The top five operators, both in subscriber as well as revenue terms contribute around 86%, an increase of one unit point from FY 2004-05 figures. It seems Indian operations are mainly for pan India operator. And, all the regional operators have pan-India ambitions, be it Idea, Aircel, or Spice.

Investment friendly policy
Several announcements were made relating to policy change. Some of the prominent ones were increase of FDI ceiling from 49% to 74%, change of ADC from per minute charges to revenue share, and mobile number portability. FDI ceiling increment has led to an increase in FDI in mobile services whereas ADC has resulted in reduction of mobile tariffs in the country.

V&D Estimates                CyberMedia Research

On the policy front, per minute ADC on domestic calls was changed to revenue share regime. And the percentage charged is 1.5% of AGR (adjusted gross revenue). With 74% FDI, India has seen huge investments from players like Vodafone in Bharti Airtel, Temasek Holdings in Tata Teleservices, Orascom in HTIL, Maxis in Aircel, and Telekom Malyasia Berhad in Spice.

Vodafone Group secured around 10% interest in Bharti Tele-Ventures for an investment of approximately Rs 6,700 crore. Temasek Holdings (Temasek), through its wholly owned subsidiary, Aranda Investments (Mauritius) has taken a 9.9% stake in Tata Teleservices for an undisclosed amount. Maxis has invested 26% in the enlarged share capital of the Aircel Group for $280 mn. And later, Maxis along with an Indian partner is planning to acquire the remaining 74% for Aircel for $800 mn. Maxis acquired additional 34% for $422 mn and rest 35% through SPV for $378 mn. Telekom Malaysia Berhad has acquired 49% stake in Spice Communications for $178.8 mn.

The Players
Bharti leads the table both in terms of subscribers as well as revenue. In terms of subscribers, it has a market share of 21.5% whereas on revenue front it is 22.1%. With 19.5 mn subscribers, the company has netted Rs 7,928 crore from mobile services. All this has been possible because of its large network spread in all telecom circles of the country.  

The company is planning to take lead in non-voice revenue, which is around 10%. To tap the potential of this area, the company introduced 'Hello Tunes' by bringing over 18,000 songs in 20 different languages to its customers. And all this is paying off.

On capex part, the company has spent around Rs 4,159 crore in mobile services for FY 2005-06. Till date, the cumulative investment in mobile services comes to around Rs 15,923 crore. 

It was an excellent year for Hutchison Essar as the company grew organically as well as through acquisitions. In September 2005, it acquired BPL Mumbai and three circles of BPL Cellular ie circles of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala for $1,154 mn. With this, the company is operational in approximately 72% of India's population. The company also acquired Essar Spacetel, which has license to operate in seven circles-Madhya Pradesh, North East, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, and Jammu & Kashmir for $6 mn. So, with these two acquisitions, the company will have a presence in all 23 circles. The company has completed acquisition of BPL Cellular whereas BPL Mumbai is still subject to regulatory approval. All this has resulted in good jump on subscription numbers from 6.2 mn to 15.3 mn in 16 circles. 

In terms of revenue, Hutch stands at number two with revenue of around Rs 6,837 crore. But in terms of subscribers, it stands at number four with subscriber base of 15.36 mn. Being the only pure play operator among the top four mobile payers in the country, it has positioned itself as a premium brand and therefore has the highest ARPU among all the operators. The increase in ARPU is also due to complete suite of VAS.  Services launched in 2005 as part of VAS are, multiplayer gaming, SMS tones, Hutch alerts, video tones, corporate Hutchmail and mobile karaoke.

Recently, the company has changed its logo and is a combination of bright pink and petrol blue. The new logo is the natural evolution of the Hutch brand in India.

On the capex part, the company plans to double its network in 2006. It plans to spend around Rs 6,000 crore. The investment will be in existing circles, BPL circles and new circles, where services are not operational.

Reliance Communications ranks third in subscriber and fourth in revenue. The company has a total mobile base of around 17.3 mn of which around 79.3% belongs to the pre-paid category. Mojority of its customers come from CDMA whereas GSM contributes around 1.9 mn lines.

V&D Estimates                        CyberMedia Research