50 million 3G subscribers in Asia Pacific Region

W-CDMA was the fastest growing technology in the Asia Pacific region by customer numbers in 2006, as the base using the GSM-derivative 3G standard grew in size by 97% from 24.7m to 48.7m during the year. GSM customers (excluding W-CDMA) grew in number by 29.8% to reach 815m at the end of December 2006. The two technologies in the GSM family together enjoyed customer growth of 32.3%, trumping the CDMA family whose own variants recorded customer growth of 28.4% in aggregate to reach a total of 150.8m.
Given that customer growth in Asia Pacific as a whole was 28.0% in 2006, the result was that CDMA maintained its share of 14.4% of the customer market in the region in 2006. The proportion of the total accounted for by GSM customers saw a marginal increase from 76.8% to 77.9%, whilst W-CDMA customers made up 4.7% of the total at the end of 2006 versus 3.0% at the end of 2005. Giving the slack was largely the Japanese proprietary PDC technology, whose customer base declined 32.7% during the year, although customers of the continent's remaining AMPS, TDMA and other analogue networks also declined, from 0.15% to 0.06% of the total over the period.

Whilst W-CDMA 3G customers stood on the brink of 50m at the end of 2006, 78% of the total was accounted for by Japan alone. Whilst this is an improvement on the 91% registered at the end of 2005, there were still only just over 10m 3G customers in the total base of over 950m mobile customers in Asia Pacific outside of Japan.
Far more numerous were 3G CDMA customers, who numbered 131m at the end of 2006.
What's more only 19% of these customers resided in Japan, meaning that 3G customers using CDMA technology outside of Japan were more than ten times as numerous as their W-CDMA counterparts at the end of 2006. Of course, such claims depend on including CDMA2000 1x variants in our definition of "3G" here, which some argue is incorrect. If we were to exclude this technology and only include customers of the later CDMA2000 1x EV-DO variant, we find on this definition that there were only 28.8m 3G customers using CDMA technology at the end of 2006, of which 12.5m or 43% were in Japan. Of course the reason for the low 3G penetration, by any standard, is that the technology has not yet been launched in many of Asia Pacific's major markets.

However, 2007 should see developments in this area in both China and India, as well as the first full year of 3G service in Indonesia. The chart below shows the development of 3G customers in Asia Pacific so far.

Source - http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23110.php

Mobile phone users in India to triple by 2011 ?

As per projections of iSuppli Corp -

A) the wireless service subscriber base in India will rise to 484 million by 2011, more than three times the 149.5 million in 2006. India in 2006 emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing wireless telecom markets, with the number of mobile-phone service subscribers in the nation growing to 149.5 million, up from 85 million in 2005. Monthly mobile subscriber additions averaged 5.5 million in 2006, and exceeded 6 million per month by the end of the year. iSuppli Corp. projects that .
The penetration of wireless technologies remains high in urban areas compared to rural regions, where approximately two-thirds of the Indian population resides. As of December 2006, the urban tele-density had grown to more than 40 percent, compared to rural penetration of little more than 2 percent.

B) The growth in wireless subscribers is fueling explosive growth in demand for new phones in India. iSuppli estimates that the number of total new legal handsets sold in India in 2006 was 69.3 million. As the subscriber base continues to expand, India will emerge as the second-largest market in the world after China for mobile handsets in terms of unit shipments. iSuppli estimates that in 2011, approximately 11 percent of the global mobile device unit shipments will be to India.
The Indian mobile phone market in 2006 was dominated by GSM-enabled handsets with 51.7 million out of 68.9 million handsets being GSM enabled.

C) The replacement cycle for mobile phones varies radically by the type of market. In India, handset usage is primarily a voice-centric affair. Therefore, the replacement cycle is longer. However, as handset features gain prominence, the replacement rate is expected to grow to 25 percent by 2011.

D) The blended mobile-phone services Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the Indian market was estimated to be in the vicinity of US$7 in 2006. As growth picks up in the semi-urban and rural areas, there will be downward pressure on ARPU. iSuppli estimates the ARPU will drop to less than US$5 by 2010.
Data services are slowly starting to gain traction in India. However, iSuppli estimates that data ARPU in India will be extremely low for the foreseeable future. This is because although GPRS and EDGE services have been available in India for quite some time, they have met with limited success. GPRS service first was launched in India in February 2002, while EDGE commenced in July 2004. GPRS is widely deployed in India, while EDGE has been rolled out only in major metropolitan areas and in a few other smaller cities.
In the years to come, EDGE subscribers will grow, but will remain a limited portion of the total subscriber base, iSuppli concludes.

