News on Telecommunication Industry

8/8/2019 News on Telecommunication Industry

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News


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Union Budget 2010: Nothing Special for Telecom

Industry

The union Budget 2010-11 neglected the telecom

industry's special demands.

Telcos were looking at a rationalisation of tax and

levies, uniform license fee of one per cent of the AGR.

Telcos wanted a re-look at direct tax, tax holidays and

section 81 (A), a re-look at licenses and indirect

taxes.


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As far as infrastructure products are

concerned, oeprators were hoping for a boost

in telecom infrastructure and wanted telecomto be included as part of infrastructure, so that

all tax holidays applicable to infrastructure

are applicable to telecom.

Telcos wanted FM to remove bank guarantees

for telecom.


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Top 10 Mobile Phone Networks in

India 2010

August 6, 2010

Voice and Data magazine from CIOL Networkhas released the dataregarding the top telecom service providers in India 2009-10.

As per the data the top 10 telecom companies are ranked as below1. Airtel Rs. 38,800 crore2. BSNL Rs 30,240 crore3. Vodafone Rs 23,200 crore4. Reliance Communications Rs 22,130 crore5. Idea Cellular Rs 11,390 crore6. Tata Communications Rs 11,000 crore

7. Tata Teleservices 6,900 crore8. Aircel Rs 4,700 crore9. MTNL Rs 3,650 crore10. TTML Rs 2,300 crore


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Egypt imposes restrictions on news text messages

Egypthas imposed new regulations to monitor the

news and advertisement text messaging, a move

criticised as an attempt to prevent anti-government

ideas ahead of November's Parliamentary elections.

The NationalTelecommunication Regulatory

Authority (NTRA) told companies which provide such

services that they must firsthave authorisation from

the the supreme council for journalism and

Information Ministry to send SMSs.


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Meanwhile, sources said the decision was an attempt toprevent anti-regime ideas, meddling with the stock market orinstigating ethnic violence.

An official at the NTRA denied there were political dimensions

to these regulations noting that they targeted adjusting thestatus of 30 companies that operate in Egypt without a definitelegal frame.

over and above the regulations are meant to abort anagreement the Muslim Brotherhood finalised with one of the

sms advertising companies to send outhundreds of thousandsof text messages prior to the parliamentary elections nextmonth.


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A head of one the service providing companies said thatthere had been meetings with the NTRA over the past twoweeks with a representative of the state securityinvestigations attending .

During these meetings the new regulations werepresented to the service providing company managersincluding censoring the texts and cutting off 3 per cent ofthe revenues of the company to fund the censors' salaries.

It is worth noting thatEgypthad refused to place a banon the use of the Black Berry texting feature, contrary tomany other Arab countries


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India To Have Mobile Number Portability From Oct

31

The telecom regulator of India on Thursday saidmobile number portability (MNP) will be rolled outnationwide from Oct 31. However, the service wasdelayed many times due to improper infrastructure.

The MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to changehis operator while retaining the number.

"Th

ere will be no furth

er delay in th

e implementation ofMNP,"Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)Chairman J S Sarma said in New Delhi.


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The Department ofTelecom (DoT) also asked the telecomoperators to ensure all inter-operator tests for porting thenumbers from one service provider to another before Sept 1,2010.

The DoTalso made it clear that in case they fail to implementMNP as per the scheduled deadline, they will be disqualifiedfrom launching any new commercial services from Sept 1.

"Ithas been decided that permission to launch commercialservice in any area with effect from September 1, 2010 shall begiven to only those licensee(s) who are MNP compliant," saidDoTin a statement.


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State-run Bharat Sanchar Nagar Nigam and

MahanagarTelephone Nigam Limitedhave

said they are ready with the infrastructure to

implement the MNP service.

Previously, the service was delayed three

times. Last time, the MNP service was to be

implemented from June 30, 2010.


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BSNL To Launch 'Mobile Money Transfer' Service

BSNL, as a part of extending facilities to itscustomers, will be starting the money transfer servicesoon. The telecom majorhas tied up with the

State Bank of India (SBI) in this regard.

