MNP gets govt approval in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After a series of postponement and hassles that surrounded the implementation of Mobile number portability in India, the service seems to have come a step closer to reality as Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given clearance to one of the companies selected to oversee the process.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) selected Telcordia joint venture MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions (MITS) India in March 2009. The move was taken to administer MNP in southern and eastern states, however, the ministry revealed in December 2009 there were security concerns over the ownership structure of MITS.
As a result of the delays caused by the reconsideration of the company’s status the launch of MNP would be pushed back from a March deadline to May. After the revelation that the ministry had reissued the clearance for MITS at a meeting held by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the new timeframe looks reasonable.
After reexamining the matter, no objection has been conveyed by the ministry to the proposal subject to addressal of the certain issues. According to MHA, suitable conditions are imposed to ensure that the equipment and services provided to India or to any Indian associate company would have no connection with its operating company in Pakistan.
Ban on PrePay Phones in J&K lifted by India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Amidst violence and terror, people of Jammu & Kashmir will get a fresh breeze of air since the ban imposed by India’s Department of Telecommunication over the PrePay mobile services last October has been restored. Existing pre-paid subscribers can start using their phones once their ownership details have been reconfirmed.
The ban was imposed last year on the basis that proper verification is not conducted by the service providers/vendors before providing such pre-paid mobile connections. In some cases, multiple connections had been issued to a single person. Even fake documents and identity cards were used by the vendors to issue the connections.
J&K mobile users has always been at the receiving end since the services are restricted in the contested Kashmir region and the mobile phone coverage is forbidden along the demarcation line between the two countries. Mobile phones were only allowed in J&K in 2003, eight years after the rest of the country.
Foreign operators barred from bidding in CDMA 3G spectrum auction (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The upcoming auction of 3G spectrum will be limited to UMTS spectrum only as per Ministry of Communications and Information Technology decision. The move is aimed at keeping the international companies away from the bidding auction. The decision can also block new foreign players from launching both 2G and 3G CDMA-based services.
However, scarcity of airwaves for that technological platform has been cited as one of the reason by the ministry for not allowing foreign operators to bid for 3G CDMA spectrum.
According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), only existing licensees offering CDMA services will be eligible to bid this spectrum is being provided as 3G growth path for CDMA operators.
10% of BSNL to be sold by Indian govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the aim to address the challenges currently faced by BSNL, Indian government has agreed to sell 10% stake in the state owned telco. BSNL may also get a relief in the license fee of 6%-10% of its annual revenues levied to the government, in a bid to generate annual savings of over INR4,000 crore (£550 million).
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comprised of senior officials from BSNL, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), India’s other state-controlled operator MTNL.
Regardless of India’s National Telecom Policy of 1999 (NTP 99) which states that state-owned telcos are under no obligation to pay a telecoms license fee, BSNL has been paying between 6% and 10% of its annual revenues as a license fee.
According to communications minister Andimuthu Raja, the rural license fee waiver alone will enable BSNL to save about INR1, 800 crore (£247 million) annually.
War triggers between GSM and CDMA operators in India over 11-digit No.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: DOT’s decision to implement 11-digit numbers by January next year has triggered a war between the GSM and CDMA mobile operators putting consumer interests at stake. As per the plan, all the mobile operators will add extra 9 to all mobile numbers in the country by January 1, 2010.
AUSPI representing the interests of CDMA operators like Tatas, Reliance and Sistema, is in favour of moving to an 11-digit numbering plan while GSM operators are vehemently opposing the move. COAI which is representing GSM operators made a detailed presentation to the government claiming this move to be harmful for the industry and consumers.
According to COAI, there is hardly any growth in the number of fixed line subscribers which currently rest at 40 million. Hence, there is no need to reserve levels 2, 3, 4,5,6,7, and 8 for fixed line. It is estimated that with the three series, 7, 8 and 9, a billion plus subscribers can be served without any need for fresh allocation of levels.
On the other hand, AUSPI feels that new opportunities can come up with the implementation of an 11-digit numbering plan and will help the subscribers to migrate from the incumbent operators networks. Besides, it has also claimed that 11-digit numbers are mobile number portability compatible.
With so many contradictory views, uncertainty has been raised on the implementation of the plan by Department of Telecommunication.
Indian mobiles set to get 11 digit numbers
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Get ready to add one more digit to your already difficult to remember mobile number from January next year. National Numbering Plan 2003 has been amended by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), migrating the current 10 digit numbers to an 11-digit numbering plan in mobile services.
As per the amendment, an extra ‘9′ would be prefixed to the existing two-digit PLMN Access Code. According to an internal DoT note, the proposed migration may be implemented from January 10, 2010.
Earlier, number ‘2′ was prefixed to all BSNL and MTNL fixed-line phones across the country a few years ago to accommodate more connections.
Every service provider has its own PLMN, identified by Mobile Country Code (MCC) and the Mobile Network Code (MNC). The PLAM connects with internet service providers for data and internet access and interconnects with other PlAMs and public switched telephone networks (PSTNs) for telephone communications.
The unexpected growth in India’s mobile subscribers has made this numbering plan imminent. With 10-14 million mobile subscribers added to the list every month, the wireless subscriber base has already crossed 500 million, making it compulsory for DoT to re-examine plans in order to accommodate more subscribers.
Why Anil Ambani wants to ride two horses in telecom
: It happened almost simultaneously. Just when Reliance Communications applied to the government for a pan-India GSM spectrum, it announced a mega deal with Nokia for two million CDMA handsets.
