THE GROWTH STORY ACCELERATES.

In December 2009, 18.9 million mobile connections were added. This took the subscriber base to 519.1 million.

The subscriber base witnessed rapid growth in 2009; 162.5 million new subscribers were added in the past 12 months.

In December alone, A & B Circles contributed almost 6.2 million and 7.5 million activations, respectively, compared to 3.1 million in C circles and 2.2 million in metro circle.

The % share of subscriber population has increased steadily in B and C Circles while that of metros and A circles has declined.

Bihar, Karnataka, U.P. (E) registered the highest number of new additions. Bihar registered the highest share of net additions of 9.5% followed by Karnataka and A.P, contributing 8.4% & 8% of total net additions, respectively.

NEW PLAYERS CONTRIBUTE TO THE GROWTH STORY

With the entry of new players like Stel and Uninor, C Circles witnessed a substantial increase in activations.

Uninor made a significant impact in all the circles where they launched their service. Uninor garnered a total subscriber base of 1.2 million.

Sistema Shyam TelesServices, with the brand MTS, was a major contributor to the new activations in December 2009. They registered a robust growth rate of 14.8%, adding 0.4 million new subscribers.

However in terms of sheer numbers, the established players namely TTSL, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance scored heavily. TTSL added almost 3.3 million new subscribers while Vodafone crossed the 90 million mark. A.P. and Maharastra alone contributed almost 0.9 millions new subscribers for TTSL. Airtel with almost 2.8 million new additions secured the number two position, with a strong performance in A.P and Rajasthan. Reliance Communications also emerged as a strong contender with robust growth in Delhi and U.P(E).

BSNL, boosted by a strong performance in Bihar, added almost 2 million new subscribers in December alone.

TELECOM BUZZ

The market continued to buzz with moves being made by new and established players. The government and the regulatory authority also kept their feet on the pedal to ensure that the direction remained favourable.

• India alters loan rules for 3G auction

The Indian government has said that the winners of the 3G auction will be able to refinance their license fees with a long- term overseas loan within a year. India has modified some external commercial borrowings rules to help arrange short-term funds for bidders for third generation telecom licenses.

Under the auction rules, the successful bidders will be required to pay 25% of the bid amount within five days of the close of the auction and the balance within 15 days of the auction closure.

The rules have been eased due to the short window available between the date of application for the 3G auction and the date of payment by successful bidders. The Indian government has fixed 35 billion rupees ($750 million) as the minimum bid price for all-India 3G spectrum.



• BSNL’s 3G Mobile Subscribers Move Up

BSNL has enrolled more than 7.5 Lakh 3G mobile service subscriber across India. The service is currently available in 300 cities and the target is to spread it to 700 cities by July 2010. The speed of BSNL 3G is currently 3.5mbps. BSNL is making 3G services affordable with the lowest voice call and video call charges as well as High Speed 3G Wireless Broadband Data connectivity at 1 paisa for 10 KB in India.

BSNL’s 3G mobile service consists of video calling, high speed Internet connectivity, multimedia services including sharing of digital pictures and films through wireless means like Live TV, Videos / Music downloads and Real-time multi-layer gaming.

Moreover, the 3G service also permits users to install Fring or Skype on their handsets and make free voice and video calls to other cellular phones, which have Fring or Skype anywhere in the world.



• S Tel raises $50 million, sells 11% stake to GB Corp

Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank- Global Banking Corporation (GB Corp) has acquired 11 per cent stake in GSM service provider S Tell through Batelco Millenium India Company (BMIC) which already owns a 42.7% stake in the telecom firm. The move helped S Tel to raise $50 million which would be used for enhancing its telecom operations. Through this fresh issue, BMIC will now hold 49% and the Indian promoters Siva Group would hold the remaining 51%.

S Tel which started operations in Orissa, Bihar and Himachal in December 2009 touched a subscriber base of over 1.4 lakh in these three telecom circles. It also owns unified access services licenses to operate in Northeast, Assam and J&K and will soon roll out services in these segments.



• Price War Dents Profitability

Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s profit rose 2.4% in the fiscal third quarter, on the back of favorable currency-exchange rates which helped mask the impact of competition in the Indian telecommunications sector.

Idea Cellular Ltd. on Thursday announced a 23% decline in third-quarter profit, mainly due to competition.

New entrants, such as TATA DOCOMO and Norway's Telenor ASA with their local partners were responsible for pulling down rates to as low as 30 p / minute.

Bharti's average revenue per user fell to Rs. 230 from Rs. 324 rupees as the company cut rates and started new plans, such as per-second billing. Average minutes per user fell to 446 from 505. Profit margin before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell to 40% from 41%.

NEW ADVERTISING CUTS CLUTTER

The buzz around the entry of new mobile players increased with Amir Khan bagging the endorsement deal from Etisalat.

