India ends May with 306.5 mln mobile subscribers

India ended May with 306.45 million mobile subscribers, up from 298.153 million in April, according to figures from from the industry association COAI. Bharti Airtel remained market leader with a market share of 32.48 percent and 99.55 subscribers, up from 96.735 million in April. Vodafone Essar saw its subscriber base rise to 74.08 million, versus 71.542 million a month earlier, and its market share was 24.17 percent. BSNL ended May with 48.18 million customers, up from 47.724 million, and its market share was 15.72 percent. Idea was in fourth place with 45.48 million subscribers and a market share of 14.84 percent, while Aircel ended the month with 20.69 million customers and a market share of 6.75 percent. Reliance Telecom had 11.97 million customers, up from 11.965 million, and a market share of 3.90 percent, and MTNL grew its subscriber base to 4.26 million from 4.222 million in April. Loop Mobile, which operates only in Mumbai, saw its subscriber base reach 2.26 million, up from 2.20 million in April.

Background:

The world is moving fast into business scope globally. We have limited reaction time for any opportunity.Information sharing has become revolutionary in all aspect irrespective where you are and what you are doing.

Technology:Broadband has made revolution into information sharing in P.C world.As time changes mobile internet has become the most convenient medium to do the information sharing,it is the only reason that Blackberry e-mail is so popular, but it is not enough as this give you limited exposure if I’ll talk in terms of file sharing while you are in move.Mobiflexi E-mail solution gives you a complete environment to do all activity over phone like you do in p.c irrespective of where you are across the globe as it gives you interface with you p.c.

Security:

The most worried part is the security of information part which is also considered as it has secured environment as per the windows credentials.

Scope: This is the high time for such application for any enterprises as we know business hours are limited in global platform and time management is the bigger challenge for any enterprise,It is the flexibility and on move solution that will help organisation to resolve such concern.

Future:

Mobile is the only tool that will be always with you for all activity to be meet in due course of time.The Mobile Internet is going to be killing solution for all individual globally.

Thanks, ASAD

Vas market can be divided into three segment.

Matured Market:This is the market which has the 100% mobile connectivity and the Telecom infrastructure in such country is at par with user more receptive in new technology.The market has huge potential for any new technology which has real time value for end user.

Immatured market:This is the market which accelerating at very high speed in terms of new user and further it has two categories of user 1.Mobile as Voice call 2. Mobile as a voice and data.All developing country are more or less in this phase.Interesting is that this market has very good potential for Vas as it is of very big size and the people are bit techno savy.

Nascent Market:This is the market where Voice is predominant,but interesting thing is that here is also there is good scope for any vas to service a premium service as Rich people are very rich and can easily afford it.

Assuming these all it seems the company which has full bucket of Vas service will have bright future for longer run.Thanks,
Aune Ahmad Asad

By and large the operators are happy because they have end user stick to them all time,but at the same time now the market is changing drastically into application oriented user in mobile technology as a result it is no more the operator dominating market if operator will not change their mentality and if not working on user’s parameter. I mean user at this point of time is more or less techno savy and feel good to work in own controlled and easy way to do the things taking all safety and security measure in top priority.The top most issue is the customer education and further critical is the acceptance level of end user.That’s the reason that retail is going to be stronger for long term Plan.

Retail Issues:
A physical distribution strategy -it is the basic need in any product or service in Indian market. We can not ignore the fact that the display and penetration to market with maximum reach is the golden rule to up any product or service.That’s the reason any service operator is pushing hard to minds of customer takes time to click.for any Vas service distribution using bluetooth, USB drives or memory cards would end up being more expensive (because of logistic etc), and more difficult to manage in terms of having a customize pattern.Further Indian market is purely in Prepaid module means they spend it when they need it.further any service has its own limitation inters of user and uses means a person has many desired work at different time frame and different location and also the needs are some how in different pattern in different geographic region. A beauty is that India is as diversified in user’s pattern as its culture.

Point-of-purchase issues:
End user often have inadequate point-of-purchase to get desired service which is also need to take in consideration in both way i mean to have good education to dealers and fare knowledge to customer about product/service.Now the handset market has got the idea of what is the meaning of Value in the context of end user to compel them to buy new handset.India is a country which has now got maturity in terms of customer’s buying behavior they are no more facinated to buy any new product/service unless untill it is primarily required.It means retail point is to be intelligent enough to handle the situation.

