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IDEA Cellular launches GSM services in J&K

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IDEA J&K

Earlier this year, IDEA Cellular had released its plans to launch its GSM service in 5 new circles which included West Bengal, Kolkata, North East, Assam and J&K. Well, a few days back we saw IDEA making a quite entry in Kolkata, now they have even successfully launched their services in the J&K circle.

The bad news is that, IDEA Cellular won’t be available in the whole of J&K circle. To initiate their operations, IDEA Cellular’s network will only be available in Jammu City, Bari Brahmana, Bishnah, Katra, Udhampur and Jammu-Katra Highway regions. Other major towns in J&K like Srinagar, Lakhanpur, Badgam, Anantnag, Mattan, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Ganderbal, Patan and Sumbal will be covered gradually.

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New IDEA voucher offers local calls at 40 paise/minute in Mumbai

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IDEA Cellular launched its services in Mumbai around a year back and within a year it has been able to grow gradually and steadily in this highly competitive metro city. The current base of IDEA Mumbai subscribers stands at more than a million.

To further attract customers and as a special Diwali and Christmas offer, IDEA has launched a special tariff voucher priced at Rs 47 which will enable IDEA subscribers to make local calls at 40 paise per minute for the entire year. The voucher will also reduce the STD and SMS rates bringing it down to 50 paise on any mobile or landline network.

However, this special tariff does come with one condition, which is; everyday, the first minute/SMS will attract the regular tariff and subsequently users can enjoy the special reduced rates. Looks like IDEA Cellular is hitting back on RCom which today came up with a special tariff plan of 50 paise per minute which is without any voucher or conditions.

IDEA Super Seconds: 1 paisa per second

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Idea Super Seconds

Tata DOCOMO shook the Indian telecom market when it came up with its innovative per second billing tariff. In reply to the Tata Docomo’s one-second billing plan, IDEA Cellular, launched a new ‘Super seconds’ tariff plan in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which offers calls at 1 paisa per second on all local and STD calls on any network in the country.

With this move, IDEA becomes the first mobile operator to offer the pay per second tariff plan after telecom regulator TRAI suggested earlier this week that per second pulse should be made a mandatory option along with other tariff plans.

In Himachal Pradesh, existing IDEA subscribers can purchase a special voucher priced at Rs 24, whereas new subscribers can get it for Rs 49. In Bihar and Jharkhand, existing IDEA subscribers can purchase this voucher for Rs 8 and new subscribers can get it for Rs 14. Similarly, to avail this tariff plan in Rajasthan existing users will have to pay Rs 24 and new subscribers will have to pay Rs 55 for the Super Seconds one year service.

“This is yet another ‘first from Idea’ to offer world class and affordable telephony services to mobile consumers in the region,” Anish Roy, Chief Operating Officer-Idea circle for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu said. The new tariff vouchers will be available at My Idea Showrooms and Idea Points in the regions.

Special Audit for Four Indian Telecom Firms

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This could spell some trouble for four of India’s biggest telecom operators. India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has ordered a special financial audit into the books of four telecom operators, including the country’s largest mobile phone service provider Bharti Airtel Ltd. and other big names like Tata Teleservices Ltd., Vodafone-Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd.

The purpose behind this audit to check these operators’ revenue sharing with the government and to confirm if prescribed revenue sharing norms are being practiced. Telecom service providers in India are required to share between 6% and 10% of their annual revenue as license fees and 2% to 6% of their domestic and international long-distance telephony service revenues.

DoT has decided to appoint special auditors, who will be given up to three months to submit a final report. A similar special audit had earlier been ordered for RCom Ltd., and the auditor’s report is expected later this month. DoT has also ordered that if these operators are found guilty than they would be strictly penalized. The fiscal penalty will depend on the variation in shared revenues.

As of now, these four companies have not spoken to the media and Tata Teleservices and Vodafone-Essar claim to not have yet received an official communication on this matter.

