DoT seeks Trai's views on M&As

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to give its views on guidelines for mergers and acquisitions, usage of different technologies by licensees and a cap on number of players in a circle.

Nripendra Misra, chairman, Trai said: "The department has sought our views on 3-points -- mergers and acquisitions, viable number of licencees in each service area and different usage of technology by licensees. We will be issuing a consultation paper seeking stakeholders views in the next 7-8 days."

On the issue of whether CDMA players can operate on GSM technology in a larger manner, Trai's decision could well decide the fate of Reliance Communications, which is aspiring to enter the GSM space in a pan-Indian presence and has thus applied for spectrum.

DoT has asked Trai to find out what would be the viable of number of operators in a service area. Currently, there are five to six operators in a circle.

The current M&A guidelines, which were announced in 2004, were to be eviewed after a year but have not been done so far. The guidelines stipulate that the combined or merged entity cannot hold more than 15 MHz of spectrum in Metro and A category circles and 12.4 MHz spectrum in B and C circles.

Mobile users on internet 24x7 with Star's new initiative

Media giant Star India has launched an internet facility for mobile users, especially targeted at small-end and rural users.

The new mobile application termed PLUS is at present available for free and is accessible on Hutch, Idea, BPL, BSNL, Spice and MTNL.

"Star India is aiming at a small-end user with a high-end handset to explore the range of internet without a computer and access the net for free," Viren Popli, Senior Vice President, Star India Mobile Entertainment told PTI.

"The facility we hope will benefit all mobile users but we are targeting the rural user," Popli said, adding "the repertoire of data is quite large."

"Mobile users can try out the deal for a month for free and if they choose to stay with it we will charge a minimal monthly subscription of Rs 30 for PLUS," Popli said.

A myriad avenues can be explored on PLUS which is "a one-stop gateway to entertainment, information and services," Yash Khanna also of Star India said.

Star has effected a two-way tie up with data providers and mobile service providers including Hutch, BSNL, Idea, BPL, Spice and MTNL who will make PLUS available to their users.

"So far it is a Rs 15 crore investment by Star India," he said.

The PLUS bouquet includes synopses of T V serials, video clippings, MTV and other music videos, banking data, travel data and news, sports and entertainment updates. "It is the largest repertoire in India."

PLUS also offers a TV Guide for programme schedules, mobile banking with HDFC (allowing you to check your bank balance and last 3 transactions), Mobile Travel & ticketing with Makemytrip and Travelguru, Yellow Pages information search and Astrology.

"We go much further than any other such programmes offered by anyone else in the country," Popli said, adding "ours is holistic approach."

"The mobile phone is a powerful device and to reach out to the masses through that instrument is to open a new pathway in communication and connectivity," Popli said.

"Mobiles have become multi-media devices but their usage in India is limited. Many consumers today have a high-end mobile phone and want to do more, seeking entertainment and information on the go," he said.

"It is a rapidly growing niche we are confident PLUS can exploit it," Popli said.

Early PLUS subscribers will also be eligible for discounts by service partners, Popli added.

Telecom customer satisfaction level dips: TRAI

As the mobile user base balloons, the overall customer satisfaction level is dipping across the country with only seven out of 129 licensees meeting the benchmark of 95 per cent, reflecting an abysmally low of 5.42 per cent operators meeting the criteria.

TRAI today released the report on Customer Satisfaction Survey of the Basic and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Quality of Service (QOS) for the quarter ending 31st December 2006.

In Metro circles only Bharti-Mumbai, BPL-Mumbai, Reliance- Mumbai and Tata-Mumbai meet the benchmark and in A Circle Hutch-AP, Reliance Communications-AP and Tata- AP meet the benchmark. The poor performance ranges among all the operators in Punjab (69-85 per cent), West Bengal (75-88 per cent), North East (74-79 per cent) & Orissa (75-88 per cent) circles.

The customer perception of the parameter network performance is poor as only 20 out of 129 operators (15.5 per cent) meet the benchmark. In Metro Circle all the operators in Mumbai are meeting the benchmark.

On billing in the case of post paid segment, overall 48.76 per cent of the licensees achieved the satisfaction level of 90 per cent and in pre-paid segment the number of licensees who achieved this level was 81.39 per cent.

In Basic Service Overall Customer satisfaction Benchmark of 95 per cent, only 40 out of 61 or 65.58 per cent service providers do not meet the benchmark.

Trai asks cell cos to speed up verification

Millions of mobile subscribers whose connections were deactivated during the verification drive despite submitting the requisite documents have reasons to cheer. Trai on Thursday directed all operators to accelerate the process of verification of documents submitted by the deactivated subscribers, and in case the documents are found in order, restore the connection within 24 hours.

