Region is based on the research conducted from the responses of the Retailers selling any type of Mobile Broadband Data cards and are as follows:

To find out the Sales figure of the following Brands of Mobile Broadband Data cards through primary research.

A. Reliance Netconnect Data Card B. Idea Netsetter USB Modem C. Tata Photon+ Data Card D. MTS MBlaze USB Data Card E. BSNL/MTNL Data Card

To identify the Market Leader of Mobile Broadband Data Cards based on the Sales figures obtained from the retailers through primary data collection in the form of responses in the questionnaires.

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1.4 RATIONALE FOR DISSERTATION

Pointing out that broadband connectivity could be a driver of socio-economic improvement; a global study has said a 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration in India would contribute to $80 billion of net revenues across the country's transport, healthcare and education sectors by 2015.

The following factors are the considerations for the Rationale of my Research:

• A 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration will lead to net growth revenue increases of 42 per cent in the healthcare sector (equating to an additional $27.4 billion), 36.8 per cent in education (extra $31.2 billion) and 18.8 per cent in the transport sector (an additional $20 billion),” said the study on the economic impact of mobile broadband growth that was commissioned by the GSM Association (GSMA).

• At present, broadband penetration in India is 1.7 per cent and by 2015 it is likely to rise to 12.5 per cent. However, to achieve this it is essential that additional spectrum is released quickly so that mobile operators can roll out next-generation mobile broadband networks and services and meet demand.

• Broadband connectivity is a driver of socio-economic improvement, fuelling economic growth across all industry sectors and contributing to enhance GDP. According to Analysts Mason, a 10% increase in broadband penetration will lead to net growth revenue increases of 42% in the healthcare sector (equating to an additional INR 1,215 billion or US$ 27.4 billion), 36.8% in education (an extra INR 1,402 billion or US$ 31.2 billion) and 18.8% in the transport sector (an additional INR 889 billion or US$ 20 billion).

• Currently broadband penetration in India is 1.7%, and is forecast to rise to 12.5% by 2015. However, to achieve this it is essential that additional spectrum is released quickly, most notably the 700MHz and 2.6GHz bands, so that mobile operators can roll out next-generation Mobile Broadband networks and services and meet demand.

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• India is the second largest mobile market in the world and a vibrant and exciting growth market for Mobile Broadband – it has an opportunity to shape the mobile industry of the future. By acting now, India’s hardware manufacturers and software companies have a huge opportunity to build a lead in developing supporting elements, which will not only transform Indian society but also, through a thriving export market, bring the power of Mobile Broadband to countries across the world.

• In India, 3G is buzzing everywhere like Tata Indicom photon 3G and Reliance Netconnect 3G, BSNL 3G. What about the other data cards like: EVDO BSNL, Tata Photon plus etc. Let me take an opportunity to present them before they wash off from market with the entrance of 3G technology.

My motive of doing this research is entirely based on my personal interest in the field of Telecommunication and its business management, and to help India grow powerful and self sufficient in terms of Broadband penetration, and also helping grow India socially as well as economically.

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1.5 DISSERTATION PLAN Chapter -1 (Introduction)

This chapter will consists of the General Introduction, dissertation background –history, objective of the dissertation, dissertation plan, methodological issues and problems and limitations of the research.

Chapter – 2(Literature review)

This chapter includes literature review of the dissertation. It includes critical points of previous research.

Chapter – 3(Research methodology)

This chapter will consists of the research design, the type of data being used and even the sources of the data from where the data is being gathered. And further it will also give the brief description of how the data is being analyzed.

Chapter – 4(Presentation and Analysis of data)

This chapter includes analysis of data, and also shows how data is used to solve the problem.

Chapter – 5(Conclusion)

This chapter will include the Principle findings and Conclusion about this Research.

Chapter – 6(Bibliography)

This chapter will include the bibliography and appendices, which gives the brief idea about the sources of the data and some key elements.

Chapter -7(Annexure)

This chapter contains a sample of the questionnaire that was used to collect the primary data from the retailers, and the details of those retailers that responded.

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1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE DISSERTATION In this research, following are the major constraints within which this dissertation is being conducted:-

• Time is the Main Constraint: Since, the time allotted for this research is limited, and subjected to the regular classes of my MBA course; it was difficult to devote maximum time for this research.

• Change in Telecom Market Dynamics: The Indian Telecom industry is experiencing a little tremor and instability due to the recent 2G scam regarding the spectrum allocation for 2G; hence the research may not be entirely accurate or near precision.

• Sample size is small: Since, this research was conducted with only 30 retailers; the inference may not be validated for all the Telecom Circles in PAN India

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

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LITERATURE REVIEW

DATA CARD MARKET SHOWED IMPRESSIVE GROWTH OF 52% WITH REVENUES OF RS 1077 CRORE

Archana Singh

Monday, July 04, 2011

Source: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/111070404.asp

An increased need for mobility in daily lives accelerated the adoption of wireless broadband adoption thereby fueling the demand for data cards. Data cards have manged to create a huge market pull with consumer demands going up manifold in the last fiscal. All the vendors in the data card business registered good revenue growth.

Numbers speak volumes for the segments performance in FY2010-11. The data card segment grew at 52.3% in the last fiscal as the industry stood at `1077 crore. It clearly demonstrates an upswing in the acceptability of data cards in the consumer market. The major players of the segment were ZTE, Huawei, Micromax, joined by a new entrant Olive.

China based Huawei led the race for revenue growing at 110% capturing a market share of 58.5% while selling more than 3 mn units of data cards. Last year the company had a market share of 40.5%. Huawei's performance can be attributed to its strategy of working with open market channel partners for its 3G data cards. Huawei was closely followed by its Chinese competitor ZTE which had a marginal growth of 7% in FY2010-11, while losing its market share of 12.6% as compared to the previous fiscal. Micromax grew by 19% in the last fiscal. The high growth was not surprising due to the visible consistency that was demonstrated by the vendor. It clocked total revenue of `68 crore in data card segment as compared to `57 crore of the previous fiscal. Micromax was strong in partnering with carriers. Through its distribution, the company made the data cards available in cities where network is supporting the device.

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Vendor Dossier

The rule of the game of the data card industry has seen lot of alterations, as the country has been upgrading its technology from 2G to 2.5 G to 3G and now putting in efforts in 4G.

The Indian data card users annually activate about more than 6 mn data cards. This is spread between EVDO/WCDMA/1X/EDGE. The industry is maturing very rapidly and consumers have already started upgrading to newer technologies.

Earlier the subscribers of 1X and EDGE users were upgrading to EVDO or WCDMA, which clearly showcases the delivery of the promise of good connectivity experience on dongles. The increasing annual activations strengthen the case of long-term factor confidence of consumers on data cards. ZTE recently announced that it will also be launching LTE based dongles by the first quarter of FY 2011-12. The Chinese equipment makers also have plans to bring the price points of these LTE devices to the existing price of 3G devices.

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INDIA DATA CARD AND USB MODEM SALES (SHIPMENTS) CROSS ONE MILLION UNITS MARK IN 12-M PERIOD ENDING JUNE ’09

Cybermedia Report

Naveen Mishra, Senior Analyst, Communications Research, CMR India

Source: http://www.cybermedia.co.in/press/pressrelease137a.html

The sales (shipments) of data cards and USB modems crossed the one million mark (1,002,169 nos.) in the 12 months ending June 2009, according to the findings of CMR’s “India Quarterly Data Card and USB Modem Market Review, Q2 CY2009”. CMR India, the leading IT intelligence firm attributes this to the rapid growth in travel and the need to stay in touch with customers, vendors and business partners 24/7. The communication needs of enterprises have grown to include access to e-mails and corporate applications, as well as personal communication, online transactions and entertainment, the first ever CMR India study in this segment adds. The sharp increase in the demand for data cards/USB modems in the last four quarters has gone up from 1.76 lakh units in July-September 2008 quarter to 4.05 lakh in April-June 2009. While in the quarter ending July-September 2008 one data card/USB modem was sold for every 4 notebook computers, this number improved to 3.2 data cards/USB modems sold for every 4 notebook computers in the April-June 2009 quarter. One-thirds of the million data cards/USB modems were sold (shipped) in the first six months – July 2008-Decemeber 2008 – while two-thirds were sold (shipped) in the second half – January-June 2009. Currently the Wireless Internet market is dominated by CDMA operators in the country. CDMA data card/USB modem shipments accounted for nearly 69% of the total market in Q2 CY2009. The average sales value (ASV) or price of a data card/USB modem is around Rs. 3,000; going forward, with increasing demand, prices are likely to come down. This will help improve the overall penetration of wireless internet/broadband. Currently data cards/USB modems are available mostly in bundled offerings from operators. However, with increasing demand, CMR India expects more open market data cards becoming available, thus providing an opportunity to customers to choose their favourite service provider along with their preferred device. Incumbent operators (BSNL and MTNL) are pushing 3G data cards/USB modems to increase subscribers on their recently launched 3G service networks. Private telecom operators are yet to launch 3G services in the country.

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Figure 1: India Data Card and USB Modem Market Shipments: ’000s of units, % growth

Source: CMR’s India Data Card and USB Modem Market Review, Q2 CY2009, September 2009 release

Future Trends

According to Naveen Mishra, Senior Analyst, Communications Research, CMR India, “Going forward we expect convergence to affect USB modems, whereby these devices will not only be used for Internet connectivity but also increasingly for data storage, music (MP3 player) and FM (Radio).” “USB modems may also see usage as a mobile phone in future avatars as companies experiment with new applications”, Naveen further added.

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HIGH HOPES ON DATA CARDS FOR LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY FOR FY 2011

-Akhilesh Shukla

2010-11

[email protected]

Business Journal: Voice & Data

Source: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/vnd100_2010vol-I/110060805.asp

The demand for data cards surged in the last few years due to mobile executives, growth in the penetration of laptops and the increased need for connectivity. VOICE&DATA estimates that the data card industry is pegged at around Rs 740 core in FY 2009-10. The growth is primarily driven by ZTE, Huawei and incumbent Mircomax. ZTE, the global market leader in data cards, proved its strength on the Indian turf as well. China-based ZTE commanded a market share of 47.3% with revenue of Rs 350 crore. The leader was closely followed by its Chinese competitor-Huawei. VOICE&DATA estimates that the data card business contributed Rs 300 crore to Huawei's India revenues. The company had a market share of 40.5% in FY 2009-10. Micromax, known for its economical multimedia phones, has recently started selling data cards. The company sold data cards worth Rs 90 crore in the last fiscal. Mircomax remained the third largest player in the segment with a 12.2% market share.

CDMA, 3G and WiMax data cards-are the industry's various answers to problems related to wireline broadband connections, including penetration. Data card, as they are wireless could reach the last mile, where providing connectivity is a big challenge. Today, of the total 8 mn broadband connection, 70% is from thirty cities in India. A major part of the Indian population lives beyond these top thirty cities, and that's where the opportunity for the data card market lies. Data cards, manufactured primarily by Huawei, ZTE and Mircomax, are available with every service provider, as data has been a focus area for them, because of falling revenue of voice services. The industry is banking on wireless broadband and Internet connection to increase penetration in India, which is still moving at a snail's pace. This year the telecom industry witnessed the sunrise of EVDO data cards from all major and incumbent service providers. EVDO is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals for broadband Internet access. It uses multiplexing techniques including CDMA as well as TDMA to maximize both individual user's throughput and the overall system throughput. It is standardized by

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3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and has been adopted by many mobile phone service providers around the world-particularly those previously employing CDMA networks. A EVDO data card provides a downlink speed of up to 3.1 Mbps and a separate uplink speed of up to 1.8 Mbps. However, there was also a confusion on what technology is used in the back-end for these data cards, as they claimed to be 3G EVDO services, though the technology looks much like CDMA 2000EVDV. Some of the GSM operators have sought the department of telecommunications' intervention to stop these services. After the commercial launch of 3G services by MTNL and BSNL, 3G data cards are also available in the market. BSNL has tied up with Micromax, a recent entrant in the Indian handset and data card segment, for sale and distribution of 3G data cards. BSNL service is going to be introduced in more than 700 cities in India, where it has got the license to launch 3G services in India.

