October adds highest ever mobile subscribers at 10.42 million

During these times of cutbacks there's one thing which Indians are buying in abundance-mobile connections. During the month of October the country added the highest-ever addition to the mobile subscriber base at 10.42 million taking the total number of mobile users to over 325 million, according to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). India already has the distinction of being the world’s fastest growing telecom market.

During the month of September, the total (GSM, CDMA and WLL) addition was of 10.07 million.

However, the net addition of about 10.29 million users (wireline and wireless) during the month, could have been higher but for the decline in the landline user base. The landline wireline segment saw the subscriber base falling to 38.22 million in October from 38.35 million in September. During September the net addition stood at 9.79 million. The total number of both wireless and wireline users now stand at 363.95 million, Trai said.

With this, the overall tele-density stood at 31.50% at the end of October against 30.64% in September. The total broadband subscriber base rose to 5.05 million by the end of October 2008 from 4.90 million in September.

In terms of break-up of the mobile subscriber figures, during October the GSM players added their highest-ever addition of around 8 million taking their user base to 242 million. Projections are that by the year end the total GSM user base would stand at 250 million.

Commenting on the record growth, TV Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India had earlier said, “the ongoing, vibrant growth of the GSM sector that with the cumulative GSM subscribers already at an estimated 242 million in October, it is clear that the GSM sector would by itself cross the historic 250 million milestone by December 2008.”

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator added its highest-ever 2.7 million customers during October, which is a 3.51% growth compared to the month of September. The world’s third largest in-country operator has a market share of 33.23%. It added the largest number of operators in the Rajasthan circle, adding a 350,000 subscribers during the month.

Vodafone Essar, the country's second largest GSM operator with a market share of 23.49% added around 2 million customers in the month registering a growth rate of 3.81%. The company recorded a highest addition of around 266,000 subscribers in Eastern UP circle.

The state-owned BSNL, the country's second largest telecom player with about 670,000 users, during the period registered a growth of 1.71% over the previous month. The telco has a market share of 16.5% in the GSM subscribers. Among the CDMA operators, Reliance Communications, which is the largest operator in the segment, added 1.7 million subscribers.

Fast dialling

• Total number of both wireless and wireline users now stand at 363.95 million
• With this, the overall tele-density stood at 31.50% at the end of October against 30.64% in September
• The total broadband subscriber base rose to 5.05 million by the end of October 2008 from 4.90 million in September.

60% of mobile users in rural India by ’12: E&Y

 Rural India too prefers mobile phones over landlines. Of the next 250 million Indian wireless users, approximately 100 million (40%) are likely to be from rural areas, and by 2012, rural users will account for over 60% of the total telecom subscriber base, according to a report jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.
    As per Trai figures, subscriber additions in rural areas exceeded additions in the metros. In the first nine months of 2008, the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3 million. Mobile phones in rural India also grew by close to 13.72% to reach 70.83 million in the quarter-ending June 2008. This is expected to continue till 2012, according to the CII and Ernst and Young analysis. “The majority of new wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C,” said Ernst & Young telecom analyst, Prashant Singhal.
    While the overall teledensity in India is over 30%, in rural areas the figure languishes in single digits. CII predicts the number of subscriber addition in rural areas to exceed the additions in metros by 2012 with about 120 million new users expected to adopt wireless telephony in rural areas compared to about 62 million in the metros.
    With over 300 million mobile subscribers, India is the second largest market, after China, in terms of subscribers. By 2012, the total telecom subscriber base is expected to shoot up to include about 700 million subscribers, of which about 650 million will be wireless users.

60% of mobile users in rural India by ’12: E&Y

 Rural India too prefers mobile phones over landlines. Of the next 250 million Indian wireless users, approximately 100 million (40%) are likely to be from rural areas, and by 2012, rural users will account for over 60% of the total telecom subscriber base, according to a report jointly released by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young.
    As per Trai figures, subscriber additions in rural areas exceeded additions in the metros. In the first nine months of 2008, the four metros together added 10.3 million subscribers, while the rural areas added over 11.3 million. Mobile phones in rural India also grew by close to 13.72% to reach 70.83 million in the quarter-ending June 2008. This is expected to continue till 2012, according to the CII and Ernst and Young analysis. “The majority of new wireless subscribers will emerge from circle B and circle C,” said Ernst & Young telecom analyst, Prashant Singhal.
    While the overall teledensity in India is over 30%, in rural areas the figure languishes in single digits. CII predicts the number of subscriber addition in rural areas to exceed the additions in metros by 2012 with about 120 million new users expected to adopt wireless telephony in rural areas compared to about 62 million in the metros.
    With over 300 million mobile subscribers, India is the second largest market, after China, in terms of subscribers. By 2012, the total telecom subscriber base is expected to shoot up to include about 700 million subscribers, of which about 650 million will be wireless users.

