With lots of ruffle going in telecommunication arena following 2G scandal,3G rollouts, launch of Mobile number portability, price wars, I wonder where is the telecom business moving towards. There are lots of articles and debates I am witnessing about consolidation, evolution of MVNOs, formation of cartels, interconnect/roaming agreements.
The industry is buzzing with talks, round table meetings, frank chats, dinner parties, dates among various stakeholders in telecom ecosystem.
Months of discreet lunch or dinner dates in Mumbai and Delhi restaurants or in private dinner parties are now being arranged. Some operators are sending out their investment banking advisers on a "pre-date" to see how receptive their planned future partner would be to a tie-up.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal hold frank chats with telecom elephants’ mahouts including Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Kumarmangalam Birla to get their views on what ails the telecom sector and how the problems can be resolved.
With the 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) auctions now out, no operator bagging pan-India 3G spectrum, which enables services such as video calling, interactive gaming and high-speed internet on phones, the dating game amongst India's thirteen private sector mobile operators has now started.
Some of the corporate dates in news are:
• Aircel & Tata Tele are in talks for an alliance to use each other's 3G airwaves ,they may get to share MTNL’s 3G network in Delhi & Mumbai
• Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular are in last lap of finalising their alliance
• RCOM is in talks with three operators for a 3G roaming alliance
• Tata Teles is eyeing a 3G roaming deal with state-owned BSNL
Revenue sharing, interconnect, roaming agreements need a facelift now. Revenue models will witness new streams of business giving roaming services through competitors’ networks working as allies. TRAI has already come up with guideline papers clearing the roaming issues in providing 3G services.
We may also see birth of Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and would not be surprised to see them enjoying pan India presence using networks of different mobile operators present in different circles.
India is soon set to evolve from simple connectivity providers to those offering value-added solutions.
Organisations and industry can jointly help with Social Responsibility by delivering services to both rural and urban with applications that will make a difference to everyday life of people across the country.
I don't think any kind of consolidation will take place in near future...but let's see
ReplyDeletegud...lot of information.....but will these big alliances really help telecom industry to grow.....lets hope these alliances will open many oppurtunities in telecom......i didn't understand MVNOs????
ReplyDeleteMVNO is a company that provides mobile phone services but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have all of the infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service.
ReplyDelete@Pooja, hope you got it.
I totally disagree wid sumit..Certainly thr will be a big consolidation in the Indian Telecom Market after 3 to 4 years from now...Only 5 or 6 biggies will sustain!!!Rest all small players will be merged with the biggies...
ReplyDeletei toatally agree with sanjeet....these big players r like shark they will eat up small players in market....we should not forget the brand...one example is of uninor it was not able to stand on market...altjough has done gr888 branding...still nothing worked....people have faith in brands...
ReplyDeleteUninor is no doubt a big brand and has a strong foothold outside India.But players already existing in India have upper edge by knowing the market better than him.
ReplyDeleteagreed completely with u....sameer
ReplyDeletei think Mr. sum is over qualified for this blog
ReplyDelete