- September 19th, 2007
- 2:38 pm
Qatar has accepted seven offers for its second mobile licence on offer, announced the market regulator ictQATAR. The qualified bidders include the ACE consortium with Indian operator Airtel, the Argos consortium with Verizon, AT&T, Batelco, Etisalat, MTC and Vodafone. The list of offers was narrowed from an original 12 companies that had qualified to make an offer. Those dropping out of the race are Orascon Telecom, Jordan Telecom, Digicel, Reliance Telecom and a consortium of Belgacom and Omantel. The seven final bids will now receive a technical evaluation, including criteria such as prior experience, proposed network roll-out schedule, technology and service offerings, business plans and the level of operator commitment. Candidates who qualify after the technical evaluation will have their financial proposals submitted to a single-round auction process. The licence will be awarded to the qualified candidate with the highest bid.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 18th, 2007
- 1:34 pm
GSM operators added 5.95 million subscribers in August to take their total subscriber base in India to 147.7 million,quoting figures released by the GSM representative body, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI). The 5.95 million GSM subscriber addition excludes subscribers added by Reliance Telecom in August. Bharti Airtel added 2.05 million users in August and lifted its user base to 46.8 million for a 31.7 percent share of the GSM market. Vodafone Essar added 1.7 million users to take its subscriber base to 34.1 million. It has a 23.1 percent share among GSM operators. State-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) added 0.72 million users in August, taking its user base to 29.7 million. Its share among GSM players is 20.11 percent. Idea Cellular gained 0.86 million subscribers in August, lifting its user base to 17.9 million and giving it a GSM market share of 12.10 percent.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Qatar’s telecoms regulator ictQATAR has announced the names of twelve firms who have pre-qualified for the country’s second mobile network operating licence. The twelve bidders are: Bharti Airtel, Verizon Argos, AT&T, Batelco, Digicel, Etisalat, Jordan Telecom, MTC (Kuwait), Orascom Telecom, Omantel-Belgacom, Reliance Telecom and Vodafone. A total of 17 firms had applied for the licence in April/May. The winner is due to be announced in October.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Spice Telecom, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom are in talks for forging an “operational alliance with a pan-India footprint,” an industry source said.
“Discussions are on for an operational alliance with regard to network sharing, roaming, international arrangements and handset bundling,” the source said.
But the source said “the talks are not related to any merger, but relate to a tie-up for operational requirements.”
Idea Cellular managing director Sanjeev Aga however said he was not aware of any such development. Reliance Telecom refused to comment on the issue.
Analysts, however, share the view that the operational alliance was a logical move as all three companies do not have a pan-India presence.
Idea currently has operations in 11 circles, while Reliance Telecom has GSM operations in eight telecom circles in the eastern part of the country.
Analysts say if the operational tie-up were to take place, the three companies will have a presence in 19 of the 23 telecom circles in India.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company Reliance communication today said the sale of its USD19 handset has crossed one million mark in one week of its launch.
The company had last week launched its monochrome handset at the competitive price of USD 19, making it the cheapest set available in the country.
By crossing the one million handset mark in a just one week, Reliance has set a new record in the industry.
India’s Reliance Communications is reported to be considering a US$1.5 billion expansion of its CDMA network to add capacity for some 30 million additional lines.
The company is also understood to have delayed a huge US$6 billion order for GSM network infrastructure pending clarification of spectrum allocation issues. The Defence Ministry is due to release a large chunk of radio spectrum in July 2007 which could be used for GSM services.
Reliance Communications ended Q1 ‘07 with just under 29 million subscribers.
MobilePundit writes…India’s largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel has overtaken Hutchison Essar with regard to its average revenue per user (ARPU).
As per the latest data by the Cellular Operators Association of India, Bharti had an ARPU of Rs 343.17 per month for the quarter ended December 2006, ahead of Hutchison Essar’s Rs 340.15 per month. Hutch’s ARPU fell by over 9% in the quarter ended December 2006, while Bharti witnessed only a 1.5% fall in its average revenues during the same period.
