The telecom ministry has delayed the pan India roll out of mobile number portability (MNP) services. The government does not have any clue about the completion of the project. It will be done in phases. Completion can take several months. It will deny consumers the right to change their service providers without changing their mobile numbers. Delay in execution is because of apprehension among leading operators and technical issues. We want the PMO to step in. MNP has been hanging for a long time.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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Three private operators -- Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel -- will unleash price war to ensure dominance in the 3G space. This is for the first time that there will be a price war in the initial stage of roll out of any service.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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Telecom minister Sachin Pilot says broadband access price will become affordable. Consumers do not know when. Consumers in emerging markets pay huge price for their net access. Telecom ministry should look at regulating the broadband prices for the benefit of the telecom consumers.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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Most of the telecom equipment makers in India will not maintain their last year's revenue growth in fiscal 2010-11. This is because of delay in 3G and BWA roll outs. Substantial reduction in outlay of 2G roll outs is also hampering the growth. Most of their parent companies have started giving warning signals saying the profitability will be hit because of security-related import issues. Though we can not do anything now, Indian government should have been more careful when dealing with the industry. Both small and big equipment companies are facing the music.
Baburajan K
Voice&Data
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Service providers added 18.18 million subscribers in August. With this, the total mobile user-base touched 670.60 million in India. The 18.18 million new connections are not new subscribers, but SIM cards sold in the country. According to reports, around 20-30% of new additions are just sale of SIM cards to existing mobile users. Can the telecom regulator take stock of the situation and urge operators to report actual number of individual / new users on their network. Few operators are ready to report actual subscriber-base. If all operators are ready for actual reporting, it will bring more transparency.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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3G will add immense pressure to operators. The pressure from 10% of their premium customers will be high since they would like to use 3G services. Operators, who do not have 3G licences in certain circles, will be forced to offer special packages to retain customers. Retaining 10% of the customers is important since they contribute around 40-50% of the revenue, according to reports. Since operators will not launch 3G in small town in the next 2-3 years, it will be critical for operators to focus on premium customers.
Baburajan K
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Telecom operators will delay their BWA launches in the country. Most of the operators, who bagged BWA licences following the spectrum auction, is currently confused about technology selection for rolling out services. They are yet to decide between TD-LTE and WiMax. Both telecom equipment vendors and operators are responsible for this delay. SPs are not guided properly from the beginning. Government's guidelines on roll out obligations will not help if big vendors are promising healthy returns even if there's a delay in launch. The country will not add another 10 million broadband customers in 2011.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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Thailand regulator is set to punish five telecom operators who failed to meet September 1 deadline for starting mobile number portability. $963,400 each is the penalty. India should have imposed such stringent conditions to encourage operators to start MNP. Without proper guidelines, MNP will be a dream for Indian mobile consumers.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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With the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries, the largest pan India BWA licensee, deciding to opt for TD LTE technology to roll out 4G services, WiMax vendors will not have too many options to do good business in India. WiMax vendors have been relying on Tata Communications and Reliance Communications. Both operators did not win spectrum. Airtel was not an aggressive WiMax player. WiMax vendors' main business will be with BSNL and a select operators who have won BWA spectrum.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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Senior telecom professionals, especially the government employees, from Pakistan are not willing to come to India and attend events. The reason is obvious. They face too many hurdles to get visa. Post arrival, they do not have too much freedom to travel within the country. We also face similar issues. Recently 3-4 Indians could not travel to Islamabad to attend a two-day international event organised by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and LirneAsia of Sri Lanka.
Both Governments should actively look at reducing visa procedures. Telecom professionals respect eachother and they would like to share their knowledge. Governments need to play active role in improving telecom trade and knowledge sharing between the two nations.
Baburajan K
Executive Editor
Voice&Data
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