AUSPI Opposes One-time Spectrum Charge, Alleges It Will Favour Existing Operators

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the industry body of new telecom operators, has opposed the one-time charge for spectrum already held by existing licensees for the remaining period, stating it will favour incumbent GSM operators.

The Department of Telecommunications had proposed that once the price of spectrum is fixed for the upcoming auction, the existing operators should be asked to pay the price for the spectrum they currently hold. However, the government is yet to take a decision on the same.

Terming the proposal as “highly discriminatory” against its members, AUSPI said that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular would have 8, 10 and 9 licenses respectively due for renewal out of 22 licenses in 2014 to 2016 and these companies have paid much lower amount than Rs. 1,659 crores on Pan India basis for acquiring their Pan India licenses.

The association also said that metros and most of category A circles will be due for renewal in 2014 to 2016, which have much higher spectrum fee than category B and C circles. The three incumbent operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea will be paying only for 2 to 4 years for highly priced circles, Aircel would be paying for 8 to 12 years, while Reliance and Tata will be paying for both GSM and CDMA spectrum for 8 to 12 years, it said.

The DoT has proposed that instead of charging for spectrum held beyond 4.4 MHz, incumbents should be asked to pay for the entire spectrum that they hold in order to ensure a level playing field among operators.

MTNL Mumbai Cuts 3G Tariffs; 1 GB 3G Data Plans Now Start Rs. 76

Finally here is a great news for MTNL 3G customers in Mumbai, India’s first 3G Mobile Service provider Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today slashes 3G Tariffs and also launched of 3 new 3G Data Plans starting from just Rs. 76 for its subscribers in Mumbai circle.

With the new price reduction for 3G rates, Now postpaid and prepaid 3G data subscribers will get 300 MB free 3G data usage for Rs. 99 while 1.1 GB 3G data will be available for Rs. 250 per month/30 days, 2.2 GB of 3G data for Rs. 450 per month.

Apart from the revision of Monthly 3G Data Plans, MTNL also introduces 3 New Plans for Rs. 76, Rs.126 and Rs. 650 offering 1 GB 3G Data for 7Days, 1GB 3G Data for 15 Days and 3.3 GB 3G Data for 30 days respectively for prepaid customers in Mumbai customers.

The revised and new plans will be available for all prepaid or postpaid customers from 1st June, 2012 in Mumbai circle and can be used while National Roaming in all circles across India without any extra data charge.

3G Plan	Existing Free 3G Data Usage	Revised Free 3G Data Usage	Validity
Rs. 99	130 MB	300 MB	30 Days
Rs. 250	500 MB	1.1 GB	30 Days
Rs. 450	1 GB	2.2 GB	30 Days
Rs. 750	2 GB	4.4 GB	30 Days
New 3G Data Plans :
Plan	Free 3G Data Usage		Validity
Rs. 76	1 GB		7 Days
Rs. 126	1 GB		15 Days
Rs. 650	3.3 GB		30 Days

The all anove plans will be available only via On-line Recharge or E-topup at MTNL CSC and retailers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan -Dombivali. Beyond Free usage, 3G Data charges will be 2p/10KB.

MTNL also offering True Unlimited Monthly Plan for Rs. 1650, and Rs. 2500 Unlimited 3G Usage valid for 60 days. While low cost 3G Data Pack for Rs. 1190 offers 3G Data usage up to 9 GB valid for 90 Days and (3 months) and 15 GB 3G Data for Rs. 1200 valid for 30 days from the date of recharge or activation.

BSNL Cuts 3G Tariffs; 1 GB 3G Data Plans Now Starts at Rs. 151

Finally here is a great news for BSNL 3G customers , India’s first 3G Mobile Service provider BSNL is all set to slash its 3G tariff starting 01.06.2012.

Starting 1st of next month BSNL will offer new 3G Plan which is competitive BSNL new 3G plans are as below.

1GB will now be available  in Rs. 151 which will have validity for  7 days, 1.25 GB in 250 and 2.5 GB in 450 for 30 days.

The revised and new plans will be available for all prepaid and postpaid customers from 1st June, 2012 and can be used while National Roaming in all circles across India without any extra data charge.

The existing STV of Rs. 10 and Rs. 200 will be withdrawn starting Just 1st along with that the additional usage charged beyond free data usage list for 2G and 3G prepaid data plan STV data usage charges for prepaid voice plans has been revised from 04p/10k to 02p/10kb.

India Adds 6.87 Million GSM Subscribers in March 2012 – Airtel Leads

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today released India’s ‘GSM Subscriber Figures for March 2012.