Global Data Card Market

For ZTE, one of the leading Chinese data card manufacturers, sales of 3G data cards have picked up by 350% in the last six months of FY 2009-10. ZTE reported that sales of 7 mn 3G data cards in the period. This was the fastest y-o-y growth for the data card manufacturer. In the year 2008, ZTE sold around 10 mn units. ZTE is expecting data card sales of about 40 mn in 2010. The company also expects its data card sales to account for around 40% of the world's total data card sales this year, compared with last year's 35%, and sales revenue to jump by 50% from 2009.

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Industry Outlook

Globally, the mobile data traffic today is growing at 2.4 times faster than fixed broadband data traffic. This growth is primarily driven by smartphones and laptops, primarily using data cards. It is worth mentioning that laptops and smartphones contribute around 90% of the global mobile traffic. India is expected to have the highest mobile data traffic growth rate globally, with a CAGR of 222% for the next four years, followed by China with a 172% CAGR and South Africa with a 156% CAGR. Data cards will play a critical role in driving the mobile data traffic in India. In the year FY 2009-10 around 11 mn data cards were sold, primarily in urban areas. It is expected that the sale of data cards would reach around 20 mn by end of year 2011. Wireless infrastructure like data cards have emerged as an effective option for connecting an ever evolving and expanding information network such as the Internet. The reason would be primarily attributed to the availability of cheap Internet devices including netbooks and smartphones priced around Rs 15,000 and 6,000, respectively. Operators are also focusing on pushing data services. 3G data card will also gain momentum by the end of the year as private players are expected to commercially launch 3G services in India, after allocation of spectrum. The portability of netbooks and mobility of data cards combined can take Internet to the last mile.

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INDIA BROADBAND WIRELESS & WIMAX MARKET ANALYSIS & FORECASTS, 2009 -2013

3rd Edition Market Research Report Source: http://www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/country_overviews_telecommunications/india_broadband_wireless_wimax_market_analysis_forecasts_2009_2013.html

In 2008, Indian telecom continued to grow unmindful of any global economic meltdown or financial crisis. The mobile sector, in fact, broke all its previous records and added a robust 114 million cellular subscribers between January and December 2008. Leading into the New Year the streak continued, driven by new forces such as Reliance and Tata as the duo crossed over from CDMA to GSM, thus adding additional streams of new subscribers. Cellular subscriber additions are likely to push ARPUs further down in one of the lowest ARPU markets in the world, where up to 10 service providers compete for subscribers in some circles, thus raising concerns if the Indian mobile bandwagon may price itself out of sustainability at some point. In stark contrast, the Indian broadband sector continued to be filled with alternating moods of despair and hope as the government announced and postponed spectrum auctions with remarkable deftness. While the Year of Broadband campaigns remained on the agenda, service providers ended the year with more confusion than a clear BWA/WiMAX/3G strategy regarding where their businesses were headed. The top issue on every service providers' to-do list was: shore up more voice subscribers on 2G today - everything else can wait and so it did.

Key Findings Include:

• The Indian BWA/WiMAX subscriber count added in the last year is well above 250,000.

• About 10,000 BWA/WiMAX base station sectors were deployed in 2008 alone.

• BWA/WiMAX ARPU for SMEs (small-to-mediumsized- enterprises) is in the range of Rs 2500 - Rs 5000 (US$50 to US$100)

• USB modem prices quoted to service providers in RFP responses were as low as US$35 - US$50 for even small volume shipments such as 150,000- 200,000.

• Effective charges applied by service providers to subscribers for stand alone CPEs ranged from free US$200, depending on tariff plans.

• Service provider approaches to BWA/WIMAX are mixed:

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• BSNL, the incumbent with a clear lead time (likely one year) on pre-allocated pan-Indian 2.5GHz is likely to be the big driver of WiMAX.

• Operators such as Reliance and Tata have demonstrated what can be done by using slim 3.3GHz bands, and established the case for fixed WiMAX in India.

• Operators such as Bharti Airtel have taken demand-driven approach where they have extended coverage based on enterprise need/availability of fiber/DSL and feasibility of BWA/WiMAX.

• We estimate that WiMAX subscribers will reach 13.5 million by the end of 2013.

• By 2013, the non-WiMAX BWA subscriber count will be down to sub-million.

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MOBILE SERVICES MARKET IN INDIA TO REACH US$30 BILLION IN 2016

Online Article: CXOtoday Staff Reporter, Mar 27, 2012

Source:http://www.cxotoday.com/story/india-mobile-services-market-to-reach-us30-billion-in-2016/

India could become the testing ground for innovative delivery and pricing models that could be replicated in other emerging markets, says Gartner. The total mobile services revenue in India is projected to reach US$30 billion in constant US dollars in 2016, according to a report from research firm Gartner. Gartner said that the India mobile subscriber base is forecast to reach 696 million connections in 2012, up nine percent from 638 million in 2011. “The staggering growth of mobile connections has been driven by the expansion of mobile services in semi-urban and rural markets and the availability of cheap mobile devices,” said Shalini Verma, Principal Analyst, Consumer Technology and Markets, at Gartner. “However, the other performance indicators of the Indian mobile market seem modest in comparison to those of markets such as China.” The report found that the average revenue per user (ARPU) began to stabilize in 2011, a notable change from the double-digit decline of ARPU in the period from 2008 to 2010. At US$40, the ARPU in India is among the lowest in the world and about one-third of that of China. India also lags behind China in mobile service penetration. The mobile service penetration in India is currently at 51 percent and is expected to grow to 72 percent by 2016, whereas China already achieved 71 percent mobile penetration in 2011 and is forecast to grow to 119 percent in 2016. As per the findings, mobile data revenue has tremendous growth opportunities in India because of low Internet penetration. While fixed broadband is becoming a norm in several countries, India is lagging behind even emerging markets in fixed broadband penetration. India’s fixed broadband household penetration was six percent in 2011, which is lower than the overall penetration in emerging markets, estimated at 16 percent in 2011, the report said. Gartner said that while Indian mobile operators have demonstrated out of the box thinking in IT and telecom infrastructure management to check operational costs, they have their work cut out to improve margins, by converting prepaid subscribers into postpaid.

“With consumers perceiving mobile broadband as a basic necessity, mobile operators globally are reaping their investments in infrastructure through an increase in mobile data revenue. However, in India mobile operators have significant challenges, given the pragmatic nature of the emerging middle class with regards to their IT products and services spending,” the report stated. India could become the testing ground for innovative delivery and pricing models that could be replicated in other emerging

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markets. Mobile operators will need to focus on sound fundamentals such as improving the quality of service of mobile broadband. “The industry is pegging its hope on market consolidation, which appears imminent in the aftermath of 2G license cancellations. Department of Telecom and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India have a pivotal role to play in removing uncertainties in policy-making, and license and spectrum management, so that the mobile operators can focus their energies on driving growth,” said Verma.

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A MATTER OF SPEED, DATA CARD PLAYERS HAVE TO SEIZE THE HUGE RURAL OPPORTUNITY BY OFFERING MORE SPEED

Friday, April 02, 2010

Kannan K

Article by Cybermedia

[email protected]

Source: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/enterprise_zone/110040208.asp

Mobility is the primary factor driving enterprise employees as well as individual consumers to go for a particular telecom technology solution, as it increases the productivity by leaps and bounds. Increasing business travels and personal trips warrant people to be able to access Internet, emails, social networking sites, and other such applications anytime anywhere-whether on train or bus, or in hotel or conference hall within India or abroad.

Data cards and USB modems have become a convenient solution for people who want to access mobile applications at faster data download rates. Reports suggest that 25,000 towns and 6,00,000 villages have Internet access in India now. India is the second fastest growing telecom market in the world and the mobile phone segment has seen a significant growth since its inception, resulting in the mobile subscriber base crossing 500 mn as on December 2009 much before the deadline. But, similar growth patterns have not been witnessed in the Internet segment in India.

Drivers According to IAMAI, the data card units sold in urban areas in 2009-10 is estimated to be 11, 21,000 and is expected to reach 20,96,000 by 2011. Wireless infrastructure like data cards have emerged as an effective option for connecting an ever-evolving and expanding information network such as the Internet. Such an infrastructure, due to its inherent advantages, promises a renewed future in terms of offering improved and exciting services to the existing users. Internet in India is growing rapidly since its introduction; but its usage is restricted as it is currently accessed from fixed points like homes, offices and cyber cafes. While mobility solutions for Internet exist, public access points such as cyber cafes have dominated as point of access for the low PC penetrated Indian market.

Internet usage on the move can be facilitated by high speed data cards. Data card and Internet access on the mobile phone have shown considerable increase in India. According to a MAIT report, 2.5 lakh laptops and 1.5 lakh desktops are sold on a monthly basis. Naturally, the laptop segments' data card business is more than that of the desktop. In the consumer segment, laptop is selling at a much higher rate than in the SMEs. So the consumer segment offers the service providers more data card business

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opportunity than the enterprise segment. We have seen that with the increasing notebook or laptop penetration in homes as well as businesses, the data card market has increased significantly. Recently, with the coming in of EVDO, high speed data cards are also available in the market. However, there is a relatively smaller base of desktops which also contributes towards data card consumption.

Anytime, anywhere accessibility factor is the fundamental driving force for the data card market growth. Vrajesh Shelat, head, wireless data business, Reliance Communications says, "Basically the data card market is driven by Internet growth and PC penetration in the country, and we were in the forefront of selling data cards to the people in the last several years. So, we have tied up with Dell, Acer, Lenovo, HCL, and other players to bundle our data cards. Coupled with mobility factor, ease-of-use and plug and play factors drive the adoption of data cards. Also, due to the flexible rental plans, with both prepaid and postpaid options, it has become convenient for customers to adopt data cards." He adds, "When we compare data cards with landline networks, quality of our data card wireless Internet connectivity with voice feature is of the highest order." The data card industry has witnessed a robust growth in the recent times due to affordable tariffs, better download speed and simplicity of usage. More than 8 mn broadband users and 6 mn dial-up connections were registered till September 2009 in India. The broadband wireless proposition can drive an exponential growth in Internet usage by providing affordable always-on services and allowing the flexibility of mobile Internet access.

The price drops in the laptop category, new product introductions like netbooks, and the trend of people moving from desktop to laptops have fueled the need to have a stable data card service. If we look at the gap between the demand and the reach of Internet, there is a huge demand particularly at the countryside. So there is a huge addressable market in India. 70% of the broadband penetration of the 8 mn is from thirty cities only. A major part of the Indian population lives beyond these top thirty cities, and that's where the data card market opportunity lies. Deval Parikh, chief officer, handset, VAS and procurement, Virgin Mobile says, "The key growth stimulants for data cards are factors like growing business needs across all segments, need to access emails, download huge files and infotainment. Off-take of the platform as a service model [PAS] and cloud computing for applications are going to be other major driving factors for wireless broadband service. Given such market dynamics, we have introduced vFlash, a high speed USB modem device." He adds, "Wireline broadband connections are yet to penetrate the vast semi-urban and rural parts of the country where entrepreneurs, students, officials, etc, have the need to surf the Internet. With data cards offering portability anytime and anywhere, a number of companies have started the tie-up with various service providers to avail bulk network connections for their employees on the go."

