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| Wednesday, November 26, 2008 |
| Subscribers Cross 5 Million - Users Double in 12 Months |
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 Small number yet great news to Indians. Just a while ago we got numbers from TRAI and broadband subscribers have crossed the 5 million mark - 5.05 mn at the end of Oct-08. This is a 100% rise in the number of subscribers between Oct-07 and Oct-08. India added more than 100,000 users in the month of Oct-2008.
Can India deliver the promise of the National Telecom Policy of achieving 20 mn subscribers by 2010 ? It is certainly doable if they grow at 100% over the next 2 years. We should really be thankful to WiMax the disruptive technology that can help the Government achieve this goal as they are going to remove the last hurdle in the way of Telecom Operators by auctioning the spectrum on Jan-16, 2009.
It is reliably learnt that Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom / Communications and Aircel [subsidiary of Malaysian telco Maxis] are going to bid aggressively to reserve a place for their wireless broadband spectrum. All the three operators are offering WiMax broadband services, of course they have some problems which need to be addressed. Maxis is a big wireless broadband service provider in Malayasia and doesn't want to lose this opportunity in India.
With falling ARPU in Wireless Services [Rs 271 / month], broadband internet [ARPU per month Rs 1,668] offering can continue to fill the coffers of Telcos provided they treat customers like king :-) |
Published on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 2:31 AM  |
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| Wednesday, November 19, 2008 |
| WiMax Internet - Differences - US Vs India |
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Indian operators, Tata Indicom Broadband and Reliance Broadband took the initiative to stand up to the National Telecom Policy's target of 20 mn broadband users by 2010 and introduce wireless broadband services using WiMax technology. However, we went ahead and did a little study on how WiMax offering in India is different from that of its peers in the US.
Sprint Nextel, third largest Telco in the US has started offering Wireless Broadband services powered by WiMax under the brand name Xohm [read it as Zoom]. The Goal of Xohm is to have Mobile Broadband anywhere in the city and their network is designed to treat the entire city as one big hot-spot.
Xohm offers two popular plans - broadband at home as well as broadband on the go. Speed offered is 768 Kbps.
- Xohm broadband at home - you require a Xohm modem. Subscription $35 / month.
- Xohm broadband on the go - you require Xohm express card [plugs into your laptop's PCMCIA slot] / Xohm USB card [fits in your USB slot, size of a pen drive] Alternatively, you can have Wimax ready Laptops and skip buying this accessory. Subscription costs $45/month
Now compare this to the offering in India. Speed offered is mere 256 Kbps to 512Kbps [Sorry, but these are just vocal promises and what you get is what you have to accept] In India, ISPs will plug an antenna on your roof-top and is wired to a modem inside your home. One, quite understandable problem is the weak signals / interferance due to poor city planning. But adding to customers woes were DHCP and others issues which were mainly due to poor IT implementations by ISPs. Wimax broadband on the go is absent in India.
Going forward, Sprint Nextel plans to introduce, telephone services on the same WiMax network and devices. This is not possible with Indian ISPs [licensing issue is one hurdle and the others on Telcos part are cost, scalability and extensibility, which are not given a thought]
In order to help the Indian telcos scale up and offer reliable seamless broadband services, Sprint Nextel is setting up Telecom and Broadband management consultancy here in India. Motorola and Samsung are gearing to be network vendors for Telcos in the WiMax space. Hopefully Indians will receive happy Wimax signals to smile with their counterparts across the globe :-)Labels: Wimax |
| Published on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 9:41 PM |
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| Wednesday, November 12, 2008 |
| Revenues of ISPs for Q2-FY2009 |
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 We have always wondered how big is the Indian ISP market. To quench our thirst, we filtered through various reports from DoT, Quarterly Results of Telecom companies and TRAI and have compiled the data set. [We were unable to obtain Revenue figures for ISPs like YouTelecom, Hathway, Zee etc] Let us know if you can find the same.
Here are the top Internet Service Providers of India based on their gross revenues. [The ones excluded are certainly not amongst the top-5, we can tell that based on the subscriber numbers] for Q2-FY09 [June-Sept]
- Reliance Broadband - Rs 602 cr [includes enterprise + residential]
- BSNL - Rs 360 cr
- Bharti Airtel Broadband - V-Sat Rs 2.46 cr + Rs 314 cr = Rs 315 cr [Not sure if it includes enterprise market as the company reports separate results for enterprise]
- Tata Communications - Rs 158 cr
- MTNL - Rs 115.03 cr
- Sify - Rs 36 cr
- Dishnet Wireless Ltd - Aircel - Rs 8.59 cr
- HCL Infinet - Rs 3.19 cr
- Rail-Tel - RailWire broadband Rs 1.29 cr
Together, the above ISPs reported Gross Revenues of Rs 1,598 cr [ $347 mn @ Rs 46 / USD] If we include Government, Corporates, Data Centers then Indian ISP market has ~ revenues of USD 500 mn a quarter and growing.Labels: Quarterly-ISP-Revenues |
| Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 2:07 AM |
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| Tuesday, November 04, 2008 |
| BSNL unveils virtual conference solutions |
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 State owned BSNL is all set to cash-in on the Indian Economic slowdown and rising Air travel costs by offering bundled products such as Virtual Conferencing solutions to Small and Medium businesses.
BSNL in collaboration with CEPL, an Indo-US joint venture is offering this solution. So hwo is this different from your Yahoo! or IM chat clients ? This tools provide audio, video and data-conferencing using next-generation software with IP-based technology on desktops. Additionally, they offer conferencing, data-sharing features, document-sharing, chat, whiteboard and a video feature that enables all members to view each other during the meeting.
Virtual Conference plans come at an additional cost in addition to your BSNL broadband and tentative pricing as announced by BSNL Bangalore is Rs 5 to Rs 12 per minute.Labels: BSNL Broadband |
| Published on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 at 2:59 PM |
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