Reliance Communications has been granted 4.4Mhz spectrum in all the 14 circles where it wanted to start GSM operations. From various reports it looks like the DoT and the government has favored Reliance Communications, especially no transparency in accepting the recommendations on spectrum and issuing LoI to other incumbents. Vodafone India, Maxis Aircel will also start PAN-India GSM operations as they have been granted spectrum in the remaining circles they had sought for. Reliance GSM services should be operational within the next 6-9 months, which will also tell the corporate India how good Anil Ambani is at executing projects 🙂
Reliance Communications entry into GSM means,
- Eventual decline and fall of CDMA operations of Rcom. This is a severe blow to arrogant Qualcomm which declined to fulfill many of Rcom’s demands and technical advisers to Ambani advised him to opt for GSM operations.
- Ambani may further divest stake in Reliance Telecom Tower and Infrastructure to meet CAPEX requirements.
- Every Telecom circle in India will now have atleast 8 different service providers. [Airtel, Aircel, BSNL, Idea, Reliance GSM, Reliance CDMA, Tata Indicom [CDMA] and Vodafone]
- Airtel + existing GSM operators will reduce Tariffs aggressively. Have to spend heavily on CAPEX because of non availability of additional spectrum.
- Spice Telecom should sell out to Idea Cellular or RCom or will eventually face bankruptcy. According to me, this is the worst telecom company in India.
In a separate development, Wipro bagged a $600 million deal from Aircel. Similarly, Anil Ambani’s privately held company Tech Reliance likely contender for mega IT outsourcing deals from Reliance CDMA and GSM operations. Though deals may not have happened in absolute transparent manner, it is good for the health of the economy as Telcos look forward to spending consumers money to offer better services, creating direct and indirect jobs and further scope for SMEs.
Tags: Mobile India, Telecom India , Qualcomm, Reliance Communications