It is estimated that mobile connections of about 10 million subscribers were deactivated during the recently concluded verification drive. Last year, following concerns expressed by security agencies that terrorists and anti-social elements were misusing mobile phones, the department of telecommunication had directed all service providers to carry out 100% verification of identity proofs of all existing subscribers by March 31, 2007.

Justifying the directive to all operators, Trai said, “It has come to the notice of Trai that as a result of the drive initiated by the service providers to carryout the verification process, a substantial number of connections have been deactivated. Trai has also received a number of complaints from subscribers regarding deactivation of their connection even after submission of all the required documents.”

Trai has also said that it has taken the matter (of disconnections) ‘seriously’ and has advised service providers to exercise maximum caution and restraint so that the subscribers in compliance of verification requirement are not put to any inconvenience.

Additionally, it has also directed them to ensure that all the re-activated subscribers get all their privileges and facilities like validity period and balance amount due to them as per their earlier agreements and tariff plans. In fact, Trai was forced to act after various consumer groups, including Telecom Watchdog, had sought its intervention. However, when contacted, most operators said that they had already put the verification of documents on the fast track.

“If the documents are found to be in order, we are activating such connections with immediate effect,” said an executive with an operator. “We have already activated the connections of those who have submitted valid verification documents,” added an executive from another service provider.

Cell, WLL services add 10.2 mn users in H1

The controversy over mobility turf notwithstanding, the Cellular and WLL mobile services have added 10.2 million users in first half of the current financial year, about five times of 2.14 million in the year-ago period.

"The growth rate during first half of the year over the base on the beginning of the financial year works out to 80 per cent against the figure of 30 per cent in corresponding period last year. If the same growth rate is maintained, the NTP 99 targets of teledensity of seven per cent by 2005 is likely to be met by December 2003, 15 months ahead of NTP 99 targets," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement in New Delhi.

TRAI said the total additions to cellular and WLL combined during April-September 2003 stood at 10.20 million, which is around five times the addition of 2.14 million users during the corresponding period last year.

This takes the combined base of cellular subscribers and WLL subscribers to over 23 million.

During the first six months of the current financial year about 5.70 million cellular and 4.48 million WLL mobility and 0.02 million fixed line subscribers were added, making it a total of 10.20 million additions.

During September 2003, about 0.9 million cellular subscribers and 0.82 million WLL mobility subscribers were added as compared to 1.09 million cellular subscribers and 0.68 WLL subscribers in August 2003, it said.

Ericsson, Nokia set to get $5-bn BSNL deal as Motorola relents

Telecom majors Ericsson and Nokia are set to bag a $5-billion tender floated by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for 63.5 million GSM mobile lines after another vendor, Motorola, decided to withdraw a legal challenge.

The Schaumburg, (Illinois)-based Motorola had moved the Delhi High Court on October 9, 2006 following its disqualification from BSNL’s tendering process on technical grounds. The court had restrained BSNL from awarding the contract.



BSNL chairman & managing director AK Sinha said the contract letter would be awarded by the end of April and the first phase of the rollout would begin by year-end.

In a statement, Motorola said, “In view of the tremendous growth taking place in the telecom sector in the country and BSNL’s petition of capacity constraints to have its share in this expansion, Motorola has decided to withdraw the case filed in the Delhi High Court.” It, however, clarified that the withdrawal did not reflect any change in its original position that its bid was in compliance with the tender conditions.

Sweden’s Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder in the 45.5-million GSM lines tender, quoting about $107 per line, followed by Finland’s Nokia, which quoted about $177 per line.

Under the BSNL tender, the lowest bidder gets 60% of the contract while the second lowest bidder gets the remaining 40% at the lowest quoted price. Another 18 million lines is reserved for state-owned ITI Ltd, which has a tie-up with French major Alcatel.

Trai opens access to cable landing system

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday issued a draft regulation mandating open access to cable landing stations. This move is expected to offer bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates. The regulation talks about new ILD operators and internet service providers (ISPs) having access to the capacity at cable landing stations, “in the same way as the consortium members”.

Also, the TRAI regulation states that charges must be transparent and non-discriminatory to both consortium members and non-members. By stepping up competition in the market, this regulation would ultimately result in reduction in the price of international private leased circuits.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units, call centres, banks, small and medium enterprises, ISPs and IT-enabled service providers. Also, international long distance (ILD) operators require bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls.

This regulation was needed because some operators have been facing problems while accessing bandwidth capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator, TRAI said.Regulators in many countries have recognised that submarine landing station is an essential bottleneck facility and there is a potential for the owner of the cable landing station to deny access and prevent competition from new entrants, according to TRAI.

“In order to prevent the misuse of dominant power by the incumbent operator, various countries have enforced specific obligations on the incumbents owning submarine cable system by applying the general interconnect agreement,” the regulator said.