The customers of BSNL network, under the servicewould be able to pay their mobile bills and also

landline bills just by calling their banks andrequesting for money transfer, the BSNL's (BiharCircle) General ManagerVijay Kumar said.


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Besides, talking about the network congestion inKishanganj district, he noted that a proposal toset up 10 new BTS in the region has been made tofix the setback.

BSNL, with its telecom circles in all over Indiaincluding Andaman & Nicobar, has about 66.88million customers as of June 2010 and thecompany plans to increase it to 160 Million by

March 2014. Currently, BSNL ranks as the thirdlargest cellular service provider in India.


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TRAI Suggests 10-Digit Telephone Numbers For

Landline Connections

A ten-digit phone number for fixed landline connections

are likely to be introduced in India. The Telecom

Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested

bringing ten-digit numbers for fixed landline phones tomeet the growing number of landline connections.

"Both fixed line and mobile phones willhave a 10-digit

number. This would make available enough numbers tocater to expansion of existing services and introduction of

new services for the next 30-40 years,"TRAI said.


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Given the current growth rate, it is being anticipated thatthe numbers for telephone connections would be completedand there could be shortage of numbers in future. It isexpected that the system could be implemented by

December next year.

TRAI also noted that the existing 10-digit numbering for mobile telephones has to be continued.TRAI said, "The existing 10-digitnumbering scheme for

mobile teleph

ony sh

ould be continued to avoidinconvenience to the customers that would accompany anymove to shift to an 11-digit numbering scheme."


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Smartphone Market To Capture 54% Of Asia-Pacific

Market By 2015

Smartphone market is expected to capture about 54 percent ofthe Asia-Pacific region, according to an industry report.

The report said the smartphone market is likely to generate

around $38 billion for telecommunication operators in Asianmarkets. With this the smartphone segment would cover abouthalf of the Asian market.

The Asia-Pacific market is particularly interesting for

smartph

ones as th

ereh

as been significant uptake in emergingmarkets like China, India and Indonesia, even among prepaidusers," Consultancy Frost and Sullivans industry manager,

Marc Einstein was quoted as saying in the report.


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Apples iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry arereported as being most liked brand among the business

professionals.

Smartphones are the mobile phones orhandheld devices that

usually come with connectivity features and run on operatingsystem. Initially, smartphones entered markets to cater mainlyto corporate professionals. Now with the development of

smartphone market in emerging countries in Asia-Pacificregion including India and China, smartphones are largely

purchased for even non-corporate purposes like gaming andsocial networking. This has led to drastic expansion in thesegment. Further, it is expected a total of 477 million units ofsmartphone sales by the year 2015.


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Nokia To Set-Up Its Server In November

Nokia has today said that it would set up its server inIndia in November to adhere to the countrys securityissues.

"We are launch

ing th

e server on November 5 incompliance with all the rules and regulation in thecountry...It is forhosting mail and ensuring that the

governmenthas access (to the data)," Nokia IndiaManaging Director D. Shivakumar was quoted as saying.

Nokias move would probably forceBlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) also to setup its server in the country.


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Indian governmenthas been serious with regardto security issues and asked RIM to provide solutionover the deeply encrypted data.

The data, which is said to be highly completed, couldbe misused by militants to carry attacks on India. Thedata is also difficult to monitor because of itscomplication.

Now RIM is being expected to set up its server in Indiato operate in India.

Nokia comes with announcement of setting up its serveramidst the RIMs security issues remaining unsolved.


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Government Set To Allocate 3GSpectrum To

Operators

he 3G spectrum will be allocated to Bharti Airtel,Reliance Communications, Vodafone and other serviceproviders today, the Department ofTelecom said onTuesday.

The government will be allocating the 3G services withDefence agreeing to provide radio airwaves.

September 1 was scheduled as the last date for allocatingspectrum to operators. And the services are expected tobe rolled out by the end of this year or during early 2011.

With the 3G and 2G services, operators would launch ofhigh-speed broadband access in India. Through the

spectrum allocation, the operator would now use radiowaves to provide high-speed connectivity.