BSNL added over 19.8 lacs GSM subscribers in March 2007

India's largest telecommunications operator by number of subscribers Bharti Airtel has added 1.70 million mobile phone subscribers in March, industry data showed Wednesday.
With this, Bharti's mobile phone subscriber base has reached 37.14 million users, data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the body representing all the nine mobile operators using GSM technology, showed.
State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. added the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in March at 1.98 million to take its total subscriber base to 27.43 million.
Hutchison Essar Ltd., in which U.K.'s Vodafone Group recently bought a 52% direct stake, reported an addition of 1.1 million mobile phone users to take its total subscriber base to 26.44 million users at the end of March.
Recently listed Idea Cellular showed a slowdown in growth by adding 370,551 subscribers in March against 568,051 mobile phone users added in February.
The statement didn't give reasons for the slow growth.
Idea's subscriber base at the end of March was 14.01 million cell phone users.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, another state-run telecommunications company providing services in New Delhi and Mumbai, added 167,992 mobile phone users to take its subscriber base at the end of March to 2.75 million.
All the nine operators using GSM technology put together a reported addition of 6.13 million mobile phone users in March, with the total subscriber base at 121.43 million GSM mobile phone users.

TRAI recommends network infrastructure sharing

The Department of Telecommunication had sought recommendations from TRAI on effective sharing of passive infrastructure (towers etc.). The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says that it is supporting plans to allow network infrastructure sharing in India. Given the significance of infrastructure sharing the Authority says that it not only considered the issue of passive infrastructure sharing but has given the recommendation regarding active infrastructure sharing and backhaul on a suo-motu basis.


TRAI says that the country would require approximately 330,000 towers by 2010 against the present number of approximately 100,000 towers. Apart from huge investments needed the time taken in roll out could be a major bottleneck in the achievement of 500 million subscribers by 2010. Even if the target is achieved it will only be about 50 per cent of the tele-density with major gaps in the rural areas.
In its recommendation, the Authority has reiterated the urgency of passive infrastructure sharing. The Authority does not prefer any mandated passive infrastructure sharing but has required that the entire process should be transparent and non-discriminatory. The mode of commercial agreement has been left to the telecom service providers but it has reserved the option of prescribing a standard commercial agreement format in future if the process of infrastructure sharing does not become a pattern of planning in the schemes of telecom service providers.
In another major recommendation the Authority has sought amendment in the license condition to allow active infrastructure sharing limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network and transmission systems.
However, the Authority has not favoured sharing of spectrum at this stage.
Another major initiative is backhaul sharing. Considering the importance of backhaul sharing for mobile services in rural and far-flung areas, the Authority has recommended amendment in the license conditions to allow service providers to share their backhaul from Base Trans Receiver Station (BTS) to Base Station Controller (BSC). It has noted that such a sharing is permitted on optical fibre as well as radio medium at certain 'nodes'. However, no sharing of spectrum at Access Network side has been recommended.
In order to provide level playing field and roll out opportunities to all the licensees, the Authority has expanded the scope of financial incentive for passive infrastructure sharing in rural and far-flung remote areas. Accordingly it has recommended that all the licensees in any service areas should qualify for financial subvention schemes meant for rural areas though at reduced scale compared to the winner in the tender process of USOF Administration. The Authority has also recognised the need to encourage use of non-conventional energy sources and has recommended to the DOT to finalise suitable schemes in consultation with the concerned Ministry so as to resolve the critical power availability issue.

Source - cellular-news.com

Hutchison Essar Planning US$2 Billion GSM Network Tender?

India's Hutchison Essar is reported to be pressing ahead with a tender for GSM equipment which could be worth as much as US$2 billion. The tender is expected to go ahead, even though the problematic purchase of a majority stake in the firm by Vodafone is mired in controversy about India's cap on foreign shareholder.

The company would roll out extra capacity in the existing 16 circles (licensed areas) and was also factoring in the proposed launch of operations in six Spacetel circles acquired from the Essar group last year. Spacetel has a letter of intent from the Department of Telecom to operate in North East, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, and Jammu and Kashmir where Hutchison Essar is not present.
Hutchison Essar ended last year with some 23.3 million subscribers, giving the company a market share of just over 16%.


Source - Economic Times

Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) opposes Governments plan to split it into three companies

Telecom New Zealand (TNZ), the nation's dominant carrier, proposed selling off its copper-line network rather than submit to a government- imposed scheme that would split the company three ways.
The government plan supposedly is designed to foster competition, but TNZ says it would destroy the carrier. TNZ and the government have been sparring over some sort of restructuring since last summer. The government, in a plan that went to the New Zealand Parliament and was published in a final form last week, wants to chop the company up into a trio of units - wholesale, retail and the copper-wire telephone network - all of which would remain part of TNZ. This scheme will be forced on TNZ by 2010. In theory, the New Zealand government's plan is based on what happened to BT in the U.K.

