TRAI braces up for 4G.....

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that it will come out with a consultation paper on fourth generation mobile (4G) services by mid-2011.

4G aims to provide a wide range of data rates up to ultra-broadband (gigabit-speed) Internet access to mobile as well as stationary users. TRAI Chairman J S Sarma told reporters, "I expect 4G to come in India next year. TRAI will bring out a consultation paper on 4G in the middle of this year." source

Rel Comm draws USD 255 m for 3G

Rel Comm) has drawn down USD 255 million (Rs 1155 crore) by way of external commercial borrowing (ECB) to part refinance 3G Spectrum fee payment to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
This loan is funded by a consortium of banks led by Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DBS Bank Limited and Intesa Sanpaolo.
Rel Comm will benefit from extension of maturity, and substantial savings in interest costs from this facility, says an official release.
Earlier in December, the company had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Development Bank (CDB) to refinance USD 1.33 billion paid for 3G Spectrum to DOT. The MoU also covers financing of up to USD 600 million towards equipment and services to be procured fromChinese Vendors like ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies.
 “These facilities will be funded by CDB and other Chinese banks and financial institutions and their approval is expected soon,” the release adds.source

India could develop 3G standard in the same vein as China’s TD-SCDMA

India is apparently following in China’s footsteps in the field of network development, as its telecoms department has reportedly detailed swathes of 2G and 3G spectrum to be “exclusively used for developing indigenous telecommunications networks.”
A similar approach taken in China resulted in the development of China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G technology, and India’s telecoms authorities are evidently hoping to recreate this success: the government has stated that the future economic impact of developing new tech will offset the short-term losses incurred by not selling the spectrum.
Ultimately, this strategy is aimed at increasing India’s independence; the development of indigenous network architecture will allow India to reduce not only its reliance on foreign vendors, but also its expenditure on imported telecoms equipment.
Whether India is aiming at directly emulating China’s approach – i.e. developing alternative 3G technology – or if it intends to adapt existing architecture is not yet apparent. Domestic development of new technology would certainly sit well with India’s government, which caused a stir among the international vendor community last year by calling for a crackdown on all imported network equipment.
However, taking an independent approach could stall the spread of 3G; China’s government in fact took action to prevent proven foreign 3G technologies from gaining ground in the country, with the result that 3G subscribers make up only around 5% of China’s total.
Wireless Intelligence figures indicate that China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network is used by under 4% of its total 585 million subscribers, while China Unicom’s WCDMA network is used by 8% of its customers – somewhat underwhelming figures when compared to international markets.
Home-grown Indian 3G architecture could also face problems due to the greater competition in the Indian market; China Mobile’s significant subscriber numbers have allowed it to procure support for TD-SCDMA from foreign vendors.source

Mobile Banking for Rural India: SBI and Airtel Launch a JV, Vodafone and ICICI Team Up.

Last year, RBI (Reserve Bank of India) approved banks to appoint for-profit companies as BCs (Business Correspondents) and this has closed one of the most heated debates in the telecom space – Should Telco serve as a Bank (and vice versa).
State Bank of India, India’s largest commercial bank, and Bharti Airtel have entered into a joint Venture (JV) agreement to make available banking services to India’s unbanked millions.
The newly formed entity, will harness the power of state bank’s strengths and Airtel’s mobile telephony to add value to the banking and financial services sector and empower millions of financially excluded in the country to enhance their livelihood and quality of life. The Joint Venture will become the BC (i.e. Business Correspondent) of SBI and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens in unbanked and other areas.
The JV as Business Correspondent will engage Airtel’s retailers as Customer Service Points (CSP) all over India in a phased manner. With this, existing and new airtel mobile customers will be able to visit these outlets and open new SBI bank accounts and avail of other banking products and services available at the CSPs. Additionally, existing SBI customers will also get serviced at these outlets.

