Indian Telecom: News & Discussions: All Cable COs must become digital by 2013: TRAI

[Yusuf]

God it would be fun to have so much money where you can just about get into any business that you could think of or create a new business itself.
The big giants in india have been getting into diversified business all of which are still waiting to boom. They are entering at the right time as it will pay them back with huge profits a few years from now.

With reliance coming into broadband space, I hope it will do to broadband what it did to mobile. Karlo duniya mutthi main

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...growth-potential-RIL-/articleshow/6041796.cms

BWA spectrum cheaper, but has better growth potential: RIL
PTI, Jun 12, 2010, 08.57pm IST

MUMBAI: Within a day of foraying into highly competitive telecom space, industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries claimed that none of the other private operators has enough spectrum assets to match its capacity.

"None of the private operators has spectrum assets that would match the capacity of pan-India 20 MHz BWA spectrum," Reliance Industries said.

Yesterday, Nahata family-promoted Infotel, now under RIL fold, emerged as the only winner for pan-India Broadband Wireless Access spectrum at the end of the auction conducted by the government. While Infotel got the spectrum for Rs 12,872 crore, RIL acquired 95% stake from the Nahata family for Rs 4,800 crore.

In an analysts presentation, RIL said that wireless broadband would be to be new frontier in this space and it was well placed to exploit this opportunity with 20 MHz BWA spectrum it got through Infotel acquisition.

RIL also said that it has "decisive competitive edge due to significantly high data speed compared to 2G and 3G networks.

 

[Vinod2070]

I think it will get exciting for Indian broadband consumers now. Mukesh Ambani revolutionized the Indian telecom scene earlier and now for the first time i think that it is going to happen in the broadband space. He may even offer voice through this spectrum (it is not illegal).

I will keep a watch on what he is up to.

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...seeks-3G-money-refund/articleshow/6044879.cms

BSNL seeks 3G money refund
Shalini Singh, TNN, Jun 14, 2010, 03.15am IST

NEW DELHI: The government's early allotment of 3G and BWA spectrum to public sector firms BSNL and MTNL, rather than being an advantage, is fast turning into an encumbrance.

Just days after paying up for its pan-India 3G spectrum holding valued at the recently concluded 3G auction price, BSNL has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a full refund. MTNL is likely to follow. The 3G auctions closed on May 19 and ToI had reported on May 20 that BSNL and MTNL may not be able to pay up. It is learnt that BSNL intends to make a similar request for payment to be made on account of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum as well.

In a letter dated May 31, Kuldeep Goyal, BSNL's managing director wrote to P J Thomas, secretary DoT, to refund the entire Rs 10,186.58 crore which it paid to the government for pan-India 3G spectrum excluding Delhi and Mumbai. The last date for payment of 3G spectrum dues was May 31.

A similar draft has been prepared asking for exemption for payment of dues worth roughly another Rs 8,313.80 crore for pan-India BWA spectrum excluding Delhi and Mumbai. The last date for payment of BWA spectrum dues is June 22. If BSNL and MTNL do not pay for 3G spectrum, government's revenues will be diminished from Rs 67,718.9 crore to Rs 50,968.3 crore. Likewise, for BWA, revenues will diminish from Rs 38,543.31 crore to Rs 26,695.54 crore (see chart).

Goyal's argument in seeking the refund is that unlike private operators, who made informed commercial bids based on their respective business plans, BSNL was allotted 3G spectrum in all its service areas without being given any choice in the matter. He points out that all the other operators are paying much less in absolute terms than BSNL for 3G spectrum. Excluding Delhi and Mumbai, Bharti is paying Rs 5,731 crore, Vodafone Rs 5,054 crore, Aircel Rs 6,499 crore, Reliance 2,021 crore, Tata Rs 5,864 crore and Idea Rs 5,769 crore, the letter points out.

While Goyal's reasoning cannot be flawed, there is a small snag. The letter makes no mention of return of spectrum. According to experts, BSNL's case would be strengthened if it showed the inclination to return spectrum in circles where it does not wish to pursue 3G, which could then be offered to private operators. This will ensure that the government minimizes its revenue loss and also allows BSNL its choice of circles consistent with the bidding pattern of private operators. "BSNL's demand suggests that it wants to have its cake and eat it too", says an expert.

BSNL has been operating 3G services for over 18 months without making much headway in terms of 3G subscriber additions or revenue.

