Videocon faces tough competition: Planning to sell 26% of Videocon Telecommunications
Videocon Industries is busy looking for possible buyers to sell 26% of its telecom arm Videocon Telecommunications that has 1.9 million subscribers and has a market share of 0.31%. The company in the recent past had started discussion with South Korean company SK Telecom, UAE’s Etisalat and Turkey’s Turkcell. By selling 26% of Videocon Telecom, the main company will raise around INR 15,000 crores which will be employed to improve services and expand operations to improve customer base.
According to a source, Videocon is struggling to keep up with the major players like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, and Vodafone due to fewer offerings to the customer.
The telecom company currently operations in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, UP East, UP West and Himachal Pradesh. Videocon recently announced 1 paise/sec international calling to US and Canada. Such schemes may help the company in fetching new customers, but if the company wants a stand in the market it needs to improve service and infrastructure to handle larger customer base.
India 3G bandwidth auction-Pan India price hits $2.33 billion
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: As expected, the bidding amount for bandwidth for 3G mobile services nearly tripled to 103.48 billion rupees ($2.33 billion), at the end of day 20 of the country’s 3G Auction. The starting price was touted to be INR35 billion.
As per the department of telecommunications, the bidding will again start on Tuesday for each pan-India slot starting at about INR104.43 billion.
While Mumbai kept its place as the most-sought-after service area with four bids each at INR17.06 billion for the three slots available. Delhi followed with three bids for the three available slots at about INR16.54 billion each, data from the department showed.
The third highest bid was received by the western Indian province of Maharashtra at INR10.41 billion, with two bids for three slots. The forth position was bagged by the South Indian province of Andhra Pradesh while Tamil Nadu stood on the fifth position.
While Andhra Pradesh received four bids at INR9.13 billion each for the three available slots, Tamil Nadu got two bids at about INR9.02 billion each for three slots.
Virgin Mobile India unveils special pack for GSM users
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A pocket friendly local calling pack has been launched by Virgin Mobile India for all its GSM subscribers. The pack is worth Rs. 45 with a validity of 30 days allowing the customers to call any local number at just 1paise/2seconds.
The offer is available across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Mumbai and Maharashtra circles.
The company has made it clear that the pack is profitable on both minute and second billing profiles. Consumers are also provided an option to choose per minute tariff or a per second one. A differentiated tariff proposition of 20p/min for STD and local calls to any Virgin Mobile number will be offered on per minute tariff.
40p/min for local and 50p/min for STD calls will have to be paid for calling any other network.
Etisalat DB to enter Indian market as Cheers Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: GSM service of Etisalat DB will be soon launched in India under the brand Cheers Mobile Service. The website of the company has already gone live providing information on various tariff and customer care numbers. Etisalat DB is one of the pre-qualified bidders for 3G spectrum in India, the auction if which is expected to begin on April 9, 2010
The GSM Mobile Network of Telecom Talk has already gone live in Tamil Nadu and Kerala but it is still to come to Delhi. The commercial service of the operators is also expected soon in Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and other circles. On launching its service in April, the operator will become the fourth telco to launch GSM services in the last 5 months and second this year.
Etisalat DB is a joint venture between Etisalat and Dynamix Balwas Group after Etisalat bought 45 percent share for $900 million in Swan Telecom.
UASL license has been granted to Etisalat DB to operate 2G services in 15 circles including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
Launch of MNP again delayed in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of the mobile number portability in India has again been delayed by the government from March 31 to June 30, 2010. Earlier the implementation was scheduled to take place in December 31, 2009 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as well as in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
According to the government, operators are yet to test if their networks are ready to launch mobile number portability, or MNP, services and the government has set a deadline of May 15 to complete the tests and on the basis of the successful completion of the action taken (tests)…, the DoT will finally decide the dates for MNP implementation.
The launch has already been delayed twice despite the fact that the government decided to launch MNP by the first week of May, with initial launches in the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai.
GSM mobile services launched by Uninor in Orissa
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the launch of its services in Orissa, Uninor, the GSM mobile service brand of Unitech Wireless and the joint venture company of India’s second largest real estate major
Unitech Limited completes the Blue Arc taking its toll to eight circles pan India. Now Uninor’s service is available in nine states including Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
According to the Unitech Wireless managing director Stein-Erik Vellan, the company is planning to focus on gaining shares where they have launched their services.
The company emphasized on the fact that they want to stay the closest to their customers. From product, pricing to customer services, the firms aims at creating value for individual customers.
According to the executive vice-president of Uninor, Akash Das, the company’s national distribution presence went up over 50 distributors following the launch in Orissa apart from four exclusive stores ready for service across the state. Managing director of Unitech, Sanjay Chandra regarded the project as a mega-success. Uninor’s services have two basic price plans including a base plan known as talklonger@29p and a subscription plan known as callmore@29p.
The former plan is for customers who make longer calls. The plan offers its customers STD call at 49 paise per minute and local calls at 29 paise per minute after charging a call set up fee which costs 39 paise and charged at the time of activation of the cell.
GSM service soon to be launched in India by Virgin Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the goal of expanding its reach among the people and especially youths, Tata Teleservices youth brand, Virgin Mobile is planning to launch its GSM services.
Virgin Mobile GSM may use TATA DOCOMO’s network and will be first introduced in Chennai and Tamil Nadu Circle and Mumbai & Maharashtra circle.
TATA DOCOMO’s service is yet to roll out all over India while Virgin Mobile will also take time to establish its mark among the masses. Currently, Virgin Mobile is using TATA Indicom’s network to operate.
Highest no. of subscriber during the past 3 months has been recorded by TTSL and TATA DOCOMO is considered to be the major factor behind this growth.
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.
