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Dual SIM mobile phone market estimated to grow at 25-30% (India)

  • August 18th, 2008
  • 11:31 am

The Dual SIM mobile handsets are set to rule the Indian market, after it’s huge success in China where it has captured almost 60% market share.

LG confirmed it’s entering into the Dual SIM category. “We will shortly venture into this category. By next year first quarter, we will be an active player in this segment. Though it is minuscule right now but the category definitely holds huge potential and is seeing tremendous growth,” says Anil Arora, business group head — GSM, LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd.
Nokia, too, is contemplating an entry into this segment, which it expects will be the future of the Indian mobile handset market.
According to industry estimates, 15% of the present market share is acquired by the dual SIM and will soon reach 25-30%.

“The market is huge in China where it has almost 60% share, but even in India it has huge potential. Everything depends on coming out with right product for the right segment by the right people. The target is the Indian replacement mobile phone market that is growing at a healthy pace,” says Rajiv Khanna, CEO of Meridian Mobile.

Dual SIM range caters to people who prefer to have separate numbers for personal and professional use, saves them from inconvenience carrying two phones.

We have introduced our Dual SIM range to cater to this growing segment of consumers. Our aim is to continuously offer more and more consumer friendly products for consumers and the Dual SIM phone is another step in the same direction, says Sunil Dutt, Country Head of Samsung Telecommunications India.

With the Dual SIM technology, One doesnt have to worry about switching from GSM to CDMA as one can use both CDMA and GSM connection in one handset.

Spice offers a mobile phone that supports both GSM and CDMA at the same time. Switching from one connection to the other can be done by just pressing a button.

The major mobile manufacturers have already realised the potential that this segment offers and have launched dual SIM phones. Companies like Spice, Samsung, Fly, Motorola have a range of handsets providing this facility.

   

Indian version of Chinese handsets with warranty (India)

  • July 28th, 2008
  • 2:19 pm

Consumer goods giants Videocon, B K Modi owned Spice Mobiles, Usha Lexus, Delhi based Intex and Reliance Communications, are joining the bandwagon by leveraging their brands and offering warranties which are not available on the Chinese products.  Almost 6 million GSM phones are sold every month in India. With the entry of new players and telcos moving to rural areas , it is expected that the market will grow further.

Indian companies are confident of taking on the big multinationals. The domestic companies are importing phones from countries such as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, affixing their brand names, and offering warranties and after-sales services not provided by the non-branded Chinese products.
Videocon plans to launch GSM mobile phones around Diwali. “In a couple of years, we will be able to compete with the multi-national companies. Most importantly, we have brand acceptability. Moreover, we not only have the infrastructure, but also service capabilities to go to every customer,” said HS Bhatia, Vice President and Business Head-GSM mobiles, Videocon.

TM decouples to produce a regional mobile player (Malaysia)

  • October 4th, 2007
  • 2:23 pm

The Telekom Malaysia Group ™ has announced the demerger of its cellular unit, Celcom, from the group’s fixed voice and broadband business. TM says this is to permit greater transparency, accountability and management focus.

Celcom will be absorbed into Telekom Malaysia International’s (TMI) umbrella of mobile assets in ten countries across the region, which is to be headed by current TM Group CEO, Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar.

The regional and mobile-focused holding company – RegionCo – will comprise TMI and Celcom and will then be spun-off from Telekom Malaysia Berhad and be listed separately during the first half of 2008, possibly with a strategic foreign partner from the US, Europe or the Middle East.

TMI has made various acquisitions in recent years and it now owns stakes in several mobile operators across the region including PT XL (Indonesia), Dialog Telekom (Sri Lanka), Aktel
(Bangladesh), M1 (Singapore), Spice (India), TMI (Cambodia) and MTCE (Iran). The listing of TMI will allow the company greater flexibility in obtaining financial resources for expanding its regional mobile business.

TM or FixedCo is to be headed by Zamzamzairani Isa and has been identified as a participator in the Public-Private Partnership project to roll-out high speed broadband infrastructure over the next ten years.  The ecost of the xercise is believed to amount up to RM15.2 billion, with 33 per cent being contributed by the Malaysian government.