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...5bn-for-telecom-foray/articleshow/6044892.cms

Big splash: RIL readies $5bn for telecom foray
PTI, Jun 14, 2010, 03.20am IST

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-led RIL's foray into the telecom sector will entail an investment of about $5 billion, for which it is open to sharing infrastructure of younger brother Anil's group firm Reliance Communications, company officials said.

The flagship firm of Ambani, who is known for making ultra-mega projects, would invest about a billion dollars for rolling out broadband services to attain a target of 100 million subscribers through the just acquired Infotel in five years, RIL top officials told analysts last night.

RIL acquired Infotel for Rs 4,800 crore on the day the Nahata group firm emerged as the sole player to have bid successfully for all-India spectrum at the end of the 16-day-long auction conducted by the government on Friday.

Apart from this, the cash-rich RIL will have to pay Rs 12,872 crore to the government as the licence fee for spectrum bagged by Infotel, which would become the subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani group's flagship company. Asked if it could tie up with Anil Ambani-led RCOM for infrastructure, including optic fibre and towers, RIL top executive Manoj Modi and chief financial officer Alok Agarwal said that broadband infrastructure could be shared with any of the existing players.

Replying to a specific query on whether RIL also intends to acquire any 2G telecom player for voice telephony, Modi said: "RIL will not acquire any 2G player," thus ending speculation about the company's interest in Videocon Mobile, a Venugopal Dhoot group firm that acquired licences for 22 circles in 2008. Incidentally, the second largest largest telecom player, RCOM, bagged the highest number of circles along with Bharti Airtel for the 3G licence auction, which concluded recently.

The officials said the total investment, including the acquisition of a 95% stake in Infotel, which would be a subsidiary of RIL, would come to around Rs 22,000 crore and the endeavour would be to revolutionise and popularise broadband services at an affordable price. Mukesh, along with Manoj Modi, had created Reliance Communications, but the company — now known as RCOM — had gone to Anil Ambani as part of the family settlement to divide the Reliance Empire.

The officials told analysts that even for devices like notepads and laptops, arrangements would be made with existing players to ensure that customers get the full services. Last week, RIL entered the telecom arena, hitherto forbidden to it, by announcing the Rs 4,800 crore acquisition of Infotel, promoted by the Mahendra Nahata group.

The deal followed a truce arrived at between Mukesh and Anil, on May 23, wherein the warring brothers scrapped a non-compete agreement to allow each other business flexibility.

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-of-the-line-for-PCOs/articleshow/6242296.cms

Mobile boom spells the end of the line for PCOs
Kartikeya, TNN, Aug 1, 2010, 06.26am IST

MUMBAI: London has its iconic red phone booths and New York its large metallic payphones. But in Mumbai, and several other Indian cities, the ubiquitous STD-ISD-PCO booth-which once heralded the telecom revolution in the country-seems to be on its way out.

With cellphones now accessible to every strata of the society, the Public Call Office, or PCO booth that connected virtually every corner of the country, may soon be a thing of the past. Data on the number of BSNL PCOs operating in the country show that their numbers are falling sharply not just in the four metros, but also in other cities across India.

From March 2008 to June 2010, the number of PCOs in Mumbai fell from more than 1.5 lakh to 1.2 lakh. It was the same story across all metros, but Mumbai has registered the sharpest decline in numbers, with 2,348 PCOs shutting shop since March this year alone. Since 2008, Maharashtra too has seen a steep fall-from 3.14 lakh in 2008 to 1.99 lakh in 2010. This, when the state consistently had the largest number of PCOs in the country.

The trend is also apparent in each of BSNL's 26 circles of operation in the country. The sharpest fall has been seen in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. In the past few years, some private players have also started offering PCO services, but BSNL and MTNL still enjoy a lion's share of the market.

PCOs began to mushroom in the early 1990s and took the telephone out of the realm of luxury to a public utility. "In 1987, my husband was posted to another city and I would wait at a neighbour's house to receive his phone call,'' said Sunita Karve, a housewife from Dadar. "All that changed when public phones arrived. But now, even teenagers in our housing society have mobiles,'' Karve added.

The declining numbers point to the passing of an era which many will remember fondly for years to come. Mumbai-based photographer Chirodeep Chaudhuri spent more than two years clicking snaps of bright red payphones across the city. He called his project the `One Rupee Entrepreneur' and saw the public phone as a metaphor for Mumbai's enterprise. "I was fascinated by the fact that in a city where space is at a premium, shopkeepers, butchers, barbers and even doctors cleverly placed a little phone outside their establishment and were happy with whatever extra money this `side business' brought them,'' Chaudhuri said.