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Besides offeringhigh-quality voice calls, users

will also be able to enjoy high-speed internet

connection and access TVs, movies and music.

The third generation spectrum went on auction

recently and the overall sale brought about Rs.

67,000 crore to the government.


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India To Demand Data Access From Google And

Skype?

ndia could issue notices to Google and Skype demandingto set up their server and data access in the country,

sources said.

G.K. Pillai, the Home Secretary was reported as saying,

similar demands would be made to Google and Skypealso.

The Indian governmenthad asked BlackBerry to provideaccess to its encrypted data and set up its server in thecountry. Fearing about the militants misuse of

information on the Internet, the Indian governmenthadimposed a deadline on August 31 to come up witha solution. The company had finally agreed to set up its

server in the country.


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BlackBerry has faced similar issued in Saudi

Arabia also, where the governmenthad

warned the company that it would ban the

BlackBerry services.

Meanwhile, Nokia on Monday said that it

would set up its server in India, a move that

would force even other major telecomoperators for similar action.


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AKAI Forays Mobile Market By Launching 10 Models

KAI, the consumer electronics firm, has forayed into themobile handset market by launching 10 new models under itsbrand.

AKAIs new mobile phones come with dual SIM capacity, full

touch

3-D user interface, e-book capability and socialnetworking sites.

The Japan-based consumer electronics firm has entered themobile phone market with the target of making 40 percent ofits total revenues from mobile phones.

"We are expecting an overall turnover of Rs.435 crore by July2011 and mobile sales are expected to contribute around 40

percent of the total revenues with targeted monthly sales of onelakh handsets from October onwards," said Pranay Dhabhai,managing director, AKAI India.


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The handsets come priced between Rs.1,895 and

Rs.7,995.

"We hope to become a prominent player in the

Rs.700 billion mobile handset market in the

coming years,"he added.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company is into

manufacturing consumer electronics includingtelevisions, microwave ovens, washing machines,

DVD players, andhome theatres.


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Vodafone Sells $6 Billion Stake In China Mobile

odafone Group is selling its 3.2 percent stake worth $6.6billion in China Mobile, the company announced.

Accordingly, the company sells a share at HK$79.2,sources said.

The worlds largest telecommunication serviceproviderVodafone sells the China Mobile shares as amove to sell off the minority stakes. It is noteworthy, thatVodafone had earlier said that it would reconsider aboutholding minority stakes.

The announcement comes as the companys lock-up

period on the stake had ended recently. The telecommajor now has plans of focusing on core marketsincludingEurope, India and Africa.


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Eight major banks including Bank of America,UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, MorganStanley, JP Morgan and HSBC are reportedlymanaging the placing.

The share prices of China Mobile were seen downby 4.15 percent on Wednesday.

The UK-basedVodafone Group plc is the largesttelecom operator by revenues andhas over 300million subscribers worldwide as of June 2010.The company has a market capitalization of 80.2billion Pounds as of August 2010.


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Tata Teleservices Touches 75 Million Subscribers,

Becomes Fourth Largest Telecom Operator

Tata Teleservices today announced that the company hascrossed the 75-million subscriber mark. With this the telecomoperator becomes the fourth largest telecom service providerin the country.

The company saw a consistent growt

hin subscriber base inthe last year. Now ithas touched 76.9 million subscriber base.

In August alone, Tata Teleservices added about 2.1million new subscribers.

Telecom industry in India has immense competition andTataTeleservices, following the low price strategy has attracted as

many subscribers to survive in the battle. Besides, other major telecom operators including Airtel,

Vodafone and Reliance are reportedly having more than 100million wireless subscribers.


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Tata Teleservices operates mobile services underthree brand names includingTata Indicom, Tata

DoCoMo andVirgin Mobile besides providingGSM and CDMA services.

The telecommunications industry in India is oneof the fastest growing industries with 688.38million telephone subscribers and 652.42 millionmobile phone connections as of July 2010. The

major drive behind the growth of the industry isprice war, due to which the call and messagingrates have reduced significantly in India.


