Bharti Airtel may end up cumulatively bidding for more spectrum than market leader Reliance Jio in the upcoming auctions. This is owing to its need for spectrum renewal, and a requirement for 900 MHz in a few circles, analysts have said. Despite the muted bidding expected in the upcoming auctions, Airtel may end up making more bids than Jio, they added.
Vodafone and Bharti have pointed out that, for data, their revenue realisation should be at Rs 30-35 per GB for them to cover their costs as opposed to the current figure of over Rs 11 per GB. But Jio has suggested a gradual increase to Rs 15 per GB and then maybe to Rs 20 per GB after six to nine months.
State-run MTNL has received the highest amount of spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai at 12.4 Mhz as on March 2009, while private GSM operators Bharti and Vodafone are not far behind at 10 Mhz each in the same period.
However, the government is readying a relief package and it could include a cut in the licence fee to 5 per cent, two years' moratorium on paying spectrum charges with interest, and referring the GST tax refund issue to the Council.
Idea tops list of companies with high percentage of active subscribers.
After initial hiccups, the government on Thursday permitted carriage of video calls on mobile networks subject to an undertaking by operators that they would provide interception capability by July 31 this year.
Corporate giant Tatas on Tuesday asked the government to seek surrender of excess spectrum lying with GSM operators, a line being aggressively pursued by Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani. With this, the top two CDMA players have joined forces against GSM operators like Bharti and Vodafone to seek return of spectrum beyond the contractual amount of 6.2 Mhz.
India's top three GSM mobile operators, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have joined hands to set up an independent tower company, Indus Towers, that aims to share passive infrastructure with all telecom players to enable lower cost and a more competitive operative environment.
What's happening in the telecom sector are classic bullying tactics - do the wrong thing, threaten to do worse, get the threatened party to sue for peace, and walk away smelling of roses after a "compromise".
Jio is targeting to differentiate its services via superior data and an associated ecosystem of content.
Telecommunication companies buying airwaves in an Indian auction next month will pay 5 per cent of their revenue as an annual fee.
About Rs 52,500 crore (Rs 525 billion) has been offered as of the fourth day of the ongoing wireless spectrum auction on Thursday, with metros like Delhi seeing renewed demand for airwaves.
Airtel and Vodafone Idea are also trying to expand the penetration of 4G users in their subscriber base as they take this network to the hinterland
These customers will be unable to meet the lowest recharge requirements for Jio, meaning they will either exit the market or migrate to BSNL/MTNL.
The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
The big advantage that Jio is able to garner currently is its low cost of operations.
Telecom companies put in bids worth a total of about Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion) on the second day of the auction on Tuesday, with premium 900 Mhz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata witnessing continuing demand.
Demand for 1,800-MHz weak but govt secures a combined Rs 42k cr on Day-1
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