The day is not far when India will have half a billion active mobile connections. In October 2009, almost 16.6 millions new connections were activated as the total number of active mobile connections reached 482 million.

Circles A and B together contributed almost 12.5 million of the new activations while metro circles accounted for 1.7 millions and C circles accounted for 2.2 millions.

AP and Tamil Nadu together contributed almost 17% of the total net additions that happened in October ’09.

Performance Highlights

TTSL was the major contributor to the new activations in October 2009. Almost 3.9 million new Tata (including DOCOMO) connections were activated; Karnataka and AP alone contributed almost 1.2 millions. Tata Teleservices crossed the 50 million subscriber mark, with the last 10 million coming in 3 months.

Vodafone with almost 2.98 million new additions secured the number two position. Their main circles were Bihar and Rajasthan.

With 3 new circles, Idea managed to get 12% share of the new activations.

MTS has managed a total of approx. 3 millions new activations. In the first month MTS managed to get almost 62,431 subscribers in Delhi while in Karnataka only 14,109 subscribers preferred to get a MTS connection

Growth Story

The % share of total activation increased in Circle C and Circle D. However, contribution of metros and A circles declined marginally.

TELECOM MARKET NEWS & EVENTS

Telenor Expects India’s Mobile Phone Market to Double

The Nordic phone company that plans to start mobile-phone operations in India this year, said it expects the Asian nation’s wireless market to double in three to four years.

“India, for the time being, still has a very low penetration rate,” Chief Executive Officer Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. Uninor, Telenor’s Indian wireless venture with Unitech Ltd., will start operations by Christmas, the largest Nordic phone company said yesterday.

Telenor ASA also cut its views for accumulated capital expenditure over the first five years in its Indian operations by around 30-35 billion Indian rupees ($649 million-$757 million) amid a focused roll-out plan and better terms from equipment vendors.

‘Bharat’ will drive telecom growth: VCs

Mobile VAS, mobile broadband and telecom software companies, as well as companies providing services to telcos, are among the favourite sectors of PE & VC investors within the industry, a survey by research firm Venture Intelligence reveals.

Almost 70 per cent of the PE and VC investors felt that Indian telecom operators would be able to profitably serve the next 100 million mobile consumers from rural areas. Investors also bet that 3G services can be a game changer, the survey from over 50 PE & VC firms revealed.

In recent months, despite record mobile subscriber additions month-on-month and 3G licensing round the corner, several experts believe the Indian telecom industry has reached a key inflection point. While the appetite for investments into mobile operators is still high, PE & VC investors are actively scanning for “downstream” opportunities including mobile VAS, telecom software and other service providers to telcos.

Telecom operators want lock-in policy relaxed

Telecom operators have urged the regulator to relax merger and acquisition laws to encourage consolidation in the sector.

In response to a consultation paper floated by the TRAI on spectrum and M&A policy, the operators said that 12-13 players in a single circle is not sustainable. Looking at the prevailing market conditions, the consolidation in the telecom sector should be encouraged through relaxed regulatory policies. The existing guidelines stipulate that no merger between two companies can be effected until after three years from the effective date of the expiry of license.

Why Maxis IPO Will Be Of Great Interest?

The Malaysian teleco, which holds a 74% stake in India’s Aircel, may deploy part of the proceeds in Indian markets.

Maxis, the Malaysian promoter of Indian telecom operator Aircel, is raising around $3.3 billion for the Malaysian telecom unit in its home market, billed as the biggest issue in that country. The IPO will value the Malaysian telecom operations of the company at $10 billion.

Revenues from Vodafone Group's India arm dip 7%

The revenues from Vodafone Group’s India arm dipped 7% sequentially to £704 million for the September quarter even as the country accounted for 65% of its new customer additions.

Yet, the world's fastest-growing mobile telephony market continued to occupy plum position in Vodafone books, as revenues from India grew 23% on an year-on-year basis. It also accounted for 65% of the 9.7 million new customers the group added across the globe for the period ended September 2009. India continues to account for close to half of Vodafone's global cellular traffic.

RCom stores to retail multiple brands of handsets

Subsidiary of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), Reliance Webstore Ltd, will now sell mobile phones of various manufacturers through its stores and has signed up with at least 1,200 handset retailers and multi-brand outlets in 100 cities to act as a distribution centre.

Until now, Reliance Webstore, which operates a chain of 234 Reliance World stores, had been selling handsets designed for RCom’s wireless services. The telecom retail business currently contributes at least 50% to Reliance Webstore’s annual revenue.

BSNL Launched 3G in Agartala and Halted Prepaid In J&K BSNL’s 3G service was launched on Saturday in Tripura for urban areas. WiMax would be shortly launched for the rural areas.

On the other hand BSNL has said that it is going to stop the pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir, starting November, as per the policy of the government of India. The pre-paid services would be converted to postpaid connections for which two additional Customer Service Centre (CSC) would be established at Kupwara and Dalgate in Srinagar.

Broadband Kiosks In Rural Areas

BSNL will set up 30,000 broadband kiosks in rural and remote areas in the next two years on a franchisee basis. These kiosks would provide broadband connectivity to those who have no alternative access and who have little to spend on such services. The company intends to set up a 3-tier business model to make broadband enabled services available to the rural population.

UniverCell To Expand Operations

Mobile retail chain UniverCell will be investing around Rs. 1,960 million in opening 700 stores across the country in the next two years. In Andhra Pradesh alone, 100 more stores will be opened in the following year.

NEW ADVERTISING & CONSUMER PROMOTION

Talk for India: As the country commemorates the first anniversary of 26/11 (Mumbai attack), Idea Cellular has come up with a new campaign, Talk for India, to mark the day.

According to the campaign, the net income of all voice calls made by Idea subscribers within India on November 26, for one hour between 8:36 pm and 9:36 pm, will be donated to the Government of India, in support of its initiative to strengthen the national security of the country The TVC shows a sombre Abhishek Bachchan in a silent crowd, holding lit candles. Bachchan states that silent protest marches showed solidarity last year; and this time round, he would talk for India

Tata Docomo “Hum along”: The latest ad from Tata DOCOMO is the 'Friendship Express' TVC. The ad opens inside a train, where everyone is doing their own thing. A couple of the travellers don't like the solemn mood and start humming the DOCOMO tune. Slowly and steadily, others pitch in and soon most of the train is singing along. The ad ends with the super, 'Why walk when we can dance together'.

Tata Indicom “Hear the unsaid”: The two new Tata Indicom commercials - Saans and Hansi - take the emotional route to push the service provider's digital clarity.

TARIFFS AND OFFERS

All the players including Vodafone, Aircel, Idea and even BSNL announced the 1p per second plan. However, Airtel’s Freedom Plan offers 1p/ sec on their own network and 1.2 p/ sec on calls to other networks.

Tata DOCOMO launched the Full Talk Time on all prepaid Recharge vouchers worth Rs. 100 and above. The TATA DOCOMO customers have the flexibility to use this talktime to make calls to any network anytime – be it Local, STD or ISD

Tata Teleservices Limited, India’s fastest-growing pan-India dual-technology telecom service provider launched their new concept of “Pay Per Call” on their wireless landine service Prepaid Walky.

For further information please write to: Prabal Sarkar