State-Wise List Of Broadband Subscribers In India

The Government of India has released a statewise list of broadband subscribers in India, as on 31st October 2008. We compared the numbers with those for around a year ago, which were released in March 2008.

Important: Please note that this does not include the number of dialup Internet users in India, which at last count, was at 11.6 million subscribers. More details here.

*  Delhi includes Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
* North East includes Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland & Tripura

Some points to ponder:
– Top 5 States account for majority connections: The internet penetration is lop sided in favour of a few circles: Andhra Pradesh (8.04%), Delhi (11.82%), Karnataka (11.42%), Maharashtra & Goa (18.75%) and Tamil Nadu (12.94%) together account for 3,137,699 broadband subscribers, which is 62.98% of the total base. 
— High Percentage Growth, Low Base: 64.99% growth in broadband lines is promising, but the growth is still on a low base of 3.019 million subscribers as of 31st December 2008. On an average, we’ve just added 196, 245 broadband subscribers per month.
— Absolute growth: Maharashtra & Goa led the way, followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Each of these circles added more than 235,000 subscribers in the 10 month period, and they’re in the top 5.
— Percentage growth: In percentage terms, Maharashtra grew the least, followed by Delhi and Tamil Nadu, primarily because of the large subscriber base.
—  India’s most populous state - Uttar Pradesh, has only 238, 791 broadband subscribers and accounts for only 4.79 %. You may see that as an opportunity for growth, or an indication of the lack of Internet penetration.

Whats your reading of these numbers? Do share and we’ll update the post with your take.

Also read:
–  Q109: Quarterly India Internet & Mobile Numbers, And A Wireless Internet Story
– India Has 81 M Internet Users. Please Make Changes To Your Powerpoint Slides
– Oct 2008: Projections For 10M Broadband; India Adds 10.42 M Wireless; Crosses 5M Broadband

3G In India: MTNL To Launch 3G Services On December 11th; Limitations?

MTNL has set to launch 3G services on December 11th, according to several media reports. This is in line with something that D Shivkumar, MD of Nokia India had said at the launch of the Nokia Music Store: that Prime Miniser Manmohan Singh will make the first 3G call in India on December 11th. This also co-incides with the Department of Telecom’s year-end conference - India Telecom 2008.

MTNL is getting a significant head start over private 3G operators, since the license auction is expected to be in January. There are murmurs that the 3G auction will be delayed further. I think if it gets delayed beyond February 2009, then it’s likely to be postponed until after the May 2009 general elections in India.

Will MTNLs 3G Service Really Be Useful?
MTNLs opearations are limited to Delhi and Mumbai, and it’s unlikely that 3G infrastructure has been laid out beyond these cities. Which means that even if you sign up for MTNLs 3G services, you can only use them within city limits.

There are likely to be interoperability agreements between the two public sector carriers - MTNL and BSNL; when BSNL had initially launched its mobile services, users were able to switch to MTNL networks when in Delhi and Mumbai, where BSNL wasn’t allowed to operate. But how much of BSNLs infrastructure has been laid out so far?  Remember that BSNL already has EVDO services live in Bangalore.

Will I Sign Up For MTNLs 3G Service?
Not for video streaming or whatever else they have planned, but I will sign up for fast Internet access/Mobile broadband. I’m using a Reliance Net Connect data card which is good for emails, and occasionally for posts, but the bandwidth and network availability is rather poor. 

P.s.: time for MTNL to change its logo, yes?

India Announces Tender For Mobile Number Portability Operators

India has announced a timeline for the selection of a company to manage Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The tender document has been made available online, and the successful bidder will be announced by 5th February. A maximum of two companies will manage MNP for a period of 5 years, each with a separate zone of operation. From a consumer standpoint, the entire process of porting a number should not take more than two (2) working days, with a two (2) hour break in service.

Porting Process
– The mobile subscriber will approach the Recipient Operator who will initiative the entire process
– The execution of porting shall be carried out at a specified pre-determined time of the day, decided in consultation with operators.
– The total time to port should not exceed two working days initially from the request of the subscriber but up gradable to much faster levels
– Break time shall not exceed two hours, possibly less.

Areas of Operation

The country has been segmented into two zones for the selection of MNP operators - and applicants may apply for both, but will be granted a license to only one of the following Zones:

Download the tender document here. Fees, Selection Criterion, Things to do after selection  

(more…)

Delayed 3G Auction By Jan 15; RBI-ECB; Gambling On 3G With Borrowed Money?

Given credit crunch, the Department of Telecom has deferred the 3G auction till January 15th. Earlier the auctions were to be completed by the end of the year. A revised timeline, via the Hindu, is as follows:

Nov 30: Auction design, bid document to be prepared
Dec 15: Inviting operators to bid
Dec 31: Prequalification of bidders
Jan 15: Auction to be completed
Jan 25: Signing of contracts with successful bidders
Jan 31: Depositing of first tranch of auction money

Note that we couldn’t independently locate the schedule on the DoTs site.

