DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TELECOM SCENE - some facts to listen, some facts to rejoice and some to ponder on issues



The latest developments in the Indian mobile telecommunication market is very interesting and points to better future.

The geographical coverage of mobile telephony in India has gone up from 13 percent, a couple of years ago, to 39 percent now.
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the unique tender that has been floated for rural areas, that incentivises infrastructure sharing by offering operators access to the USO

fund. New developments in the offing include the mobile instant messenger, the sharing of bad debt data between operators, the setting

up of a subscriber Ombudsman (very soon) and the Expatriate Mobile Money Transfer Project (EMMT).

Low ARPUs and low tariffs mean that the real revenue will come from VAS – 90 percent of subscribers in India use SMS, and volumes

are expected to grow. Apparently the government is going to crash prices for 3G and grow the market. The spectrum is scarce, so first

the metros are going to get it. 3G is the cheapest way for wireless broadband, a content rich mobility experience, the cheapest way for

mobile broadband and social initiatives like telemedicine. The new 3G Policy is expected around April from the Telecom Ministry.
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Among the top five countries with over 100mn subs, India has the lowest number of mobile phones per 100.

Couple that with low tariffs, and great utility, and you have great potential for growth. While the Urban Teledensity in India is at 49.5%

it is pity that our Rural teledensity is a paltry 1.84%
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Valuation of the Indian Telecom Sector is $100bn, and it contributes 13% of the GDP. Rs.10000 crores of FDI inflow in India, of which

the mobile sector has 30% of the amount. Also 25MHZ is already available to be freed up by the defense in the 2.1Ghz band, and they

have to vacate another 20mhz. India has a target of 250 million subscribers by 2007 end, 500 million by 2010.

There are plans to increse the coverage in all villages with more than 1000 people .

The mobile industry has gained momentum in the country but the rural India hasn't participated yet. Services have continued to remain

voice based and cheaper 3G handsets are important for high speed data transfer via the mobile. Mobile penetration would alleviate the

need for internet penetration since solutions for Internet are not up to the mark. Telecom operators need to reduce tariffs further for rural

penetration – the numbers take care of the ARPU (Average Revenue per User) and the economics. Mobile phones have to be recognized

as an economic driver.

More the communication more the development


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p.natarajan