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Cellular space in India was full of activity marked by rural expansion, value added services, acquisitions and rebranding by some of the service providers. The number of subscribers grew by over 50% in FY 2008-09. Two major CDMA players-Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices-made investments in the GSM space.

A set of events have made the last financial year a memorable one. The long wait for 3G ended with public sector telcos-MTNL and BSNL-rolling out the next generation services in selected parts of the country. They have been fast taking the services to the other parts as well. Though the spectrum auction for private operators is yet to be commemorated and may end this year, the government-run operators launched the services. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone brought iPhone to India.

An important milestone for Tata Teleservices was Japanese telecom major, NTT DoCoMo picking up its 26% stake for $2.7 bn. TTSL is all set to enter the GSM space and would be launching services in the next three months in southern India. The operator would also invest $2 bn to expand telecom business with a major focus on the rollout of GSM services in the country. The contribution of data services to its overall revenue was 14% in FY 2008-09, while the average for GSM players was around 9%.

For Idea Cellular, an Aditya Birla Group company that has licences and spectrum to operate in all twenty-two service areas of India, the most significant move last year was the acquisition of Spice Communications. The acquisition gave Idea Cellular entry into Punjab and Karnataka. It also added the 4 mn Spice's subscribers to its kitty.

Norwegian telecom major, Telenor renegotiated its deal with cash-starved Unitech to acquire shareholding of 67.2%. Telenor plans to invest $2.24 bn in the operations and intends to launch services in southern India. BPL Mobile rebranded itself as Loop Mobile following the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the TPG Nambiar-promoted BPL Group.

Abu Dhabi based telecom operator, Etisalat purchased 45% stake in Swan Telecom that has license for operations in thirteen circles in the country.

Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL) brought brand MTS to India. The operator celebrated subscriber base of 1 mn for its service brand MTS early this year. The company achieved fast-track growth, expanding its presence from Rajasthan to three more circles including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Kolkata, covering 13% of Indian population.

Expansion Spree
The top player, Bharti Airtel, experienced a robust growth of 36.8% year-on-year. about 84% of its revenues came from mobile. Of the total investments made, 49% were in mobile.

Tata Teleservices extended its telecom operation in Assam circle, under Tata Indicom. To increase its national footprint, the operator made an investment of over Rs 100 crore in Jammu & Kashmir circle in the first phase. TTSL will provide seamless coverage in twenty-nine towns of Jammu & Kashmir, and another thirty-six towns are likely to be covered soon.

Idea launched services in Mumbai Metro, which is one of the largest single metro city launched ever. Idea also launched services in Bihar and Jharkhand and acquired 1 mn subscribers within eight months of its launch. Bihar and Jharkhand have lower teledensity as compared to the national average, and Idea is eyeing the maximum number of first-time users from this area. Idea has plans to launch services in Orissa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, the Northeast, and Jammu & Kashmir in FY 2009-10, making it a pan-India player.

Reliance Communications (RCOM) became the only telecom player in the country having a pan-India presence in GSM & CDMA networks. The response to its recently launched GSM services, has been appalling. Last quarter of the FY 2008-09 saw 110% rise in the number of subscribers as against the previous quarter.

When Reliance launched its GSM services, covering 24,000 towns and 6,00,000 villages in December 2008, the company also announced a customer experience program for customers choosing its GSM services. The plan offers lifetime SIM for Rs 49 and 100% savings to less than Rs 150 ARPU mobile customers in Delhi at a one-time subscription charge of Rs 51.

Dual network has given Reliance Communications an added advantage. It recorded the highest wireless subscriber acquisition in the world, 5 mn, in the first month of its GSM launch. Dual networks not only put the operator ahead in the current growth momentum, but also give it a favourable place once mobile number portability makes way in India. Due to the dual networks, RCOM will be able to bring both segments on-net, driving customer value and stickiness.

An extremely profitable segment that brings additional revenues is international roaming. Although currently it is being enjoyed by only a few GSM incumbents, Reliance has recently joined the race. For Reliance, GSM non-voice revenue contribution is about 10% with SMS contributing nearly 5% as against 1.2% in case of CDMA.

