Why Spectrum is King Maker for NextGen Telecom Services ?
Spectrum is the key commodity for Telecommunication services. Indian operators’ spectrum holding has improved in the last two years as the government has made available fresh spectrum. The top 3...
View ArticleAirtel’s Go 4G Strategy Begins Well in 300 Cities
3 Months Ago I was the first to write that Airtel’s 4G LTE Strategy is to sabotage the hype surrounding Reliance Jio Infocomm and since then the management has taken giant strides to launch 4G LTE in...
View ArticleIdea Cellular to Double Mobile Data Capacity, 4G-LTE Launch in Q1-2016
Idea Cellular management hosted a conference call today to provide update on data business and 4G in particular. As part of data network expansion [3G + 4G], Idea will deploy 30-35K BTS in FY16 against...
View ArticleTRAI Call Drop Regulation Negative for Telcos
TRAI has ordered maximum penalty of Rs200k per quarter per circle on every parameter that the telco fails to meet the minimum benchmark, payable to the government. There are 18 parameters and the...
View ArticleHow India Compares with China on Spectrum / Data Usage ?
If we compare the spectrum availability, data usage (DOU) per subscriber and data penetration of the Indian Telcos with those in China / South Korea will tell if Indian operators have have adequate...
View Article3G /4G Mobile Data Infrastructure Doubles YoY in India – Bharti Infratel
Data continues to be a key driver for tower demand and management suggested 3G and 4G network deployments have almost doubled on a year to year basis. The company suggested that most of the 3G/4G...
View ArticleIdea – 3G Main Driver for Mobile Data, Voice RPM Challenging Times Ahead
Idea Cellular’s Mobile data revenues were up 9.3% qoq and 61% yoy in 2QFY16. Share of data in mobile revenues increased by 190bps qoq to 19.6% in 2Q. Data traffic or volume growth was 83% yoy, driven...
View ArticleAirtel 3G / 3G Platinum / 4G LTE Pan India Coverage by Q1-2016
The management of Bharti Airtel will attempt acceleration of India capex in FY16 by an additional $200-400m. Airtel will have enough capacity (~120,000 BTS in 3G or 4G Coverage Pan India. Currently, it...
View ArticleIndian eCommerce – When will Companies Profit ?
Most eCommerce companies in India have been burning cash on traffic/customer acquisition, investments in technology and people and investments in warehousing / fulfillment capabilities. Hence, the...
View ArticleVideocon Makes Killing Selling 4G-LTE Spectrum to Idea in Gujarat / UP-West
Idea Cellular has announced purchase of 5MHz paired spectrum in the 1800MHz band in Gujarat and UP (West) circles from Videocon Telecom for INR 33.1bn. This purchase will enable Idea to launch 4G in...
View ArticleAirtel Wakes up to Reliance Jio’s Challenge – Announces Project Leap
Bharti Airtel’s Sr. Management Team has finally woken up to the challenge posed by a $10 Bn startup called Reliance Jio Infocomm. Under the vision of Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Jio started as a Greenfield...
View ArticleZomato shifts Focus to Monetization from Traffic Building
Zomato recently changed its strategy to focus on monetization vs. the previous strategy of traffic building. Zomato currently operates in 23 countries, of which it is traffic leader in 18. However,...
View Article2G, 3G & 4G Will Co-Exist in India – Vodafone
Vodafone believes 2G, 3G and 4G will co-exist in India for years to come and believes multiple networks can help address the needs of all strata of customers and is cost efficient. Management...
View ArticleSpectrum Caps – Reliance Jio in War with A-Vo-Id Operators
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in a recent consultation paper, sought comments from the industry and other stakeholders on a variety of spectrum-related issues. One of the surprising...
View ArticleDid Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Undermine 4G-LTE Which Reliance Jio embraced ?
A key question I’m always asked is whether Airtel should have launched 4G even before to give it more time. The strategy behind Airtel’s 4G LTE launch was to pre-empt Reliance Jio. It launched...
View ArticleXiaomi India – Online Sales to Manufacturing SmartPhones / Consumer Electronics
Disruptive SmartPhone Maker Xiaomi started sales in India with the Flash sales model. First flash sale in 2014, 250-300k people showed up interest on FlipKart’s website. Entire sale was over in 2...
View ArticleIdea Cellular Mobile Data Growth Tapers, 21.2 Mn 3G Subscribers
Idea Cellular’s Mobile Broadband Data revenue growth slipped materially. Data revenues grew 45.7% yoy (and 7.2% qoq), sharp deterioration from 80-100% yoy growth levels reported over the past many...
View ArticleWill Telcos BUY 700Mhz Spectrum at TRAI’s Recommended Auction Price ?
TRAI has recommended auctioning 700 MHz spectrum (7 blocks of 5 MHz each) along with spectrum in other bands (800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, and 2500). TRAI has recommended auctioning all spectrum...
View ArticleHow will Indian Telecom market Progress Post Jio Launch ?
Reliance Jio’s launch will accelerate consolidation leading smaller telcos to exit market overtime. Currently the top 3 telcos have 70% of total market share with remaining 8-9 telcos sharing the...
View ArticleAirtel Voice RPM Down + 900Mhz for LTE in Future
Airtel Voice RPM declined due to higher competitive intensity in a few circles. Recently, competition increased from leading players as opposed to smaller players in the past. In the medium-to-long...
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