Idea Cellular believes that LTE is not a threat to its business model and is confident that data prices do not have scope for much reduction from current levels. Idea highlighted that globally there are 5b EDGE customers, 1b 3G customers and 0.1b LTE customers and there is room for each category of operators. Also, while Idea has not acquired BWA spectrum in 2.3Ghz band, there are various bands which can be used for LTE and Idea could consider offering LTE services when it feels the market is ready for these services. [Idea Cellular recently Won Liberalized Spectrum in 7 Circles and thus it can be used to launch 4G / LTE or any Data Services]
On the Conference Call, Idea CEO Himanshu Kapania wasted more than 30 minutes going over and over the same things reported by Company & the Press. The company continued to invest in both 2G and 3G network adding more sites in 4Q compared to the earlier three quarters. 21.6% of Idea’s subscribers now use its data services. The company mentioned that 8% of its subscriber base or 10m of its customers currently own a smartphone.
The Following Chart shows the Operating Metrics of 2G vs 3G for Idea Cellular
hi Chetan,
great stats.
Btw, the price per MB in your table should be in paise??