NT to roll out 3.5 million mobile lines by 2010
Telegeography writes…Nepal Telecom (NT) has announced plans to deploy a further 3.5 million mobile lines in the country by 2010, writes Kantipur Report. The network expansion will help boost combined fixed and mobile teledensity to 16 lines per 100 people, NT says. Sources close to the paper say the operator will soon issue an international tender for the expansion work. ‘The notice will be published in February and we hope to hand over the project to the preferred bidder by the end of 2007,’ a spokesman said.
NT cuts internet tariffs by up to 83%
Telegeography writes…The Kantipur Report says that state-owned telecoms company Nepal Telecom (NT) has cut the cost of internet services for ‘business purposes’ by up to 83% five days after the incumbent started buying bandwidth from Indian counterpart BSNL’s fibre-optic network, laid along East-West highway, for cross-country data transfer. Until now Nepal’s ISPs have been forced to use more expensive means such as satellites to gain access to international bandwidth from vendors.
Nepal has nearly one million mobile phone users
The number of mobile phone users in Nepal is about to cross the one million mark, according to the country’s largest telecom operator.
There are presently 9,36,482 mobile phone subscribers in Nepal, out of which 1,17,208 are post paid cell phone users, according to a latest data published by state-owned Nepal Telecom.
The company has so far distributed 5,28,756 fixed line phones including Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), it said.
The United Telecom Limited (UTL), an Indo-Nepal Joint Venture, has issued 52,855 lines operating on wireless local loop (WLL) technology.
Cell phone users spends on an average $5.20 per month, while a fixed phone subscriber spends around $13.25, according to the data by Nepal Telecom.
Of the total 3,914 village development committees across the country 1,886 VDCs still do not have access to basic telephone service. Besides Nepal Telcom, Spice Nepal, a private company is also providing mobile phone services.
Comm Min asks DoT to look at mobile SVCs on border trading pts
The Commerce Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to look into the possibility of allowing mobile services at border trading points with China, Pakistan and other neighbouring countries to help increase the flow of import and export from these land ports.
Taking up the issue of poor connectivity, the commerce ministry in a letter to DoT, said since no Indian operator was allowed to operate within 10 km of the international border, Indian traders were at a disadvantage.
With the government recently opening up Nathu La pass for trade with China, it has come to notice that mobile phones of Indian traders catch up signals of China Mobile.
Similarly, at the trading points with Bangladesh, Indian mobile phones catch signals of Grameen phones of Bangladesh.
The Commerce Ministry wanted dot to look at the possibility of allowing mobile services at more than 15 border trading points that India has opened with Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan.
As per cellular mobile service license and unified access service license, an operator requires government clearance for providing mobile service and setting up of base trans-receiver station within 10 km of the international border.
To increase trade with neighbours from land routes, the government is looking at opening more border trading posts. Recently, the cabinet had approved a plan to establish Land Ports Authority of India to manage these posts.
During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit last month, a proposal was mooted to open two more trading posts with China at Demchok in Ladakh and Bumla in Arunanchal Pradesh.
NT to provide high speed data services over fibre-optic network
According to local press reports, Nepal’s national PTO Nepal Telecom (NT) is preparing to launch high speed data services using the fibre-optic network it has built along the East-West highway. The Kantipur Report says that once the system is up and running, the average cost of internet access services could drop by as much as 50%. Although NT is currently offering voice services over the link,it has yet to introduce any data transmission services. The fibre-optic link has resulted in a significant drop in tariffs for international calls to India, by contrast the restriction on data transfer has forced prices up for ISPs and NT itself, which have been made to purchase more expensive satellite bandwidth. The optical fibre link was built two years ago with the backing of the Indian government and links Bhadrapur in the East and Lamahi in the West to Indian telcos BSNL and Bharti Airtel. NT is said to be planning to buy 155Mbps of bandwidth from one of them in an effort to gain access to their submarine optical cable links with Singapore, the US and Europe.