The two parallel developments have sent out mixed signals to the industry on whether Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications, which is the leading CDMA player with around 23 million subscribers, is interested in GSM or CDMA or both.
A few months ago, the company had applied for spectrum in six circles to operate GSM (global system for mobile communications) service. But it has now upped the ante by applying for a pan-India GSM presence, except in two circles (north-east and
).
Reliance maintains that it is “committed to pursue the world’s leading mobile technologies, whether CDMA or GSM, to provide the best and competitive services to our many million customers”. Reliance Communications runs GSM services through a subsidiary, Reliance Telecom.
Will Reliance then ride two horses at the same time? A source in the GSM camp said that Reliance may progressively tone down the CDMA focus. The company may target additional growth in GSM, he said.
Over a period of time, it may even look at shifting its CDMA subscriber base to the GSM platform, the source added.
Subsequently, introduction of dual mode world-phones (common for GSM and CDMA) in
will make things easier, he claimed. Another industry insider, however, argued that Reliance would not leave CDMA, where it has such a strong subscriber base.
“A dealer who sells all kinds of products is the best dealer,” he said. The company’s aim seems to be to multiply faster than others so that it becomes the top player in the country.
There are four reasons for Reliance’s strategy shift. One, thanks to handset limitations, higher-end users tend to prefer GSM, especially since international roaming is better on GSM.
Two, GSM operators continue to bill about 40% more than CDMA subscribers, indicating that they have better pricing power.
Three, by offering both CDMA and GSM, Reliance can design different schemes targeting different segments of the market.
And for, GSM is by far the dominant technology worldwide and in
, outnumbering CDMA 2.5:1 in
.
The evidence from circles where Reliance offers both CDMA and GSM suggests that one does not cannibalise the other. In the six circles where both are available (MP,
, Kolkata,, Orissa and Himachal), Reliance has 3.5 million subscribers and 2.1 million GSM ones.
The GSM subscriber base is much higher, both in
and globally, thereby making it logical for Reliance Communications to focus on GSM technology, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ associate director Arpita Pal Agrawal.
“The economies of scale are much better in the case of GSM,” she said. She also pointed out that while CDMA is very effective for high-speed data applications, the current Reliance base includes a large number of low-cost customers.
As for government policy, a senior official in the department of telecommunications (DoT) told DNA Money that “licences are technology neutral”.
He gave this reply when asked whether Reliance required to surrender some of its CDMA spectrum to expand in the GSM space. However, there are concerns within the government and the industry over the additional spectrum allocation sought, as spectrum is considered a scarce resource.
Also, a senior representative of DoT recently told the media, “the government policy is not to shut doors (on any player)”. He added that BSNL and MTNL also offered both GSM and CDMA in some common circles.
Interestingly, Reliance Communications is learnt to have told DoT recently that its decision to expand in GSM is linked to government’s teledensity target.
The company indicated that it aimed to have the largest marketshare in the Indian telecom sector by 2010 end, and that it must opt for GSM expansion to reach there, according to sources.
While communications minister Dayanidhi Maran has set a target of 250 million phone connections by the end of 2007 and 500 million by the end of 2010, Reliance Communications is understood to be eyeing anything between 110 million and 125 million subscribers by then, representing a marketshare of around 25%.
Even as the CDMA growth has been robust, in terms of absolute numbers it is nowhere near GSM. As against 1,820 million GSM users across the world as of March, 2006, CDMA had only 250 million subscribers, excluding the 3G user base.
If 3G users are taken into account, the GSM base has crossed 2 billion and CDMA 318 million.
In
, GSM is way ahead with 86.6 million users, while CDMA has managed over 35 million, including its wireline and fixed wireless subscribers.
GSM players in
include Bharti, Hutch, Idea and BSNL, while Reliance Telecom has over 2 million GSM users in eight circles. CDMA is represented mainly by Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices.
From December, 2001, to December, 2002, the CDMA base in
grew 125%, against 92.5% in GSM during the corresponding period. From December, 2002, to December, 2003, CDMA recorded a growth of 800% against 110.5% in GSM.
(It was in December, 2002, that Reliance launched its CDMA service). From December, 2003, to 2004, the CDMA growth rate was 75.3%, against 70.3% in GSM. From December, 2004, to 2005, CDMA showed a growth of 76%, against 56.8% in GSM. However, from December, 2005, to May, 2006, the CDMA growth rate has been lower at 26% against 28.5 per cent in GSM.
Global numbers also indicate a better growth trajectory for CDMA, as opposed to GSM.
From the fourth quarter of 2001 to the corresponding period in 2002, CDMA growth rate was 819.4% against 46.3% in GSM. From Q4 of 2002 to Q4 of 2003, CDMA recorded a growth rate of 158%, against 25% in GSM.
From Q4 of 2003 to Q4 of 2004, the global CDMA user base grew 70.9% against 28% in GSM. From Q4 of 2004 to Q4 of 2005, the CDMA growth rate was 54.1% against 31.8% in GSM.
From the fourth quarter of 2005 to the end of first quarter of 2006, the CDMA growth rate was 11.2% against 6.4% in GSM. The 3G figures have not been taken into account for calculating the global growth rate in GSM and CDMA.
Source- http://www.dnaindia.com
Technorati : Airtel, CDMA, GSM, Hutch, Idea, India, Mobile, Reliance Telecom
Ice Rocket : Airtel, CDMA, GSM, Hutch, Idea, India, Mobile, Reliance Telecom