BSNL, BT ink deal for managed networks

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has inked an agreement with BT to provide managed network services to enterprises in a bid to strengthen its information and communications technology (ICT)
offerings.
The two companies will provide full range of services including basic, leased line, MPLS VPN services,Internet, mobile and broadband services. Last month, BSNL had announced a similar agreement with Cable&Wireless. As part of this, BSNL will offer BT access to its pan-India broadband network as well as
seamless access services. The partnership also gives BT access to value added services as well as a single point of resolution for all queries and fault management services.
BSNL will get access to BT's global MPLS network and managed service expertise which includes, for example, network integration, managed security, managed datacenter, hosted contact centre and remote infrastructure management services.
“The BT-BSNL partnership brings together the world-class capabilities of both companies to provide a comprehensive IT and communications service capability in a single service offering. This provides customers with improved service, increased flexibility and reduced risks,” BT India MD Sudhir Narang said in a statement in Mumbai.
“As BSNL transforms into a premier integrated communications service provider, a robust managed service offering is key to our future operations, “ BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said. This partnership will also focus on offering end-to-end services for large transformational projects and help raise the bar in the networked
IT industry, the release said.

India's mobile telephony segment to offer major scope for growth: ITU

According to the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a leading UN
agency for information and communication technology issues, India's current mobile telephone
penetration rate of about 20 per cent and market liberalisation policies are some of the factors that may offer "great potential" for growth of telecom companies.
Further, according to ITU, while India had about 296 million mobile subscribers by end-July 2008, the world's second-most populous nation offers major scope for growth in terms of numbers. Also, market liberalisation in India has contributed majorly in spreading mobile telephony driven by increasing competitiveness and price reductions.
India's mobile telephony operators now compete for low-income customers and the Average-Revenue-Per-User in India has touched almost US$ 7, one of the lowest in the world, the data revealed.
The report also stated that developing countries like India and China are witnessing an upsurge in the number of mobile phone subscribers which may lead to growth in the numbers to four billion by the end of the year worldwide. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China – incidentally China, the world's largest mobile market, too has surpassed the 600 million subscriber mark by mid-2008) economies are expected to account for over 1.3 billion mobile subscribers by the end of 2008, owing to increasing impact in terms of population, resources and global gross domestic product (GDP) share.

Mobile banking only for card holders: RBI

SMALL-ticket payments and remittances from mobile phones will become a reality soon.Keeping in mind the superior reach of mobile phones as a delivery channel, The Reserve Bank of India on Friday released its final operative guidelines for mobile banking.
The central bank has decided to keep the limit on the ticket-size for mobile banking at Rs 2,500 per transaction, and Rs 5,000 per day. Banks have also been allowed to put in place a monthly transaction limit, depending on the bank’s risk perception of the customer.
While the guidelines will enable lenders such as State Bank of India and Axis Bank to go ahead with their launch of mobile-banking services, the central bank has decided to restrict the services only to holders of debit and credit cards. The card user base in the country is 80 million, with 55 million debit card users and 25 million credit card users.
However, it comes as a blow to players who intended to use mobile banking to reach out to the underbanked in rural India. A number of microfinance institutions and mobile payment operators such as mChek, PayMate and Obopay had tied up to offer mobile-based financial inclusion products in the hinterland. Banks, however, have been allowed to use the services of banking correspondents for extending this facility to consumers.
Only Indian rupee-based domestic services shall be provided on the mobile-payment platform, and the use of mobile-banking for cross-border transactions have been strictly prohibited. Banks which are based, licensed and supervised in India will be allowed to offer such services. Further, only banks which have implemented the core banking platform will be allowed to offer mobile banking.
At the same time, the RBI has recommended that all mobile banking transactions are validated through a two-factor authentication system, thereby complying to the latest security and encryption standards. The RBI has also said the long-term goal of the mobile-payment framework in India would be to enable funds transfer from and account in one bank to any other account in any bank on a real-time basis, irrespective of the mobile network the customer has subscribed to. The guidelines also recommend that banks do not compromise on their know-your-customer and anti-money laundering guidelines. They will also be required to file suspicious transaction reports (STRs) to the Financial Intelligence Unit for all mobile banking transactions, as in the case of regular banking transactions.
It has also been recommended that banks explicitly state the risks to the customer and also get them to sign a contract before the service is adopted. It has also asked banks to make their mobilebanking services available across all phone networks.
The number of mobile phone connections in the country was at about 296 million at the end of July this year and it is growing at about 8-9 million per month, according to telecom regulator Trai. Banks have been exploring the feasibility of using mobile phones as an alternative channel of delivery of banking services. Some banks have also started offering information-based services like balance enquiry, stop payment instruction of cheques, transaction enquiry, location of the nearest ATM or branch, etc. Acceptance of transfer of funds, instruction for credit to beneficiaries of same or another bank in favour of preregistered beneficiaries have also started in a few banks, the RBI said.

Bharti launches Venture fund of Rs 2 billiion($44 million)

Bharti Airtel Ltd has launched a venture fund on Thursday with an initial Rs2 billion ($44 million) to promote content and technology development.
India, with nearly 300 million mobile users, is the second largest wireless market in the world after China, and still has the potential for further huge growth as only just over a quarter of its billion-plus population use cellphones now.
Operators are signing up 8-9 million users every month, and consultancy Garter expects 737 million connections by 2012.
The growth potential has encouraged mobile operators to step up investment on technology and content as they look to tap underdeveloped rural areas.