Launch of Tata Teleservices’ in Gujarat delayed to January
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of GSM-based services in Gujarat under Tata DoCoMo banner of Indian mobile network operator Tata Teleservices (TTSL) will be delayed to January, the company revealed.
According to COO of TTSL Naveen Bhasin, the company has not been able to launch the services in the state because the government did not release the spectrum allocated to them.
Earlier the company had planed of launching DoCoMo by 15 December.
Tariff war raises concern in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The brutal price war rocking India for the past few months may certainly be lucrative for customers but it has raised the concern of the analysts, who could not see any end for this bloodbath. The latest offer by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited of as little as half a paisa (100 paisa are in a rupee) a second for a call, India’s telecoms market, already the cheapest in the world, just got cheaper.
The rapidly growing telecom market of India, which already has about 500m subscribers and adds about 10m new users a month, is considered one of the key drivers of its economic growth in recent years.
Analysts believe the industry may have too many operators chasing a market in which subscriber numbers are high but average monthly spending by users on phone calls is very low.
After the first shot in the current price war was fired earlier this year by Tata DoCoMo, other telecom operators joining the game and the continuously plunging call rates have made telecoms the worst performing sector in India’s stock market, going down by 27 per cent this year.
The government’s plan to introduce number portability at the end of this month, in which users can retain their existing mobile number while swapping between vendors is, expected to promote another round of price competition.
Whatever concerns the industry analysts may have, the festival of low rate has just begun for the consumers.
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.
Norwegian firm Telenor enters India with 29p per minute plan
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Moving one step ahead of the pay per second system, Norway-based firm Telenor, entered Indian market with 29 paise per minute plan under the brand name Uninor. The company has tied up with India’s Unitech Group and will be launched in seven circles — UP (East), Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, UP (West) and Bihar.
According to the CEO and President of Telenor group, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, the new plan offers more value for money to the users as the consumers want something more than the usual features. The pay per second billing was first launched by TATA DoCoMo, followed by other operators.
According to Unitech Wireless Managing Director Stein-Erik Vellan, the company’s target is to occupy 8% of the market share by 2018 and operate cash-flow break-even in five years.
Besides, the company also expects that the average revenue per user (ARPU) becomes lower than the industry level in the near term. However, Unitech is susceptible about bidding in the 3G auction but at the same time it has made it clear that it will surely not bid for an all India license.
Pay mobile bills of TATA DoCoMo network via SMS (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Facilitating payment of the mobile bill for its customers, Tata DoCoMo and ItzCash signed an agreement wherein the users can pay their bills via SMS using an ItzCash card.
The company also said that there are no hidden costs, charge-backs and reversals and the consumers can also utilize the full value of the card with all transactions confirmed in real time.
As per the service, users of TATA DoCoMo will have to SMS the keyword ‘PAYBILL’, amount to be paid, account number of the ItzCash and password and send it to 121.
ItzCash Card is available at ItzCash franchisees in denominations ranging from Rs. 100 to Rs. 10,000. Orders for the card can be placed online by the customers.
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.
Tata to launch GSM services in India under Tata DoCoMo brand (India, Japan)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tata Teleservices, which is 26% owned by NTT DoCoMo, will roll-out GSM mobile services later this month. The operator will spend $2 billion to build a national network on the popular platform.
The company will start rolling out GSM services in southern India in June under the Tata DoCoMo brand, and aims to cover almost all of India within six months, Tata Tele Managing Director Anil Sardana said.
“Maybe we can just expect about 100 million net additions for the next three years,” Toshinari Kunieda, Managing Director of DoCoMo’s global business division, said of the Indian market. Japenes operator will help to launch data services such as i-mode mobile Internet technology and mobile payment systems.
Presently, there is cut-throat competition prevails in Indian mobile market, to gain subscribers operators are slashing tariffs which leads to fall in ARPU. Although, GSM arena shows the ARPU for GSM operators has been higher than for their CDMA counterparts, and with more than 10 million subscribers being signed up by operators a month, the revenue share is getting bigger. “Even though ARPU is decreasing, number of customers is growing. It means revenue is growing,” Kunieda said.
He further said that there are no current plans to raise stakes in Tata Teleservices.