What’s also interesting is that the Reserve Bank of India has also allowed telecom companies to raise funds from overseas, in order to acquire 3G licenses. Note that some mobile operators, namely Unitech Wireless and Datacom, are yet to close deals with potential partners/investors, while some have already done so. I wonder if the valuations of these companies may have been impacted over the past month or so, and perhaps rationlized. Take look at how expensive rollouts have been Idea cellulars profitability was severely hit in the last quarter, when they rolled out in Mumbai. The RBI go-ahead thus allows companies to gamble on 3G with borrowed money…

On Reliance GSM And Mobile Number Portability

A few weeks ago, a senior exec working with a mobile operator gave me his take on when Mobile Number Portability (MNP) would be implemented in India - not a date, but “Once Reliance Communications has established its GSM network in India.” The reason, according to him is that RCom wants to free itself from the royalty it pays to Qualcomm on handsets, which make them more expensive than the GSM handsets available in the market. This issue was reportedly resolved last year, but according to this particular exec, it isn’t over yet.

RCom soft-launched their GSM service in Delhi and Mumbai circles last week (via ET), and is testing the network in “parts of UP, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and the four southern states” - in cities that currently have around 45 percent of the subscriber base. The network has been live in Delhi for a while, and Presstalk wrote about it first a couple of weeks ago.

So the network for a GSM-CDMA switch is being readied, and it appears that the policy will allow a switch as well: ET reports that the MNP norms have been modified, to allow consumers to change from CDMA to GSM, remain with the same operator offering both platforms, and yet retain their mobile number. This is being called Internal Mobile Number Portability. I thought that was a given, since the policy should not differentiate between technology, and if an operator wants to switch users to a different technology, its his choice.

In this context, it’s very interesting to note the COAIs (GSM lobby) reaction to a proposal for Internal MNP: the headline to this story in BS is misleading, but they’re essentially against allowing Internal MNP before allowing users to switch mobile operators. Why is that? Obviously because once RCom starts switching users from CDMA to GSM, the GSM operators want to acquire some of RCom’s users. For the mobile operators, it’s all about the mobile subscriber base right now.

In this entire switch from CDMA to GSM, it’s Qualcomm that loses out.

Report: Allianz To Sell Telecom License To Swan Just 2 Months After Receiving It

So did they just buy to sell? If this report from the Economic Times is to be believed, Allianz Infratech, which has licenses to operate telecom services in the states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, is likely to sell the licenses to Swan Telecom. Swan, itself a new telecom operator, has inked a deal with UAEs Etisalat, selling 45 percent for $900 million. ET says the Allianz deal “may run into hundreds of crores”, while Swan had only paid Rs. 30 crores for the licenses. Swan has licenses for 13 circles, and the Allianz acquisition would increase that number to 15 of the 22 circles.

As per the records published by the Department of Telecom, Allianz’ Universal Access Service (UAS) license for Bihar and Madhya Pradesh came into effect on 31st July and 1st August 2008 respectively. Take a look at this MS Excel sheet from the DoTs website, issued on the 31st of August.

This is the only grant of a license since January 25th 2008, when a majority of licenses were handed out. In fact, here’s a CNBC-TV18 report, according to which Allianz Infra failed to bag a Letter of Intent for telecom services.

The initial rejection had been due to the fact that their net worth was less than the mandated Rs. 1350 crores. Does that mean that other companies who did not get a license then, may approach the DoT again? Some transparency, please.

Blackberry’s India Issues Resolved? Whither Transparency?

Update: The Economic Times quotes Department of Telecom sources, according to whom government organizations have managed to decrypt email messages sent via Blackberry, on Airtel, RCOM, Vodafone and BPL networks.  The tests have been done only for non-enterprise solutions. Nothing official about it, though.

Original story: So has the security issue with the Blackberry been resolved? A couple of months ago, there was no formal notification from the government - just a comment on the sidelines of a conference, which was followed up by something of an about-face.

And yet, since Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie’s visit to India, a number of initiatives have been announced:

– Airtel announced the launch of the Blackberry Bold in India, priced at Rs. 34,990
– Reliance Communications launched the first Prepaid service for the Blackberry in India
– RIM may set up a Manufacturing, R&D, Logistics and Support facilities in India [via Indiatimes]

However, the one that really caught my attention was the launch of Blackberry services from Tata Teleservices.

Remember that it was Tata Teleservices application to the Department of Telecom to offer Blackberry services that started this debate over security issues around the Blackberry in India; the government wanted “lawful interception” of communication over the Blackberry. While I’m not saying that they should block the Blackberry, but once they’ve raised an issue, there should at least be some communication over how it has been resolved, so that other vendors know what’s kosher, and what’s not. What has changed over the past six months?

– Is Blackberry providing means of decrypting communication?
– Is Blackberry relocating servers to India?
– Has the government decided that interception of Blackberry services is not an issue? Should that apply to other vendors as well?

Some transparency, please.

P.s.: In case you missed it, it appears that Republican Presidential nominee John McCain invented the Blackberry. Heh.