Moody’s Corporation, a global rating agency headquartered in New York City has termed India as the “world’s fastest growing telecom market”. As per the official statement released by the company, India’s net additions of 10 million subscribers per month have far outpaced China’s monthly rate of increase which is now below 8 million. About two years ago, China was having the maximum number of new subscribers on a monthly basis.

Moody’s explained that emerging markets with relatively low penetration continue to have above-average rates of increase in new subscribers, but those numbers tend to slow down in a while. However, in India the numbers seem to be growing by the day. Continue Reading…

TRAI seems to be getting strict by the day, first it proposed to mandate the per second tariff option, now in a bid to bring more transparency in mobile tariffs, it intends to bring in a rule which will ask the operators to come clean on all hidden charges and other necessary details while announcing a new scheme/plan.

“There should not be any hidden charges and conditions when operators announce a tariff plan. Consumers should be able to understand the scheme being offered and operators should communicate their offers in an intelligible manner. We are planning to take up these issues in a holistic manner,” said Mr J. S. Sharma, Chairman, TRAI.

TRAI is also seeking additional data from operators who had recently announced tariff schemes to ensure that they offer what they promised. To further improve the quality of services, the regulator also proposes to come out with a report containing information on cell sites where call drops occur frequently.

Couple of days back TRAI chairman Mr. J S Sharma came up with a proposal to propel telecom operators towards a new tariff system based on per second usage. In India, telecom operators presently follow the pulse system wherein consumers are charged for a full minute of airtime even if the call is shorter. The per second tariff system was introduced by TATA DOCOMO when it hit the headlines few months back. Now, if this new tariff system is good or bad, the answer is obvious – good for the consumers, bad for the operators.

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ITU Telecom conference revealed another thing in addition to the 3G auction delay. TRAI chairman, J S Sharma told that they are looking to make it mandatory for operators to follow pay per second billing method. Tata DoCoMo is one of the adopters of such method and TRAI is looking to float a consultation paper within 2 months regarding the same.

Looks like good (and cheaper) times are ahead for the consumers.

This one comes as no surprise. On the sidelines of ITU Telecom World in Geneva, Telecom Minister confirmed (again!) that the 3G spectrum auction will be conducted by March 31, 2010 and not by December 7. A further delay of about 3 months. Why? Well, foreign telcos will be joining in the bid and since the companies are asking for more time coz of the Christmas break, our telecom ministry saw no other viable option other than to delay it.

We Say: Honestly, we don’t want to say anything this time. Indian 3G auction has become a joke in the telecom world where we’re still trying to auction the spectrum for around 1 and a half years. We’ll believe when it finally happens. Oh by the way, do enter the fun little poll below so that we know what you think about it.

Unitech Wireless today announced their new identity and will now be known as Uninor. The revamped brand name is indicative of Telenor’s global telecom expertise which has a major stake in the company and Unitech Ltd. that has presence in the country.

Uninor is expected to launch its services by end of this year and with the new identity in place, they’re emphasizing on putting customers and employees first. Whatever their way will be, they claim to bring in new ideas and new ways of doing business, which I think will be interesting to see.

As for their operation status, Uninor has got a pan-India license with spectrum already allotted for 21 of the 22 circles. The service will be live by December in select markets.

When asked about MNP, one of our commenter once said “I’ll believe it when I see it” and I guess he was right. Once destined to start from September 20, the government has now pushed the Phase I MNP date back to December. Reason? Well, the telecom department wants to give some more time that will allow to upgrade existing networks to be compatible with MNP. Also, they haven’t been able to resolve technical and commercial issues.

At the IndiaOn conference held in New Delhi, Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli said they’re planning to launch their 3G service in October next year provided everything goes as planned.

“If everything goes well on time with regard to spectrum auction, by February or March we will have spectrum allocation. By next Diwali (2010), we will have commercial launch of 3G services in India.”

Government recently fixed the base price of the 3G spectrum at Rs. 3,500 crore and the auction is expected to be completed by November.

This information has just arrived and it’s good to see, there’s no stopping the Indian telecom sector. TRAI let loose the data for the month of July and we’ve got a subscriber reach of 441.66 million from 427.28 million in June. It’s a good increase of almost 3.36 percent.

Amongst the operators, Airtel took the crown for the most new customers – about 2.8m subscribers while Reliance came in second for almost 2.4m and Vodafone with 2.23m subscribers.

A quick rehash to the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) scene. MNP is a service which will allow users to change their service providers without the need to change their numbers. Now, after a series of delays, it is set to arrive on September 20, 2009 in most of the cities and few states while others will have to wait till March 20, 2010.

Yesterday, TRAI revealed the draft norms that will bind the MNP service as well as users gaining from it. This is what you need to know if you’ll be going for it as soon as its available in September.

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