Bharti Airtel tops in the new subscriber additions, added a total of 2.5 million new GSM subscribers followed by IDEA Cellular added the 2nd largest number of subscribers with 2.01 million in March. Bharti Airtel now has more than 181 million GSM customers with a 27.22% market share.

According to the data released by COAI total 6.87 million new GSM subscribers added with 1.04% increase from previous month taking the all-India GSM cellular subscriber base to 664.08 million at the end of March 2012.

Videocon once again lost 0.25 million subscribers. The user base of Videocon stood at 5.95 million.AIRCEL also lost 0.68 million customers and its subscriber base was at 62.57 million.

Among the leading GSM Mobile Service Operators, Vodafone India added 1.02 million  new customers, boosting its subscriber base 150.46 million. Uninor that lost  licences in the SC’s 2G judgment, notched 1.29 million new customers. Its user base was at 42.43 million by March-end.

State run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 0.89 million  taking their subscriber base to 94.67 million. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) added 62399 new users during the month, boosting its total base to 5.93 million at the end of  March ’2011.

Other Operators such as STel, Etisalat DB (Cheers Mobile) and Loop Telecom (except Loop Mobile -Mumbai) have announced shutting down of mobile services as earlier we shared on TelecomTalk and are now helping their users move to other operators through Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

Please note : COAI GSM Subscriber base does not include the Reliance Communications (Rcom) and Tata Docomo’s GSM subscriber Base (same not submitted to COAI).

Tikona To Launch 4G – LTE Wireless Broadband Services Soon

Fourth generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum winner Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) geared up to launch Long Term Evolution (LTE -TDD) based High Speed 4G Wirelss Broadband service in Gujarat, Himachal Praesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and UP West beginning October 2012.

This follows Airtel’s launch of 4G Broadband services – the first of its kind in India which was launched in Kolkata as we shared on TelecomTalk.

According to Mr. Prakash Bjpai, CEO,Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) “There is lot of potential in teir 2 and tier 3 cities/towns and these markets are untaped. We will rolls out commercial 4G Wireless Broadband services initially from October 2012.”

In 2010 Tikona won BWA spectrum in 5 five key circles – Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh east and west covering 31% population of India for over Rs. 1,058 crore.

Reliance Infotel (RIL Group) in the only pan India spectrum winner for 4G / BWA service. Other winners are Bharti Airtel (4 circles) whcih has already launched India’s first 4G services in Kolkata, Aircel (8 circles), Tikona Wireless (5 circles), and Qualcomm (4 Circles) and MTNL (2 circles).

With all thease announcements, all eyes are on Pan India 4G – BWA spectrum winner, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Infotel’s broadband roll out plan. Now what do you think about 4G LTE roll out in India ? Will it be a gala success or future of 4G LTE will be just like 3G with limited access ?

4G in India – Success Depends on Operators’ Strategy

So it is official that Airtel will roll out TD-LTE (Time Division Long Term Evolution) based 4th generation mobile broadband services in Kolkata in this month. We also suggested that tariffs of Airtel 4G would be affordable as in that way they can bring mobile revolution. Though our readers are not keeping hopes with Airtel as the largest operator in India believes in premium pricing.

Recently GSMA predicts that within 2016 India will be the second largest wireless broadband market. It is not unnatural, as fixed broadband penetration is not good enough in India due to several factors like poor coverage by private players, monopoly of BSNL in fixed broadband market and pricing. So to offer broadband for all it is the better way to use wireless route to reach everyone.

India was late to enter 3G era, 3G is still not a good business case for operators as well as for consumers mostly due to high tariff and moderate coverage. Also operators are not pushing 3G, as they do have only 5 MHz spectrum more 3G users may lead to network choked. Handset pricing is another issue for 3G adoption. But with 4G there is not much delay as LTE started its journey by Teliasonera in Sweden & Norway in Decemeber 2009. India operators chose LTE over WiMAX. Currently most operators worldwide are commited to LTE deployment as the natural upgrade path from GSM/UMTS and CDMA.

In India BWA spectrum (20MHz x2) auctioned was in 2300MHz band, which is suitable for LTE-TDD. LTE-TDD is not a Chinese technology, rather inception of LTE-TDD was by 3GPP partners but the technology is hugely backed & matured by China Mobile. In the beginning of 2011 China Mobile had done their field trial but yet to offer commercial services. TD-LTE works via asymmetric use of unpaired spectrum – one band of spectrum for downlink and uplink.

Another version of LTE is FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplex) which uses dual band of spectrum – different band for downlink and uplink. Currently all commercial deployments of LTE are done using FDD-LTE. As a result the ecosystem behind FDD-LTE is more developed. As far as nearly 300 devices are available for FDD-LTE, as reported by GSA.

