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Indian Telecom industry recently crossed the 600 million mark thanks to wireless subscribers who comprise the most with 563.73 million subs. Also the overall Tele density in India has reached 51.05% and wireless Tele-density to 47.91%.
Really a remarkable achievement isn’t it!, if only and only “Figures” are concerned.BUT behind the curtains story seems to be bit different and one can see 17 operators toiling hard to maintain their ride.
New operators in line for launch in different circles, Falling ARPU, per second billing, Operators searching new ways for increasing revenue, cost cuttings, People working in telecom sector under strain for performances,3G & MNP still in process, Pressure on Telecom / VAS vendor companies, another war between the VAS-vendors with the Telecom Content Providers and many more such aspects… forces one to think that is Indian Telecom Industry really going in right direction?
What I see from here is the major buyouts; one operator to overtake another and a set of few who will rule the Indian Telecom afterwards Let’s wait and watch!!!
But one thing to be noted aren’t the factors stated above semi- implicitly forced the telecom operators to get attention by any means even they have no concern with it, this can be very well seen in the Aircel’s campaign for saving the Tigers or Idea’s idea to save the paper no doubt the causes are really appreciable and we value both the operators that they came out of the way to support such noble causes but what if – if you view these events from a lay-man’s angle or from a realist view?? anyway still they supported the noble cause.
Also we seen the Operator which alone reigned at Top from last Half-an- year Tata Teleservices Ltd. was overruled by Vodafone last month in the highest count of new subs addin. But still the rise of TTSL didn’t came via ease they were the first in India to bring up the two extremities in the billing tariff and which were PER SECOND BILLING & PER CALL BILLING everyone else had to follow them i still remember few months back as and when Docomo was launching in circles the other operators of that region were shifting to per second plans, So here’s a lesson for all the operators “if u want to be ahead of herd than you got to start with something new and let the others follow you”
3G auction is in phase and having international bidders including NTT DoCoMo, Emirates Telecommunications, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom in addition to Indian operators like, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Vodafone Essar, a gamut of brand names everyone will surely be eager to hear what the outcome is “if things happened as planned”
Recently Apple inc launched i-phone 3GS in India almost after an year of its international launch I guess apple guy’s might be thinking what will the people of India do with it without 3G network okay jokes apart one thing to my surprise any operator in India haven’t officially declared any sort of price cut on old i-phone 3G rather if we look at US market the day 3GS was introduced iphone 3G was lowered by half the price i.e. from $199 to $99 but here we are still getting it on the same rate, one of the reason for it might be the less popularity. of iphone here if compared to rest of the world but who to blame?
The pricing of iphone in India in not so attractive, For e.g. if like US here we can get an i-phone 3GS @Rs 10000 almost equal to $199 and flexibity of paying rest of the amount in lockin period as it’s trend abroad than we could have seen iphone’s in many Indian pockets but we are getting an iphone after spending around Rs 30K in one go and that too operator dependent. Change the strategy apple guy’s and see the rise in sales!!! Another thing that bugs Indian customers about iphone is its dependency with the apple softwares.
Also the news coming that Google’s nexus one is coming to India and to shred its price they are cutting down some of its features keeping in mind Indian users are less tech-savy now this is a sluggish excuse Google, what about the creative techy minds of India and the gadget freaks who are waiting phone with full functionality, all these so called Smartphone companies don’t give interesting offers to the Indian users as they provide to rest of the world and then blame that average Indian is using Low cost handsets not the smart phones what to say???
But what you say readers we are eager to hear all are welcome to post their comments/views below – THANKS!!!
TUSHAR SHARMA April 7, 2010 at 8:09 pm
THANKS TO ALL THE GUYS… IN HERE KEEEP POSTING!!!
Turkee April 7, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Great Article. It reveals the practical facts happening right now in Telecom Sector. Great saying which I will put in my words as ‘Early bird cathces the prey’. Operators need to come up with new ideas & keep on bringing new plans to lure subscribers. with density reaching 51% it is very important.
Prasath J April 6, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I think, cheers will become the next docomo…
Sriram Balakumar April 6, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Here no value for 10, 20 and 25 paise, but our telecom industry valued it for our customers but i think its not constant they are hiking their charges in other services like customer care and we are missing our quality in telecom industry.
According to me the rate should be constant and service should be standardized for every operators. Competition should not be in charges it should be in Quality.
JAI HIND !!
TUSHAR SHARMA April 6, 2010 at 9:55 am
@ vinay … I didn’t said tht india is less tech-savy …but just told tht was an excuse given by a smartphone manufacturer on sherding the features of handset b4 its launch in India!!!
chauhan April 6, 2010 at 12:06 am
do you ever know about any telecom protocol, If Yes, Please explain….. thanks…
Max April 5, 2010 at 11:33 pm
@Aravind
But for registering complaints u need to dial 198 its toll free y r u wasting money by dialing 121???
vinay April 5, 2010 at 11:19 pm
@ tushar sharma. majority of users (not all) in ind just want to talk n not use vas esp in rural area. however, it doesnt mean, ind r less tech savvy. however, considering various needs of ind customers, they shud come out with models with different features so as to cater to the needs of all.
Aravind April 5, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Consolidation needs to happen and will happen for sure…Survival of 17 operators is almost impossible…Out of 563.73 million users,how many are unique users?I have seen people just buying sim cards juz for the sake of balance,using it and they just throw it…This has to be minimised.Why can’t we have something like multiple numbers handled by a single SIM card?
