Archive for 'telecom' Category
How Spectrum Sharing is a Win-Win for Reliance Industries + Reliance Communications
India’s DoT allowed spectrum sharing between operators with a higher levy based on the combined spectrum of both the operators. For example, if player A with 4.4MHz spectrum and player B with 4.4MHz spectrum agree to share spectrum, both had to pay spectrum charges on 8.8MHz. The norm allowed collaboration between operators as operators could share spectrum and infrastructure.
Spectrum sharing allowed two service providers to pool their spectrum resources, quickly roll-out services and increase the coverage area while economizing on the cost of the network. Spectrum sharing had the potential to generate significant Read the rest of this entry »
Technology Neutral License + De-Linked from Spectrum
TRAI has issued Draft Guidelines on De-Linking all the Licenses from Spectrum. Currently, an operator needs to take separate licence for services such as mobile, fixed‐line, NLD, ILD, broadcasting, DTH and other allied telecom services. As going forward, the new licence will be technology‐neutral the operator can offer any telecom service. Service providers would have to separately apply/bid for requisite spectrum.
A single national level license is a step towards the One Nation-One License regime, as Read the rest of this entry »
Are Telecom Tariff Wars Back with Reliance Mera Pack + Uninor’s iGain Plans ?
Despite incumbents raised Voice Call prices in India, Uninor took a dare devil step to reduce tariffs with its iGain series of Special Tariif Vouchers. Just yesterday, Reliance Communications launched bucket plans (fixed number of minutes for a certain price) – Reliance Mera Pack targeted at heavy users across nearly all circles and on both GSM and CDMA platforms.
What will Reliance Gain out of Mera Pack Offer ? Back of the enevelope calculations suggest that RCOM is offering 500 off-net minutes in the Rs148 pack for an incremental Rs100 over the Rs48 on-net pack. Now, if a subscriber utilizes all these 500 off-net minutes, RCOM’s termination cost at the current Rs0.2/min works out to Rs100, leaving Rs 48 for the company.
Why did Reliance Launch Mera Pack Offer ? RCOM’s “mera Pack” launches may have been spurred by Uninor’s success with such plans. Uninor has seen solid minutes and revenue growth in the past few quarters on the back of its ‘low price’ offerings, including such bucket. We Read the rest of this entry »
Voice over LTE – What’s Stopping it from being used for Mobile Voice Calls ?
Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) has emerged as a preferred solution, but there are no clear-cut standards for designing VoLTE systems.
State of LTE For Voice – LTE is both a boon (for data) and bane (for voice) – standards for provisioning voice over LTE have not crystallized. Headroom for disruptive pricing, especially on voice, is limited. Then what about the LTE Phones that we have already written about ? If you read carefully, LTE Phones operate in Dual mode with 3G for Voice calls and LTE for Data Services.
Why can’t I use VoIP App with Underlying LTE Data Network ? Sure, you can when you are static and not on the move. Additionally, the proliferation of bands proposed for LTE is a major challenge. There are around 44 Read the rest of this entry »
4G 700 MHz Auctions – Why only to Select Few ? Open it to the World
The Indian Telecom Sector is in Deep mess with Rampant Corruption from the office of Telecom Ministry to DoT. The TRAI may recommend keeping the incumbents (those holding 900 MHz 2G spectrum) out from the first phase of auctioning of 700 MHz BWA spectrum. The idea behind this strategy is to level the playing field between incumbents and new entrants. Incumbents enjoy network capex and opex savings (approximately Rs 150bn and Rs 200bn respectively) by virtue of holding spectrally efficient 900 MHz band vs. 1800 MHz for new entrants.
This also means Allocation of 700 MHz spectrum would put existing holders of BWA spectrum (2300 MHz) at a significant disadvantage. The roll out costs in 700 MHz spectrum are about 1/3rd of the same in 2300 MHz spectrum. Read the rest of this entry »
TRAI to bring Call Termination fee to Zero by 2014
TRAI has proposed reducing termination charge from 20p to 10p from Jan1-12 with plans of eventually eliminating it by ’2014. The proposal came following Supreme Court’s directive to TRAI to evolve a new set of interconnect charges. This directive had been given on a petition filed by TRAI challenging TDSAT’s (Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal) order, which had set aside TRAI’s termination cut (in 2009) – from 30p to 20p.
Telecom Operator’s Traffic Estimates – The GSM in:out ratio of 52:48 and CDMA at 50:50 implies there is little impact assuming outgoing traffic remains the same. High proportion of on-net traffic – 43% in GSM Read the rest of this entry »
Download National Telecom Policy 2011 – Complete Analysis
We have obtained the Draft of National Telecom Policy 2011 – NTP 2011 Draft. Here are the proposals from the Government and our analysis on the same.
- Increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 35 to 60 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020.
- Broadband – Right to Every Indian – make broadband on demand available by the year 2015. 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017. 600 million by the year 2020.
- Broadband – Minimum Speed 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of atleast 100 Mbps on demand.
- Broadband Coverage to all Villages in India by 2014
- Broadband Minimum Speed to be upgraded to 512 kbps in 2011 and 2 Mbps by 2020
- 80% Indian telecom sector demand through domestic manufacturing with a value addition of 65% by the year 2020.
- Indian Mobile / Cellular / Wireless 2G Users have a reason to Cheer – One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation – Free Roaming.
- Spectrum – Make available a whopping 300 MHz for the industry by 2017 and 500 MHz to 2020
- Spectrum Act – Introduce a Spectrum Act in the Parliament to avoid 2G Kind of Scam. Delink the licensing of Networks from the delivery of Service to the end users to facilitate faster roll out of services
- Encourage Applications for Rural India, machine to Machine Communications etc
In short, the NTP 2011 is full of reforms for the Consumers. However, industry is seeking some direction and road-map as well to make large investments. You can Download the Entire National Telecom Policy Draft here.
How does the New Telecom Policy – NTP 2011 Look like ?
Based on interactions with DoT and TRAI officials we believe the draft NTP 2011 is likely to be out soon and post inviting and incorporating public suggestions the final policy is likely to be announced by the year end.
What will the new policy offer?
Spectrum availability and allotment: Roadmap in the new policy on spectrum availability and allotment.
Spectrum leasing to other operators: This will lead to optimal use of allotted spectrum, higher revenue for government and higher return on capital employed for operators. MVNOs may be permitted.
Any Spectrum Band for any Service – This will allow operators to offer voice and data services on any band of spectrum as long as the ecosystem is developed. Hence, operators who have won 2.3 GHz of spectrum [BWA / LTE Spectrum] under the UAS licence will be able to offer voice services if handsets are available. This, along with spectrum leasing, would help keep Read the rest of this entry »