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Etisalat in talks with Swan Telecom to sign a deal and acquire 40% stake (UAE)

  • September 23rd, 2008
  • 5:18 am

Etisalat (UAE’s Leading Telecom Operator) seems to be in its final stage to sign a deal with Sawan telcom, acquiring 40% stake in the firm. Etisalat has been looking for an Indian partner and was in talks with telcos including Spice Communication and Videocon-backed Datacom. Swan telcom persistently hitting the headlines for its association with Anil Ambani group company RCOM, which was said to hold 9.9 per cent stake in it at the time of applying for licence last year.
According to RCOM officials, the company does not hold stake in Swan telecom anymore. Swan Telecom had obtained licence for launching operations in 13 circles. Etisalat is operating in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa has a presence in India, through its data services subsidiary Technologia in Bangalore.

BSNL plans IPTV launch for 98 cities by November (India)

  • September 18th, 2008
  • 9:45 am

BSNL reported to  expand its IPTV offerings to 98 cities by the end of November. The telco is planning to appoint franchisees to launch the service and has already agreed deals with five companies; Aksh Optifibre, Smart Digivision Pvt, IOL Broadband, Times Broadband and Maharashtra Knowledge Company (MKCL). It is anticipated that BSNL will face tough competition in the IPTV market from operators like HFCL Infotel and Reliance Communications (RCOM). As RCOM and HFCL infotel plans commercial launch by the end of 2008.

RCOM to spend USD3 Billion on GSM operations (India)

  • September 17th, 2008
  • 1:19 pm

A local media reports that Reliance Communications (RCOM) will invest approximately USD3 billion on the rollout of its new GSM network. By November 2008, RCOM is targeting a launch for its pan-Indian GSM operations. But initially plans to provide services in 250 of the larger cities of the country. Also they expect to expand their services by the next 18 months. The operator is aspring for its GSM network to match its existing CDMA infrastructure by the end of 2009.

RCOM launches BlackBerry prepaid service for both GSM and CDMA subscribers (India)

  • September 17th, 2008
  • 8:01 am

Reliance Communication, RCOM, India, launches the nation’s first BlackBerry services both on GSM and CDMA network. According to RCOM, the BlackBerry reach will extend to over 200 million prepaid subscribers in India.
So far the BlackBerry smartphones were available with Vodafone and Bharti’s post paid connections.
The telco introduces two tariff plans for the BlackBerry smartphone - Plan Rs 1,299 and Plan Rs 1,599, in which, Reliance to Reliance mobile local and intra-circle calls are free.
In Plan 1,299 call charges range from 49 paise to 99 paise for local and STD calls from Rcom to other networks. The international calls range from Rs 6.90 a minute to Rs 40 a minute depending on the country.
RCOM introduces first ‘pay as you use’ tariff model India, a strategy for expansion of BlackBerry services for cost - effective subscribers.
“We recognise the needs of customers and believe a prepaid option enabled by Reliance Communications will significantly broaden the consumer interest in BlackBerry smartphones and expand our business opportunity,” Reliance Communications President, Mobile Data and Content Services, Mahesh Prasad said.
The handsets available for the prepaid service are: BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone operates on both CDMA & GSM networks, The BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone on CDMA networks, The BlackBerry Curve 8300 smartphone on GSM networks and Blackberry Pearl smartphone for both GSM and CDMA network.

   

Bharti leads the chart of STD & ISD traffic (India)

  • September 1st, 2008
  • 6:20 am

Bharti Airtel is leading its rivals in carrying both national and international long distance calls. According to TRAI data, Bharti earns more revenues than the PSU for carrying STD traffic.

Statistics:

Telcos                  STD calls (Revenue)       ISD calls (Revenue)
Bharti Airtel         Rs 1189.6 crore              Rs 624.1 crore

RCOM                  Rs 591.4 crore               Rs 426.5 crore

BSNL                   Rs 721.5 crore               Rs 179.4 crore

Market analyst states reasons for Bharti’s leading a market:

  • Bharti has nearly a 20 million lead over its rivals in customer numbers.
  • Many of the regional operators route their STD traffic on Bharti’s domestic network.

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.

MTN plans no deal in near future (South Africa)

  • August 29th, 2008
  • 8:59 am

MTN failure in merging with India’s RCOM and Bharti Airtel is not immediately looking at a deal. Though the subscriber base is increasing which led its first half revenue to grow by 35%. MTN said, its consolidated revenue rose by 35% to 46.1 billion rands in the six-month period ended June 30, up from 34.2 billion rand in the year-ago period. The driving factor for revenue surge was the company’s 54% subscriber growth since June 30, 2007, to 74.1 million, especially in Nigeria and South Africa.
Company’s CEO Phuthuma Nhelko said MTN’s vision was “to be the leader in telecommunications in emerging markets” for which it would focus on consolidation, leveraging existing footprint and convergence. MTN would “continue seeking value enhancing opportunities in existing and new territories,” Nhelko added.

TRAI tries to resolve interconnection issue (India)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 1:13 pm

TRAI proclaimed that all operators have signed an agreement to resolve all other pending issues related to interconnection. According to a media report, the agreement sets forth that operators should mutually settle all pending interconnect requests by 15 October, also specifying that pending payments for existing interconnect agreements be made within the next seven days. Moreover all operators have agreed to renew all interconnect agreements that have expired. The agreement also specifies that in case of dispute similar to that of recent RCOM issue, operator will stick to all rulings made by the TRAI.

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.

Indian mobile phone users mount to 296.1mln in July-regulator (India)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 7:44 am

According to TRAI, Indian mobile telecoms firms added 9.2 million users in July, taking subscribers in the world’s fastest growing wireless market to nearly 300 million. Mobile giant Bharti Airtel leaves behind Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as India’s largest telecom firm by total subscribers, including fixed-line subscribers. As Airtel signed up 2.7 million customers.

Following AirTel, RCOM adds 1.75 million customers and Third-ranked Vodafone Essar adds 1.76 million.

Cheap handsets and low call rates are the driving factors for the growth of market which is considered as world’s fastest-growing market for wireless services.

According to regulators data, Indian wireless phone users rose to 296.1 million in July, while fixed-line line subscriptions fell by around 160,000 to 38.8 million.