Bharti Airtel to Launch 3G Services by End of this year (India)
Bharti Airtel Ltd. will launch 3G wireless data services before the end of 2010. Bharti, which won rights to offer 3G services in 13 of India’s 22 telecoms zones. These 13 telecom circles also constitute 68% of Airtel’s revenue market share. This includes key metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, which account for 21% of all data traffic in the country and are expected to have the strongest uptake of 3G services
According to the company, Airtel is also in advanced discussions with other quality operators to offer 3G services to its customers across the country.
The launch of 3G operations is expected to increase Bharti’s revenue amid falling call tariffs for basic services.
According to Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel 3G services will mark the beginning of the next phase of India’s telecom growth story and elevate India’s telecom sector at par with most advanced telecom markets in the world. 3G services have the potential to transform the lives of millions of Indians by taking a variety of life enhancing services on high speed broadband to the remotest corners and bridge the digital divide.
Bharti will be deploying high speed HSPA networks provided by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Huawei.
Public sector telcos BSNL and MTNL are already offering the 3G services.
Vodafone leads in Gujarat CUG deal (India)
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar are in the final race for the important bid to connect Gujarat government employees in the country’s largest closed user group (CUG) network. However, as per state government sources, Vodafone is leading the tally with overall 91 points, followed by Airtel’s 79.5 points, Tata’s 55 points, BSNL’s 50 points and Idea’s 40 points.
On Monday, the Gujarat administration department (GAD) opened a financial bid that carries 40% weight, a week after it opened the technical bids. The latest bid saw Airtel going for a kill by proposing the lowest tariff, over 40% discount to the base rates, beating Vodafone and Tata that offered 35% discount, Idea 30%, and BSNL 20%.
But, according to sources in Gandhinagar, the technical strength of the existing operator Vodafone would eventually score over the competitor’s tariff bait. The state’s oldest and largest player Vodafone enjoys an upper edge as technical bid carries higher weightage of 60%. The CUG contract generates annual revenues of US$6.78.
Vodafone has been catering to the state government’s mobile telephony requirements under the specially designed CUG plan for the past four years at a monthly rental of US$1.02, generating billing worth around US$6.78 million a year. The revised tariff offered by Vodafone is expected to be much lower than the one it is charging at the moment, thus benefiting the state.
As per GAD, it wants to take a relook at the agreement for two more years and has sought competitive tariff bids from six players — Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, BSNL, Tata DoCoMo and Reliance GSM. In an unexpected move, GAD revised its terms and conditions in technical and financial rounds with 60% and 40% weight.
TTSL to launch 3G services on Diwali (India)
Tata Teleservices has announced to launch 3G services on Diwali day next month in all the nine circles. With this move the company will become first private sector Telcom Company to launch 3G services. State-owned BSNL and MTNL already provide 3G services.
TTSL is one of those companies who operate both on CDMA and GSM technologies to offer telecom services throughout the country. The company has over 70 million subscribers.
Tata Tele’s 3G services would be in partnership with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo which has 26% stake in the company and was the first company to have created 3G network in the world.
The company had recently awarded the equipment deal to Nokia Siemens and Huawei to roll out 3G services.
According to company officials, NTT DoCoMo has provided technical inputs to make TTSL’s 3G network world-class. The various 3G services provided elsewhere by the company like i-mode, location-based services and mobile payments will all be provided in India.
3G services enables subscribers to download full length movies, make video calls and watch live television programs.
BSNL Plans 40-Million GSM Line Tender (India)
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is planning to buy mobile equipment to support 40 million subscribers, which will be sufficient to meet the demands till 2013.
According to the BSNL status report that has been sent to the Department of Telecom, to take care of the long-term expansion requirements, BSNL has planned to expand its mobile network by a capacity of 20 million lines each in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
The new expansion plan is in addition to the 5.5-million line tender which the PSU has already floated.
According to BSNL, it is already working with overcapacity on its network.
The network is presently suffering complaints about congestion as it has over 70 million subscribers on a network which is intended for 64 million customers. Though, according to the previous reports, BSNL’s subscriber base was overblown by nearly a third and that the network had sufficient capacity.