Deterrents Mismatch between the theoretical access speed and actual speed of access by end users is a deterrent for the data card market growth. Low speed of access and higher prices are acting as hindrances in the penetration of data cards in India. With the launch of EVDO data card services, we expect the penetration to increase to 2.1 mn by 2011. Mobile is

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emerging as the potential point of access for the low PC and high mobile penetrated Indian market; although the present usage is restricted to 4% of the total active Internet user base. Compared to last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of users (104 %) who have adopted this device for Internet usage. Approximately, 4% of the 36 mn active Internet users are accessing their mobile phones for Internet access at least once a month. Parikh of Virgin Mobile says, "Assuming that mobile broadband implies 'Internet on handsets' and that mobile Internet is 'the Internet experience on computers using data cards', India's mobile penetration is huge with about 127 mn users who carry Internet-ready devices. However, only about 12 mn users have used Internet on their mobile phones at least once in the last one year and about 2 mn users are accessing the Internet through their mobile phones on an active basis. Both mobile broadband and data cards are high growth segments with varied needs. Hence, we have realized the potential of both and perceive them as different sectors with a minor overlap."

Drivers

• Accessing emails and corporate applications on the go • Urge to visit entertainment sites on a prolonged boring travel • Growing businesses in all the segments • Ease of use with plug and play factor • Affordable tariffs • Net access even in far-flung areas where wireline broadband is not available • Utilities like m-commerce.

Deterrents

• Download speed is slow • Indian data cards offer bare minimum net connectivity • Prices are high for this QoS • Promise and delivery do not match

He adds, "In the past few years, the data card segment has seen many players emerging in the market offering similar hardware and speed. Hence, the need of the hour is to give differentiated product offerings so that it stands apart from other device offerings currently available in the market. Hence, moving beyond the pricing innovation, our high speed Internet access (HSIA) proposition- vFlash offers great value addition. Consumers generally prefer to have a dedicated device for mobile Internet, especially in cases where mobile Internet using data cards have speed up to 3.1Mbps and otherwise up to 256Kbps. We at Virgin Mobile India understand the distinct needs of our users, hence would continue to satisfy the high speed Internet connectivity demands of our customers."

Vrajesh Shelat, head, wireless data business, Reliance Communications says, "For every customer, speed of download matters, and we are able to match up to the expectations of our customers with our strong network spread. We have invested to improve the quality of our network to deliver better quality of services." He adds, "3G and BWA spectrum are the additional ways to have Internet access. We will be providing more speed with the

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future technologies available to us, so 3G will propel us to give customers more speed. In fact, 3G auction will fuel our business opportunities. With 3G we can offer more quality of services. We will be competing with other players to offer better services and get more market share." So, if data card players want to increase their share in the Internet market, their data cards should be able to increase the data download speed with better services.

Players in the Fray

Almost all service providers like Reliance Communications, TTSL, Virgin Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, MTNL, Idea Cellular, etc, offer price-flexible data cards in both prepaid and postpaid options. The success mantra is to offer the highest speed with affordable service cost and device cost to consumers. Virigin Mobile strategically targets youth segments, launching a stylish high speed USB modem device, vFlash. It's a new, hip and portable, plug and play device that offers convenience, portability and super fast Internet services along with the surfing speed of up to 3.1Mbps and generous storage slot of up to 8GB. The service is launched with attractive tariff options ranging from Rs 250-1,100 per month. MA Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile India says, "Today, the youth wants to stay connected 24x7 and with the launch of vFlash, we aim to put the surfing experience at their fingertips. At Virgin Mobile, we understand the distinct needs of our users; hence we are confident of satisfying the high speed Internet connectivity demands of our customers."

Reliance Communications offers Reliance Netconnect USB modem with a speed of up to 3.1Mbps. Its seamless network across 20,000 towns and 5 lakh villages is a plus for this service provider to offer improved services to consumers. Reliance Netconnect high speed 1x, wireless Internet offers speed of up to four times faster than dial-up connections. Its various plans are in the range of Rs 250-1,925 per month. Virgin Mobile's USB modem- vFlash is priced at Rs 2,599. Special night plans, annual rental plans, on-demand service to download from a wide range of movies, songs, music videos, mobile ringtones and wallpapers at attractive charges are its USP to attract the youth.

Idea Cellular offers Net Setter USB modem data card with a simple monthly plan within the price range of Rs 299-599. Tata Indicom's Plug 2 Surf tariff plan starts at Rs 150 and is up to Rs 799 per month. It also offers annual rental plans ranging from Rs 3,250-9,891. BSNL's PCMCIA gives data rate of up to 153.6Kbps. It supports voice and SMS, incoming call display, ring prompt, and call receiving while using data service online. It provides network interface card (NIC) for Internet speed up to 144Kbps and EVDO card for Internet speed up to 2.4Mbps. MTNL is armed with 3G wireless broadband data card (3G Jadoo USIM) to gain access to the world of Internet. With the latest MTNL's 3G network, it supports download speed of up to 3.6Mbps and upload speed up to 384Kbps. It has a Rs 500 monthly plan and its card is priced at Rs 2,499. Airtel data card offers data card with EDGE and GPRS in a single PC card package. EGPRS supports up to 100Kbps high speed data performance, GPRS/GSM data speed upto 40Kbps (network dependent). Vodafone offers Mobile Connect EDGE data cards at a tariff range of Rs

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499-699, and its data card device is priced at a range of Rs 7,799–6,499. The player that can offer high speed, low cost services, low cost device, and better services along with flexibility will be able to lead the market.

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FACING COMPETITION FROM RELIANCE, MTS EXPANDS BROADBAND NETWORK 2012

Article by: Telecom Lead Team

Danish Khan

[email protected]

Source: http://telecomlead.com

To compete with Reliance Communications and others, MTS India is expanding its footprints across the country in a bid to cement its position as a wireless broadband provider. It has now expanded its wireless data network in Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The teleco is facing stiff competition from Reliance Communication in the wireless broadband space. Reliance communication offers various monthly plans to customers that vary from Rs 299 to Rs 1,750 per month. Also, the company has some plans that are similar to the offerings of MTS. MTS is expanding the wireless data network rapidly and presently addresses over 92 percent of data potential across India. According to Indian telecoms regulator TRAI, as of December last year, the broadband penetration in India stands at 1 percent as against the mobile tele-density of 74.15 percent and 13.30 million broadband connections as of December 2011. Telecommunications provider brand MTS that comes under Sistema Shyam TeleServices has over 15 million wireless customers in India and offers mobile and data services. With the expansion, the telecom operator broadened its reach to 59 towns in Kerala, 22 towns in Gujarat and 21 towns in Andhra Pradesh. MTS India sells high-speed mobile broadband through MBlaze dongles, available in 151 branded retail outlets, 2300 mass retail outlets and 6100 organized retail outlets across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala. The dongles also enable users to watch live television and video on demand services.

MTS' High speed data (HSD) footprint covers more than 200 towns across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The company is also credited to be the first telecom operator to provide HSD services on a national highway in Southern India; Chennai "“ Bengaluru National Highway. The National Broadband Plan, envisaging 160 million broadband connections including 60 million wireless broadband connections by the year 2014, is a growth opportunity for the telco. In a bid to grab maximum broadband users, MTS has also introduced a daily usage plan, providing unlimited data usage for one day for just Rs. 96. Additionally, it offers unlimited data usage plans to its customers starting at just Rs 798 per month. The teleco has also collaborated with Hewlett Packard (HP) to offer discounts on its data services with purchase of an HP laptop, which includes discounted lifetime offers.

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However, the Indian Supreme Court recently cancelled 21 of 22 telecoms permits acquired by MTS in 2008 affecting around 12.5 million customers and around 3,500 employees. The February 2, 2012 verdict also put a question on the Russian parent's $ 3 billion investment in India. Last month, MTS India raised a loan of INR 1,280 crore through Non Convertible Debentures (NCD). The mobile operator is planning to utilize the proceeds to scale up its telecom operations and repayment of maturing loan. Deutsche Bank was the lead banker of the issue.

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MOBILE BROADBAND COMPUTING, DEVICE MARKET FORECASTS & BUSINESS MODEL SCENARIOS

By Dean Bubley, December 2008

Source: http://www.disruptive-analysis.com/mobile_broadband.htm

Disruptive Analysis’ new report, “Mobile Broadband Computing” provides a detailed analysis of the market for fast wireless data connectivity from notebooks, smaller "netbooks", and the new category of mobile Internet devices (MIDs). The popularity of flatrate data plans and cheap HSDPA modems has accelerated the market to reach 35 million subscribers worldwide at the end of 2008, more than doubling in a year. New innovations like "free" subsidised netbooks, sold through mobile carriers' channels are driving expectations of a continued explosion in 2009 and 2010. There is widespread enthusiasm for notebooks and MID featuring built-in 3G or WiMAX modems. Long-term prospects for the broader market are exceptional, with the global market growing to over 340 million active users by the end of 2014, using a mix of 3G, WiMAX and LTE networks. But despite this, some of the short-term optimism is unjustified. Above all, the global economy faces a vicious downturn which will impact notebook sales. It will make customers and OEMs cautious. It will focus minds on cashflow and margins. Moreover, some of the mobile broadband business model assumptions have serious flaws. This is the first thorough report on the sector since the financial crisis of late 2008. It analyses the impact of the recession and "credit crunch" on customers, vendors and operators. It also looks at the risks of a parallel "capacity crunch" as some 3G networks become congested by cheap mobile broadband traffic. Although the market for datacards and dongles has grown up on long-term, monthly contract subscriptions for data usage, there is a natural limit to this. Many consumers will not want an additional monthly commitment - especially if they use cheap prepaid models for their cellphones. WiFi has gained mass adoption mostly through free use in homes, offices, cafes and elsewhere - not through regular paid subscriptions. Mobile broadband must adopt similarly flexible business models. At the same time, some operators' marketing teams have become over-zealous about competing with fixed broadband. In some markets, HSDPA is now cheaper than ADSL. This is unsustainable, as the cost structures differ hugely. There are physical limits to the capacity of mobile data networks, which will be rapidly reached with the explosion of low-cost traffic. It is no coincidence that future wireless technologies like femtocells need fixed broadband. The report cuts through the rhetoric about this new area of growth for mobile operators. While it is undeniably a welcome source of new revenues, it is not without challenges. One of the key challenges is the adoption

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of embedded-3G and embedded-WiMAX notebooks. Despite improved hardware and software, along with falling module prices, these will grow slowly alongside the separate dongles. Predictions of 50%+ attach rates in 2-3 years are over-optimistic: there are numerous practical, commercial and economic reasons for delayed adoption. The report provides a full analysis of all the driving forces behind the market, and all the inhibitors.

It provides forecasts of:

• Shipments of mobile computing devices (notebooks, netbooks, MIDs, modems)

• Attach-rates of 3G, LTE and WiMAX in new shipping devices.

• Installed base of devices

• Uptake of mobile broadband access services among device owners

• Segmentation between embedded WWAN, external modems & handset "tethers"

• Breakdown of 3G/LTE , WiMAX and combined multimode network technologies

• Analysis of business / payment models: contract, prepaid, bundled, session-based, free

• Geographic split of mobile broadband users

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It examines a broad range of factors influencing device choice, and motivations of vendors, operators and end users. Strategies of the key suppliers are analysed, as well as the broader picture positioning computing-oriented devices against smartphones and consumer electronics. The report is 180 pages long, and is based on a broad research effort spanning dozens of briefings, meeting and interviews, among a wide cross-spectrum of operators, PC & device suppliers, semiconductor firms, network infrastructure suppliers, industry associations and software specialists. The report has been researched & written by Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis, author of the Disruptive Wireless blog, and a recognised authority on mobile broadband, wireless business models, spectrum policy, smartphones and FMC. He has been covering the evolution of broadband wireless technologies since 2001.