I also want to mention about the customer care service by operators,now they have started charging 50ps per 3 min.The way they are attending calls have been changed and they are making customers to be on call for a minimum of 3 min.When ever i call,they ask my number,name ask me the issue and forward the call to someone else.The other person will not attend the call first time(happened to me most of the times),i had to call many times.Finally they have registered the complaint,but it was still not solved even after 7 to 8 complaints.They are just forcing customers to contact customer care by not resolving the issues and just earning.I had this experience with AIRTEL….Never ever going to use AIRTEL again….
vivek April 5, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Out of six million subscriber one and half million are bogus numbers one million are using 5 sims .There is nothing to proud about it
Rifaz April 5, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Think is that telecom sector has become mess now onwards we should leave new operators in india since already 18 operators its enough and also quality is not maintened i think this problem will solved by 2 years from now after launch of all operators … Wait and watch
TUSHAR SHARMA April 5, 2010 at 7:36 pm
hi all… thanks for your comments guyss…. keep posting cheerz!!!
Max April 5, 2010 at 6:32 pm
@mukul
everybody has got the right to speak offcourse INDIA is a democratic country:-)
come on dude don feel bad for tat… jus chill
mukul April 5, 2010 at 5:20 pm
@akshat dear Akshat, Tushar and the TT team – first of all, my intention was not to ridicule anyone or hurt anybody’s feelings. You guys are doing a great job. Tushar has asked for feedback at the end of his article, and I just wrote waht i thought…we are a knowledge sharing community and should not feel bad about a negative feedback / comment. We should have a fair assessment of a negative comment, and discard it if found incorrect. If this spirit of exchange of ideas is not there, what is the point ?
A couple of things which I found incorrect (of course I stand corrected if found so !) – (1) operators like France Telecom and Deutsche telecom – they are not bidding in the 3g auction at all. none of the phirangs will bid unless the 2g new norms come out. (2) about smartfones – the author is only saying that companies are not offering interesting offers on smartfones. he is not saying smartfones sales or low or giving a deeper analysis, apart from saying “price gira do”. In fact i feel that smartfones are selling very well here. if you know, a historic thing has happened (in case of cellphones). Sony Ericsson has done a world launch of their Xperia X 10 in India on 26th March !!! This is an amazing achievement for indian market and i feel happy that global handset makers are waking up now !!!
anyway, if you guys feel that we should always give only positive feedback and not offer any criticism, its fine. i will keep my mouth shut ! we will just keep on praising each other, but is that healthy ?
Idrees April 5, 2010 at 4:35 pm
itz ok…GOD BLESS
Max April 5, 2010 at 4:10 pm
@Idrees
sorry bro i mean to say still 600millilon ppl are not using wireless telecom services.. i had read in one magzine saying tat now wireless subscriber base has crossed 500millilon & now in india 1 in 2 ppl use a cell phone.. so i commented like tat..
Idrees April 5, 2010 at 3:16 pm
why isn’t true they mean 600 million r subscribed to various players how many r frequently used is a different topic, i also hav 5 diff conxns and i think there is a diffrenciating factor among all five, one provides better qos but a little expensive, other one hav some attractive plans and so continues like this…
akshat April 5, 2010 at 2:58 pm
@mukul ..man ur response just seems like u got annoyed by above comments of readers…this article is having a real insite of the current trends…> where on net did u lately find some1 showing the real cause of less smartphones sales in india…or telling apple ppl to low down prices as they did in US…an to change their market strategy….neither you find some1 showing behind the curtains factors so precisely ….and what about tht campaign factor any answers …man if can’t addon to knowledge in here at least plz don’t redicule the gr8 work done by TT
Max April 5, 2010 at 2:52 pm
600 million subscriber mark is not true b’cos now a days tat too after the launch of docomo almost everybody(75%) has two simcards.. they keep one(previous no) as ter main no & other one to make calls (like use of docomo if a person wants to speak for few seconds. I have seen tis type of trend even in rural areas..they keep china made dual phones & use it.I myself use 4 simcards of diff operators for diff purpose like internet,nightspeak etc i saw many having 6-10simcards..This is the main reason for falling ARPU for e.g a person who used to spend 250rs for his Airtel mobile befor will spend around 100 on it & remaining 100 will be spent on his second sim like docomo. so in tis way neither of the operators are getting satisfaction in ARPU(even docomo has poor ARPU..
gaurang April 5, 2010 at 2:51 pm
yes I agree that the editor has worked hard in compiling the developments taking place in indian telecom industry.Does apple really sell iPhone for as low as $99.If you convert in rupee it would come somewhere near to Rs.5000.I don’t beleive this.If it is so then why it’s so expensive in India?
Idrees April 5, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Simple…one who mantains the qos alongwith affordability is the customer choice and whosoever wl it be , wl truly emerge out to be the winner
mukul April 5, 2010 at 2:05 pm
very ordinary atricle…just compiling publised info from various sources. At least I did not find any insights or any “Trends” as the heading suggested…can you tell us which operators are likely to takeover which ones; what are the trends in handset sales and why (trend is tariffs is already clear and there are no major price cutting after the initial 3 months of DOCOMO laumnch, isnt it ?)
Fahad April 5, 2010 at 1:32 pm
oh man great topic on telecom…
well done nd well said
Mr Tushar Sharma…
indian telecom market has rly bcm a tough markt for nw enterants nd also 4 old ones…survivng in ths markt is vry dificlt or we cn say impossible…one who wl maintain the stablty wl truly b the winr bt low arpu is kilng thm(al operatos) tht z why no 1 cn maintain it nd the one who wl get thru wl b d winr…
t.t u rock
Avi H April 5, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Mr.Sharma great going, nice article,….
Keep coming with such artices,…..