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Tata Indicom- Rx Healthcare Magic Jointly Bring

Medical Services Over Phone

Tata Indicom on Wednesday introduced its new emergency medicalservice called doctor on call in partnership with Rx HealthcareMagic Private Ltd. With the new service, customers ofTata IndicomandTata Walky can call up to doctors for medical assistance

Based on the intensity of the problem, doctors would offer suitable

suggestion to callers via phone. Accordingly, patients are dividedinto three categories including acute, chronic and emergency.

In case of acute condition, doctors would suggesthome remedy andin case of chronic patients would be suggested to take preventivemeasures. In case of emergency, the patient would be asked to rushto the hospital nearby.

To determine the condition of the patient, doctors would ask medicalhistory of the patient and other details including age, gender andmarital status.


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Initially, patients would be charged with Rs. 9 per minute,Tata Indicom said.

"Today advanced mobile telephony is offering completemobility services in the interest of the common man and

having introduced the medical emergency service we haveensured that our subscribers get the best in class value-added services at a nominal fee," saidVineet Bhatia,regionalhead, Tata Teleservices Limited

Tata Teleservices recently crossed the 75-million subscriber

mark becoming th

e fourth

largest telecom service providerin the country. The telecom major with the launch ofmedical services over phone seems to be still endeavoringto expand its subscriber base.


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Bharti Airtel To Sell African Business Zain To Bharti

Infratel?

Bharti Airtel is likely to sell its recently acquired Africanbusiness, Zain, to its arm Bharti Infratel to meet the cashrequirements, reports said on Thursday.

The deal, whichhas been priced between Rs. 12,000 andRs. 15,000 crore, would be completed by December,according to the report.

Falling subscriber base could also be the reason for thecompanys move as it expected aggressive growth there.

However, a companys statement said that no decision hasbeen finalised in this regard and declined to comment onthese speculations.


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The companys African business is reported tohave made Rs 224 crore loss in the Junequarter. However, there is no official word

from the company regarding the deal. Bharti Airtelhad acquired Zain Africa for an

enterprise valuation of USD 10.7 billion onJune 2010. The acquisition made it the worldsfifth largest wireless telecom company with179 million subscriber base in 18 countries.


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BlackBerry Maker RIM Reports Huge Revenue At

$4.62 Billion In Q2

BlackBerry maker Research In Motions revenue for thesecond quarterhas reached sky high with about 31 percentgrowth at $4.62 billion. The companys higher profit comesdespite it facing several difficulties including threat of ban

from few countries including India.

The company attributes its whopping revenue mainly to thehuge sales of BlackBerry Torch 9800. The BlackBerry Torch9800 model was not much appreciated smartphone and wasnot expected to make such overwhelming sales.

Despite growing apprehensions about its network security, the

company has added nearly 4.5 million new users in thequarter. RIM stillhopes to make stronger sales in the comingquarters as well with more new products coming up in the

smartphone line-up.


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"RIM set another new record in the quarter byshipping over 12 million BlackBerry smartphones. This accomplishment and RIM's

solid financial results during the second quarterwere driven by effective business execution and

strong demand for RIM's portfolio of BlackBerrysmart phones and services in markets around the

world," said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie. RIM, currently, is reported to have 50 million

subscribers.


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Beetel Teletech Enters Into Mobile Phone Market,

Launches 8 New Handsets

Bharti Group is entering the mobile phone market with thelaunch of eight new handsets. Bhartis arm BeetelTeletech

Limited,the telecom major, has forayed into the growingmobile phone market and targets for top five position in three

years.

The market is huge and there is a room for Indian players...Phones in the price range of Rs 2,000-6,000 are witnessing 30per cent growth and we plan to offer a good combination offeature-rich phones at affordable prices, BeetelTeletechLimitedExecutive Director and CEO Vinod Sawhny said

during the announcement. The mobile phones launched ranges from Rs 1,750-7,000.

Beetel says it was important for it to enter the handset marketwith a product for masses.


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The Beetel range of phones comes with excitingfeatures including Facebook, Yahoo, Opera Mini, Ibiboand much more that attracts youth population.

