Roaming charges on Vodafone reduced by 50% in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Adding a new spice to the latest tariff war in the world’s fastest-growing cellular market, India, Vodafone Essar, reduced its roaming charges by more than 50% besides offering the option for per-second pulse.
The pay per second plan launched by TATA DoCoMo has made the other operators to join the war. Some are even coming up with other lucrative plans like 50 paise per minute, for all types of calls, local as well as roaming by Reliance Communications and to 60 paisa per minute roaming charges by Bharti Airtel.
Though the customers are benefiting a lot from this tariff war, the mobile operators are losing out on revenues. The stock prices of listed telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, RelCom and others are sliding.
One of the major reasons behind this war is to attract the new users as new operators are entering the market. Norway’s Telenor launch made it the 12th operator playing in the Indian market while, Arab’s second-biggest carrier Etisalat is planning to enter India.
RelComm gears up for GSM
Gearing up for its global system for mobile (GSM) operations countrywide, Reliance Communications is likely to sign infrastructure-sharing agreements with Airtel, Aircel and Spice Telecom to cut its capital expenditure.
Only recently, RelComm had signed a similar agreement with Hutchison Essar and Idea Cellular. The Anil Ambani controlled RelComm is awaiting the regulatory approval for starting GSM service in 16 circles under the Unified Access Service Licence.
In case, RelComm clinches an infrastructure sharing agreement with these three GSM service providers, it would be able to access an additional 50,000 cell sites across the country under its infrastructure sharing model. With its agreement with Hutch and Idea it would get access to about 22,000 cell sites.
The move would not only result in a significant double digit drop in its capital expenditure requirements, it would also bring in a proportionate reduction in RelComm’s operating expenditure.
Sources said the infrastructure sharing impetus forms an integral part of the future expansion plans of the company’s CDMA network and the enhanced focus in GSM. The company has applied for GSM spectrum.
At present RelComm, through its wholly owned subsidiary Reliance Telecom, has a licence to operate GSM services in eight circles, concentrated in the eastern part of the country. In other circles it provides mobile service using CDMA technology.
It is also planning to spend about Rs 1,500 crore over the next 18 months to add about 10 million lines in the existing eight circles where it provides GSM mobile service, sources said.
The board of directors of RelComm is meeting on Monday to consider its July-September results. Company’s plans for GSM expansion would also be discussed at the meet.
Source- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