Vodafone and ICICI

Vodafone and ICICI have also teamed up (its not a JV) to offer mobile banking services in the country. Though the details aren’t yet out, this partnership is on the same lines as SBI/Airtel.
The biggest challenge in this business is to bring down one’s transaction cost and Airtel/SBI JV will *hopefully* bring the scale (plus network effect) that can potentially bring down the transaction cost in the long run.
Eko, a pioneer in this space recently raised funding and such JVs/partnerships between telecom operators and banks do validate their business proposition and help them grow the market.  The pressure is also on them to keep innovating and grow its network at a rapid pace.source
What’s your take on m-payment VAS services?
source

Infologic, Help Service sign MoU for bilingual mobile VAS push email 'Jaamun' for Yemen market

India's global IT and telecom solution provider Infologic Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd (ICSPL) today signed Memorandum of Understanding with Help Consultancy and Telecommunication Service to offer bilingual (Arabic & English) mobile VAS push email "Jaamun" to Yemen market developed by Infologic JV telecom technology partner Omnibytes Technologies.
Through the use of such kind of service, an ordinary phone works as a smart phone and allows the users to access their e-mails, compose, Forward, Reply and besides providing access to alerts from social networking websites (Facebook, Twitter) without the use of mobile internet connection/GPRS.

The goal of this MoU is to introduce mobile value added services (VAS) to Yemen market and Mena region as SMS is expected to contribute the bulk of messaging revenues in the Middle East up to $12.5bn in 2015 and mobile operators in Mena have an opportunity to drive massive growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) and traffic on their networks by offering VAS such as Push e-mail access to their customers as "SMS is the second-most-common mobile communications medium in the world, after voice. It continues to have a significant utility as a universal means of communications and connectivity and as an enabler for the delivery of content and services, for both the consumer and enterprise markets" said Mr. Khan, Director International Business, ICSPL Middle East.

Mr. Khan says that since we launched in Indian market we are greatly buoyed by a significant rise in the push email customer base across India and our expansion plan involves two simple elements: to ensure that our product is one of the best in the industry and to continue to liberate customers and be refreshingly different, by bringing in the best products and services into India and Mena market, and by innovating continuously.

Mr. Khan says that any VAS business can be extremely profitable for a mobile operator since there are no interconnection fees to eat into its revenues. In addition, operators benefit from gaining extra revenues without needing to make large investments in extra new hardware or support and sales staff. For launching the push email service as a VAS, we need to integrate with the mobile operator's SMS account. Subsequent to the integration, "Jaamun" would be responsible for activating and operating service for the end user.

Yemen is the one of the First Middle East country to effectively implement with the bilingual (Arabic & English) Mobile VAS Push Email "Jaamun" and added that under the MoU, ICSPL will provide the Value Added Services to all four local operators with approx. 10 million subscriber base through a local Alliance partner Help Consultancy and Telecommunication Service and the company is dedicated to produce quality products through the continuous technology enhancement and we are also negotiating quite intensely with a few other Mena regional operators to launch bilingual (Arabic & English) Mobile VAS Push Email "Jaamun" by the end of February 2011 Said Mr. Khan.

Mr. Atef, Director, Help Service, said, "It gives us great pleasure to announce the signing of MoU with Infologic Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd since it is aligned with our endeavor of bringing more and more services to common man through local operators." source

3G, MNP to define 2011 telecom story

It has been a momentous year for the telecom sector, with mobile subscribers hurtling towards the 800 million mark and gross revenues crossing $20 billion. Projections suggest that India will achieve 893 million wireless subscribers by 2012 & 1,243 million wireless subscribers by 2015.

This growth comes with economies of scale. India boasts of the lowest tariffs in the world leading to lowest ARPU's of $3/subscriber/month, combined with the highest minutes of usage. According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), every 10% increase in the mobile penetration rate leads to a 1.2% higher growth rate. A huge blip for the sector, however, was the can of worms, which popped out with the 2G scam being busted. It is said to have robbed the exchequer of Rs 1,76,000 crore by offering licences to telecom companies in 2008 at prices prevailing in 2001.

For subscribers, apart from the intense tariff war, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and 3G were the most consumer-friendly introductions during the year. While MNP would enable a consumer to choose a service provider and thus put pressure on companies to deliver the best service, 3G would open up a new range of services, including data downloads at the shortest possible time.

The 3G/BWA auctions held this year helped the government raise $16 billion and boosted its fiscal situation. The spectrum has been allotted to the winners and services are expected to be launched shortly. MNP was first launched in the Haryana circle to begin with, with a pan-India launch scheduled by January 20. According to Rajan Mathews, director general, COAI, "The telecom sector has successfully withstood the challenges of global recession, an intense tariff war as a result of which tariffs fell to rock bottom levels, with some operators introducing paise per second rates as well as launch of service by new operators". However, Dunigan O'Keeffe, a Bain & Company partner in India, feels "2010 confirmed that India is now a highly-competitive and maturing market; the days of 30% plus revenue growth and 40%+ EBITDA margins are long gone and will not return."