• Aamir Khan bags biggest endorsement deal with Etisalat

Aamir Khan has just landed the biggest endorsement deal in Indian advertising history. He will promote new telecom entrant, UAE’s Etisalat, for Rs 30-35 crore for three years, kicking in some fresh energy into the Indian advertising segment that has been licking its wounds from the financial slowdown.

The Bollywood superstar already promotes brands such as Parle, Coca-Cola, Tata Sky and Samsung.



• Idea Gets onto the Environment Bandwagon

As the planet faces hazards of global warming and the world leaders debate the role of developed and developing countries to save the Earth – there is one simple solution that our very prudent and popular Sirji! proposes this time. He advocates the message ‘Use Mobile, Save Paper’, thus have a green planet.

This is IDEA Cellular’s new ad campaign. After a successful series of "What an Idea, Sirji!" campaign with brand ambassador, Abhishek Bachchan, Idea is now seen promoting the idea of mobile VAS usage for a vast number of day to day activities, to save paper.



• Airtel launches 'Family Tunes' for fixed line users

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched 'Family Tunes' service for its 2.9 million fixed line customers in the country, which will enable users to set their family name as a caller tune.

Customers will be charged a one-time download fee of Rs 15 for a Family Tune and a recurring monthly Hello Tune subscription fee of Rs 30 would be added to the monthly bill.

AGGRESSIVE PRICING SEDUCES MORE SUBSCRIBERS

Downward spiral of tariff continues unabated.

• Airtel Gets Aggressive on the VAS Front

Airtel has resumed its Unlimited Mobile Office GPRS service in Maharashtra and Goa telecom circle. Now Airtel's Unlimited GPRS is available at charge of Rs.15 per day.

Airtel announced 2 new SMS packs for its prepaid customers in Punjab. Airtel customers can now enjoy 10,000 Local or National SMS with a recharge of Rs. 115 available across Punjab telecom circle. The SMS recharge of Rs. 115 comes with a validity of 30 days.

Airtel also offers 750 Free Local and National SMS with RC 222 which comes at Rs.222 with full talk time (Rs.222) and validity of 30 days



• TATA DOCOMO Introduces Aggressive CUG Plan

TATA DOCOMO has introduced yet another customer friendly offer “BuddyNet”. The applicable tariff on BuddyNet is as follows : 1p per 6 sec in the local circle and 2p/ sec in other circles, with a weekly deduction of Rs. 7/ week. There is no limit to the number of buddies. For new customers, the BuddyNet is free for the first two months.



• Loop Mobile Responds with Its Own CUG Plan

Loop Mobile (formerly BPL Mobile) announced the New Dus Ka Gang Plan (CUG Plan) with per seocnd billing benefits to attract the young generation towards its mobile service. Loop Mobile’s new DUS KA GANG – PER SECOND PLANS offers local calls to gang Members at 1 paisa for 6 seconds, calls with in Loop network (out of gang) will be charged at 1 paisa for 2 seconds while all other local and mobile STD calls will get charged at 1 paisa for one second. STD calls to landline network will cost 2 paise for one second. All local SMS will be charged at just 10p while national SMS will cost 50p. The daily deduction of Re.1 is applicable with this plan.



• STV Galore

Uninor has introduced extra talk time vouchers to attract subscribers by giving exciting offers. They have announced extra talk time for their prepaid subscribers on first recharge in all circles. Users can get up to 10%, 15% and 16.66% bonus talk time on selected first recharge. Customers will get talk time of Rs.175 with RC 150, Rs.115 on RC100 and Rs.55 with RC50.

Aircel has introduced Unlimited Free Own Net calling and SMS packs to woo their GSM customers in West Bengal Telecom circle. Aircel’s Own Net Night Calling pack (Special Tariff Voucher) will cost Rs.39 and offers unlimited free local Aircel to Aircel calls within West Bengal including Kolkata metro between 11pm to 8 am. This pack is valid for 7 days from the date of recharge. Aircel also launched a new SMS Pack which offers 5000 free Local and National to any network at Rs. 49 per month for its GSM Prepaid subscribers in West Bengal circle.

In Tamilnadu and Chennai telecom circles, MTS India has launched MSaver 198 a one time recharge which offers low local and STD rates. With this recharge, MTS customers can enjoy all local calls at 29 paise per minute while all STD calls to any network across India at just 49 paise per minute. All local and national SMS will be charged at 50 p per SMS.

Reliance Mobile announced the launch a of new pan India STV to lower the Reliance to Reliance local and STD calls for its prepaid subscribers. Now Reliance Mobile’s GSM and CDMA service subscribers can make local and STD calls to any Reliance phone at just 20 paise per minute on STVs of Rs.27 and Rs.77.

In addition, with the new STV-59, Reliance Mobile subscribers can avail Free Unlimited Reliance to Reliance local and STD calls between 11 pm to 6 am, while all local and STD calls to other network in night hours will be charged at 50% less tariff from the main tariff plan. The Bright-Nite Pack-59 comes with the validity of 30 days from the date of recharge and valid only for “Simply Reliance” subscribers who have activated per second billing plan or 50 paisa per min plan.