Besides touting FixedCo as focusing on domestic broadband growth, TM released a statement saying that FixedCo remains focused in enhancing international connectivity within the region. This , it says, will help establish Malaysia as a regional Internet Protocol hub, serving as a digital gateway for Southeast Asia. FixedCo is described as the second largest ISP in south east Asia.

TM is also leading the Asia-America Gateway consortium and it is  building an IP hub in collaboration with Verizon, both are due to be operational before the end of the year. With these two facilities in place, Malaysia will be able to peer with Tier 1 ISPs in the region, besides as well as encouraging content hosting in the capital,  Kuala Lumpur.

However, an anonymous source comments, “It would appear the AAG will fall under RegionCo (and Wahid) given the separations of the Lines of Businesses.” Other observers note that the separation of fixed and mobile businesses seems to be bucking the trend of fixed and mobile convergence seen so often elsewhere in the world.

TM says, “All FMC benefits can still be realised through arms-length agreements post-demerger.” However, splitting Celcom from TM may inevitably pose challenges for TM in attempting effectively to bundle fixed, broadband and mobile services, particularly via integrated sales, branding and customer support.

Further details such as group debt allocation between the two new entities, capital management strategies and expected capital expenditure have yet to be made public but are expected by the first quarter of 2008. When reached for comment, Dato’ Shazalli Ramly stated, “I am the status quo… still CEO of Celcom…so it’s business as usual.”

Both RegionCo and FixedCo remain state-owned with stakes of 40 per cent held by Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian government’s investment holding arm.

   
 

Spice raises USD128 million from IPO (India)

  • July 4th, 2007
  • 10:32 am

Spice Communications, the Indian wireless arm of Telekom Malaysia, raised INR5.2 billion (USD128 million) in its initial public offering. The 113.1 million new shares were priced at INR46 each, the top end of the range offered, Spice has revealed in a statement. The sale was oversubscribed more than 37 times. The shares will probably be listed either on 19 or 20 July. Telekom Malaysia will own about 39% of the Indian wireless company after the share sale, while New Delhi-based BK Modi Group and its affiliates will own 41%.

Spice Communications was established in 1997 and holds licences to operate in the Punjab and Karnataka circles. It offers pre- and post-paid GSM call plans under the Spice Telecom banner aimed largely at the youth market. Spice has been one of few operators in India to operate solely on the markets that it originally launched in, but is now looking to cash in on the country’s telecoms boom and has applied to expand its services nationwide.

 

   
 

Hutch becomes third largest operator

  • June 14th, 2007
  • 2:09 pm

GSM operators added 50 lakh (5 million) subscribers in May, taking the all-India GSM subscriber base to 13.06 crore (130 million).

Bharti Airtel = 18.51 lakh new, 4.07 crore total
BSNL = 2.38 lakh new, 2.79 crore total
Hutch-Essar = 15.06 lakh new, 2.92 crore total
Idea = 7.03 lakh new, 1.52 crore total
Aircel = 64.08 lakh total
Spice = 1.92 lakh new, 30 lakh total
MTNL = 64,098 new, 25.47 lakh total
Hutch-Essar (Vodafone) has become the second largest GSM player in the country, displacing BSNL.

Hutchison Essar MD, Asim Ghosh sounds like a Bollywood actress denying she is in the race to be No. 1.

“We don’t watch subscribers — we just watch revenues. We have been No. 2 in revenues for a long time now”.

   
 

Spice Mulls Hot Merger IDEA

  • June 2nd, 2007
  • 9:23 am

There’s quite a lot cooking over at India’s Spice Telecom . In the space of about two weeks the regional mobile operator has been awarded licenses to enter the long-distance market; received the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch an IPO in June; and now, it’s at the center of red-hot speculation that it will merge with fellow regional player IDEA Cellular Ltd.

Rumors making the rounds in the Indian press have pegged the potential merger anywhere from the preliminary discussion stage to an imminent announcement. The Economic Times this morning cites an official from Spice shareholder Telekom Malaysia Bhd. as saying that consolidation is inevitable in India and it’s open to a “partnering role” with IDEA Cellular.
Talk of consolidation among India’s smaller operators has intensified since Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD - message board) snapped up Hutchison Essar , the country’s fourth largest carrier, for $11.1 billion in February. Both IDEA and Spice have applied for licenses to become nationwide players, but a lack of spectrum availability makes an acquisition the fastest route to expansion.

