3G Roll-Outs have Begun. 4PS B&M Talks to Aircel, Aircel, Vodafone, JWT, O&M And many more to Decipher The Winner's code in 3G
Voice and text are passé; now mobiles are ready for Live TV and 21 Mbps Internet speed! While the political and legal establishment in India remain stuck on who all pocketed the 2G spoils, service providers are firmly one step ahead in the hope for rewards of the 3G kind; as a new phase of competition gets underway in the telecom space.
Although 3G operations kick-started in India in early 2009, the ball has started rolling only now, after private players entered in late 2010. Tata Docomo was the first one, riding on the experience of its partner NTT DOCOMO. Circa 2011, the battle has now reached a feverish pitch with Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom & Aircel starting their 3G roll-out.
The stakes are extremely high. After 34 days and 183 rounds of bidding, telecom operators shelled out approximately Rs.677 billion in the auction, with Rs.509 billion from private operators, and Rs.167 billion from BSNL & MTNL, for 71 licenses. Delhi and Mumbai, being the costliest circles, accounted for roughly 40% of the total money raised. To add to that, operators are expected to put in an additional $50 billion over the next five years to strengthen their 3G network across the country, says consultancy major PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The market for initial adopters of 3G – the SEC A populace is small – roughly around 100 million, and that too scattered across circles and different service providers. Sandeep Ladda, Executive Director, Telecom and Entertainment & Media Tax Practice, PwC, projects that it will reach 80 million by 2015. So there are no easy pickings in the initial phase. 4Ps B&M delves deep into the plans of Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Idea to understand their competitive situation.
As expected, Airtel seems to have a head start initially, cornering an impressive 2 million 3G users, within months of its launch – in January 2011. The company’s large base of high net worth subscribers in metros works to its advantage. Otherwise, the product offering i.e. 3G services is more or less similar. All are promising high-speed 7Mbps to 21 Mbps Internet, Live TV, live video streaming, video calls, a more responsive GPRS, mobile Wi-Fi, et al. On the distribution front, we are witnessing a dramatic change from 2G times. Instead of whole circles, the telcos are focusing on city-to-city rollouts. When they roll out in entire circles, rural areas and tier 3 towns get into their ambit as well.
Voice and text are passé; now mobiles are ready for Live TV and 21 Mbps Internet speed! While the political and legal establishment in India remain stuck on who all pocketed the 2G spoils, service providers are firmly one step ahead in the hope for rewards of the 3G kind; as a new phase of competition gets underway in the telecom space.
Although 3G operations kick-started in India in early 2009, the ball has started rolling only now, after private players entered in late 2010. Tata Docomo was the first one, riding on the experience of its partner NTT DOCOMO. Circa 2011, the battle has now reached a feverish pitch with Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom & Aircel starting their 3G roll-out.
The stakes are extremely high. After 34 days and 183 rounds of bidding, telecom operators shelled out approximately Rs.677 billion in the auction, with Rs.509 billion from private operators, and Rs.167 billion from BSNL & MTNL, for 71 licenses. Delhi and Mumbai, being the costliest circles, accounted for roughly 40% of the total money raised. To add to that, operators are expected to put in an additional $50 billion over the next five years to strengthen their 3G network across the country, says consultancy major PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The market for initial adopters of 3G – the SEC A populace is small – roughly around 100 million, and that too scattered across circles and different service providers. Sandeep Ladda, Executive Director, Telecom and Entertainment & Media Tax Practice, PwC, projects that it will reach 80 million by 2015. So there are no easy pickings in the initial phase. 4Ps B&M delves deep into the plans of Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Idea to understand their competitive situation.
As expected, Airtel seems to have a head start initially, cornering an impressive 2 million 3G users, within months of its launch – in January 2011. The company’s large base of high net worth subscribers in metros works to its advantage. Otherwise, the product offering i.e. 3G services is more or less similar. All are promising high-speed 7Mbps to 21 Mbps Internet, Live TV, live video streaming, video calls, a more responsive GPRS, mobile Wi-Fi, et al. On the distribution front, we are witnessing a dramatic change from 2G times. Instead of whole circles, the telcos are focusing on city-to-city rollouts. When they roll out in entire circles, rural areas and tier 3 towns get into their ambit as well.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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