Bh

ratis Airtel, whic

hone of t

he major telecomservice providers with large number of subscriber base,

is also from Bhartis Group. On answering whetherAirtel services would be put together with the Beetelhandsets, he said, We shall be talking to all the GSM

players for bundling ourhandsets and it will not berestricted to only the group's flagship company.


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EZ Texting Sues T-Mobile For Blocking Text

Messages

A marketing firm calledEZTextinghas suedT-Mobile for blocking text messages related to a lawfulmarijuana dispensary.

According to the lawsuit, T-Mobile willingly blockedthe text messages related to a marijuana dispensary.However, the lawsuit says that the company cancensor or block text messages which seem to beunlawful.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile has also announced that itwould increase the tariff on text message soon.


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Shane Neman, the CEO ofEXTexting, said, The

fact is T-Mobile ... put my business in jeopardy

without any warning, without any justification,

and without any appeal. It's like the Wild West outthere. You don't know what the rules are.

It is not the first case of such a lawsuit as a

similar lawsuit was filed againstVerizon in 2007.However, it later allowed the text messages on the

network.


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18.18 Million Subscribers Added In August

early 18.18 million subscribers have been added in the monthof August, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)today said.

With this the overall Indian mobile phone subscriber base has

reached 59.63 percent at 670.60 million. The wireless subscriber base has increased from 652.42

million in July, 2010, to 670.60 million in August showing thegrowth rate at 2.79 percent.

The telecom operatorVodafone has contributed maximum at2.30 million users taking its subscriber base to 113.77 million.

Besides, the total number of telephone subscribers in India hasreached 706.37 million by the end of August.


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The Indian telecommunication network is the

second largest network in the world after

China. The countrys telecommunication

industry has witnessed tremendous growth in

the past decade. As of 2001, there were only 5

million mobile subscribers in the country

whichhas grown over 650 million by 2010.Moreover, the subscriber base is expected to

cross 97 percent by 2014.


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BSNLs Rs 2,395 Crore Request For Rural

Broadband Rejected

BSNLs request for Rs 2,395 crore additional grant to set up ruralbroadband infrastructure has been rejected by the government.

The state-owned telecom majorhad requested for an additional Rs2,395 crore grant for bringing WiMax rural project.

...BSNL is seeking only Rs 2,395 crore against rural deploymentand BSNL has absorbed Rs 6,650 crore as its own cost byapportioning only 20 per cent spectrum cost. With the presentallotted grant for Wi-Max, BSNL will be able to cover about 17,000Common Service Centres (CSCs) using Wi-Max Broadband accessinstead of 62,000 CSCs planned originally, BSNL said in its letterto the Department of Information Technology (DIT).


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As BSNLs requesthas been rejected, thecompany would now limit the WiMAXdeployment to 1,798 base stations for the rural

broadband project whichhas been granted byDIT.

In case the DITrejects the request, thecompany would be forced to limit the WiMAXdeployment to 1,798 BTS as per the

DITgrant received so far, the letter stated.


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SamsungEarnings Likely To Fall In Q3

SamsungElectronics, the world's largest memory chip makerhas announced that its third quarter profithas come down ascompared to the previous quarter's record profit signalling thedeclining global demand.

The South Korea-based company expects consolidatedoperating profit of between 4.6 trillion won and 5 trillion won($4.1 billion to $4.5 billion) for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Last quarter, the company earned 4.22 trillion won in the thirdquarter last year. However, its second quarter of 2010 showed

some good results when the company earned more than 5.01

trillion won. Meanwhile, Samsung shares fell 2.5% to 773,000 won in the

ongoing week fuelling rumours of declining Asian stocks.


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The US economy would grow slower, said an

International Monetary Fund statement on

Wednesday. Many other major economies in

Europe are also expected to grow slowly.

Samsung is the world's second largesthandset

maker after Finland's Nokia Corp.

The company recorded net profit of 3.81

trillion won in the third quarter of 2009.