Trai not in favour of mobile infra sharing

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is understood to have ruled out mandatory sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators, and has instead proposed allowing active networks like antennae, feeder, cables and transmission equipment to be shared among them.

In its recommendations to be announced next week, the regulator has proposed that active infrastructure cannot be ruled out, and it should always be looked at as an option.

Active infrastructure sharing will reduce costs of setting up network for the operators and help in faster roll-outs. "We had asked the question whether active infrastructure sharing should be allowed or not, and operators have favoured the idea in different ways," a senior Trai official said in the consultation paper.

Airtel Easy Mail for Billing Customers

Airtel has launched a new email solution called "Easy Mail" for its enterprise users.

"Easy Mail" enables Airtel post paid subscribers in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) circle to check mails on the move.

The Airtel Enterprise Edition is accessible in two options; unlimited usage for Rs 899, or Rs 199 with 5 paisa/10 KB download.

Customers can access emails that work on push-based technology, wherein emails are directly pushed to handsets as soon as they reach the mailbox, instead of having to log on to the service provider's server in order to check for new mails.

And unlike SMS-based services, mobile mail is delivered through a graphical interface on GPRS-enabled handsets. The mails arrive on mobile handsets in exactly the same way they arrive on the mail server - with support for most popular attachments such as Word, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint.

According to Christopher Tobit, CEO of Bharti Airtel, Delhi and NCR, GPRS-based email solutions offer a high degree of functionality at an affordable cost.

Airtel is also offering "Easy Mail" in its Internet avataar, wherein customers will be able to access personal Web-based emails through a GPRS-enabled handset even while on the go.

Telcos hang up on USO fund

The whole logic behind the setting up of a Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to promote rural telephony seems to have gone for a toss. With high subscriber growth and rock bottom call rates increasing usage, operators don't seem to be in need of any support from USOF to roll out operations in the once unprofitable hinterland.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Aircel submitted negative bids for some of the active infrastructure slots in the bidding process for setting up telecom infrastructure in rural areas, implying they will pay to the USOF instead of taking its support. Others, like Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), also submitted zero bids, showing they also did not need any support.

Industry analysts contend that while it may be too early to write off the fund, USOF needs to have a re-look at its approach to rural telephony. "The whole approach to the USOF seems to have got skewed. The challenge is to reach out to people in villages by giving them a choice between mobile and basic services. This does not seem to be happening given the over emphasis on mobile telephony at the expense of basic services," a BSNL official told ET.

In 2005, DoT had launched Rural Direct Exchange Line (RDEL) scheme to offer basic services in rural areas. That scheme has ended on March 31 this year and was not extended by USO fund despite BSNL and industry body AUSPI demanding its extension to complete roll out targets.

All telecom companies pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenues (AGR) towards the USOF, which is used for funding telecom infrastructure in rural India. As per DoT's estimates, the unutilised USO funds stands at Rs 9,194.12 crore (around $2bn) as of March 07. "In case operators don't want to be compensated for providing rural connectivity, the contribution for USOF should be reduced from 5% to 1%," he said.

Rural tele-density is around 2% and has been growing at an extremely slow pace. The inability of USOF to ensure its full and optimum utilisation has led to huge balances in the fund and equally huge gaps in rural teledensity.

"Rural pockets that were earlier unviable are now profitable. Affordability has increased and operators don't need USOF support. There is a need to revisit the contribution to and utilisation of USO fund," Gartner India senior research analyst Neha Gupta said.

Operators across the globe contribute to similar "universal service funds". In the US, operators paid close to $7bn last year towards USF for telephony in low-cost high-usage areas. "But zero bidding and negative bidding is unique to the Indian market. It also shows that USOF needs to make itself more usable," said another analyst.

Ms Gupta said there is no need for high USO fund. "It'll be more profitable for operators who can pass on the benefit to users. Costs which are not natural to the company should be cut as it will benefit both companies and consumers," she added.

Idea reduces ISD rates by 80 paise per min

After Airtel and Hutch, cellular operator Idea, an Aditya Birla Group Company, has lowered ISD rates by 80 paise per minute.

Idea consumers will now have to pay Rs 6.40 per minute for calls to the US, Canada, Europe and Hong Kong instead of the earlier Rs 7.20 and Rs 9.19 for other destinations instead of Rs 9.99 earlier, a company statement said on Monday.

To rest of the world (II), consumers would have to pay Rs 49.20 per minute instead of the earlier Rs 50.

Hutch and Bharti Airtel had reduced ISD rates from March 31 by 80 paise per minute, following TRAI's decision to reduce by 37 per cent the Access Deficit charge - a levy paid by private operators to state-run BSNL for rolling out telecom services in rural areas.