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Idea may have to pay additional fees for Spice’s acquisition (India)

  • September 5th, 2008
  • 7:43 am

According to a media report, Idea Cellular may have to pay more for its acquisition of Spice Communications. Following the calling of a government committee to indicate spectrum transfer charges during operator mergers, it is believed that any ruling could be applied retroactively to the Idea and Spice deal, signed in June 2008. As per DoT proclaimaes that telcos would have to face charges for spectrum transfers, but no fees were specified at the time.
Idea’s acquisition on Spice is not yet approved, in addition to possible spectrum transfer charges, April’s new merger regulations also restrict operators which hold licences for the same region from merging for a period of three years from the date a licence is granted. According to DoT regulations Idea will surrender its licences for the Punjab and Karnataka circles, where both Idea and Spice hold licences, and  Idea has agreed to this. Government to refund the INR3 billion it paid for the concession in January 2008, Idea requested.

Swan Telecom wins Delhi GSM spectrum (India)

  • August 29th, 2008
  • 12:41 pm

Swan Telecom has been awarded GSM spectrum for the Delhi circle, reports a local media. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea and MTNL will be joined by Swan Telecom to provide services in the region. Swan pounds other interested companies including Datacom and Tata Teleservices to bag the licence. At the time when Swan applied for licence, RCOM was holding a 9.9% stake. But it has been confirmed that RCOM has sold its stake in the venture.

Idea-Nokia together to offer N96 from september (India)

  • August 27th, 2008
  • 7:00 am

Idea Cellular is making an effort to pace up with the leading mobile giants Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar. Aditya Birla group has tied up with the world’s largest handset maker, Nokia to offer the N96 smartphone.  Handset will be available on Idea Networks from september.

Besides ‘N’ series, this partnership is extended to other mid and high-end range from the Finnish giant’s stable. The company said,  “Idea plans to introduce several attractive offers and innovative tariff plans, on various devices, starting with the N96, in early September, targeted at a varied cross-section of customers”. Idea Cellular MD Sanjeev Aga said “We are pleased to partner with Nokia in leading the industry to bring customers a complete suite of Idea communications, browsing, content and Internet services. This is a logical step for Idea to take, as it will further help augment our customer experience. These high-end Nokia handphones are known worldwide for their versatility and utility”. The alliance would offer consumers an option to choose from a wide range services from Idea Cellular on Nokia’s handsets, Idea Cellular MD Sanjeev Aga said.

TRAI releases PoI report, states that Airtel & RCOM have most congested network (India)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 8:31 am

Data from the TRAI reveals that the leading mobile firm Bharti Airtel tops the list of most congested network followed by Reliance Communications. TRAI released the PoI (Point of Interconnection) report which states that amongst the private service providers Bharti Airtel has the largest number of PoIs having congestion (56 PoIs as of June) followed by Reliance Communications (22 PoIs), Dishnet Wireless (21 PoIs as of March), Vodafone (19 PoIs of March) and Idea (19 PoIs).

TRAI has been monitoring the level of congestion at the Point of Interconnection between various service providers on monthly basis. This parameter signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. This parameter also reflects as to how effective is the interconnection between the two networks.
The standard notified by TRAI in the Quality of Service (QoS) Regulation of July 2005 for this parameter should be less than 0.5 per cent. This means that out of 200 calls between two operators only one call should face congestion problem. Analysis of the PoI Congestion Report shows that the performance of the Cellular Mobile Service Providers with respect to the congestion on PoIs has improved in June, 2008, as compared with the performance in March, 2008. The number of PoIs having congestion has decreased from 275 in March to 156 in June.
Out of these 156 POIs, the level of congestion in 86 POIs is more than 5 per cent as compared to 141 PoIs in March.

Bihar, Maharastra, Gujarat, Haryana, North Eastern states and Himachal Pradesh are the states which are more affected due to PoI congestion.

Five mobile operators have agreed to provide interconnectivity to RCOM GSM (India)

  • August 20th, 2008
  • 10:39 am

As per the direction given by TRAI to provide interconnectivity to RCom GSM network, five mobile operators, including Idea Cellular, MTNL and Tata Communication have agreed to provide link of their network to RCOM group. Idea Cellular has agreed to provide interconnection to RCom thereby not becoming a part of COAI’s likely petition against TRAI’s directive on the same sources revealed. Aircel and Spice Communication are the other operators to give interconnection to RCom GSM network.

BSNL is in dialogue with RCOM (India)

  • August 20th, 2008
  • 6:57 am

As directed by TRAI, BSNL is in conversation with Reliance Communication  (RCOM) to work on an agrreable interconnection arrangement for RCOM’s GSM network.
“We are in a dialogue with them. There has been no conclusion yet on the outcome of our talks on a agreeable interconnection arrangement,” BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said.

