Awaiting the Beep

Paging industry continued to bleed, due to lack of any concrete government initiative and slashing of cellular tariff.

There was no respite from bad news on the paging front for yet another year in succession. BPL’s exit from paging, at the beginning of the year, was an indicator of the shape of things to come. Usha Martin Telecom’s license was terminated because of non-payment of license fee. The overall subscriber base came down to 5,55,597 from 5,68,020 in 1999-2000, thus showing a negative growth. DSS and RPG Paging had the distinction of being among the companies to have actually earned a profit during the FY 2000-01. Total market for paging services stood at Rs 211 crore during the FY 2000-01.

The Alternatives

Realizing the desperate need for an alternative revenue stream, most of the paging companies rushed to corner a pie of the untapped domestic call center market. Not many, except EasyCall and DSS, did well on the domestic call center front. RPG Paging also made an attempt to position itself in business process solutions beyond just messaging through wireless medium to corporate organizations. Microwave Communication set up its first international call center in Mumbai. DSS Mobile, with Rs 200 crore of investment, launched its Mobilink communications channel for various advertisers to promote their products.

The Failures

The Indian Paging Services Association, unlike its counterparts COAI and ABTO, never really commanded the support of the entire industry and thereby failed to push forward its demands to the government in an aggressive manner. Lack of adequate marketing of services by most companies, was also instrumental in paging not making much headway. With most cellular companies slashing their tariff to a record level, interest in paging continues to be on the wane. The hype and glamour associated with it at the time of launch is no more there. Moreover, there is also a question mark on the utility of pager.

Two-way paging, which could be attractive, is still far-off, as companies do not want to sink more money in the infrastructure.

The Hope

Companies are hoping that the government will come out with a package and write-off all their dues. Bailout package from the government, revenue-share from the basic operators, and the still-further relaxation of duty on pagers, are some ways. The CVD of 16 percent does not make any sense as there is no manufacturing of pagers in India and all are imported. The paging rental is as high as Rs 300, thereby reducing the gap with the cellular cash card, making paging all the more less attractive for the consumers. To make one-way paging viable, the rental has to go down further to a level of Rs 100. It is hoped that the discussion between paging companies and basic service providers, which is under way, comes through, and the issue of revenue sharing on the call to pager is resolved.