Airtel Wakes up to Reliance Jio’s Challenge – Announces Project Leap
Bharti Airtel’s Sr. Management Team has finally woken up to the challenge posed by a $10 Bn startup called Reliance Jio Infocomm. Under the vision of Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Jio started as a Greenfield Telecom operator and has rolled out enviable Infrastructure if we believe in this presentation of Mr.Continue Reading
Videocon Makes Killing Selling 4G-LTE Spectrum to Idea in Gujarat / UP-West
Idea Cellular has announced purchase of 5MHz paired spectrum in the 1800MHz band in Gujarat and UP (West) circles from Videocon Telecom for INR 33.1bn. This purchase will enable Idea to launch 4G in these 2 circles (currently contribute 14.4% to revenue). Idea is the No. 1 operator by revenueContinue Reading
Indian eCommerce – When will Companies Profit ?
Most eCommerce companies in India have been burning cash on traffic/customer acquisition, investments in technology and people and investments in warehousing / fulfillment capabilities. Hence, the bottom line was to maximize GMV / revenue and traffic, and the availability of VC/PE funding helped some companies achieve it quickly. However, ofContinue Reading
Airtel 3G / 3G Platinum / 4G LTE Pan India Coverage by Q1-2016
The management of Bharti Airtel will attempt acceleration of India capex in FY16 by an additional $200-400m. Airtel will have enough capacity (~120,000 BTS in 3G or 4G Coverage Pan India. Currently, it has 62,000 3G BTS and an estimated 20,000+ 4G BTS) by Q1-2016, leaving it comfortably ahead ofContinue Reading
Idea – 3G Main Driver for Mobile Data, Voice RPM Challenging Times Ahead
Idea Cellular’s Mobile data revenues were up 9.3% qoq and 61% yoy in 2QFY16. Share of data in mobile revenues increased by 190bps qoq to 19.6% in 2Q. Data traffic or volume growth was 83% yoy, driven by 118% growth in 3G traffic and 47% growth in 2G [EDGE, GPRS].Continue Reading
3G /4G Mobile Data Infrastructure Doubles YoY in India – Bharti Infratel
Data continues to be a key driver for tower demand and management suggested 3G and 4G network deployments have almost doubled on a year to year basis. The company suggested that most of the 3G/4G deployments were via the loading route and for the next 6-12 months telcos are expectedContinue Reading
How India Compares with China on Spectrum / Data Usage ?
If we compare the spectrum availability, data usage (DOU) per subscriber and data penetration of the Indian Telcos with those in China / South Korea will tell if Indian operators have have adequate spectrum for a 3G/4G roll-out over the medium term. Indian telcos have 178 MHz of liberalizedContinue Reading
TRAI Call Drop Regulation Negative for Telcos
TRAI has ordered maximum penalty of Rs200k per quarter per circle on every parameter that the telco fails to meet the minimum benchmark, payable to the government. There are 18 parameters and the worst-case annual penalty for any telco is insignificant at Rs0.32bn. From January 1, TRAI has imposed RsContinue Reading
Idea Cellular to Double Mobile Data Capacity, 4G-LTE Launch in Q1-2016
Idea Cellular management hosted a conference call today to provide update on data business and 4G in particular. As part of data network expansion [3G + 4G], Idea will deploy 30-35K BTS in FY16 against our forecast of 20K BTS. This should impact capex forecasts favorably, and sure enough, managementContinue Reading