Wireless Federation

According to a local media report, Starcomms has posted revenues of $150 million for the first six months of 2008, up 101% year-on-year and in line with its growth projections. The company had 1.55 million subscribers, up from 624,000 twelve months previously. Starcomms projected a net loss of NGN197 million this financial year but in 2009 it aims to sway into profit.

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The iPhone 3G launch in India has not been that good and on top of that, for the users this touchscreen handset is expected to raise their monthly phone bills far more than other hi-end mobiles in the market, reports ET.
According to the industry experts an iPhone might increase billing charges by up to 25-30 per cent, which will get the two operators, Vodafone and Airtel earning all the money.
While Vodafone is giving 250 MB and 600 MB data usage free per month on a plan of Rs 799 and Rs 999, respectively, Bharti Airtel is offering free 500 MB per month on iPhone-specific plans that will have a basic rent of Rs 600 per month, which are based on net-surfing on their networks.
But for the Analysts, the plans are not economical, as the iPhone will encourage users to spend more through its value added services (VAS) and bundling stratergies.
For Manoj Mohta, head of another analysis firm CRISIL Research, it’s the lack of 3G services that makes the iPhone too expensive for too little in return. “Only after 3G comes in will the service providers launch more of data-oriented plans. But until then it will remain an expensive proposition,” said Mohta.
The telcos are also aiming to raise data usage.
Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer for mobile services at Bharti Airtel, said, “Our aim will be to promote that data usage here too. The iPhone is already known for its VAS like GPRS, maps and iTunes.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Growth in India’s mobile sector, from a humble start in the mid-1990s, has really picked up pace in recent years, aided by higher subscriber volumes, lower tariffs and falling handset prices. Home to a clutch of global operators working with local companies, India had almost 250 million mobile subscribers (including GSM and CDMA services) in early 2008. And the market was growing at an annual rate of around 60%. While the ARPU has been steadily declining as competing operators offer cheaper tariffs the usage levels have been high thus slowing the decline in ARPU. By 2008 there was a major push to take mobile services into the poorer and rural areas of the country.
India added 6.42 million GSM mobile subscribers in July, total reaches 218.9 million. the number of mobile susbscribers in India has reached nearly 250 million,teledensity above 25%.
India adds about 8-9 million new subscribers per month. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says that there were 286.86 million wireless users in India at the end of June, up 55 % from a year earlier.
Bharti Airtel  led the signings in June with 2.55 million new customers. The company had 69.4 million mobile users at end-June. Reliance Communications added 1.74 million wireless users to have 50.79 million subscribers begs no. 2 position. Follwing it Vodafone Essar, added 1.73 million mobile customers in June, taking its total to 49.2 million.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 India Mobile Forecast include:

• It is expected the subscriber base in India to increase from 332 million in 2008 to 533 million in 2010. This will make India the fastest growing wireless market in the world.
• The four major operators in the country will continue to have similar market share breakdowns over the next several years. Bharti-Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone-Essar, and BSNL will continue to serve approximately 24.5%, 20.7%, 17% and 12.3% respectively of total subscribers in 2010.
• Average margins in the industry are forecasted to be 38.5% in 2010. Bharti-Airtel and Reliance will have similar EBITDA margins at around 41%.  The downward EBITDA margin are forecasted because of the expected 3G spectrum auction and the DOT’s proposal to hike annual spectrum charges by -100bps for all spectrum slabs up to 8.2Mhz, and by -200bps hike for 10Mhz and above. The proposed hike in annual spectrum fees will likely lower earnings growth at Bharti and Reliance.

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Bharti Airtel, revealed that it’s subscriber base crossed the 75 million mark and became the fourth largest in-country mobile operator in the world.

The company is following China Mobile, China Unicom and American AT&T in terms of subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli said, “We are happy to have achieved this milestone of being the largest integrated telco in the country, in customer terms. For us, the benchmark of real leadership is customer delight and would like to thank all our customers for placing their faith in us.”

The company has also become one of fastest growing telecom company.

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Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telco, is all geared up to launch calling card services in the UK, Singapore and Canada, reports ET.
This service, uptil now was only provided in USA, where the offers are 15-30 per cent cheaper than the prevailing call rates there.
“We will be launching these services in the UK on August 15, followed by Singapore by the month-end and Canada in September,” says Bharti Airtel president for enterprise services David Nishball.
The calling card service will vary from long-term solutions for Indians living in these countries to short period cards, basically for travellers, which offer memory space of upto 50 numbers.
Mr Nishball added “All the facilities that we offer to our customers in the US will be extended to the markets where we are launching these services”.

India has added 6.42 million GSM mobile subscribers in the month of July, report ET, accelerating the pace of subscriber growth from the previous month. Mobile phones costing as low as $15 and call rates as low as 1 US cent a minute has made India, the world’s second-largest mobile market after China.

The total GSM subscribers in India at the end of July was 218.9 million.

The number of GSM subscribers added by following operators in the Month of July are:

• Bharti Airtel added 2.69 million subscribers in July, total 72.1 million subscribers
• Vodafone Essar added 1.76 million subscribers, total 50.95 million subscribers
• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd added 553,219 subscribers, total 37.92 million subscribers
• Idea Cellular added 1.05 million subscribers, total 28.2 million subscribers

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Bharti Airtel has unveiled the “Grameen Mobile Puratchi” campaign for the rural market, ET reports.
After doing a pilot study in January this year, we are formally inaugurating the campaign in Tamil Nadu” Bharti Airtel Ltd Chief Executive Officer (Mobile Services) Tamil Nadu region Rajiv Rajagopal said.

The iPhone 3G will be launched in twenty more countries on August 22. All the operators concerned have made their formal announcements. 10 countries are Latin American.It is predicted that SingTel will also join the mix, but the reports are yet to be confirmed.

August 22 releases

    * Argentina - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Chile - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Colombia - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Czech Republic - O2
    * Ecuador - Telefonica and America Movil
    * El Salvador - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Estonia - Eesti Mobii Telefon
    * Guatemala - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Honduras - America Movil
    * Hungary - T-Mobile
    * India - Bharti Airtel and Vodafone
    * Paraguay - America Movil
    * Philippines - GlobeTelecom
    * Peru - Telefonica and America Movil
    * Poland - Orange and Era
    * Romania - Orange
    * Uruguay - Telefonica and America Movil

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MTN’s next move, as being speculated by the local media is that after the failure of talks with Reliance Communication (RCOM) and Bharti Airtel for a merger, may now target other telecom operators in India.

MTN might also pursue a potential deal with companies from other emerging markets in Latin America and Asian nations like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

According to analysts, India has other small and regional operators that would make suitable targets for MTN.

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“The original, less controversial merger with Bharti Airtel could be back on the cards,” a report in South African daily The Times said. the media is speculating, this could be due to MTN wanting a ‘clean deal’with Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel instead of Reliance Communications(RCOM), a group firm of Anil Ambani and a rival telecom operator to Bharti Airtel in India.These reports are surfacing in the South African and London media even after the extending of their exclusivity agreement for negotiations from July 7 till July 21.

RCOM and MTN had first announced the start of their exclusive talks on May 26 after the South African firm’s talks fell apart for a possible deal with Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, RCOM’s rival telecom operator in India.

Editor’s note: Please note here that Reliance Communications has been threatened with legal action if the “Right of First Refusal” (ROFR) which Reliance’s erstwhile parent company is claiming on it is not respected. Mukesh Ambani, Brother of RCOM’s current owner, Anil Ambani will definitely try to block this deal from going ahead claiming ROFR on the deal as per an earlier agreement between Mukesh’s Reliance Industries Limited and RCOM.