Will BSNL going to challenge the TRAI’s directive, On that note Goyal said, “Whether we will challenge the TRAI directive on providing interconnection to RCOM or not depends on the outcome of these talks. Let us see what happens before August 21. ”
Industry sources revealed that Idea Cellular is understood to have also worked out a similar interconnection pact with RCOM. Although, it could not be confirmed as Idea Cellular Chairman Sanjiv Aga refuses to comment. Company official, however, said Idea was negotiating with RCOM on the interconnection. But refuses to give any statement on the outcome. T V Ramachandran Director General of COAI, the GSM operators’ body, said he had no idea about Idea Cellular’s interconnection pact with RCOM. “But if Idea agrees to interconnect with RCOM it does not become a part of our proposed petition to TDSAT. However, our position to challenge TRAI directive stands,” Ramachandran added.

Idea will not seek promoter funds to bid for 3G spectrum (India)

  • August 19th, 2008
  • 9:18 am

India’s fifth-largest cellular operator, Idea Cellular will not look for promoter funds to bid for the Rs 40,000-crore worth 3G spectrum. The two transactions, one with private equity firm Providence and other with Telekom Malaysia ™ has almost turned Idea debt-free. We are practically a zero debt company and we have enough capacity to do it (bidding) on our own, Idea Cellular MD Sanjeev Aga said. The Department of Telecom (DoT) guidelines on 3G allows foreign players to bid for the spectrum which is expected to push up the price for scarce airwaves. However, ruled out any over-bidding for 3G. There is enough international experience now. It is no longer a black box. The price that is being talked about is too high. I don’t see operators overbidding, Mr Aga said. Idea will be the seventh player in the market and generates the highest average revenue per user per month in India.

Soon Idea is going to give tough competition to the existing players as its 3G network is ready. As Idea is in Partnership with Malayasian telecom giant, TM, they are looking forward towards the benefit from them. Also TM has 3G operations in three countries through its subsidiaries — Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia and Dialog in Sri Lanka.TMI has experience of operating in international markets. They have experience in offering value-added services and this will be of value to Idea. Benefits will be in terms of know-how, Mr Aga further said.

Idea clicks Mumbai (India)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 11:45 am

Aditya Birla group’s Idea Cellular has got the approval from Indian government to launch wireless telephony services in Mumbai. According to an Aditya Birla group official, the services will be formally launched in the next few days with the entire infrastructure now in place. The company has set up a network of 200-odd stores to offer its services, official added. The official said all beta tests were successful and now the sales and marketing team would takeover for the rollout of the operations. Idea Cellular said it had set aside Rs 650 crore for the Mumbai roll out from its initial public offering funds raised in February last year.

According to Cellular Operators Association of India statistics till end July, Idea would be the seventh wireless telephony services provider in Mumbai which has more than 10 million customers with Vodafone Essar leading the pack with 37.89 lakh customers.

TRAI directed GSM players for interconnection with RCOM (India)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 9:00 am

Interconnection for Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication’s GSM network will be provided by GSM operators including Bharti, Idea, BSNL and Vodafone as directed by TRAI. “Report the compliance within seven days of the date of issue of this direction that is latest by the 21st August, 2008, TRAI said in separate direction to all these players. These directions are applicable to Spice Communications also. Twice the issue has been raised with the GSM players which have refused interconnection with the RCOM group. GSM players said that for providing interconnection to a new network, RCom had to negotiate fresh commercial terms. The existing interconnect agreement with Reliance was limited to providing links for its CDMA network.

TRAI has rejected this contention saying the case for renegotiating comemrcial terms is devoid of merit.

“This is not tenable as the DoT’s instruction dated the 24th March, 2008 for opening of allotted codes and and TRAI’s direction of 6th January, 2005 are not subordinate to or conditioned by negotiations between the service providers”, the regulator said. It also declines the GSM players argument that new points of interconnection will have to be created once Reliance Communications Ltd’s network is established saying the Licensor (DoT) has issued instruction to all service providers for opening the codes. Once instruction has been issued by the DoT then there is no reason for any service provider to disobey the instruction issued by the licensor.

BlackBerry services by Tata soon (India)

  • August 11th, 2008
  • 1:27 pm

Telecom service provider Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) will soon launch BlackBerry services. “BlackBerry soft launch is already done. For official launch, the company is waiting for logistics arrangement, which should be done before year end,” TTSL managing director Anil Sardana said. Earlier TTSL proclaimed its intention to offer the push-email services in collaboration with Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry phones. “We have been told that the BlackBerry services do not have scope for lawful interception, may be because it does not have a server in India and it may be difficult to monitor the content,” Sardana had said then.

Currently, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and BPL Mobile are offering BlackBerry services. BlackBerry servers, used for transmission of data for email, are located in Canada therefore making it impossible for the security agencies to monitor possible security threats is the major issue of concered for Home Ministry. RIM had assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry kink by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India. BSNL and regional player Aircel have also showed interest in the services and intend to launch them. TTSL will launch BlackBerry services on the 8830 handset which is being tested in its lab, Sardana further said.