The operator has a multi-chain retail system supported by 2,000 exclusive retail showrooms on high streets/malls. The operator has been working on increasing its national footprint through 5,000 distributors and 1 mn retailers.

Loop Mobile's subscriber base grew from 1.3 mn in March 2008 to 2.16 mn in March 2009.

Telecom equipment manufacturer HFCL Group's flagship company, HFCL Infotel, that rolled out IPTV services in Punjab, plans to launch GSM services in the state in FY 2009-10.

MTS made a debut in Kerala with an offer of 1 mn minutes free talktime. Aircel launched its GSM services in Delhi to become the seventh operator to fight for market share in a city that boasts of both-the highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Goa, the teledensity touching 90%. Aircel has already spent $5 bn for nationwide capex rollouts through 2009, while a total of $10 bn will be invested by 2011.

Tug-of-Tariff
The market saw a stiff competition among the operators who experimented with most compelling offers to bite the biggest share of the market pie. Many offers were targeted to appease new subscribers and young mobile users who are more technology friendly and potential buyers of new applications.

ARPU of Idea Cellular for Q4 of FY 2008-09 was Rs 254, of which 10% came from VAS. In the last fiscal, Idea offered a range of customized products and services for consumers across various segments. Some of these included 'stay connected for life', a product that gives lifelong validity as a proposition.

Another such product is 'My Gang', a prepaid product targeted at the youth that has features like closed user group and very low tariffs for calls within the group. With an idea to drive rural penetration, the operators came up with a specially designed package for rural subscribers. Another customized product launched last year is 'Home Zone' that offers discounted rates for calls within a cluster of low utilization towns. Besides, it also introduced value vouchers.

Reliance tied up with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to help subscribers view CA examination results. The service to access mark sheet was charged at Rs 5 per operation. The summary of the result could be obtained by sending an SMS at Rs 3.

Forging ahead in its aggressive plans to provide innovative content, Anil Ambani-promoted telco partnered with BBC World News for a mobile streaming (unicast) service 24x7 for Reliance Mobile users across India. Through this agreement, Reliance Mobile users can access BBC's breaking news and landmark programming initiatives as they happen directly. It also started a matrimonial service 'Jeevansathi on Mobile'. The service is charged at Rs 3 for one-time use, Rs 10 for 'Day Pass' valid for twenty-four hours, Rs 25 for seven days, and Rs 50 for thirty days. Besides, one can also enjoy an option of quick search on R World.

The service provider also launched 'Samachar' service in Indian languages. The service provides text news in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

TTSL and SNDT Women's University, Asia's largest University, have entered into a strategic alliance to provide distance learning education on mobile phones. The mobile education service will enable delivery of e-learning program to people even in remote locations. The remote mobile education services are mainly targeted at students in rural areas, who don't have much access.

Tata Teleservices introduced two new schemes with lifetime validity for its prepaid customers. As per the schemes, prepaid customers can choose between an option with local calls at 49 paise per minute for lifetime or base call rates with lifetime incoming. To cater to the growing customer craze for possessing VIP and premium mobile numbers, the operator announced online auction of its VIP/premium numbers.

Taking the first-mover position in the fast-exploding
Voice SMS space, TTSL unveiled its Voice SMS offer. The exciting new service, powered by partnerships with world leaders Kirusa and Qualcomm, will allow Tata Indicom subscribers nationwide to send VoiceSMS directly from their stored contacts in the phonebook, cutting out the need to remember any number and key in complicated numbers prefixed by an asterisk. Therefore, no asterisk is needed. Just select the number to which you wish to send the Voice SMS, select the Voice SMS option, speak and send the message.

Bharti Airtel continued to focus on the rural segment with around 60% of its customer addition coming from rural areas. Airtel has set up 14,000 Airtel Service Centers specially for the rural consumers and going forward, the company is looking at having over 1,00,000 such centers across the country by March 2010.