Highlights

• Mobile broadband computing (MBC) has grown very strongly in 2008, to 35m global subscribers. This is forecast to increase almost 10x by 2014, to 341m.

• Growth has been driven by cheap HSDPA modems and flatrate data plans.

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• The majority of MBC users exploit conventional-seized laptops with separate 3G USB modems (“dongles”). This model will continue to lead despite the growth of netbooks, built-in 3G, WiMAX and MIDs (mobile Internet devices).

• At present, Europe accounts for 50% of global mobile broadband users, reflecting earlier introduction of consumer-friendly USB dongles and ferociously-competitive low-priced HSDPA tariffs.

• In the short term, embedded-WWAN notebooks will grow in sales only slowly, reflecting the slowing economy, market inertia and price of 3G dongles, and limitations of business models like traditional monthly long-term contracts.

• Comparisons with fast adoption of WiFi in notebooks ignore factors like free usage models, and module cost as a % of OEMs’ gross profit margin per PC.

• “Free” netbooks, provided on a subsidised basis by mobile operators on typical 2-year contracts are popular, but have a limited addressable market.

• By the end of 2011, about 30% of mobile broadband users will be exploiting notebooks with built-in 3G or WiMAX modules. 58%, roughly twice that proportion, will use external modems like USB dongles.

• By 2014, there will be 150m users of notebooks and netbooks with embedded mobile broadband worldwide. In terms of shipments, 100m wireless-enabled laptops will be sold annually by then – but not all will be activated.

• The new market category of MIDs will grow only slowly. Only 3m will be sold in 2009, although by 2014 this should grow to ten times that figure.

• Ericsson, Intel and Qualcomm are driving down costs of WWAN modules for strategic reasons, relating to dominance of HSPA, growth of WiMAX and perpetuation of CDMA respectively.

• By 2012, there will be 45m users of WiMAX-enabled MBC devices. 11m of these will also use 3G or LTE connections in various hybrid approaches.

• An increasing number of subscribers will use their 3G handsets as “tethers” for their PCs, instead of modems or built-in modules. However, fewer than 10% of people will use tethers as their sole access method.

• Use of LTE in mobile broadband computing devices will be very limited until 2012. After that, ramp-up will be rapid, reaching 75m units shipped in 2014.

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• By 2011, only 40% of mobile broadband users will be on long-term monthly contracts. Most will use prepaid, session-based, bundled or “free” models.

• The cellular industry needs to work out methods to avoid the “tyranny of the SIM card” in enabling easy, session-based, mobile broadband offerings.

• Consumer preference for small netbooks as a mobile computing device form-factor is a positive for both Intel and Microsoft. ARM-based chips from TI, Qualcomm and others, running Linux, will mostly appear in niche MIDs, mobile variants of consumer electronics devices, and high-end smartphones.

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INDIA BROADBAND WIRELESS AND WIMAX MARKET ANALYSIS & FORECASTS 2007-2014 2ND EDITION

By Sridhar T Pai and Adlane Fellah, Maravedis Inc. Source: www.tonsetelecom.com/ Executive Summary The broadband-hungry nation of India might just be waking up to realities. For starters, 2007 could well become the Preparatory Year of Wireless Broadband. Although the former Minister of Telecommunications in India proclaimed 2007 as the Year of Broadband for India, 2008 will instead become the Year of Wireless Broadband for India. Despite the unmet requirement to free bandwidth from various stakeholders, the key engines for broadband growth – the operators – are not willing to wait. Genuine Indian innovation is at work as vendors, operators, and system integrators are coming together like neve r before to work with whatever is available to trigger a bandwidth revolution. Leading Indian private operators, as well as incumbents, are working together in narrow 12 MHz channels of 3.3-3.4 GHz to deploy WiMAX services where possible. Notable among these are Reliance, the master operator who currently operates the nation’s largest CDMA network of over 29 million subscribers (as of July 2007) and has already started commercial WiMAX services in Bangalore, and Aircel, the Maxis Communication Bernhard (Malaysia) owned ISP that has been providing WiMAX-based backhaul services and leased bandwidth for corporations for over a year. Methodology & Assumptions The research was conducted through two main channels: Secondary Sources Maravedis always strives to provide its clients with a new and unique perspective of the industry based on its own research. To ensure that we add value to the information already available to stakeholders in the industry, we reviewed most of the market research available on broadband wireless access in India, including • ITU Statistical Yearbook, 2006 • The World Bank Development Indicators, 2006 • Numerous articles • Indian ISP Association

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Primary Sources Primary research is a lengthy but indispensable process for market research because it yields data neither biased nor distorted by intermediaries. As part of this research, Maravedis and Tonse conducted interviews with the following: • All service providers listed in the report • The regulatory authorities • National account managers and other key representatives of equipment vendors active in the Indian market The survey took place from June to October 2007 and involved discussions with product managers, marketing executives, regulators, technologists and sales people at all organizational levels. We would like to thank all the participants in our survey for their time and contributions. Market Forecasts In 2006, the BWA equipment market opportunity in India was a mere US$2 5 million, up from US$6 million in 2005, and was dominated by small deployments for backhaul applications to enterprises with outdoor equipment. However, Maravedis and Tonse believe that with the upcoming spectrum opening, the certification of new equipment, and lower-cost CPEs, the annual 3.3 and 3.5 GHz equipment opportunity will increase f rom US$4 million in 2005 to a peak of US$ 280 million in 2014. Maravedis and Tonse estimate that the Internet subscriber populat ion will grow from the current 10 million to above 48 million by 2011. The Internet user population in India will have exceeded 200 million. This will be made possible by lower -cost PCs and notebooks, CPEs below US$40, and cheaper broadband service. Maravedis projects an accumulated 21 million BWA subscribers by 2014, counting both residential and business segments. WiMAX subscribers should represent the majority of this figure. Approximately 66% of the WiMAX subscribers will be mobile 802.16-2005, predominately residential, while fixed WiMAX wil l continue to be driven by large corporations and, to a lesser extent, by SME customers. Conclusions and Recommendations The Indian market for BWA/WiMAX will continue to be one of the most sought after markets for global equipment vendors. The nation promises to offer huge, consistently high growth for the next several years, judging by its extremely low broadband penetration rates (under 3 million for a population of over 1 billion). The government has initiated significant progress in resolving a chaotic spectrum scenario

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with too many interested parties (GSM lobby, CDMA interests, ISPs, incumbents, military, and other users) and a growing list of new applicants struggling to gain entry into the potentially lucrative telecom service business. However, muc h more needs to be done, and fast, if a semblance of a fair settlement is to be achieved. The 3G policy is already off by a year, and delays are spawning gaps in an extremely under -penetrated broadband market.

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INDIA BROADBAND WIRELESS AND WIMAX MARKET ANALYSIS AND FORECASTS: 2006-2012, 1st EDITION By Sridhar T Pai and Adlane Fellah, Maravedis Inc. Source: www.maravedis-bwa.com/pdf/ExecSum_WiMAX_in_India.pdf Executive Summary Background India started its economic liberalization program in 1991. In 1994, the first step to opening the telecom market to privatization was taken. The first private sector wireline and cellular licenses were issued in 1995. From then on, Indian telecom has seen several milestones crossed and many missteps that provided valuable lessons. The effective telecom tariff for domestic voice service has dropped from Rs 14 per minute (US$0.3 at US$1 = Rs 44.5) to about Rs 1 (US$0.02) per minute in the last 10 years. The result is that the number of telephone connections (wireline and wireless lines) has doubled in the past two years, to about 150 million. The Ministry of Telecom has set a target for 2007 of about 250 million connections and mobile coverage for 85% of the country’s geographical area, from about 30% today. India now has 49.75 million fixed subscribers and 100 million mobile users, for a total of about 150 million. That may seem like a large figure, but with a population of 1.08 billion, it translates to just 14 phones for every 100 people. And that number is skewed by the relative wealth of the cities − while urban teledensity is around 31 percent, just 2 percent of the rural population has phone lines. With India's expanding middle class, demand for telephone services is growing beyond carriers’ ability to keep up. The telecom ministry is initiating an ambitious project to release a total of about 45 MHz of spectrum from the Department of Defense to augment necessary spectrum for 3G services. Although details are not yet available, the cost has been estimated at about US$200 million and the time frame is expected to be early 2007. With respect to rural connectivity, the government’s objective is to reach about 50 million rural connections, or one phone per three rural households, by 2007 and about 80 million rural connections or one phone per two rural households, by 2010.

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Broadband Market Broadband services were launched in India in 2005. ADSL services now cover 300 towns with a combined 1.5 million connections, while broadband wireless subscriber figures are still negligible. While low broadband penetration is a clear opportunity for BWA/WiMAX, the market take off will require sufficient spectrum, very low cost CPE and affordable end-to-end connectivity, including the computing platform. A country where broadband’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is estimated at US$8-10 requires very low equipment cost. In fact, Huawei is already delivering DSL modems at US$13 to Indian operators. The Indian telecom sector operates in a volume-driven market. If the broadband market in India grows to meet the government’s revised targets, it might spur one of the world’s largest broadband wireless markets. For example, target broadband connections have been currently revised to 9 million subscribers by 2007 and 20 million by 2010. Quite likely the majority of these will be wireless broadband connections because of the poor wireline infrastructure in place.

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BWA/WiMAX Regulation Enough operators are complaining about lack of adequate radio spectrum, that the government is considering the release of some of the spectrum held by the departments of Space and Defense. Currently, license holders in the 3.3-3.4 GHz band have on average, a spectrum of 2x6 MHz to deploy broadband services, even though an analysis shows that 20 MHz is the minimum to support wide scale deployments and hence a profitable business case. At the end of June 2006, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) initiated a public consultation on “Allocation and pricing of spectrum for 3G services and broadband wireless access” including WiMAX. This consultation, in which the WiMAX

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Forum is keen to participate, will probably take until the end of 2006 to produce recommendations. Further pressure on available bandwidth is coming from operators who require allocations of the 3G/UMTS spectrum. BWA/WiMAX technologies require specific frequency bands to be opened up in the 3.5 GHz band (an internationally approved standard), which is currently allocated to the Department of Space for INSAT downlink. Regulators and policy makers are deciding the best way to manage the spectrum. BWA/WiMAX Activity Bharti TeleVentures, Reliance, SIFY, BSNL and VSNL (Tata Group) have all acquired licenses in 3.3 GHz range and are in various stages of trials. VSNL has announced Phase 1 pre-WiMAX deployment of Aperto gear in 60 locations, extending to 200 locations within the year. Although there is clearly insufficient spectrum to offer DSL-like service, several operators have indicated that there is still a huge market for 64 and 128 kb/s connections, which should alleviate the lack of spectrum. Other active players include utilities and several branches of the Indian government. Intel is making significant progress in working closely with the Indian Government in bringing the latter’s rural broadband goals to reality. The innovative”village entrepreneur” model, together with a net-enabled community info-kiosk, is an ideal way to reach the many who are not yet connected. While Motorola is strengthening its presence in the hinterlands through its extensive BWA projects for state governments, Alcatel has set up a joint venture with the C-Dot (the R&D arm of the DoT) to focus on exclusive BWA/WiMAX solutions that are tailor made for India at price points the Indian consumer is comfortable paying. Anticipated Developments Several key events should influence the Indian BWA/WiMAX environment in the months ahead. While most operators have only conducted limited trials of vendor products, we expect larger deployments to begin in January 2007, provided that the needed additional spectrum is made available as envisioned. The mobile industry, already faced with a steep decrease in voice ARPU, is expanding its reach by offering voice services in rural areas and high-margin data services in urban areas in order try to increase revenues. Mobile TV, IPTV and other broadband applications are under trial at Reliance, Bharti and MTNL. The increased level of e Commerce activity –

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mainly through travel bookings, discount airfares, holiday destination packages, job hunting and matrimonial services − is creating a huge demand for always-on broadband services that is expected to take the current Internet user population to 100 million before 2007. Government-led initiatives with strong technology partners such as Intel, Motorola and Alcatel will trigger successful applications such as the Railtel cyber-cafe network along the entire rail route of the nation. Local technology-product companies with differentiated products engineered in India will have an opportunity to deploy in large domestic networks, learn from the experience and go global. Thus, they could form the first-generation Indian telecom product companies to address global markets. The mobile-content industry in India is on the threshold of great change, as television, production houses and content aggregators are working frantically to define the new frontier in the Indian content business. Mobile operators and ISPs that have strong alliances with content developers will be able to define the content-licensing model, which is at the heart of the broadband business. This will pose a new challenge for Indian service providers. Although the Indian broadband arena is emerging, it clearly offers huge potential forthose that can demonstrate perseverance, patience and commitment. Market Forecasts In 2005, the BWA equipment market opportunity was a mere US$6 million, dominated by small deployments for backhaul applications to enterprises with outdoor equipment. However, Maravedis and Tonse believe that with the upcoming spectrum opening, the certification of new equipment and lower-cost CPEs, the annual 3.3 and 3.5 GHz equipment opportunity will increase from US$4 million in 2005 to US$256 million in 2012. Maravedis and Tonse project an accumulated 18 million BWA subscribers by 2012, counting both residential and business segments. WiMAX subscribers should represent two-thirds of this figure. Approximately 60% of the WiMAX subscribers will be mobile customers, who are predominately residential, while fixed WiMAX will continue to be driven by large corporations and, to a lesser extent, by SME customers.