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Exclusive: All (GSM) Blackberry Plans reviewed

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Ed’s Note: Our overworked brains ditched us. Sorry for the goof up, we have added the plans and edited the story accordingly.

When TeleGyaan did an exclusive review of MTNL’s 2G/3G plans, one of our avid readers voiced his opinion and asked us to look at other operators in the landscape. Given the reader-friendly blog we are, here is a post comparing all the GSM – Blackberry plans on offer::

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Who’s standing where: GSM Market Share update

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With the additions done and dealt with, let’s have a look at the market shares and user base of these GSM operators. Here it goes:

  • Airtel – 32.88% – 91,114,971
  • Vodafone – 23.79% – 65,920,902
  • BSNL – 15.94%  – 44,180,880
  • Idea – 14.98% – 41,518,613
  • Aircel – 6.31% – 17,476,962
  • Reliance – 3.88% – 10,744,953
  • MTNL – 1.47% – 4,084,579 
  • BPL – 0.75% – 2,073,184 

We Say: With Bharti adding the highest number of users to its kitty each month, it is unlikely that it will lose its position. However, Vodafone is trying its level best to reach closer by adding around the same number of users as Airtel. BSNL and Idea also seem to be battling it out for the third position. Though Reliance may seem to be a small player out here, it is adding large number of users each month and we expect to see it climbing up the rankings soon. 

9.18 million additions in Feb’09

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The month of February turned out to be quite positive for Indian Telecom, with GSM operators adding 9.18 mn users in the month. This has taken the total count to 277.11 mn. In percentage terms, the industry clocked a healthy growth rate of 3.43%. 

Getting into specifics, here is how some operators contributed to the figure (additions and growth rate):

  •  Airtel: 2.7 mn @ 3.09%
  • Vodafone: 2.58 mn @ 4.07%
  • BSNL: 1.5mn
  • Idea: 1.5mn
  • Aircel: 0.7mn @ 4.27%

We Say: Going by the figures, nothing seems to be obstructing the growth of Indian Telecom, making it even more lucrative to more giants. However, we hope to see this growth accompanied by a simultaneous growth/ improvement in the management and service quality. 

Idea Cellular – newest entrant to BlackBerry solutions

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Idea Cellular becomes the sixth Indian operator to join the BlackBerry bandwagon on announcement of its tie-up with Canada based Research in Motion (RIM) to offer the latter’s BlackBerry services.

With this launch, Idea plans to facilitate its subscribers with the best technology currently available in the Indian GSM market. An Idea Cellular subscriber can now enjoy services which are at par with other GSM subscribers. “With BlackBerry solution, Idea customers can now stay connected and access information in a timely manner, thus increasing productivity and contributing to a better work-life balance,” said Idea CMO Pradeep Shrivastava.

Blackberry portfolio includes phones like 8700G, 8100/8110, 8310, 8820 and 8900.

BlackBerry smartphones will be available at all Idea stores, modern trade, and multi-brand outlets across 15 circles of Idea Cellular’s network.

Idea sets its eyes on 5 new circles

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Aditya Birla Group led Idea Cellular is all set to enter 5 new circles. These would include West Bengal, Kolkatta, North East, Assam and J&K. With the operator’s services being well appreciated by users across the country, it has set its eyes on these circles. The deadline currently stands at end of 2009. Also, it has rebranded Spice (Taken over by Idea) as Idea Cellular in Punjab and Karnataka, where the former had its presence. Apart from the north, Idea also has its eyes set on Orissa and Tamil Nadu, which would strengthen its presence down under. However, this is planned to happen in the first half of 2010.  The moves come after Idea has succeeded in acheiving healthy growth for the recent quarter.

Results for TRAI’s Service Survey

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If there is one thing that can gauge the performance of the operators’ service in the Telecom industry, it’s TRAI’s service survey. This survey is undertaken to understand operator performance on parameters like pre-sales and sales, network availability, value-added service (VAS), customer care and billing . The final score is a percentage with 90% being the cut-off set by the governing body. Here are how the results looked like: [Read more…] about Results for TRAI’s Service Survey