The operators were already in discussions along with Reliance Telecom, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications Ltd. , to form an operational alliance that would encompass network sharing, handset bundling, roaming, and international arrangements. Spice was awarded domestic and international long-distance licenses in May that will allow it to use Telekom Malaysia’s network to handle traffic outside India. (See Spice Gets Licenses.)

A sticking point in a potential tie-up is likely to be whether the companies will merge or IDEA will acquire Spice, which is the smaller of the two. IDEA had around 15 million subscribers in 11 regions of India at the end of April, while Spice had 2.8 million subscribers in two regions.

According to numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) , Spice Telecom reported revenues of INR2.29 billion ($56.01 million) for the quarter ended March 31. IDEA’s revenues were INR13.41 billion ($329 million) during the quarter, a 54.9 percent increase over the same quarter last year. (See IDEA Cellular Reports Q4.)

Telekom Malaysia bought its 49 percent stake in Spice for $179 million in March last year, and the carrier’s official told the Times it’s “not going to exit” Spice. (It’s worth noting that a few months ago Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (NYSE: HTX - message board) was saying the same thing.) At the same time, the Aditya Birla Group holds a 57 percent stake in IDEA and has said it doesn’t want to dilute its stake below 51 percent. One possibility making the rounds is for IDEA to acquire Spice for $1 billion, with Spice shareholders getting a 12 percent stake in the combined company.

Spice’s planned IPO looks set to go ahead for now, even if it does end up as part of IDEA Cellular. The operator is listing 137.9 million shares, a 20 percent stake, on National and Bombay Stock Exchanges. The IPO could help the companies come to an agreement on the value of Spice, but regulatory issues would also make a post-IPO deal more complicated.

   

 

Telekom Malaysia to acquire stake in Spice

  • March 8th, 2007
  • 4:33 pm

In a bid to enter India’s attractive telecommunication market, Malaysia’s biggest telecom company, Telekom Malaysia Bhd. has said it is in ‘preliminary discussions’ with India’s Spice Telecom Ltd. to buy a stake in it. The move comes barely a month after its rival Maxis bought a stake in Tamil Nadu’s Aircel. Telekom Malaysia’s wholly owned unit, TM International Sdn. Bhd., is currently in preliminary discussions for a stake. This is consistent with TM’s continued interest in India, which would complement its other South Asian investments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Telekom Malaysia has investments in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Telekom Malaysia missed a chance to enter the lucrative Indian telecommunications market when regulatory requirements forced it to abandon an earlier deal to buy India’s Idea Cellular Ltd. With growth in Malaysian mobile market set to see a dip, both Telekom and its rival Maxis is looking a broad for further expansion.

 

Mobile user satisfaction drops

  • January 8th, 2007
  • 1:07 pm

Ciol writes…There has been a large scale drop in Mobile user satisfaction with respect to most service providers during 2006 compared to the previous year, according to the fourth survey conducted by Voice&Data, a CyberMedia publication, on mobile user satisfaction. It is based on a sample base of 4,524 respondents across 51 Indian cities in 23 states.

According to the survey, the drop in satisfaction levels cuts across different circle and different cities irrespective of operators. Of the ten operators, only Aircel and Tata Teleservices have improved their satisfaction level in 2006.

Sharing details of the fourth mobile user satisfaction survey, Prasanto K Roy, chief editor of Voice&Data, said, “With the Indian telecom industry adding nearly seven lakh connections every month, the operators have not put in matching efforts to increase the satisfaction level.”

Nationally, only two service providers, Tata Indicom and Bharti Airtel, clocked an acceptable customer satisfaction level of over 90 per cent set as a benchmark by TRAI. The services levels deteriorated in the metro circles compared to the A, B and C circles. In the A circles four operators exceeded the telecom regulator benchmark while in B and C circles, there has been an improvement with three operators posting a satisfaction level higher than the TRAI benchmark.

Among public sector service providers MTNL recorded the biggest drop in satisfaction levels. The private telecom players who recorded a drop in satisfaction levels included Bharti Airtel, BPL, Hutch, idea, Reliance and Spice.