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Methodology & Assumptions The research was conducted through two main channels: Secondary Sources Maravedis always strives to provide its clients with a new and unique perspective of the industry based on its own research. To ensure that we add value to the information already available to stakeholders in the industry, we reviewed most of the market research available on broadband wireless access in India, including • ITU Statistical Yearbook, 2005 • The World Bank Development Indicators, 2005 • Numerous articles • Indian ISP Association Primary Sources Primary research is a lengthy but indispensable process for market research because it yields data neither biased nor distorted by intermediaries. As part of this research, Maravedis conducted interviews with the following: • All service providers listed in the report • The regulatory authorities • National account managers and other key representatives of equipment vendors active in the Indian market The survey took place from January to June 2006 and involved discussions with product managers, marketing executives, regulators, technologists and sales people at all organizational levels. We would like to thank all the participants in our survey for their time and contributions.

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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION WORKSHOP ON PROMOTING BROADBAND 2012

Source: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/promotebroadband/index.html Executive summary The aim of this background paper is to examine some of the promotion techniques of broadband networks and services that have proven to be successful from both a demand and supply perspective. This should enable those interested in the promotion of broadband to identify how those techniques can apply to their own economies, and to address some of the problems faced. The paper concludes that inter alia, that: To promote demand: • It is crucial for users to be aware of the benefits that broadband can provide. Both

governments and the private sector can play an active role in marketing the benefits of broadband. Successful approaches may include ensuring that broadband is available in schools, enabling consumers to share broadband connections, and permitting bundling of broadband with other services. Government promotion campaigns and co-branding can also encourage take-up.

• Users must be convinced of the advantages to be gained by adopting key broadband technologies and integrating them into their daily lives. Applications that have been meshed into successful broadband economies include IP telephony, video chat, and audio over broadband and online gaming. Business and government cultures can also embrace and encourage ideas such as teleworking and online transactions. Finally, policies that encourage content development in local languages will create favorable conditions for adoption.

• Economies must offer an environment that fosters broadband development and diffusion. This includes careful consideration of intellectual property rights, support for sectors that participate in developing new, high-bandwidth applications, methods for diffusing technology, and measures to ensure security for users.

• Consumers will only adopt broadband when they can justify its cost in terms of the value it adds. A competitive market structure is therefore vital to sustain low prices. Tailored pricing plans and the elimination of large lump-sum payments can aid affordability.

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To promote supply: • Competition is the key to driving prices down and increasing the broadband

options available to consumers. The most successful economies in terms of broadband penetration have strong competition both among providers of the same broadband technologies, and between providers of different broadband technologies. Furthermore open access policies can help promote service competition. It is also beneficial to have players in the market that are sufficiently large and deep pocketed to rival the incumbent operator.

• Existing infrastructure should be utilized to the full to enable broadband rollout. But new investment is also required, and this should be future-oriented, anticipating the likely demand for ever-faster Internet connections.

• Schools, hospitals, and community access centers can act as effective anchors for broadband demand in areas where individual household connections are not yet viable. The network can then expand incrementally from these key points as the technology and economy allows. Wireless broadband also offers a viable community alternative to fixed line solutions such as broadband via DSL or cable modem.

• Governments can participate at all levels. National, regional and city-wide initiatives and community participation projects have been successful in expanding access. In some cases, governments have chosen to provide, or to subsidize, infrastructure to stimulate the economic development of a particular area.

Overall, it is clear that there is no single key to promoting broadband. Promotion strategies and policies will prove most effective when various initiatives and projects are integrated; encompassing all stakeholder groups, and adjusted to contextual and environmental factors. Promoting broadband, and why now? Broadband has been referred to as the infrastructure of the knowledge economy. Countries around the world have nominated broadband networks as crucial infrastructure for achieving their social, economic and scientific goals. Furthermore, broadband has been described as a panacea for a range of social and economic woes as well as a way of revitalizing demand for the products and services of the telecommunication sector. However, in some countries the take-up of broadband has been disappointingly slow, and in many economies around the world it remains below expectations, although there are significant exceptions, most notably the Republic of Korea. Even where

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infrastructure is available and the cost affordable, demand for broadband has tended to remain sluggish. It appears that end-users do not universally perceive high-speed data delivery to be the wonder it is sometimes hyped up to be. Many Internet users appear unconvinced that the benefits of broadband are worth its additional cost. The most successful Internet applications—e-mail and instant messaging—offer users almost the same experience whether on a 56 kbit/s1 dial-up modem or on a 1.5 Mbit/s broadband connection. Yet even if broadband were free, one could not expect to see 100 per cent usage immediately, even where it is readily available. This is highlighted by an experiment conducted in the town of LaGrange, Georgia in the United States, whereby cable broadband access was offered for free to all interested consumers. One year after this was first offered, only 29 per cent of residents had subscribed. This highlights the problem this workshop seeks to address: if governments and industry are convinced that broadband is essential to growth and development, how can they encourage users to take up the technology? This paper allows those wishing to promote broadband the opportunity to examine the broadband promotion techniques that have worked from both a demand and supply perspective, identify how those techniques can apply to their own economies, and address some of the problems faced in broadband promotion. The aim is not to promote broadband networks per se, but rather to promote the availability of high-speed Internet access as a platform for developing a range of new and innovative applications and services. For the purposes of this paper, broadband refers simply to high-speed, high-capacity communication providing Internet access of which digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable modems are currently the most popular technologies. Why promote broadband? Generally speaking, the main reasons for promoting broadband can be given as follows: • Benefits to users. Compared with narrowband, the increased speed and always-

on4 nature of broadband enables the exchange of richer content, facilitates improved, expanded and more rapid communication, and allows the sharing of a connection with multiple users.

• Benefits to the economy. Broadband connectivity is helping to establish an “information society”. It encourages innovation, stimulates growth in an economy, and attracts foreign investment.

• Returns on investment. Broadband holds the promise of new applications and services that will attract users and help recover infrastructure development costs.

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BROADBAND PENETRATION RATES IN THE WORLD:

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BROADBAND PRICE COMPARISON AMONG COUNTRIES:

Conclusion This focus of this paper has been on ideas and strategies for promoting broadband. While it is clear that there are no universal rules that apply to all economies equally, this paper has attempted to highlight a diverse set of strategies for promoting broadband that have been applied successfully in a diverse set of countries. The aim has been to offer a toolkit of alternatives from strategies that have been used around the world. For the most part, this paper has taken it for granted that broadband promotion is a good thing. While countries such as Korea, Canada, Iceland, Japan, and Hong Kong, China seem to be realizing the benefits of large-scale take-up of broadband, it remains to be seen whether real, rather than merely potential, benefits of broadband will be realized

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universally. Furthermore, this paper has generally not addressed possible drawbacks of broadband and negative social impacts of its use. Importantly, it is felt that efforts to promote broadband should not be followed single-mindedly, but that the full social implications of broadband use, industry convergence, and policy changes should be carefully considered. The term “broadband” is also very much a moving target. While the broadband of today consists of, for the most part, cable modem and DSL connections, the broadband of the future may very well be based on fiber optic cable or wireless technologies. The implications of this for those actively promoting cable and DSL may be highly significant. Will promoting the broadband of today serve as a necessary stepping-stone for the adoption of future broadband technologies? Will those countries that have low take-up of broadband today lose out on the advantages of a widespread rollout and fall too far behind to catch up? On the other hand, could money spent promoting cable and DSL be better spent investing in a more fundamental rebuilding of the network infrastructure? Will countries currently promoting copper lose out to countries like Sweden, Iceland and Japan that have focused on fiber-optic networks in the long term? For those developing countries without broadband, what technology should they invest in now? Strategies and policies to promote broadband will prove most successful when they do not operate in isolation. Rather, broadband promotion is likely to be most effective when various initiatives and projects are integrated, encompassing all stakeholder groups. Experience has shown that broadband has the potential to impact on a number of different fields, such as health care, education and entertainment, and accordingly, efforts to promote broadband should be closely tied with initiatives in these fields. Finally, in addition to infrastructure, policy and access issues, one of the key concerns for those interested in promoting broadband should be to give users a foretaste of the technology. As they recognize the benefits, demand for broadband will be driven upwards, stimulating the market and ensuring future social and economic rewards of this new technology.

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CASE STUDY: BROADBAND IN SRILANKA, GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 2011

Source: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies/index.html#broadband Sri Lanka, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean just south of India, has lately experienced an explosion in the use and availability of broadband services. The increase is primarily due to the high rate of adoption of third generation (3G) mobile technologies such as HSPA and HSPA+ dongles and associated SIM cards. This trend is typical of Sri Lanka and many other South Asian countries which do not have access to wide-spread copper last mile connectivity, and therefore are reliant on wireless networks to increase access, be it simple voice or broadband. Several factors have contributed to Sri Lanka’s success in connecting it’s citizenry to the internet via mobile broadband: Innovative Business Models making services accessible to all: The increase in mobile broadband rides on the wave of extremely high mobile voice growth, enabled by successful innovations by the Sri Lankan (and Asian) operators. Faced with low ability to pay of many consumers in the region, the operators could have settled into serving the high-end, rich consumers. However, because the regulators and policy makers enabled new entry into the market, the intense competition forced operators to innovate in such a way as to be able to profitably serve even the poorest consumers. Network costs were reduced drastically by sharing passive and active infrastructure, by outsourcing key parts of the operation including even the management of the core network. Cost of billing was completely dispensed with and credit risk eliminated by moving to a pre-paid model. Distribution costs were minimized by enabling electronic reloading (e-reload), thereby eliminating cost of printing and distributing top-up cards for pre-paid users. Finally, even consumers with very low and very variable incomes were attracted to the market by enabling extremely small top-ups at any time (as low as USD 0.50 or less). This ―budget telecom modelǁ1 based on low costs high volumes (high minutes of use per user enabled operators to make positive EBITDA margins even though the Average Revenue per SIM was low, around USD 2 – 5. This budget model of telecom that was first developed for the voice business is now being applied to mobile broadband in Sri Lanka. In particular, enabling pre-paid mobile broadband and allowing for very low value re-charges, the youth (who have highly variable incomes) have been brought into the mobile broadband market. The two first movers into the 3G space (Dialog Axiata and Mobitel) offered special promotional discount packages of up to 50% specifically for students. These early adopters created significant interest in mobile

