The year 2009 was not all that bad for the Indian telecom industry, even though the industry had its share of troubles also.
What we believe one of the major achievements for the Indian telecom industry was it added 500 million subscribers in September, at least a year in advance. The industry was expecting user numbers to cross 500 million the end of 2010.
The number of telephone subscribers in India rose to 509.03 million, according to data compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Tariffs had hit all-time lows, with the telecom service providers competing to outbid each other in launching the lowest fare in the country. Low tariffs, even though would bleed the players, was a welcoming initiative to the industry and users. To the industry as it would lead to increasing telecom penetration and to users as telecom services became more affordable.
Bsnl slotted down to 4th place PSU tried to buy some foreign company, later moved on at the end of the year we saw stel- shiva is back in telecom town targeting ‘c’ circles then Rcom made sms tariff as low as 1p/sms to .20p/sms wondering who will follow Rcom’s sms tariff we are waiting operators are you listing …..When we come to wireless internet Rcom, Tata and MTS introduced groundbreaking 3.1 Mbps wireless internet. Then new ISPs lowered down internet tariff, most of them r cable based biting BSNL a lot!! Broadband for BSNL is just one thing for what it is working, landline required for BSNL broadband!!
Companies like Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications were among others slashed call rates during the year. Many of the companies followed Tata DoCoMo to launch per second billing in across various circles in the country, a move that resulted in further fall of telecom tariffs across the country.
Many companies like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Communications, Pacnet, announced new submarine cable systems. Most of the cable systems were new networks to carry data and telecom tariff to India. The year also witnessed entry of new operators like MTS, Uninor, Aircel (launching services in new circles).
Disappointments
The much talked about allocation of 3G and BWA spectrum, the mobile number portability were delayed to 2010, while Internet Telephony and MVNO were put off indefinitely.
Bharti Airtel lost out the opportunity to acquire South Africa’s MTN Group, and in turn, become one of the largest mobile service provider in the world. Now, the company is in talks with Warid Telecom to acquire a majority stake in the latter’s Bangladesh operations.
However, 2010 holds much promise and hope for the industry. Post in your comments on your predictions in 2010.
Subodh Misra January 4, 2010 at 11:29 am
Hi I m working with Ericsson.
It is good for telecom industry that 3G is still in bags and yet to cime out with new boom up. And other side hurray for users as they get cheaper tarrif for call as well for VAS.Hope this will also be good n promosing yr for Telecom Industries.
Subodh Misra January 4, 2010 at 11:25 am
It is good for telecom industry that 3G is still in bags and yet to cime out with new boom up. And other side hurray for users as they get cheaper tarrif for call as well for VAS.Hope this will also be good n promosing yr for Telecom Industries.
RDB January 3, 2010 at 2:42 pm
e>
if virgin comes, what will it offer??
vinay January 3, 2010 at 2:09 pm
reason crossing of 50 cr customer base lies in competiiton n entry of new players. n majority of credit goes to docomo for introducing pps n for reliance to offer local/std/roaming at 50.
IDRIS January 3, 2010 at 2:02 pm
RELIANCE SERVICES IN PUNE ARE LIKE RUBBISH GPRS HARDLY WORKS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO ACCESS GPRS SINCE LAST SIX MONTHS BUT IT IS SLOW LIKE ONE FEELS BETTER NOT TO USE IT SIMILARLY THE VOICE CALLS ARE OF BAD QUALITY.. CONNECTIVITY IS ANOTHER PROBLEM…
PRICES ARE LOWER BUT SERVICES ARE RUBBISH….SMS PACK IS THE ONLY ATTRACTATION…I KNOW THE CALLS ARE CHAEAPER IT SHOULD BE RELIABLE AS WELL BUT IT DOESNT WORK MOST OF TIME EVEN IF THE SIGNAL IS GOOD.
RELIANCE NEEDS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF VOICE AND DATA SPEED ON GSM…..
kaushik January 3, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Reliance is succesful in bringing down Airtel ARPU furthur which RIM tries for long time and that will affect in Airtel profit in future
Agnivo January 3, 2010 at 1:01 pm
@rajiev
When docomo goes pan India perhaps then…
rajiev January 3, 2010 at 12:45 pm
virgin , when will launch it’s gsm service , any idea?
pratik January 3, 2010 at 10:12 am
please update november gsm subscribers database and give some information about tata docomo that when they will launch gsm service in gujarat.
Abhijit January 3, 2010 at 9:14 am
Bsnl until yet not launch their 3G services in West Zone cities like Pune, Nagpur, Nasik, Panjim,Ulhasnagar, Ahmedabad,Surat,Baroda area…
Abhijit January 3, 2010 at 9:13 am
Almost all operators reduced there roaming charges in end of 2009 but still Tata Indicom Maharashtra and Mtnl Mumbai are charging roaming at Rs.1/min for local and incoming & Rs.1.50/min for std calls while roaming… So lets hope at least they will reduce there roaming tariffs in 2010….
Bsnl until yet to launch their 3G services in West Zone cities like Pune, Nagpur, Nasik, Panjim,Ulhasnagar, Ahmedabad,Surat,Baroda area…
Agnivo January 3, 2010 at 9:12 am
On thing I can confirm, Nokia will bring dual-sim mid-range handsets by half of 2010.
Arif January 3, 2010 at 1:55 am
The year 2009 was great for telecom as well as end user. Lower tariff and 1P SMS all over India. New operator launched services. New and low cost handset. Saw new brand in handset. So the year 2009 was great. And sure the year 2010 will give more then 2009.