Choudhuri believes that Mumbai's little red phone with a slot to for a rupee coin will never disappear. "It is a symbol of the city's never dying enterprise. It will always stay,'' he said. PCOs may not vanish completely, but with each passing year, there are less of them around.

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...s-its-fingers-crossed/articleshow/6258818.cms

India Inc keeps its fingers crossed
Swati Anand, TNN, Aug 5, 2010, 01.12am IST

CHENNAI: As the battle between BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and the Indian government continues, India Inc is watching keenly. Governments are concerned they cannot monitor BlackBerry traffic, because unlike rivals Nokia and Apple, RIM controls its own networks, which handle encrypted messages through server centres in Canada and Britain.

India is estimated to have over 11 lakh BlackBerry users. "A significant majority of this base comprises of all top corporate honchos in the country," says Sujay Misra, MD of AZ Research Partners. "And around 30% of all BlackBerry users, have two BlackBerrys-one for personal use and one for work related use." Misra himself carries two BlackBerrys.

BlackBerry was among the first phones to introduce push mail service, where mail updates hit the phone like an SMS, in India and was instantly lapped up by corporates and entrepreneurs who were on the move. In time, companies began doling out BlackBerrys to not just their senior managers, but also their mid-management employees. So now, when there is a possibility that India could go the UAE way and ban BlackBerry, the mood is that of concern.

"While national security is of paramount importance, business users too need a secure and efficient platform to communicate while on the move," says Keshav Baljee, president and co-promoter of the Royal Orchid group of hotels. Baljee himself has been using a BlackBerry for many years and has given out handsets to his senior staff and sales staff. "We have application wherein employees can access information on their desktop, while on the move. If there is a ban, it will be very difficult for us to find a suitable substitute."

Venture capital firm Ventureast runs on BlackBerry — 25 of its 32 employees, in its Chennai and Hyderabad offices, carry a BlackBerry handed out by the company. "Our mail is synced on Microsoft's business productivity oNline standard suite (BPOS). So if BlackBerry services were to be withdrawn, it would have a significant financial implication," says K A Srinivasan, CFO of Ventureast. Many think that it would be prudent on RIM's part to tow the government line. "Security is not a perceived threat, but a very real one. So the government's stand is justified," says Kamlesh, principal research analyst at Gartner. "BlackBerry enjoys a sizable loyal market in India. If they're banned, other phones like the Nokia E series and Apple's iPhone stand to gain.

Snehal Mantri, marketing director of Bangalore-based real estate Mantri Developers, who is an avid BlackBerry user is considering switching to iPhone.

 

[Pintu]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...must-go-digital-by-13/articleshow/6263967.cms

Cable cos must go digital by '13'
6 Aug 2010, 0540 hrs IST,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Telecom and broadcasting sector regulator has recommended that all cable operators need to switch to digital systems by December 2013 that would provide consumers with better quality audio and video television signals.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), that also oversees regulations for broadcasters, in its recommendations to the Information & Broadcasting ministry, has said digitalisation should be implemented in four phases starting with cable operators in the four metro cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai switching to digital systems as early as March, 2011.

In the second phase, all cities with population of over one million should turn digital by December next year. This should be followed by digitalisation of television systems in all the urban areas by December 2012. Trai said in the statement that all cable operators in the country should switch from analogue to digital systems by December 2013.
The regulator has said, digital cable TV systems will enable television viewers to receive high quality television signals of their choice and have the option to subscribe to channels on a-la-carte basis. In addition, it will ensure access to many more channels in comparison with analogue cable.

The move will mean small cable operators will have to invest in switching from analogue to digital systems. It will also boost consolidation in the highly fragmented industry as smaller operators will need to either align with larger multi-system operators or invest, if they want to remain in the business.

Trai has said the government should provide incentives to encourage faster digitalisation. These could be in the form of a tax holiday to service providers who set up digital distribution system before the sunset date and reduction of basic custom duty on set top boxes and digital head-end equipment to zero. The regulator has also said that taxes and levies on broadcasting distribution sector should be rationalised. Several European countries like Germany and Spain besides the US, have completely switched off analogue cable signals.

Most other countries like UK and Japan and South East Asian countries like Malaysia and Hong Kong are in the process of completely switching to digital television systems.

PICTURE PERFECT

Trai wants digitalisation to be implemented in four phases, starting with metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, by December 2013

Digital cable TV systems will enable television viewers to receive high-quality television signals of their choice

It will boost consolidation in the fragmented industry as smaller operators will have to align with larger multi-system operators or invest, to remain in the business.