Indian operators especially RIL Infotel is taking LTE as fixed broadband alternative. Even Airtel has the plans to do same. If we check global scenario we can see Vodafone Germany is also on the way to dump DSL to propel LTE. But only problem in India is the spectrum band. In Germany two band of spectrum was auctioned at the same time – 800MHz and 2600MHz.

LTE on 800MHz means it will provide more coverage. So in Germany LTE-2600 is taken for urban broadband while rural broadband is on LTE on 800MHz. But here BWA players got spectrum on 2300MHz band which will not provide good coverage and indoor penetration.

And at this initial stage LTE coverage in India will be limited, may be in pockets and small cells will be deployed for better indoor coverage. If LTE tariff is not high and made affordable for dongle users, LTE can hit 3G and EVDO based dongle users in India at very first.

If we look into South Korea, there all the 3 operators (LG U+, SK Telecom and KT) are now on LTE and that’s too on 800MHz. Thus operators in Korea are pushing for LTE adoption, 3G is backdated there. But it does not mean India should auction 700MHz spectrum for BWA in a hurry. 2G scam made the whole telecom system in India unstable, foreign investors are not so keen to invest in Indian telecom market. So 2G auction should be done first and then question about 700 MHz BWA auction arises!

Rather we should wait for 2-3 years to mature TD-LTE on 2300MHz in India and then to push for rural wireless broadband via 700MHz LTE. Also note that LTE on 700MHz spectrum will be FDD type.OEMs who will supply devices for Indian LTE roll out, must be highly negotiated by operators to make the device price at a low level. Because Indian market is highly price sensitive. So tariff and device price should be made affordable.

As coverage of LTE in India is expected to be poor at this stage, smartphones will not do good. Even if only 3G & 4G compatiable phones are offered it will not do good as no operators has pan India 3G spectrum and 3G coverage is still poor. Also TD-LTE requires more power than FDD-LTE. So tablets and dongles are the safe bet right now. Dongles must be multimode (2G/CDMA/3G/LTE) supported.

As Infotel entered in several partnerships, it is expected that Value Added Services like e-Edu, Entertainment, Mobile TV etc will have attractive bouquets for 4G customers.

Now what do you think about LTE roll out in India? Will it be a gala success or future of LTE will be just like 3G?

Reliance Netconnect offers free antivirus & 10 GB data for Rs.300

Intense competition in data market is compelling operators to introduce luring offers . Reliance Netconnect is running an offer for its EVDO data card Netconnect+ in Delhi-NCR region.

On purchase of Reliance Netconnect+ for Rs.1199/- a customer gets Antivirus worth Rs.1000/- free . Over and above that customer also gets free data downloads at very low rates for the first month only through FRCs (First Recharge coupon).


The details of the offer:

Buy Netconnect + data card for Rs.1199/-

Get 3GB data on recharge with FRC Rs.50 (data download valid for first one month only)
or Get 10GB data on recharge with FRC of Rs.300 (valid for first one month)
Free Antivirus worth Rs.1000/-

The banners on display in Delhi-NCR gives an idea as if Reliance has reduced the data rates substantially and 3GB data is available only for Rs.50. However closer scrutiny reveals that the offer is only valid for first month beyond that prevailing tariffs will apply.

MTNL 3G Data Card Now For Rs. 1450

India’s first 3G Mobile service operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL)  slashed the price of its plug-n-play 3G USB Dongle (3G Data Card)from Rs.1699 to Rs.1450 for its customer in Delhi telecom circle.

MTNL’s 3G Data card (Terracom LW272) is now available at all MTNL Sanchar Haat across Delhi for Rs.1450 only. The operator offers free 3G prepaid SIM card and free data transfers (Download and Upload) up to 1 GB for 1 months on the purchase of 3G Data Card.

MTNL also offers attractive 3G data tariff plans for postpaid and prepaid starts from Rs.20 to Rs.5000 in Delhi circle. The default 3G data access charges is 1p/12KB which is also lowest compare to all other 3G service providers in India.

MTNL 3G Data Card (Terracom LW272) will enable anytime, anywhere instant High Speed wireless Internet connectivity up to 3.6 Mbps for laptops and other computing devices, thereby significantly benefiting business users, roamers and travelers.

Idea Cellular Hikes Prepaid Tariffs For Existing Customers

The existing prepaid customers of Idea in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will now be charged 1.3 paisa per second instead of the usual 1.2 paisa per second charged till 31st March.We believe that the same tariff will be implemented in rest of the circles in coming days.

All customers having spent 90 days on Idea’s network will be charged 1.3 paisa per second after the completion of 90 days validity of the introductory tariff of 1 paisa per 2 second.