Prasath J January 3, 2010 at 12:07 am
In 2010, 2G tariff will still go down as IUC (Interconnect Usage Charge) will be reduced (also possible IUC to be calculated per second) and almost zero roaming (Incoming @ roaming is Rs0.00 for some minutes) will be started by RCom followed by Tatas and force others.. Biggies will hesitate a lot to offer that… And finally we will see reduction in POSTPAID PLAN TARIFFS too…
The 3G auction will be delayed for 3 or more times this year and when people lost interest in 3G, the auction may start… BUT NO GOOD 3G coverage will be possible this year.. DoCoMo will offer nice 3G handsets (of NTT-DoCoMo Japan) with its connection… Surprisingly the 3G n/w coverage of new operators (read RGSM and Docomo) will be better comparing BIGGIES (read Airtel, Vodafone) as they are operating in 1800MHz and biggies in 900MHz only and biggies need to install MORE towers than RGSM and DoCoMo for the 2100MHz 3G GSM band…
MNP will be delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and we will get many new reasons for the delay from time to time… When MNP comes near the n/w quality of RGSM and DoCoMo will be much better comparing Biggies too…
OMH CDMA handsets will flourish this year… EV-DO will grow like anything this year, which in turn will reduce the interest of (GSM) 3G data to Indians.. GSM players will blame TRAI on allowing EV-DO for CDMA players.. MTS will have a nice growth this year atleast wrt DATA…
New players like Uninor, S-Tel, Loop, Videocon, Etisalat DB will never participate in 3G auction, wanna bet???… New players like Videocon, Loop Mobile will look for foreign collabrations, but there will be minimum takers.. So after reduction in IUC, they will start services in some C-level circles and will get some offers from foreign cos, but too late.. Etisalat DB also won’t participate in 3G auction and tries to enter 3G late by back door…
BSNL’s 3G coverage will be much better in rural area than urban regions… The roaming customers in MTNL will get reduced as reasonable roaming charges of MTNL is possible only if and only if MTNL and BSNL get merged and that is not going to happen..
SMS will be taken for granted in this year, but no useful Unlimited GPRS plan will be introduced until there is a change in SPECTRUM allocation policy, and that revision in SPECTRUM allocation will again be delayed and delayed delayed and delayed and delayed…
Uninor will confuse more itself and less its users…
And more CHINESE or rebranded CHINESE handsets (SPICE, KARBONN, USHA, ONIDA, MAGICON, MICROMAX, etc…) will sell and affect market share of SE, LG handsets. Especially the DualSIM ones and QWERTY keyboard ones (for SMS typing) will sell like hot cakes…
Many more to come… Almost ALL ARE GOOD TO CONSUMERS…
Agnivo January 2, 2010 at 11:30 pm
@pammu
Seems I read that comment sometime before… exact copy I mean!
Mahmood Junaid January 2, 2010 at 11:16 pm
i think with the introduction of 3g the data charges will get down steeply.. also i think current broadband connections of 75.7 million will explode to about 200 million with introduction of 3g. total mobile connections will also cross 675 million. mobile internet usage will be the driver of growth of telecom industry…
Gokul January 2, 2010 at 10:56 pm
All operators would be providing 3G. Everyone would be video-calling each other.
Introduction of 3G would in turn, increase demand for high-end phones.
MNP would be here. Everyone would be happy, as ever switching operators.
Boy has Airtel, his girlfriend had Aircel? Right away, she can switch over to Airtel and enjoy 10p calls.
Really Useful. MNP totally ROCKS!
Well, what next?
1p/2sec or even lesser, maybe. Everyone running down, slashing rates.
Home Broadband? Hell, ain’t. I got no hope.
We still stuck with stoopid LIMITED 2MBPS at helluva rates and SLOW, SLOW and SLOWER unlimited plans which come along with FAIR USAGE POLICY.
Dude, Check the other countries(developing/developed) ? Everyone provides unlimited plans with a minimum of 2MBPS at cheap rates.
I ain’t going into details of the comparison.
So, lets hope for the best.
Cheers. =D
Adi January 2, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Wired Broadband in India is still a travesty. Unlimited broadband plans don’t even exist in Mbps level and if you’re lucky enough get one of those plans you have god awful quota’s or “Fair Usage Policy’s” that make a mockery of term unlimited. Look at the rest of Asia especially the Far East where they start of at 3Mbps or higher. I’m sick of having to watch my bandwidth usage or having my broadband throttled while still paying through the nose for “super fast” 2mbps.
Also seeing BSNL not deploy 3G in the South especially in B’lore/HYD save for the Minister of Telecoms hometown is pretty sad state of how things are run in India.
pammu January 2, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Gr8 year for Indian telecom sector.
in the coming year incumbent operators will face more heat as new operators will strengthen network and expand to rural areas.
In 3G auction new operators, which didnt got 2G airwaves in circles like delhi,will go all out for spectrum and pose a stiff competition to likes of bharti, vodafone and reliance GSM.
Finally, operators will start to move their customer base towards 3G from 2G and that will be the commencement of another era of telecom trend in India.
saket January 2, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Predication:
3g spectrum will be autioned
tariff will be again changed.
all companies will jump to VAS
docomo will kill all other operator with VAS.
Most profitable company will be Spice digital.(VAS company).
subsciber will be reached to 700m
Rural development will be highest.
few more buyout and acqisation will happen, like forein company pick some stake from existing or new operator.