According to O'Keeffe, overall, SIM growth has continued, but this no longer directly translates into revenue growth. "In metro areas, many have multiple SIMs. New subscribers are coming in rural areas where usage—and spending—is lower. Finally per minute pricing has dropped as challengers (Tata DoCoMo, Uninor) have competed for market share," he said. He adds that consolidation will be required to fundamentally change the profitability of the market and data revenue will become important and offset flattening voice growth.

Looking ahead into 2011, Mathews feels the launch of 3G services will not only lead to introduction of new VAS applications but also give a boost to initiatives such as e-education and telemedicine.

"With minimal fixed line broadband penetration in the country, 3G will be the quickest way for Indian consumers to experience Mobile Broadband and also help improve productivity in rural areas, catalyzing an overall improvement in the quality of life of the rural masses".

"While 3G will receive a lot of focus from operators in 2011, adoption is likely to be slow and the in-year financial impact minimal", cautions Keefe.

"By the end of 2011 we should have a good sense of who is winning and losing. We have seen in global markets that it takes a while for 3G to move from being a technology to an actual compelling customer proposition. Even the more recent rollout of 3G in China has seen only 4% adoption after two years of marketing and visible government support," he adds. Experts believe that in the first instance, 3G will be used by many operators to improve their overall network quality and retain voice customers.

One added challenge in India is the fractured mandate delivered by the 3G auction. Operators don't have national footprints. It is likely therefore that there could be partnerships across operators to knit together a national offering. "What we will see is a lot of innovation in terms of the offering, with mobile operators creating value-added data services – either in house or via partnership. This requires a new set of skills from the operator," Keefe predicts.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is not expected to cause a major disruption or significantly shift market shares. While established players have the most to lose given their large customer bases, they also have strong propositions and can benefit from lessons learned from global markets that have already transitioned to MNP. India has very high churn rates already. While MNP may have a one-time impact, it is likely that the winners will be those who are already winning the net acquisition battle.source

Airtel Bangladesh ties up with Comviva to enhance VAS growth

Seeking to increase low subscriber numbers, Airtel Bangladesh has tied up with Comviva to offer subscribers unique SMS facilities.
In a significant move to leverage VAS for the relatively low-penetration mobile market in Bangladesh, Airtel Bangladesh – a strategic arm of Bharti Airtel India, has tied up with Comviva to provide unique SMS facilities.
The messaging solutions that cover Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Short Message Service Center (SMSC) and BMG (Bulk Messaging Gateway) portfolio will drastically reduce overall cost around Airtel Bangladesh's operator portal, and will also provide the operator with a single-window web-based environment to access, create, execute and manage services.
According to Chris Tobit, CEO & MD, Airtel Bangladesh, “With SMS traffic enjoying continued strong growth, we needed a proven solution to manage the increased load without making major investment. We selected Comviva's messaging solutions to efficiently route traffic over our existing network infrastructure and deliver an improved level of service to our customers.”
Aimed at increasing SMS usage by Airtel Bangladesh subscribers, the solution will optimally deliver messages with minimal latency during periods of intense continuous traffic. Rich SMS features such as SMS Upload, SMS Storage, SMS Forward, SMS Copy, Auto Reply, Email notification, SMS Signature and Web Portal, are also some of the unique offerings.
Says Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva, “Comviva is working with all the leading mobile operators in Bangladesh to provide them with end-to-end mobile solutions beyond VAS. We see our messaging solution supporting airtel as they extend their service to newer segments across the country.”
Bangladesh, which has a mobile penetration of just over 30%, is expected to reach a 100 mn subscriber mark by 2015.The country has ARPU's as low as $2-3 per month, and there has been a limited uptake on MVAS.
Talking about how such sms services could help in reversing these statistics, Parminder Kaur Saini, Program Manager, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia & Middle East says, “Launching Value added SMS services in the region could help Airtel increase its subscriber share and generate higher revenues. While the complete bouquet of VAS services would be imperative with the launch of 3G expected early this year, this launch becomes essential and crucial.”
Bharti Airtel, which is the leading operator in India added over 3 mn mobile subscribers in October 2010, according to TRAI. MVAS has been one of the major drivers for its continued growth in this market as well.