The primary reason for the capacity grind is because of postponements in acquiring equipment.
A committee, headed by Mr Sam Pitroda, had suggested that BSNL should start getting into managed service deals with equipment vendors just like private operators do. However, a division of BSNL is not eager in moving to a managed services system as it will have implications on the employees.
BSNL will have to sort out issues related to security norms for vendors if it wants participation from all equipment makers. In the enduring line tender, the PSU primarily excluded Chinese vendors on grounds of concerns raised by security agencies.
Bangladesh-India terrestrial fibre link expected to be launched next month
As per the Managing Director of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), Absar Alam, Bangladesh possibly will have a new high speed fibre-optic terrestrial link with India in operation by the first week of November.
A 25km terrestrial cable connecting Darshana in Bangladesh with Krishna Nagar in India is planned to be set up within four weeks, and will provide an alternative high speed route to the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable system.
In a press conference Absar revealed that the company is ready to establish the terrestrial link from the side within one month. Hopefully, the Indian counterpart Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) would also be ready for the operation within that time.
If reports are to be believed, BTCL signed a deal with BSNL last November to extend the fibre link into India. Absar further revealed that the optical fibre line would improve the quality of international telephone calls while acting as an alternative submarine cable during any disruption in service.
The US$210,000 project is expected to bring down the costs of calls to the neighboring countries.
According to Monowar Hossain, Managing Director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL), the further plans to provide international cable redundancy were in development, disclosing that BSCCL has arranged to connect with the i2i cable maintained by India’s Bharti Airtel, which directly connects Chennai in India with Singapore, initially for a specific time during planned cable repairs.
Ericsson refuse to bid for BSNL tender (India)
Ericsson, one of BSNL’s present GSM vendors, has refused to bid for BSNL’s $450 million GSM supply tender, arguing against the government’s demands for vendors to share their hardware and software codes.
As per the proposed new security rules, foreign vendors are required to place software and hardware designs into escrow for possible scrutiny by security authorities in order to participate in network infrastructure tenders.
The rules have been put on hold, but they put the responsibility for fulfillment on operators, with and specify tough penalties for breaches. This has left operators with a strong incentive to ensure compliance.
As per the reports, Ericsson claimed that it was still in talks with Indian officials over the escrow concept, and therefore refused to stick to the requirement.
The report further revealed that the length of BSNL’s process for deciding winners of major tenders also discouraged Ericsson from participating.
According to the BSNL officials, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks as well as China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. have submitted bids to supply equipment for the state-run Indian telecom company’s project to add 5.5 million wireless users to its network.
The BSNL tender, one of the largest in the industry, is just a portion of what was claimed to be the world’s biggest network contract this year, a US$10 billion, 93 million line GSM tender which was canceled on the recommendation of a high-level government committee.
The operator had been trying to get the expansion off the ground since May 2008, but controversy over the lack of competition for such a large deal spoiled the project. Ericsson would have rolled out 38 million lines in a segment of the abandoned deal which would have been worth US$2.5 billion.
The current smaller project involves rolling out 3.4 million lines in north India, and 2.1 million in the south. BSNL is assessing the bids, and a final decision is expected by the end of the month.
Olive Telecom,BSNL tied knots to offer Zipbook
Olive Telecom has collaborated with BSNL to offer its latest Zipbook with 3G broadband, the ‘V-X108′, in India.
According to the company, the Zipbook, when launched, was one of the first laptops in the country to come with a built in 3G data card for ready Internet access. The company had also reviewed one of the models from its line-up.
When the users buy the V-X108, they will have the option to avail a BSNL connection which will offers 6GB worth of free download per month, for the first three months.
The Zipbook, it is a 10-inch netbook which runs on Intel Atom N450 1.6-GHz processor and Windows 7 Starter Edition. The Zipbook also possess a 1.3MP webcam and comes with Microsoft Security Essentials pre-installed. The price of the Zipbook is US$ 457.99 and is on sale.
