Mobile: The Mobility Empire In SAARC

Indian Telecom Dream
India is now the 4th largest market for mobile phone and by 2008 it is expected to overtake both the US and Russia to become the second largest market only after China. Sweeping reforms introduced by successive Indian governments over the last decade have dramatically changed the nature of telecommunications in the country.

The mobile sector has grown from around 10 mn subscribers in 2002 to over 125 mn (including both GSM and CDMA services) by end of 2006. The adoption of Unified Licensing, a change in the access deficit charge regime, increased sharing of infrastructure and coverage of new areas by operators will contribute to ongoing growth.

India is poised to reach the magical figure of 250 mn mobile subscribers by 2007 and around 500 mn by 2010. India has also been quick to embrace emerging technologies and leapfrogging with 3G services in 2007.

While GSM technology remains the dominant technology platform in the market, CDMA has quickly grabbed a 23% market share. Despite the huge mobile subscriber base, this represented around 13% of India's 1 bn plus population.

What More can be Done?
To put more impetus on Indian telecom sector the Indian policy makers need to address two important issues-promoting emerging technologies quickly and aim at lowering ARPUs further. Compared to $2.41 in China, the operating expense in India stands at $4. Infrastructure sharing and flexible tariff rates are other keys to embolden the telecom sector.

Almost 100% Achiever-The Maldives
The Maldives with its relatively small population of 300,000, proudly boasts to be the only country in the SAARC region with total teledensity of 96.87 with a large mobile subscriber base of 257,548. This large archipelago of islands faces a huge challenge in providing connectivity across all 1,190 islands.

Through the recent efforts of long-time monopoly telco, Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun (Dhiraagu), there is now full telephone service coverage of the archipelago. Dhiraagu is a joint venture between the Government of the Maldives (65%) and Cable & Wireless plc (UK) with 35%. In February 2005, new operator Wataniya Telecom Maldives was issued a license to operate mobile services. The overall market had reached an amazing 68% mobile penetration.

Mobile Women of Bangladesh

Under a special low-priced package, Grameen Phone has been offering phones to village women, popularly known as phone ladies, and changing lifestyles into the bargain. While the phones are registered only in the name of women, these are shared out in the village at a few Taka per call. With just one phone, the service has now become a family business in many villages.

Lessons from the Maldives
Compared to the SAARC countries, Maldives is in a better position in terms of telecommunications with a fully digital network. The recent restructuring of Maldivian Telecom Policy has led to transparency in allocating spectrum. An independent regulatory body ensures fair competition particularly between the single existing service provider and new entrants.

Developing Nepal
Although with an unsettled political climate, Nepal has been moving steadily towards a more liberalized telecom market. Positive regulatory changes in the telecom sector have been implemented, including the incumbent telco losing its monopoly status in the market. By April 2006, over 170 operators had been authorized to provide a wide range of telecom services, including two for basic telephony and two for mobile telephony.

Mobile services are provided in the country by two operators namely Nepal Telecom and newcomer Spice Nepal. With Spice providing some serious competition to the incumbent, the total mobile subscriber base had reached 6,15,981 by end of Q3 2006, a penetration of just over 2%, after the market had expanded by 100% in 2005. The mobile customer base is increasing thanks to pre-paid mobile service which has crossed mark of 7,50,000. One advantage of Nepal's relatively young telecommunications network is that it is mostly digital with much of the equipment installed during the last few years.

Network wise, SAARC region is in a better position than it ever was
– Shuhei Anan, CEO, Sri Lanka Telecom

Lesson from Nepal
The success of mobile telephony is the fact that mobile subscribers outnumber fixed line subscribers. The widespread availability of affordable mobile alternatives has helped boost cellular subscribers to a total of 979,227, compared to 576,693 fixed lines (Nov 2006).

Pakistan-A Reformist
Pakistan has slowly transitioned a regulated state-owned monopoly to a comparatively deregulated competitive structure. Pakistan's mobile sector, which had started to grow strongly over the last few years, continued its rapid expansion. After growing by almost 170% in 2005, the mobile subscriber base has reached 38 mn (14% penetration) by Q3 of 2006.

An important aspect of reforming the telecom sector was the privatization of PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunications Co.). The country's four mobile operators have been joined by two new namely Warid Telecom and Telenor Pakistan.