India Magazine

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released it’s Nov 2009 telecom subscription data. Indian Telecom Industry reported a 3.3% month-to-month growth in Nov 09.

• 54.3 crore people in India with a Telephone connection
• Tele-density at 46.32
• 1.76 new wireless connections in Nov 09
• Broadband Subscription at 75.5 lakhs

Indian Telecom Industry in India has reported robust growth in 2009 despite global economic slowdown thanks to the affordable tariff options and attractive offers from different mobile service providers.

16.9 crore new phone connections have been added in last 12 months period – a 45.19% growth. Wireless segment reported 50.57% growth in the period but Wireline connections decreased by 2.34% in the period a major setback to BSNL and MTNL which holds majority of Wireline connections in India.

Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Idea reported highest growth in the last 12 months period.

In Nov 2009 Tata Teleservices added more number of connections (18.84%) followed by Bharti Airtel (15.85), Vodaphone (15.74%) and Reliance Communications (15.7%)  a clear signal that subscribers are more inclined to attractive tariff plans.

Reliance made a major improvement in Nov 09 (15.7%) compared to Oct 09 (12.56%) due to the Simply Reliance attractive tariff structure. BSNL also advanced in Nov 09 may be due to the introduction of its 3G services in some cities.

One thing is very clear from last few months data – customers are looking for attractive tariff plans and cheap call rates, they cannot be fooled with just some simple freebies like extra talk time or an extended validity offer. December month data may give more clear picture as Uninor started its operation in India in Dec 09 with a very simple packages with lowest call rates.

Prior to Tata Docomo’s entry Mobile service providers in India were attracting customers with simple freebies like talk time offers, extended validity, cheap calls to same provider numbers, low night talktime etc while holding the actual call rates at very high levels.

But that things are the past. Now customers have so many options. Customer is the King now. Providers have to come down to earth to survive in this highly competitive telecom market in the world.

Telecom, mobile phone Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Reliance, Tariff War, Telecom Industry, vodaphone

On November 27th Reliance Communications, led by Anil Ambani announced 3 new hot SMS packages.

These new plans are  going to start another tariff war in the text message segment like Tata Docomo’s Pay per second scheme and 1paisa per second schemes started a tariff war in the mobile voice segment which forced  even major players to cut the tariff  drastically and move to pay per second schemes.

Rcom’s new SMS tariff plans are add-on plans comes as an add-on pack and applicable in both segment (CDMA and GSM) and available to both prepaid and postpaid customers.

Scheme 1 : Recharge with Rs 11 every month and send SMS at 1 paisa

Scheme 2 :Recharge with Rs 25 every month and avail 500 free SMS/day

Scheme 3 : One time recharge of Rs 14 and rental of Re 1 everyday to avail 500 free SMS/day

This is definitely going to create some ripples in the text segment as rates are too high (for some providers it is Re 1 or more per SMS)  when the actual cost to the operator  is a fraction of a paisa for sending an SMS.

On November 20th, Bharti Airtel Ltd slashed its roaming charges by around 60% for both incoming and outgoing.

As more and more players enter Indian telecom market customers are benefited as these companies come up with unprecedented offers to attract new customers as well as to keep existing customers.

Technology Airtel, BSNL, Mobile, Reliance, SMS, Tariff War, Tata Docomo, Telecom