Source- telegeography Wireless Mobile Telecom
Ringtone reality check: India cellphone story long way to go
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 18: India hopes to be a telecom major by 2020 but trends indicate it is still on the dark side of the wireless divide: rural teledensity is still at 2 per cent, roughly where it was at the time of Independence, as against 40 per cent teledensity in the urban areas.
Fresh data for 2005-06 filed by telecom regulators the world over shows that mobile phones are a much bigger story elsewhere in the world, even in the neighbourhood.
Mobile phones have now reached 8 per cent of India’s 1 billion-strong population but in March 2006 Pakistan achieved a mobile teledensity of 14 per cent, clocking an impressive 170 per cent growth rate the previous year. India’s mobile teledensity is growing at 60-65 per cent a year.
Strife-torn Sri Lanka has al so done well: it crossed the 17 per cent mobile teledensity mark in early 2006 and its mobile phones are growing at 50 per cent every year. Bangladesh too has gone places: It registered a 138 per cent mobile phone growth rate in 2005 which no one expects to falter.
Nripendra Mishra, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, says “I think changes in rural India’s teledensity will show up in the next six or eight months – the moment we announce that the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund will be given out for cellular telephony. In addition, new technologies like WiFi and WiMax will go into rural areas sooner than the land lines or mobile phone networks, and will make a serious impact for the better.”
India’s neighbours, including or excluding China, are not just distributing phones faster. They are also competing harder for investments that global telecom firms are now ready to make. In addition, mobile teledensity improves GDP, which could make India’s telecom rivals far more successful in other ways too. Analysts are beginning to caution that the only reason why India’s teledensity looks so good is because of its sheer size.
“We are not doing as well as our neighbours in expanding connectivity, be it Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Pakistan. Though we are adding many phones in urban areas, rural teledensity is still at 2 per cent, roughly where it was when we became independent. We just keep on giving new mobile phones to those in big cities who already have land lines,” says telecom analyst Mahesh Uppal. Despite the wide contrasts in per capita income and GDP, sometimes its hard to tell who’s catching up on whom between India and its neighbours.
Even Afghanistan, where the mobile networks were built afresh in 2002 after years of wars, mobile teledensity has touched 4 per cent. This is just below the global low-income average, but Afghanistan is starting from a near-zero mobility base.
India may be a minnow before telecom heavyweights China, Taiwan, US but some of its biggest rivals are right next door. India and other Asian countries like Mongolia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand launched their mobile networks in roughly the same decades but India lags behind the rest. Mongolia achieved 20 per cent mobile teledensity in 2006, though it started in 2000 with only two per cent – that’s a 100 per cent growth rate. Malaysia had 80 per cent mobile penetration in early 2006 and its people sent nine million SMS’ in 2005 which makes them the second best performers on this front, only after Singapore.
There is a reason why India has become a big telecom success story but not the biggest. For one, the rural teledensity target in India has been pending since 1995 (at 10 per cent) although urban mobile teledensity has skyrocketed to 40 per cent. Besides, Indian companies are waiting in the wings for their big chance: A government subsidy for going rural.
Changes in rural India’s teledensity is key because as we speak, Hong Kong is achieving 125 per cent mobile teledensity, South Korea 90 per cent, Australia 95 per cent and Japan 76 per cent. Weren’t these countries our real competition when we started out in 1991, not Bhutan or Nepal (both with 2 per cent)?
Source- http://www.indianexpress.com
Reliance Comm to bid for mobile licences abroad
The Reliance-Dhirubhai Anil Ambani Group, has plans to bid for mobile licences abroad for providing high-end business process outsourcing services, reports Business Standard.
It has lined up a raft of initiatives to give its telecommunications business a global footprint.
Moreover, the company also plans to take Internet protocol television (IPTV) and other media services to consumers in foreign markets after it launches them in
India
.
In order to carry these services, the group will set up three broadband cable networks- one from India to China through Nepal, two, an undersea cable between Asia and the US, and three, an extension of its Falcon cable from the Maldives to East Africa. Industry analysts put a USD 1 billion price tag to these three cable systems.
The group is also eyeing mobile licences in
Kenya
,
Bhutan
and
Morocco
.
Source- http://www.myiris.com
