TELECOM MARKET UPDATE

September 2009 witnessed a total net addition of 15.7 million mobile connections. As of September, the total number of active mobile activations reached 465 millions. Of these, almost 11 millions were from Circles A and B while Metro circles accounted for 2.7 millions of new activations; C circles accounted for 2 millions.

AP and Tamil Nadu emerged as the largest contributors to the total net additions; these two circles contributed almost 20% of the total net additions.

Of all the new activations, 4 million activations happened for TTSL - largely from AP, Karnataka Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and MP; these 5 circles contributed 70% of their new additions. Airtel added 3.2 millions while Vodafone added 1.9 millions.



Key Performance Highlights

Aircel added 1.4 millions of new subscribers in Sept’ 09, of which 54% came from Mumbai, AP, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Share of net additions for Aircel declined in their dominant circle i.e. North East, J & K and Assam; however, these circles remained the major contributors to net adds.

Sistema Shyam: With another 200,000 new activations, MTS reached a total subscriber base of 1.97 millions of subscribers in Sept ’09. They continued to do well in Kolkata and WB circle with 12% and 10% share of net additions, respectively. West Bengal contributed nearly 30% of their net adds.

Idea: In 7 months, Idea managed to add almost half a million subscribers in Tamil Nadu while in the same span it managed to get 275,000 subscribers in Bihar.

Vodafone: Post expansion, Vodafone managed to add almost 28 millions of subscribers in last one year.

TELECOM MARKET NEWS & EVENTS

Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is understood to be in talks with leading Indian telecom companies like Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. They could participate in the bid for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum to be auctioned by the government in January 2010. Intel is planning to offer Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMAX (which provides for wireless transmission of data and up to 75 Mb/sec speed) technology.

Indian operators scramble for Africa's mobile market

European and Middle Eastern service providers have been making inroads into the African mobile arena for years, but now Asian service providers are scrambling to get a slice of the world's last unsaturated market. Vodafone and France's Orange are the major European mobile service providers operating in Africa.

Indian firms are increasingly looking at telecom markets in Africa in order to expand their geographical footprint through acquisitions and tie-ups with existing operators.

India's state-run mobile telecom operators Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam as well as Bharti Airtel & Reliance Communication are all scrambling to share a slice of the African mobile market.

Reliance Communications and Essar Group already own telecom assets in Africa including Aupam Global Soft Ltd. (Uganda) and Essar Telecom Kenya. Essar is also pushing to buy Warid Telecom Uganda and Warid Congo SA.

Additionally, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam is bidding to buy Nigeria's and Zambia's incumbent operators, Nitel and the Zambia Telecommunications Company.

The appetite for investment in the African market by Indian operators has been augmented by the Indian government's US$125 million, pan-African e-network project aimed at connecting all African countries to satellite and fiber-optic networks in order to improve communications in the region. The Indian government is also setting up a private communication network for all Africa Union heads of state. The Indian government and the Africa Union signed the memorandum of understanding to formalize the project in 2005.

NEW SERVICES & OFFERS

India's first mobile comics portal was launched by Bharti Airtel. The service can be accessed on GPRS-enabled handsets (GPRS or general packet radio service is a type of wireless communication service). The comics portal will provide subscribers with access to more than 300 Indian and international comic characters -- from Popeye to the local Nagaraj. Customers will be charged Rs.10 per week for 10 comic strips.

Twitter Debuts on Indian Mobile Phones: Twitter announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel. Now, customers needn't worry about having hardwired Internet connections - the partnership is all about texting.

Tata DOCOMO launched i-channel - a state of the art internet GPRS based application that can be downloaded on a mobile phone; this will always be updated with the latest on news, sports, movies, stock & business. Many phones will also show a ticker on your handset screen giving you the latest on news, sports, movies, stock & business.

TARIFFS AND OFFERS

Aircel launched a ‘pay per second’ plan in which STD and Local calls calls will be charged @ 1 p / sec. They also introduced an Unlimited Dialer Tunes Card.

Vodafone launched an STV of Rs 26 which allows the customers to make all STD Calls to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai @ 50p/min for 30 Days and another STV of Rs 38 that allows STD calls to Kerala, TN & Karnataka @ 50p/min for 30 Days. A Bonus card of of Rs. 18 allows local calls @ 40p / min. They also launched 1p per second billing in few of the circles. Attractive SMS packs were also introduced - Rs 30 SMS Promo Pack offers 100 free local SMS and the “Chota SMS Promo Pack” of Rs 10 offers 25 free local SMS.

Tata Indicom launched the Pay Per Call plan which charges subscribers a fixed amount on a per-call basis - Re. 1 for all local calls and Rs 3 for STD calls—regardless of the duration of the call. SMS would be offered at a special price of 50 p for both national and local messages. This plan is valid for all calls made by Tata Indicom subscribers to any mobile phone or land-line connection, on any network.

Virgin Mobile launched an STD plan whereby calls are charged at 50p/min. Virgin Mobile party line allows up to 6 friends to form a group and connect with each other - just by dialing a number.

Reliance Communication launched Simply Reliance. Calls to any mobile or any landline, on any network, anytime anywhere in India will be charged at 50 p. There are no STVs, monthly charges, or any other conditions.

MTS launched Msaver for Mtalk plan in which all local calls at 1paisa/ 2 seconds, all STD calls at 1paisa/second, MTS to MTS local calls at 1paisa/4 seconds (11PM to 7 AM), MTS to MTS local calls at 1paisa/4 seconds (Saturday & Sunday) and 100 free SMS per day (National+Local) are being offered.