No Chinese equipment for border areas- Indian Govt to BSNL.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: India’s government run telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will not be able to procure Chinese telecom equipment as proposed by the Indian Government.
These equipments will not be bought in the border areas considered to be sensitive. Indian states bordering Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar have been declared as sensitive by communications ministry in the Parliament.
The lawmakers were told that that the telecom companies are expressing concern over the plan which is still under consideration.
IndiaMobile 2009: India’s largest Mobile Usage study results to be announced shortly.
Wireless Federation will shortly be announcing the availability of the results of India’s largest primary research project undertaken to study Mobile usage in India. The project is titled IndiaMobile 2009.
The survey is one of the most representative, independent enumeration of mobile phone usage in India. Close to 285,000 urban and rural Indians, covering all states and union territories574 districts, 3,175 towns and over 2,800 villages were interviewed. With at least 30 plus sample each from 323 districts and 419 towns, and 100 plus sample each from 184 districts and 155 towns, the study could actually be the World’s largest mobile (telecom) usage study carried out in a single country. The survey was carried out by a reputed local research agency under the guidance of Wireless Federation.
With the Mobile sector in India seeing close to 20% of its market capitalisation knocked off in the last few days and increased momentum in the price war in India, the results from this survey will help the sector understand its customers better in order to re-gain some of its strength back.
Airtel, Aircel, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo, Etisalat, MTS India, Loop Mobile, Reliance Mobile, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, BSNL, MTNL, Telenor, Virgin can all now compare data from each and every circle and each live operator to understand demographic spread, handset usage and analysis as well as detailed psychographic analysis of the Indian mobile consumer.
The Indian mobile industry will be able to plan better based on the results from this study, which is now planned to occur each year. A large majority of mobile operators have expressed keen interest in the results of the study.
By using the IndiaMobile 2009 results, Mobile Operators will be able to further mould the study to better suit their needs from 2010 onwards.
This study will be the de-facto benchmark for Mobile Usage in India, given the thorough nature of the research, the sheer size of the sample and the level of interest from the Mobile Eco-System in utilising the results from this study.
For More information, please write to Audrey [at] WirelessFederation.com for your free copy of the headline results.
TATA and BSNL enter Network Sharing deal (India)
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan India telecom service provider, today announced the signing of a landmark ‘Master Services Agreement for Passive Infrastructure Sharing’ with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
Becoming the first Indian private telecom operator to enter into an agreement of this nature. The agreement which is valid for 15 years will be applicable to both Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited in all of India’s 22 telecom Circles.
This is a moment of pride for us, as we have become the first private telecom operator to enter into such a strategically important agreement with BSNL, one that will allow us to expand our telecom footprint across the country much more quickly,†Mr Madhav Joshi, President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Teleservices Limited, said.
The agreement comes at a very strategic time for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), as both companies have been aggressively expanding their network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom, while also rolling out GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name. In the short space of just three months, we have already rolled out our GSM services in nine Circles—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Haryana,†Mr AG Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and rollout process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,†he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country.
Millicom to exit Asia totally by Q1 of 2010. Sells Laos share to Vimpelcom for $66 Million.
Millicom has agreed to sell its GSM business in Laos to Russia’s VimpelCom and has bidders lining up for its Sri Lankan operations, the sale of which will end Millicom’s activities in Asia. VimpelCom will pay about $66 million for Millicom’s 78 percent stake in Millicom Lao Co. Ltd.
Last month Millicom agreed to sell its 58.4 percent share in CamGSM, Royal Telecam International, and Cambodia Broadcasting to its Cambodian partner, The Royal Group, for $346 million in cash.
That leaves just Sri Lanka from Milicom’s Asian portfolio, and its operations there are also up for grabs. Millicom is the sole owner of Celltel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. It was the first mobile operator in Sri Lanka. Mobitel and Tigo both claim to be the second largest. Dialog GSM is the country’s largest operator.
Indian State owned, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), UAE’s Etisalat, Malaysia’s Axiata Group and India’s Bharti are also said to be bidding to acquire Tigo Lanka.
Axiata’s Dialog and Airtel already operate in Sri Lanka. Airtel winning the bid might sit better with the regulator since Axiata winning it would give Dialog an overwhelming position in the market.
Millicom expects to exit Asia Q1 of 2010. At the end of the first quarter, Millicom had a total of just over 4.5 million subscribers in Asia. Millicom’s Asian Revenues for 2008 are at $262 million with an EBDITA of $101.5 million. This is a year-on-year increases of 24.4 percent and 27.5 percent respectively.VimpelCom will pay approx $66 million for Millicom’s 78 percent stake in Millicom Lao Co. Ltd.
ZTE to market $20 mobiles in India
ZTE has entered the Indian retail market as a standalone player.
It is hoping to hike the contribution of the Indian market to its global handset sales would go up to 20 per cent from the existing 16 per cent.
ZTE India Chairman & Managing Director D K Ghosh said in a statement that India is a key focus market for ZTE.
The company has launched a range of low-cost GSM handsets — S315, A261, R220, R230 and R230BT at price points ranging from USD 20 to USD 80. ZTE has sold over 20 million handsets in India through operator partnerships . It is targeting a network of 100,000 retail outlets in India by this year-end.
The company has appointed “Overseas Mobiles” as its national distributor. Overseas Mobiles will be appointing 80 regional distributors across India and will manage relationships with distributors and corporate customers on behalf of ZTE.
With global sales of over 100 million handsets last year, ZTE is currently the sixth-largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has established partnerships with mobile operators like Vodafone, Hutchison Whampoa, Telefonica globally and BSNL, Reliance, Tata, Vodafone, Spice Telecom and Aircel in India.
India’s GSM subscriber base reaches 335.5 million
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The GSM subscribers of India have grown by 9.31 million in August, taking its total base to 335.5 million, as per the data released.
According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the apex body of GSM operators, Bharti Airtel remained the front runner with 2.8 million additions, taking its number of subscribers to 107.9 million.
Followed to this is Vodafone with the additon of 2.19 million, taking its subscriber tally to 80.8 million.
The monthly data does not include GSM subscribers of Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, which report figures separately, COAI said.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has gained 1.3 million subscribers, Idea Cellular added 1.5 million subscribers in August.
MTNL, BSNL refuse to form consortium to buy Zain stake (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MTNL and BSNL have refused forming a consortium to buy a 46% stake in Zain.It was earlier reported that India’s Vavasi Group, and Indian state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL as well as Malaysian businessman Mokhtar al-Bukhari would pay KWD 2 a share for a 46% stake in African and Middle East mobile operator Zain Group.According to the statement issued by MTNL and BSNL, they are not participating in a consortium but that they are always on the look out to explore all types of overseas business opportunities to expand operations.