A leading telecom retailer from Bhopal shared on condition of anonymity that all major telecom operators who acquire new customers offer 1 paisa per 2 seconds through the Special Value component, also called the tariff cutter portion, of the First Recharge Voucher for a period of 90 or 180 days. After the completion of these 90 or 180 days from the date of first recharge, operators shifted the users to the tariff of 1.2 paisa per second.

All operators including Idea, Airtel and Vodafone have been following this practice to avoid inconvenience to customers and ensure value for money. But since 1st April, the ‘existing customers’ (90 days old) of Idea have been charged 1.3 paisa per second which is an incremental cost of 0.1 paisa per second.

When we checked the MP and Chhattisgarh tariffs of Idea, Airtel and Vodafone available from the symbolic plan vouchers of Rs. 3, Rs. 2 and Rs. 7 respectively on the company websites and found out that while Airtel and Vodafone are still providing 1.2 paisa per second, Idea shows 1.3 paisa per second for all mobile calls and 1.5 paisa per second for all calls made to fixed line numbers.

What happened earlier

Earlier, operators had a singleFirst Recharge Voucher which helped in activation, offered a talk time balance and a tariff of 1 paisa per 2 seconds or half paisa per second.

TRAI instructed all operators across the country last month to simplify the construct and benefits offered by the First Recharge Vouchers. Idea Cellular, like other operators, broke the FRC into two different vouchers, one being the activation and talktime voucher and the other being the tariff voucher.After the tariff voucher, the customer could enjoy 1 paisa per 2 seconds or half paisa per second for 180 days.If you do not do the tariff recharge, you would remain at the rack rate of Re. 1 per min.

After the completion of 180 days, instead of shifting the customers back to Re 1 per min, operators shifted them to 1.2 paisa per second. Airtel and Vodafone are still doing this.

What Idea has done now

Idea has introduced a Re 3 voucher which would shift the customer to 1.3 paisa per sec instead of 1.2 paisa (standard industry rate) for Local and STD and 1.5 paisa per sec for Fixed line.While other operators continue to offer 1.2 paisa per sec to customer after 180 days, Idea has started giving 1.3 paisa, therefore more expensive for the mass users.

How do you look at this move from Idea do let us know via comments.

Idea Offers 3GB Unlimited 3G Services On Mobile and NetSetter For Rs. 750

Idea Cellular, today announced new 3G Data plans for its prepaid and postpaid mobile customers in Maharashtra and Goa.

The new data plans will now allow Idea prepaid and postpaid 3G customers to experience unlimited 3G services (with speed cap after 3 GB) for Rs. 750 for post-paid customers and Rs. 950 pre-paid customers.

Idea has taken Maharashtra and Goa as a big leap in driving the penetration of 3G data services in the region has introduced these innovative unlimited 3G data plan for its customers there by becoming 1st GSM operator to have 3G unlimited plans on Mobile Phone and Data Cards.

IDEA Unlimited 3G Plan Details

IDEA Unlimited Postpaid 3G

Device	Monthly Rent (Rs.)	Benefit
Mobile & NetSetter	750	Unlimited usage. Post 3GB, speed of up to 128 Kbps
Mobile & NetSetter	950	Unlimited usage. Post 6 GB, speed of up to 128 Kbps

IDEA Unlimited PREPAID 3G

Recharge	Monthly Rental (Rs.)	Benefit
For new NetSetter Customers	949	Unlimited usage. Post 6 GB, speed of up to 128 Kbps
For Existing Mobile & NetSetter Customers	950

To know more about Idea’s 3G services, customers can log on to  idea3g.co.in  mobile users can experience 3G services at select ‘My Idea’ stores across the circles.

ZTE To Manage 4G Network For Airtel Kolkata

Rumor came true as Airtel has selected ZTE Corporation to supply and deploy its 4G network in Kolkata we already informed about the development back in March 22 and now its official. 

The forthcoming launch of 4G services, will allow Bharti Airtel subscribers to experience, high speed wireless internet access that can support bandwidth intensive applications, support video streaming and high-definition video conferencing. Airtel will launch 4G services using TD-LTE technology.

ZTE  will offer full range of LTE base stations, including widely distributed macro stations. It has won 30 contracts for LTE commercial application and has deployed test networks in cooperation with more than 100 operators across the globe.

Sanjay Kapoor, CEO Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) said, “According to industry estimates, by 2016 – 6% of all mobile connections will have 4G connection, which would create 36% of the total mobile data traffic – thus paving way for the ensuing data revolution. The impending launch of 4G in the country will provide ultra high speed data access, driving fundamental changes in society at large. We look forward to the launch of 4G technology in India, which will be timed to match the world in its launch.”