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Telecom companies profit margins to remain under

pressure: Analysts

With rock-bottom tariffs and spiralling business

expenses, the profit margins of domestic telecom

players is expected to remain under pressure in the

coming months, feel marketmen. Tariff wars andheightened cost of business have

taken a toll on the telecom sector. As we expect tariff

wars to re-emerge and competition to intensify in the

medium term, it is believed that margins will remainunder pressure, a research report by Edelweiss

Capital said.


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In the past 10 months, headline tariffs have been stable,but revenue per minute (RPM) has declined 22 per cent.

After implementation of mobile number portability (MNP)on October 31, and launch of 3G services, analysts

anticipate re-emergence of tariff wars. While the street is arguing that operators will be rational

in pricing 3G services, having paid significant licencefees, marketmen believe, operators will be under pressureto build scale in these services and will likely price them

attractively to achieve scale, the report added. According to market experts, Idea, Aircel andTata

Docomo will utilise the MNP opportunity to targetBhartis andVodafones high usage customers.


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The street and incumbent operators believe that MNP will be anon-event as ithas been delayed and since customers already

possess dual-SIM phones that enable the use of same handsetfor two numbers.

It is expected that subscribers possessing a dual-SIM phonewould be indifferent to MNP.

The entry of mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) willlead to further pressure on business for incumbents. This,combined with expensing of interest cost and amortisation of3G licence fee will lead to lower profitability.

Analysts expect some operators (Tata Docomo, RCom, Idea,Aircel and BSNL) to utilise the MNP opportunity to lure thehigh usage customer base of incumbents, especially, BhartiandVodafone.


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WorldSIM offers global roaming SIM

WorldSIM, a leading mobile virtual network operator,

has launched its international roaming SIM,

WorldSIM, in India. It appointed Hash10 Telecom

Pvt. Ltd. as its exclusive master distributor for India. Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, M. S.

Abu Thahir, CMD and K. Vaidhyanathan, CEO,

Hash10 Telecom, said the card would enable

customers get free incoming in 80 countries andcould make outgoing calls from over 200 countries at

competitive rates.


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Mr. Vaidhyanathan said Hash10 was launching this card aspre-paid and the all outbound travellers could top-up throughvouchers and online through the web portal. The card, pricedat Rs.2,750 (including Rs.500 talktime) would be available

with both a U.K. and U.S. mobile number on the same SIM. Infuture, multiple local numbers would be added to the SIM, hesaid. Mr. Vaidhyanathan said India was the fastest growingoutbound travel market. More than 45,000 people weretravelling abroad daily and growth of outbound travel was

increasing by 20 per cent annually. He said, the card, as per the government guidelines, would not

work in India and the same would work when they go out ofIndia.


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Reliance Industries re-enters telecom through 95 per cent

stake buy in Infotel

The removal of the non-compete clause from their familysettlementhas allowed MukeshAmbani-owned RelianceIndustries (RIL) to re-enter telecom through the broadbandwireless route.

RIL has picked up 95 per cent stake in Mahendra Nahata-promoted Infotel Broadband Services, whichhas bagged themaximum 22 circles for Rs 12,848 crore in the just concludedauction for broadband wireless.

RIL will invest about Rs 4,800 crore into Infotel. Nahata is

one of the promoters of equipment maker Himachal FuturisticCommunications that bid an astounding Rs 85,000 crore forthe original telecom licences in 1994, a bid that nearly scuttled

Indias nascent telecom industry then.


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RIL will now compete with Reliance Communications(RCom), Bharti Airtel andVodafone and nine other

players, including five new players in broadbandwireless. RCom in its earlier avatar as Reliance

Infocomm was controlled by MukeshAmbani. However, itwent to Anil Ambani when the brothers split.

Though technically voice telephony can be offered underBWA licence, the telecom policy and the internet serviceproviders (ISP) licence prohibits use of voice telephony.Currently, ISP licencees are allowed to offer PC-to-PCvoice telephony only.


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However, with the definition of PC getting blurred

and their sizes shrinking to handheld devices, it may

not be long before voice services emerge on BWA too.

At policy level there is a precedence. In 2002, aministerial group on telecom and information

technology allowed basic service licence offering

limited mobility to provide full mobility to

subscribers. For widespread usage, though, low-costBWA handsets are a must.


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