Retailer Margins:
Days are gone when retailers were happy to get good margin in their sale with number of product/service sale. Now it seems that you have to work hard to get business in all front and has to be all time busy to get business from all front means product/sevice.further as it is the service oriented market with prepaid module customer will come to you like they use to go to ATM machine to Money as and when required.Further the most of the end user is intelligent to work out the monthly budget and among them high numbers are hate to invest again and again in some work which is not all time required or without that they can survive.People prolonged the matter till it is not badly required.It is the real challenge for any service to come to that level to get real test in Indian market.typical example is the lifetime pre-paid segment they buy coupon to call as and when required with lowest denomination are for the Rs. 10/5 recharge card. Interestingly, the retailer makes a margin of only Rs. 0.05.but this is the hard fact which retailer has to understand and has to work on it with looking high volume churn out in a day.Now further retail has to have multi product Shop related to their customer base of that locality, say for example retailer may have to keep other items like consumer electronics,digital items,garmets etc.

Vas Content sale Issues:
Purchase of content in a sachet format will allow the consumers the freedom to buy content,and retailer will have high volume and good number of footfall in a day as it has hampered.

Broadly, it needs to change mentality of entire Telecom domain company to work together to surve the end user for their cause not for the object of the company.That is why it is said the it the buyer’s market not the seller’s.Thanks, Aune Ahmad Asad

Top Indian telecom service providers are likely to report robust revenue growth in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, bolstered by strong subscriber additions.

Yet, lower usage by subscribers due to the economic downturn and falling average revenue per user, or ARPU, and call rates are likely to take some sheen off the sector’s growth.

Analysts say with increasing competition leading to a continued fall in tariffs, minutes of usage will become a key parameter to assess a company’s health rather than ARPU.

COMPANIES TO WATCH:

Bharti Airtel Ltd. – reporting 22 Jan
Market Expectations: India’s largest mobile phone company by number of users is likely to report a net profit of INR21.66 billion, up 26% from INR17.22 billion a year earlier, on revenue of INR96.16 billion, up 38% from INR69.46 billion, according to the average of estimates of 16 analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

In the second quarter ended Sept. 30, it reported net profit of INR20.46 billion and revenue of INR90.20 billion.

Key Issues: ARPU is likely to fall to INR321, from INR331 in the previous quarter, brokerage Prabudas Lilladher said.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization margin is likely to expand by 50 basis points, helped by lower expenditure, despite advertising and subsidy costs on the newly launched direct-to-home business.

Reliance Communications Ltd. – reporting 23 Jan
Market Expectations: India’s second-largest mobile phone service provider by subscribers is likely to post a net profit of INR13.96 billion, up 1.7% from INR13.73 billion a year earlier, according to the average of estimates of 16 analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. Revenue is likely to rise 22% to INR59.56 billion from INR48.74 billion.

The Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group company posted net profit of INR15.31 billion on revenue of INR56.35 billion in the previous quarter.

Key Issues: Brokerage Motilal Oswal expects profit to fall sequentially due to interest costs of INR1.65 billion, compared with a marginal interest income in the second quarter.

The ebitda margin is expected to contract by 290 basis points from a year earlier, and 40 basis points sequentially, dragged by the launch of mobile services under the global system for mobile communications technology, says brokerage Motilal Oswal.

The brokerage expects the company’s ARPU to drop about 3% to INR263 from the second quarter.

Idea Cellular Ltd. – reporting 22 Jan
Market Expectations: The average of estimates of 14 analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires is for net profit to fall 23% to INR1.82 billion from INR2.37 billion a year earlier. Revenue is likely to rise 52% to INR25.98 billion from INR17.10 billion a year earlier.

The company reported net profit of INR1.44 billion and revenue of INR23.04 billion in the previous quarter.

Key Issues: The October-December period will be the first quarter when Idea will consolidate Spice Communications Ltd.’s numbers with itself, leading to a sharp rise in revenue.

In June last year, Idea said it will buy a 40.8% stake in smaller rival Spice for about INR21.76 billion and then merge Spice with itself via a share swap.

Losses in the recently launched Mumbai and Bihar circles will hurt the company’s profitability, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch note said.

The company’s aggressive rollouts will weigh on the operating margin, with Motilal Oswal forecasting a margin decline of 730 basis points from a year earlier, and 30 basis points from the previous quarter to 25.9%. It expects ARPU to fall 2% sequentially.

To get the report, click on the following link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4523220/India-Telecom-Report