The average industry ARPU has fallen to Rs 316 for the quarter ended December 2006 from Rs 356 in March 2006 - a fall of Rs 40 per subscriber and a decline of 11%. On the other hand, private operators have recorded a 10% increase in the revenues during the quarter ended December 2006.
Idea, Reliance Telecom and Aircel also saw a dip in their ARPUs compared to the Sep ‘06 quarter.
Idea Cellular = Rs 276.66, a fall of 12.80%
Reliance Telecom = Rs 187.09, a fall of 25.48%
Aircel = Rs 226.91, a fall of 15.73%
BPL Mumbai and Spice Telecom are the only two operators to have registered an increase in their ARPUs during this period. BPL’s average revenues grew 27.40% to touch Rs 386.28, while Spice witnessed a 5.5% increase at Rs 241.79% for the quarter ended December 06.
Wireless Mobile Telecom
- January 16th, 2007
- 12:22 pm
newKerala writes…GSM-based mobile operators are gearing up to launch a key component of web-based value added service — Instant Messaging — in the next three weeks, where a subscriber can send and receive real time messages.
The mobile Instant Messaging was soft launched by Cellular Operators Association of India today, the software for which has been designed and and engineered by Jataayu Software in partnership with Fast Mobile.
To access instant messaging, a customer needs to have a GPRS (web-enabled handset) and the normal GPRS charges will be applicable depending on the usage.
With India adding over six million mobile users every month, this service will gain momentum. The service is not specific to English language users but would also be available to common users in their mother tongue, Department of Telecom Secretary D S Mathur said.
“Instant Messaging uses the internet in similar manner as chatting and does many other things. It combines the power of internet chat on the PC and brings it on to the small screen. Considering that India has a very low PC penetration, this will develop very fast on the mobile,” COAI Chairman Sanjeev Aga said.
Operators like BSNL, MTNL, Bharti Airtel, Hutch-Essar, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Spice and BPL are expected to commercially launch this service in the next 3-4 weeks.
The percentage of mobile users with IM-capable phones will grow to 62 per cent in 2010 from a mere 4 per cent currently, COAI Technical Committee Chairman Ashok Juneja said.
The service is already available in Europe, China and Turkey and would be launched this year in Hong Kong, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, he added.
Wireless Mobile Telecom
- January 16th, 2007
- 12:16 pm
Rediff writes…GSM-based mobile operators are gearing up to launch a key component of web-based value added service - instant messaging - in the next three weeks, where a subscriber can send and receive real time messages.
The mobile instant messaging was soft launched by Cellular Operators Association of India on Monday, the software for which has been designed and engineered by Jataayu Software in partnership with Fast Mobile.
To access instant messaging, a customer needs to have a GPRS (web-enabled handset) and the normal GPRS charges will be applicable depending on the usage.
With India adding over six million mobile users every month, this service will gain momentum. The service is not specific to English language users but would also be available to common users in their mother tongue, department of telecom Secretary D S Mathur said.
“Instant messaging uses the Internet in similar manner as chatting and does many other things. It combines the power of Internet chat on the PC and brings it on to the small screen. Considering that India has a very low PC penetration, this will develop very fast on the mobile,” COAI chairman Sanjeev Aga said.
Operators like BSNL, MTNL, Bharti Airtel, Hutch-Essar, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Spice and BPL are expected to commercially launch this service in the next 3-4 weeks.
The percentage of mobile users with IM-capable phones will grow to 62 per cent in 2010 from a mere 4 per cent currently, COAI Technical Committee chairman Ashok Juneja said.
The service is already available in Europe, China and Turkey and would be launched this year in Hong Kong, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, he added.
Wireless Mobile Telecom
Qatar narrows mobile licence auction to 7 candidates (Qatar)