SC notice to Airtel, Vodafone on BSNL plea
The Supreme Court has issued notices to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on a BSNL petition, seeking that the private telecom operators pay interconnection charges, along with penalty, for transferring to its network their calls that did not identify phone numbers.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia issued notice to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar Gujarat directing them to file their reply. According to the court, it would hear BSNL’s plea later, along with a similar case where the state-owned firm is in dispute with Reliance Communications.
BSNL had asked Bharti Airtel and Vodafone to pay more than US$1.96 million for routing calls with non-Caller Line Identification (CLI), partial CLI and unauthorized CLI from its Wireless in local loop, or WLL and basic landline phones from May 2003 to August 2005.
According to BSNL, as per the Interconnect Agreement with the private telcos, it is entitled to charge in highest slab, which is for incoming ISD calls.
BSNL has issued disconnection notice to the operators, which was challenged by them before the telecom tribunal TDSAT. The court, passed a temporary order on May 29, 2008, directed Airtel to deposit a sum of US$0.76 million.
However, in February 2010 Telecom arguments Settlement and Appellate court passed its final order and set aside PSU’s demand.
The order was challenged by BSNL in the Court.
It has competed that demand raised by BSNL for the relevant period is legal and BSNL is fully entitled to recover… Even the interconnect agreements signed in the year 2002 (between BSNL and Bharti) entitles it to make and raise demand.
BSNL added, “… Calls with regard to non-CLI, incomplete CLI or unauthorised CLI or wrong hand of call shall be liable to be charges at the highest slab, which is rates applicable to the IUC of incoming ISD Call”
It further submitted, “any handover of non-CLI, incomplete CLI or unauthorised CLI etc has a direct impact on the amount of IUC payable to BSNL and it is fully justified and entitled to raise demands to recover all its dues from the respondent”.
TTSL becomes 4th largest wireless telecom, leaving BSNL behind
Tata Teleservices has become the fourth largest operator in terms of wireless subscribers with nearly 77 million users and has overtaken state owned BSNL.
According to the company, TTSL is now behind only Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone.
Both TTSL and TTSL (Maharashtra) offer dual technology (GSM and CDMA) mobile services across the nation.
According to Anil Sardana, Managing Director of Tata Teleservices Limited, the company thanked and appreciated every subscriber’s ceaseless faith in the company as a transparent, caring and competent telecom services company. Everyone in TTSL has complete satisfaction as TTSL looks back on the year gone by. The introduction of many path-breaking, innovative and pioneering initiatives has been the reason behind this success.
As per the most recent figures released by TRAI, Bharti holds the number one position with over 139 million subscribers at the end of July this year, RCom with over 113 million and Vodafone with over 111 million users.
BSNL has become fifth largest operator with 73.7 million wireless subscribers at the end of July this year. The company has started GSM services in most of the circles it got spectrum but has failed to get GSM frequency in the most lucrative circle of Delhi despite several attempts.
The company said in a statement that TTSL claimed to have clocked a growth of 100% in the last year as it had wireless subscriber base of 38 million in July 2009.
After Huawei – Tatatel deal; ZTE grabs BSNL’s 3000 million deal
ZTE Corp’s has bagged a US$3000 million contract with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to provide WiMax systems for its broadband rollout.
According to ZTE India chairman & managing director Dr DK Ghosh, the company would provide the range of WiMax systems to speed up BSNL’s WiMax broadband rollout over the next six months. The company has entered into a deal with BSNL to provide varied WiMax systems valued at US$3000 million. The device will be a mix of WiMax base-stations, switches and specialized WiMax terminals/handhelds. A portion of the equipment will be manufactured at ZTE India’s Manesar plant.
The only thing unanswered is whether ZTE India will directly provide the WiMax gear to BSNL or its designated franchisees.
A few months ago, BSNL had issued letters of intent to Teracom, Take Solutions, Adishwar India and Ampoules to start WiMax-based broadband services as franchisees. They had been ordered to roll out such services based on a revenue sharing model. Approximately 10-32 % of the revenues from WiMax-based broadband services were to grow to the state-owned telco.