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broadband. By 2008, the English and Sinhala blogosphere in Sri Lanka was barely mentioning fixed broadband; all the discussions and debates about quality and price was about mobile broadband. Early availability of 3G spectrum: Of course all of the above was made possible because 3G spectrum was made available early to the operators in Sri Lanka. Here, the regulator deserves credit. As far back as 2003 test frequency was made available. By 2006, commercial 3G was launched. This is in sharp contrast to India which only managed to allocate 3G spectrum in 2010. Early access to spectrum enabled Sri Lanka to become the first Asian nation to offer 3G services. Government’s e-development agenda motivating investment: Apart from the regulator, the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has had a major focus on broadband in the country. ICTA is the implementer of e-Sri Lanka, a cross-sectoral ICT-enabled development program for the whole country. ICTA set the ICT agenda through a series of comprehensive supply and demand side activities/projects (for example, setting up network of over 500 rural telecenters, announcing plans for a least-cost subsidy scheme to build and operate a fiber backbone in rural areas, development of e- government applications, providing ICT skills to citizens from all walks of life, promoting investment in Business Process Outsourcing which in turn drives the demand for high speed connectivity) and helped create a significant buzz about the potential demand for BB in the country. All this helped increase awareness about opportunities afforded by ICTs. Operators were motivated to invest in the network infrastructure in light of upcoming demand. However, having reached this stage, Sri Lanka needs to overcome several challenges if it is continue on its early success and make broadband a truly mass-market product instead of the niche popularity it still enjoys. A key challenge is that of bringing a product of adequate quality to consumers. Budget broadband/budget telecom models mean low cost and therefore low prices. But they also mean low quality. This is indeed the case with Sri Lankan broadband. While the Sri Lankan mobile broadband performs better than Sri Lankan fixed broadband various quality of service measures, when compared with the developed world Sri Lankan consumers get less value for money on broadband. Part of the reason is bad advertising (promising broadband speeds that are possible theoretically, but not in reality). But a bigger part is the infrastructure – in particular, bottlenecks in international connectivity due to high prices. The other challenge for operators is to keep up their investments necessary to move to the next technology cycle in face of declining margins. While at least two mobile

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operators have announced LTE network deployments, extending these upgrades beyond the population centers will prove challenging because of revenue and margin erosions due to intense competition.

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Retail broadband Sri Lankan retail users (consumers and businesses) have a choice of broadband technologies and service providers to choose from. All mobile operators have nationwide coverage of basic voice and GPRS services. Dialog and Mobitel also provide 3G/3.5G coverage in the majority of the country including the formerly war torn North East (3G coverage is still not available in low density population areas). Etisalat is in the process of investing to increase its 3/3.5G footprint.31 Airtel covers the major population centers of Colombo, Galle, and Kandy with 3G. At the time of writing, both Dialog Axiata and Mobitel were engaged in LTE trials in Colombo. Mobitel had also signed agreements (on tax free concessions) with the board of investment to invest in its LTE network.

Assessing Performance: Glass Half Full or Half Empty? On one hand, Sri Lanka’s fixed broadband penetration leaves much to be desired, with only a small portion households being served by fixed copper broadband, and an even smaller portion of the served households adopting ADSL. Whether fixed wireless (especially newly emerging 16.e WiMAX) will prove successful is unclear because these technologies/services are only just entering the market. However mobile broadband has stepped in to fill the void – Sri Lanka has the second highest level of mobile broadband penetration in South Asia (only behind Maldives, a much richer country) and it has the lowest prices. Though overall adoption is still low,

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mobile broadband is experiencing phenomenal growth. Many factors contributed to this success, as discussed below. However, the path for continued growth for mobile broadband is far from certain, given the socio-economic conditions of the country and competitive dynamics between operators. These factors are discussed in the following section. What worked? Early availability of 3G spectrum The Sri Lankan regulator was one of the first in the Asian region to make 3G spectrum available back in 2004 when it authorized its use for testing. By 2006, this spectrum was allocated for commercial use to all operators at a charge of around USD 5 million. Not only was 3G spectrum made available at the time, but was thereafter available to any operator who paid the same price. This eliminated ―land-grabǁ type behavior that would have been otherwise created by a one-off spectrum auction and enabled operators to enter the 3G market when it made most sense to them – based on their assessment of trade-offs between early entry vs. waiting for the right time in their capital investment cycle. Though the government arguably lost potential income through this allocation method, it did make spectrum available on a non-discriminatory basis to all operators, and at a relatively low price. Once the primary barrier to mobile broadband investment was removed (i.e. spectrum was made available), operators were quick to invest. Dialog launched South Asia’s first commercial 3G network in 200672 and other Sri Lankan mobile operators have followed suit. Availability of 3G spectrum and 3G services is in sharp contrast to the situation in many of Sri Lanka’s neighbors, most notably India which did not allocate it till until 2010. Sri Lanka is keeping up this track record, and has made spectrum available for LTE networks, which are currently being tested by two operators. Innovations by operators The second key driver of mobile broadband stems from dynamics of an extremely competitive mobile industry in Sri Lanka. Market entry has been liberal with a relatively high number of operators. Once the market got beyond the duopoly situation, and disruptive third and fourth operators entered, serious competition set in, driving down prices. In order to maintain margins and grow the market, operators could not continue to ―cream skimǁ (service the rich or those at the top of the socio-economic pyramid who have high ability to pay) but had instead to reach the masses

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and the poor. The operators innovated by moving towards a high volume, low cost network business model characterized by, a) outsourcing of network operations, leading to significant reduction in network costs, b) sharing of passive and active infrastructure, without regulatory obligation, further reducing operational costs, c) eliminating credit risk and cost of printing invoices by offering pre-paid service, d) catering to variable incomes of the poor by enabling extremely small re-charge amounts on pre-paid services (as low as USD 0.50 top-ups) and e) even eliminating scratch cards used for topping-up pre-paid services by moving to electronic re-charge, saving more costs. This business model is characterized by extremely high network utilization and low Average Revenue per User (ARPU) and has enabled those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid to become mobile voice and SMS users. The same model is now being extended to mobile broadband. Faced with high competition in voice, operators are moving to other services, and data is the first target. While many rich or some middle classes households may have access to copper wire (and therefore ability to get ADSL connections), most other do households do not. Therefore wireless is the only option for many. Operators are meeting the demand with reasonably priced HSDPA dongles (at under USD 50 per dongle) and data plans (unlimited plans ranging from USD 4 to USD 27 per month). By enabling pre-paid top-ups, operators are eliminating the need for a monthly contract, further removing barriers to entry by those on low or irregular incomes. And by targeting students (e.g. Dialog offered them HSPA dongle and package discounts of up to 50% in the early days) they have managed to capture early adopters. Sri Lanka has also traditionally been a leader in mobile telephony in South Asia and often the first to launch innovative new networks and applications. Dialog was the first 3G operator in South Asia and Mobitel the first 3.5G. This trend continues today – HSPA was first launched in South Asia by Dialog and Mobitel was first with HSDPA and HSUPA. At least 2 operators are running LTE trials at the time of writing, with plans to invest and launch LTE within 1 – 2 years. The mobile operators are on a constant innovative cycle, by matching each other’s investments into faster, more cost-efficient technologies in each iteration.

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BROADBAND AS A COMMODITY:HONG KONG, CHINA INTERNET CASE STUDY 2012

I n t e r n a t i o n a l T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n U n i o n

Source: www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/hongkong/material/CS_HKG.pdf Background Promotion of the Internet has become a top priority in many economies around the world. Some are now moving beyond basic Internet access to promoting high speed broadband infrastructure and networks. The deployment of broadband infrastructure is increasingly perceived as important for overall economic and social development. According to the Chairman of Singapore’s information and communication technology regulatory agency: “Broadband is a defining technology of our age. In the future, no nation can claim to be of developed status without good broadband access.” Central to broadband development are mass-market technologies for end user access. In that respect, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for telecommunications, has embarked on a series of case studies researching the development of the Internet. This study looks at the development of the Internet and particularly broadband access in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred to as Hong Kong). Methodology The Mosaic Group2 has developed a framework for characterizing the state of the Internet in an economy. They consider six factors, each of which has five values ranging from zero (nonexistent) nonexistent) to four (highly developed). The factors are as follows: • Pervasiveness: a measure based on users per capita and the degree to which non-

technicians are using the Internet. • Geographic dispersion: a measure of the concentration of the Internet, from none or

a single city to nationwide availability. • Sector absorption: a measure of the degree of utilization of the Internet in the

education, commercial, health care and public sectors. • Connectivity infrastructure: a measure based on international and domestic

backbone bandwidth, exchange points, and user access methods.

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• Organizational infrastructure: a measure based on the state of the Internet Service Provider industry and market conditions.

• Sophistication of use: a measure characterizing usage from conventional to highly sophisticated and driving innovation.

This framework is used to assess the situation in Hong Kong with a particular focus on broadband Internet access. Conclusions There are three key factors affecting broadband take-up in Hong Kong: • As competition has intensified, prices have dropped sharply, particularly over the

last year or so. In any case, Hong Kong’s relatively high per capita income minimizes cost as a major barrier.

• Availability of broadband is high, a reflection of Hong Kong’s compact urban geography and vertical habitation. If someone wants broadband, they can obtain it reasonably quickly. ADSL covers 95 per cent of the households and cable modem is available in 85 per cent of homes.

• Usage is intense with the frequent users (defined as those who had used Internet at least once a week) spending 11 hours a week on the Internet. According to a non-government survey, Hong Kong ranks second in the world in terms of the number of hours the average user is on the Internet. This heavy usage drives demand for fast, always-on Internet connections. A related factor is that Hong Kong has been connected to the Internet since 1991, which has allowed it to build up a base of savvy sophisticated users.

While some factors for Hong Kong’s broadband explosion are tied to its unique situation (compact size, long period of time connected to the Internet), one factor that is replicable for other economy is the high level of competition. It is unlikely that there is this degree of broadband competition anywhere else in the world. There are 15 retail broadband providers in Hong Kong, resulting in intense competition for potential customers. As one broadband provider notes: “Competition is expected to be keener this year as the marketplace approaches commoditisation.”1 This commoditization is reflected in stands set up in the street to hawk broadband Internet access as if it was apples or oranges. In order to entice potential users, providers offer everything from toasters to stereo equipment. In Hong Kong, broadband is no longer perceived as a luxury but a mass-market product. As a result, it is no longer a question of if users will get broadband but when. At current trends, virtually all of Hong Kong’s Internet subscriptions will be broadband by the year 2005. This rapid

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conversion to broadband has two implications. One is technological, the second social. Technically, the increasing penetration of broadband implies that the majority of Hong Kong’s telecommunication traffic is IP-based. One wonders how much longer it makes sense to maintain two different networks—the telephone network based on circuit switched technology and a second based on packet switched IP. At a certain point—perhaps 2005 when PCCW will have a fully IP network— the crossover to a packet data telecommunication network may take place. But for that to happen, much more work needs to be done in the area of provisioning IP-based voice services and providing IP-based terminal equipment (e.g., telephone sets). The second implication revolves around the use to which broadband networks are put. Though broadband applications are available in Hong Kong, for the most part they are entertainment-based. Even for those applications, only one third of Hong Kong’s users are using them. For the most part, usage of the Internet in Hong Kong revolves around the mundane—email, surfing web sites, etc.—with broadband mainly attractive because of its convenience (e.g., faster speed, not tying up the telephone line, always on). A snapshot of Hong Kong’s e-readiness, as reflected in a widely used framework, shows that one of the few areas it does not obtain the highest ranking is sophistication of usage. Much more work is needed to develop broadband applications and to entice users to use them. Once that happens, then Hong Kong will have transitioned from a broadband market to a broadband society.

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FIG: STATE OF INTERNET IN HONG KONG

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RELIANCE NETCONNECT V/S TATA PHOTON V/S EVDO BSNL REVIEW OF USB DATA CARD 2012

Blog Review Source: http://www.indiabroadband.net/mobile-broadband/24096-reliance-netconnect-vs-tata-photon-vs-evdo-bsnl-review-3g-usb-data-card.html

3G Data Cards (speed up to 2 MBps, expensive).These data cards can be plugged into USB port of your desktop or Laptop. They are expensive as compared to land line broadband and a good option for people who travel a lot.

• Reliance Netconnect plus (recommended): Reliance is most reliable when it comes to USB broadband internet in India. The availability of network is good and speeds are fast. This USB card works only in selected cities and area. Make sure that 3G network is available in your area before you buy one. With Reliance you can get nationwide roaming facility (wherever broadband 3G network is not available the connection switches to normal 1x CDMA speeds upto 153 Kbps) which is good for browsing.

Pros: - High speed EVDO internet with speeds upto 3.1 Mbps - Service centers available in most cities in India. - Better network and speed. Customer care is good. Cons: - No unlimited data plans - Expensive tariff - You have to pay, even if you get slow 1x speed. • Tata Photon

The direct competitor of Reliance. Tata is bit cheap comparison to Reliance but again the speed and service is not as good as latter. The problem with TATA is non availability of network in smaller towns (as compared to reliance) Pros

- Cheaper than Reliance - Speeds are faster than 256 broadband line (upto 2 Mbps)

Cons - Lack in availability of network.

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- Service centers not located in smaller towns and cities. - Slower in comparison to Reliance • BSNL EVDO

BSNL is known for low tariffs and poor customer service. Especially in the mobile segment BSNL the largest telecom company in India suffers badly. The network is not as much good and in many cases not reliable company to go with. My friend who bought EVDO data card from them never got speed more than 10 KBps. Although there are some positive reviews as well available on the internet. All in all going with BSNL is risky. Yes it is cheapest but probably not the best.

Pros

- Speeds upto 2.1 Mbps (if you are lucky to get 3g network) - Cost only 650 Rs for unlimited plan

Cons Non availability of data cards most of the time. Unreliable speed and coverage

location. Downtimes occur often.

FAQ’S • What is 3G 3G is the third generation standard that can transmit faster speeds over Wireless

networks. The tower has to be upgraded to offer such speeds by the provider. This is the reason why it is not available all over India. It is slowly installed on smaller cities in India by the companies. It is estimated that by 2013 whole India and its major districts and towns would become 3G enabled!

• How to know coverage locations • It is very important to confirm availability of 3G networks in the area you want to

access internet • What is fair use policy All unlimited data plans come with a limit. There is a cap on each plan and if you

cross those you have to pay extra if you have postpaid connection. The limit is approx 10 GB per month with most of the service providers.

• Benefit of using USB data card instead of mobile Instead of using internet through mobile it is better to go for USB broadband if you

want higher speeds and it does not require additional power charge as it runs on the USB. There is no wire or cable to be used like in Mobile Internet.

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RELIANCE: A 'CUSTOMER SATISFACTION' CASE STUDY

Posted by Vignesh Dhakshinamoorthy 25th Feb 2011 Chennai Source: http://www.vikkee.com/2011/02/reliance-customer-satisfaction-case.html People say, Fast world..Technology is growing. 21st century. All kind of terminologies which highlights one thing: The world around us is changing. Gone are the days in which you placed your internet connection request at the local BSNL Telephone centre and impatiently waited at your door step for the service engineer to come and setup your internet connection. The following sequence of events is one good example of how Technology has changed the way we live, and most importantly, an impressive customer satisfaction case study. 06:15 PM, My home: I successfully activated my Reliance NetConnect BroadBand+ USB Internet device. (An hour ago...) 05:00 PM, My Office (Haddows Rd, Nungambakkam) I decided to buy an internet connection. I travel a lot, and hence I opted for a wireless device. Options that came to my mind were: Tata, BSNL and Reliance. My intention was to just buy it and start using it rather than register somewhere, wait for 20 days till it comes. 05:10 PM, BSNL Office (Nungambakkam) I am lazy enough to roam around the traffic-loving city and hence I choose to visit the nearest center. As soon as I walked into the office, the security stopped me. "Sir, can I have some ID please?". "Why would someone ask a customer for ID", I thought. He then told me that it is an Administration Office and not sales. I walked out. 05:20 PM, Reliance Office (Nungambakkam) I then walk into the 10-storeyed Reliance building in front of Shastri Bhavan (Passport Office). They had a very nice showroom that showcased almost all the products Reliance ever manufactured. "I am looking for a Wireless Internet. What are the plans you have?", I asked.

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The executive showed some broachers which had some numbers, and I am happy with one of it. 800 Rs/Mon. 3.1 MBPS, unlimited, roaming Free. Take it anywhere in the country. "Can I buy it right away? When will you activate it?", I posted my next question. "Yes Sir. It will be activated in 30 Mins. You need to give us a Photo, One ID proof and an Address proof. That was tough. No one roams around with these documents in their pockets. I could have went home, bring with me all the documents on the next day but I thought hard for a while and asked him one more question. "I don't have a picture or proofs with me. I have a scanned copy of my family card and a Passport size picture, but it is in my mail box. Do you have internet access here?" He first said, No Sir, but later took me into the administration premises and gave me his desktop to access my mail box. He could’ve simply said, "No we don't. Get print-out outside, or bring tomorrow". Like Govt. officials do. There is a good possibility that I would not come back the next day. This man is smart. I open the family card and he prints it with the office printer. He uses the office scanner, scans my driving license and prints it. He just saves the picture of mine in the local desktop. 05:45 PM, Same Reliance office I paid the bill, bought the device after the executive collected all the proofs. It usually takes a lot longer but that day was a lucky one and I sneaked through the crowded roads and reached home after a 17 Km drive. 06:15 PM, My home: I took out the device. It is as small as a USB Pen Drive. There was no disc or driver or nothing. The required software is kept inside the device and it installs automatically. I successfully activated my Reliance NetConnect Broadband+ USB Internet device. In less than 2 hours, I got home an Internet connection. Credits to the technology, and the executive who did everything he could to 'grab' the customer. This also reminds me of a HDFC Executive who clicked a picture of me with his Mobile phone because I did not have a passport size picture with me.

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RELIANCE NETCONNECT BROADBAND PLUS COVERAGE IN - DELHI, NOIDA, FARIDABAD USING EVDO 2012

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN:

THE RESEARCH DESIGN USED HERE IS EXPLORATORY CUM DESCRIPTIVE.

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

Exploratory research often relies on secondary research such as reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative approaches such as informal discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors, and more formal approaches through in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies. The Internet allows for research methods that are more interactive in nature. The results of exploratory research can provide significant insight into a given situation.

In this project I have done the exploratory research for finding relevant data related to Mobile Broadband in India and the World, the technologies used, the pricing and plans associated with various operator based Mobile Broadband Data Cards, by referring to various journals and white papers etc, for doing my Literature Review thoroughly.

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Descriptive research design is a scientific method which involves observing and describing the behavior of a subject without influencing it in any way. Descriptive research does not fit neatly into the definition of either quantitative or qualitative research methodologies, but instead it can utilize elements of both, often within the same study. It was used in this research to find out the Sales figures of the Mobile Broadband data cards of the brands of Tata, Reliance, Idea, MTNL/BSNL and MTS make. This included the study of primary data which was collected using questionnaire as a data collection instrument. These questionnaires were filled by the Retailers who sell Data Cards of single brand or multi-brand. .

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SAMPLING TECHNIQUE: Convenience sampling

SAMPLE SIZE : 30 Data Card Selling Retailers in Delhi/NCR

SAMPLE AREA : Delhi NCR (Noida, North, East, South and West Delhi)

SAMPLE UNIT : Mobile Broadband Data Card selling Retailers

SAMPLE FRAME : The Retail Manager present during the shift hours

SAMPLE DURATION : One(1) Month during the period from (1st of February to 1st of March)

A sample of the questionnaire, which was used for collection of primary data, has been attached in the annexure at the end of this report.

INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION: QUESTIONNAIRE The primary data was collected with the help of a non – disguised well structured questionnaire based on dimensions related to sales management and Retailing of Mobile Broadband Data Cards.

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3.2 DEFINING DATA AND SOURCES OF DATA DEFINING DATA: To analyze the sales figure of the sales of Mobile Broadband data card of the following operators:

a. Reliance b. Tata c. MTS d. Idea e. BSNL

SOURCES OF DATA: I. Primary Data through Descriptive Research Design:-

The Primary data for the purpose of my research was collected from the Retailers and resellers, selling USB Based Mobile Broadband Data Cards of different Vendors and Operators, which operates either on the GSM or CDMA Network or both.

I have considered the Data Cards Brands as Tata, Reliance, Idea and MTS for the purpose of my research.

The retailers were presented with a structured Questionnaire in their Retail shops where they had to respond to certain direct questions related to the sales of the Data Cards in their Retailer.

II. Secondary Data through Exploratory Research Design:-

The Secondary data collection for the purpose of my research was collected and gone through from the Internet, White Papers and journals either in the form of Case studies or research papers published by Consultants, TRAI, DOT, ITU or organizations working in the area of Mobile Broadband Service.

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3.3 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION I. Primary Data Collection Method: Primary data was collected from the Retailers selling USB based Mobile Broadband data card Dongles in the area of Delhi and NCR in a Random order. The retailers were asked to fill up a questionnaire containing questions regarding the sales of Data Cards and the sales figures of different brands. II. Secondary Data Collection Method: Secondary data was collected and gone through from the Internet, White Papers, Case studies published either by consultants, Organizations, ITU, TRAI and DoT. The articles were related to Mobile Broadband market and sales either directly or indirectly.

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CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

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ANALYSIS OF COLLECTED DATA

• Analysis of First Objective of my Research:

QUESTION: HOW MANY UNITS OF DATA CARDS DO YOU SELL IN A MONTH ON AN AVERAGE? Number of Units of Data Cards sold of various operators:

Reliance

Netconn

ect

MTS M

blaze

BSNL

Sales/Month0

100

200

300

400

500

Figures valid for One Month (1) during the period from (1st of February to 1st of March)

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After the analysis of the Primary data collected in the form of the Questionnaires from the Retailers selling Data Cards of different Operators it was found that,

456 units of Reliance,

219 units of Tata,

165 units of MTS,

258 units of Idea and

6 units of BSNL were sold by 30 randomly selected Data Card retailers in a month in the region of Delhi and NCR, during One Month (1) for the period from (1st of February to 1st of March)

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• Analysis of Second Objective of my Research:

To identify the Market Leader of Mobile Broadband Service Provider based on the sales figure obtained from Primary Research via the structured Questionnaire.

41%

21%

15%

23%0%

RelianceTataMTSIdeaBSNL

Market Share based on the sales figure of One Month(1) in the period from (1st of February to 1st of March)

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After the analysis of the sales figure per month by all the 30 retailers of different brands, it was identified that Reliance is the Market leader, among all the 5 Brands of Data Cards sold by the retailers in the regions of Delhi and NCR. Henceforth, the Market Share of Data Card Brands is as follows: Reliance: 41% MTS: 15% Tata: 21% Idea: 23% BSNL: less than 1 %

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CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION

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5.1 MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH After the responses collected in the questionnaires from the Data card Retailers were analyzed, it was found that the different brands of Data cards that were sold by them during One Month(1) during the period from (1st of February to 1st of March) were as follows: 456 units of Reliance,

219 units of Tata,

165 units of MTS,

258 units of Idea and

6 units of BSNL After analyzing the sales figures of the Data cards sold by the retailers of different makes, the Market Share was found to be as follows: Market Shares are as follows: Reliance: 41% Tata: 21% MTS: 15% Idea: 23% BSNL: less than 1 % Hence, it can be concluded that, Reliance is the Market Leader with 41% Market Share in the Data Card based Mobile Broadband Market Segment in the Region of Delhi and NCR

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The following are the reasons of Reliance being the Market Leader in Mobile Broadband data Card Service found by doing Secondary Research from various websites as mentioned below.

Better Browsing Speed than other data Cards. (Reference specified in Page No: 84 of Chapter 2 of Literature Review http://www.indiabroadband.net/mobile-broadband/24096-reliance-netconnect-vs-tata-photon-vs-evdo-bsnl-review-3g-usb-data-card.html)

Great Customer Satisfaction. (Reference specified in Page No: of Chapter 2 of Literature Review http://www.vikkee.com/2011/02/reliance-customer-satisfaction-case.html)

More Network Coverage while roaming around the city.

(Reference specified in Page No: of Chapter 2 of Literature Review http://www.broadbandindia.com/reliance-netconnect/Delhi.htm)

Flexibility in terms of plans and usage pattern. (Reference: Annexure III, Page No: 105 and http://www.broadbandindia.com/internet/comparison-of-tata-photon-reliance-netconnect-broadband/)

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5.2 CONCLUSION • After the analysis of the primary and secondary data, both from the

questionnaires and journals and articles, it can be concluded that Reliance Data Card based Mobile Broadband Dongles were more readily sold by the Data Card Retailers and has a sales figure of 456 Units in a Month among 30 such multi Brand Retailers.

Total Number of Reliance Data Cards sold by 30 retailers in a month = 456 Total Number of Tata Data Cards sold by 30 retailers in a month = 219 Total Number of MTS Cards sold by 30 retailers in a month = 165 Total Number of Idea Cards sold by 30 retailers in a month = 258 Total Number of BSNL Data Cards sold by 30 retailers in a month = 6

• Also, after the analysis of the sales figures of different Brands of Data Cards, it

was found that “Reliance Data Card” Dongles stood as the Market Leader among other 4 Brands of Data Cards of the operators.

It is to be understood that, these entire commonly selling operator’s Data Cards are manufactured and installed for commercial use by different Network and Equipment service providers, both National and International based organizations.

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CHAPTER 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEB LINKS:

http://www.cybermedia.co.in/press/pressrelease137a.html

http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/vnd100_2010vol-I/110060805.asp

http://www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/country_overviews_telecommunications/india_broadband_wireless_wimax_market_analysis_forecasts_2009_2013.html

http://www.cxotoday.com/story/india-mobile-services-market-to-reach-us30-billion-in-2016/

http://telecomlead.com

http://www.disruptive-analysis.com/mobile_broadband.htm

www.tonsetelecom.com/

www.maravedis-bwa.com/pdf/ExecSum_WiMAX_in_India.pdf

http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/promotebroadband/index.html

http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies/index.html#broadband

www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/hongkong/material/CS_HKG.pdf

http://www.connectindia.in/data-cards.htm

http://www.datacardsinindia.com/

http://broadbandforum.in/dial-up/6246-data-card-in-india/

http://www.indiabroadband.net/mobile-broadband/28807-data-cards laptops -india.html

http://www.broadbandforum.co.in/india-internet/282-wireless-data-cards-india.html

http://www.medianama.com/2010/03/223-bsnl-3g-data-card-tariff-evdo/

http://www.socialblog.in/data-cards-in-india/

http://www.aprg.com/

http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats

http://www.researchictafrica.net/home.php

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http://us.toshiba.com/computers/research-center/technology-guides/3g-mobile-broadband/

http://www.isuppli.com/Mobile-and-Wireless-Communications/News/Pages /Tablets-to-Power-Growth-of-Mobile-Broadband-Market-in-2011.aspx

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html

http://www.itu.int/net/itunews/issues/2010/03/09.aspx

http://www.itu.int/ITUD/ict/newslog/Mobile+Data+Card+Sales+Nearly+Quadrupling+By+2011.aspx

http://www.cybermedia.co.in/press/pressrelease137a.html

http://tataindicomphoton.com/tata-photon-data-card/

http://www.reliancenetconnect.co.in/

http://mtsindia.in/

http://www.ideacellular.com/

http://www.bsnldatacard.com/

http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/news1/111122804.asp

http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Networking/Products/Intex-launches-3G-wireless-data-card/160434/0/

http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Mobility/News-Reports/Intex-launches-3G-wireless-data-card/160695/0/

http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2238&Itemid=77

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2010/1Q10-2G-3G-Mobile-Broadband-Market-Highlights.asp

http://broabandtrafficmanagement.blogspot.in/2010/04/infonetics-research-mobile-broadband.html

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120126005670/en/Best-Ever-Mobile-Broadband-Sales-Strong-Cash-Flows

www.ericsson.com

http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/mobile-hotspot-sales-down-atts-femtocells-cause-controversy/

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CHAPTER 7 ANNEXURE

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ANNEXURE-I

QUESTIONNAIRE SAMPLE Name of Retailer: ___________ Address of the Retail Shop: Contact Number:

1. Do you sell Mobile Broadband Data Cards in your retailer? Yes No

2. Which of the following Brands of Data Cards do you sell (Tick the ones you do)? Tata (Docomo/Photon) Reliance Netconnect MTS MBlaze Idea Netsetter

BSNL/MTNL Data Card

3. How many Units of Data Cards do you sell in 1 Month on an average? (Please specify the number of units sold) Tata (Docomo/Photon) Reliance Netconnect MTS MBlaze Idea Netsetter

BSNL/MTNL Data Card

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ANNEXURE-II

DETAILS OF RETAILERS

• MOBILE ZONE, G-12A, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Sunil Gupta 0120-2591112

• MOBILE SOLUTION’S, G16, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Sachin Goyal 9873341140

• MOBILE LINK, G2, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Sachin Goyal 9873341140

• JOSHI SONS, F16, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Suman Jha 9899202128

• OM SAI NETWORKS,F12, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Rajesh Kumar 9891108892

• BALAJI STATIONARY, G17, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Niwas 9810237728

• FRIENDS NETWORK, G26, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Amit Kumar 9136955955

• COMMUNICATION WORLD, G31, Savitri Market, Sec-18 Noida Suraj Kumar 8826235931

• RELIANCE WORLD, E-24, Netaji Subash Marg, Daryaganj, Delhi 110002 Prakash Sharma 9376395621

• RELIANCE WORLD, Shop No. S-37, Main Market, Near Evergreen Sweets, Green Park, Delhi-110016 Sanjay Jha 9312786575

• RELIANCE WORLD, D-115-116, Fateh Nagar, Jail Road, New Delhi 110018 Subhash Kumar 7371532444

• RELIANCE WORLD, 29 UA Jawahar Nagar, Bungalow Road, Kamla Nagar, Delhi 110007 Ajit Gulati 9811653208

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• RELIANCE WORLD, 5A,Competent House, Jagatpuri Chowk, Krishna Nagar, New Delhi 110051 Harish Deopa 9891546765

• RELIANCE WORLD, K-3, Alankar Road-2, Central Market, Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi 110024 Baldev Dhami 9312343231

• RELIANCE WORLD, 1/2 East Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110008 Suraj Sharma 0112323567

• RELIANCE WORLD, A-7 Saraswati Vihar, Near Deepali Chowk, Outer Ring Road, Pitampura, New Delhi 110034 Shilpi Jain 0113756211

• RELIANCE WORLD, E-18, NDSE Part 2, South Extension, New Delhi 110049 Jatin Singh 9811230098

• RELIANCE WORLD, C-40 Community Centre, Basant Lok, Opposite Priya Cinema, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057 Pankaj Kumar 0112369934

• LOVE KUSH COMMUNICATION,35/2, Old Rajender Nagar, Near Water Tank, New Delhi-110060 Pratibha Varshney 9136060045

• R K COMMINICATION

68/5375, Regar Pura, Karol Bagh, Delhi-110005 Hemant Vijay 9136047370

• P K ENTERPRISES P-33, West Patel Nagar, Delhi-110008 Shayam Lal 9136065500

• BARKAT COMMUNICATION 9201/3, Gali No.4, Sadar Thana Road, Multani Dhanda, Paharganj 110055 Suresh 9136061626

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• VINSON MOBILE CENTRE 9136055133 80, Yusuf Zai Market, Connaught Place 110001 Vinson Nair 7878266561

• TELECOTTAGE 9136047659 436, Jheel Khuranji, Opp Taneja Sweets, Delhi-110051 Avinash Gupta 9136060057

• GEETA TELE SERVICES F – 8/10, Mandir Marg, Krishna Nagar, Delhi-110051 Saurabh Dewan 9136060059

• ASHOKJEE TRADING COMPANY G-6, Shop No. 4, Dilshad Colony, Shahdara, Delhi-110032 Ashok Kumar 9136060077, 9136046649

• Tata DOCOMO AddressN-44, CANNAUGHT PLACE, Delhi, New Delhi-110001 Deepak Singh 0117683431

• Tata DOCOMO Opp. Darida Kalan,AddressII/1891, CHANDANI CHOWK,, OPP. DARIDA KALAN,, Delhi, New Delhi-110006 Ajitesh Kumar 9811853842

• Tata DOCOMO Netaji Subhash MargAddress17, NETAJI SUBHASH MARG, DARYAGANJ, Delhi, Shailesh Singh 011 2340098

• AMBE ELECTRONICS

9136048469 J-34, Sec-18 Market, Near Pizza Hut And Oppsite Centre Stage Mall, Noida Anil Thakur 9136060072

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ANNEXURE-III

RELIANCE NETCONNECT TARIFF PLANS:-

Plan Name MonthlyRental

AnytimeDay

Usage

Night Usage

Extra Usage

Roaming

Broadband+ Pay as you go 299/- Nil Nil 50 P/MB Nationwide *

Broadband+ 512 MB 499/- 512 MB Nil 50 P/MB Nationwide

Broadband+ 10GB @ Night 499/- Nil 10 GB 50 P/MB Nationwide

Broadband+ 1 GB 650/- 1 GB Nil 50 P/MB Nationwide



Broadband+ 1 GB day, 10 GB Night 849/- 1 GB 10 GB 50 P/MB Nationwide




Broadband+ 10 GB City 1099/- 10 GB Nil 50 P/MB Citywide


Broadband+ 10 GB day, 10 GB Night

City 1298/- 10 GB 10 GB 50 P/MB Citywide




Day usage - 6 AM to 10 PM ; Night Usage - 10 PM - 6 AM

TIME BASED PLANS

Plan Name Monthly usage Extra usage Monthly tariff

Daily 60 1800 mins 0.50 per minute . 500/-

Daily 120 3600 mins 0.50 per minute . 750/-

Day & Night plan 3600 mins/day

5400 mins/night 0.50 per minute . 950/-

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Unlimited Plan starts from 950

Plan Name

Monthly Rental

(Rs)

Free Usage at speeds up to 3.1

Mbps(Downlink)

Usage Beyond Bundled Usage at speeds up to

144 Kbps

Monthly Discounts

(Rs.)

Total Discounts

over 12 months (Rs.)

Silver 950 5 GB Unlimited 200 2400

Gold 1100 10 GB Unlimited 200 2400

Platinum 1500 15 GB Unlimited 200 2400

TATA PHOTON PLUS TARIFF PLANS:

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Dissertation Report Final-Sales of Data Cards

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