TNZ Chairman Wayne Boyd unveiled TNZ's plan to simply sell off its copper lines. It could cost TNZ more than $240 million to implement the government plan, forcing it to hire 700 extra workers plus incurring substantial ongoing costs.
Instead, Boyd proposed that TNZ simply sell off its copper network, which reaches 1.4 million of New Zealand's 1.7 million households. what price TNZ might expect to get for the network, which is said to have a theoretical book value of $1.5 billion remains a question mark. One possibility floated was also that, rather than selling the network, TNZ would instead cut it in half, creating a separate company with existing TNZ shareholders receiving pro rata shares in the new company.
According to TNZ, selling the network will create "a structurally separated access network company that would have the ability to earn a commercial rate of return, a simpler separation model so resources can focus on faster delivery of local loop unbundling and naked DSL, downstream de-regulation to enable telecom retail to compete and innovate, and committed broadband network investment from telecom."
Boyd also argued that the government plan took no account of emerging fiber technology, which is replacing copper and which would leave TNZ with a network unit that couldn't compete in the emerging environment.

Banks and Telcos - Partnerships of future?

Reports from Italy suggest that a group of local banks are looking to form a consortium which would become the largest shareholder in the country’s dominant telco, Telecom Italia. Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca are hoping to gather together other local investors to win control of up to 29.9% of the operator, local business daily Milano Finanza reports. The consortium may include AT&T Inc and América Móvil, which are looking to take 33% each in Olimpia, a holding company which has an 18% stake in Telecom Italia; the Olimpia stake is being sold by Italian industrial group Pirelli.

Banking and Telecom services can reap in wonderful partnerships. Does this gives hint for other Telcos or service providers?

Emerging trends in mobile advertising and marketing

Recently released study from ABI Research projects the mobile advertising and marketing market to reach $3 billion by end 2007 and expand to $19 billion in 2011.
As per the study - "Mobile advertising and marketing is a risky, albeit enticing business Unlike the PC, a mobile device offers a uniquely personalized communications channel. Carriers worldwide have quite a bit of information about their end-users: name, sex, age, geographical location. And depending on the handset and plan their users have purchased, the carriers probably also know something about their economic status and credit record. But they don't like to release this information to third parties because they want to protect and control their customers,"
However, early-adopting brands in the US are still in the process of testing the water. They don't typically allocate a set percentage of their annual budgets to mobile. In turn, major ad agencies are still relatively inexperienced with mobile marketing campaigns, and reluctant to utilize location-based services and technologies such as MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and mobile search that are still in the early stages of deployment. This new study also indicates the reluctance of major ad agencies to maximize mobile advertising as part of their campaigns. But they have to rethink the way they do business considering the current market landscape composed of people who are dependent, to a point addicted, on their mobile phones for daily survival.

Gaming applications spinning money for Japanese Telco

KDDI's wireless data service, powered by BREW, continues to spur the demand for mobile applications in the Japanese market. In January 2007, KDDI subscribers downloaded more than seven million BREW applications to their mobile phones. The cumulative number of BREW application downloads is now more than 160 million since KDDI first launched BREW in February 2003. Gaming has proven to be one of the most active areas of mobile downloads. According to KDDI, its catalog of high-quality mobile games has grown from 2,000 applications in January 2006 to more than 3,000 gaming applications in January 2007.

Are the telcos ready for the next revolution of the information age - Mobile TV

Leading research firm Gartner predicts that Mobile TV will be an opportunity for operator to replace dwindling voice revenue. Mobile TV will become a mainstream service in most developed markets by 2010 with close to half a billion subscribers worldwide.
The marketplace for mobile TV will vary widely by country and will be shared between TV services that are delivered via cellular and broadcast methods. TV services over cellular will grow from 38 million users in 2007 to 356 million in 2010. TV broadcasting will reach 133 million subscribers by 2010 - due in the main to the growing availability of broadcast-enabled phones - with Japan as the region leading the way followed by Western Europe.

The uptake of mobile TV services will grow at a considerable rate over the next few years, but most subscribers will receive mobile TV as part of their mobile subscription, Garner says.
Gartner estimates that only 30 percent of the total number of mobile TV subscribers will ask for the service while 70 percent will receive it as part of their service bundle.
The bundling of Mobile TV services together with questionable early demand for premium content and advertising-funded free TV services will mean that in the short term at least, revenue from mobile TV will be depressed.

In the long run however Gartner predicts that it still has the potential to be a major overall average per revenue per unit (ARPU) component.
Gartner expects TV services over cellular to show revenue of just over USD 100 million in 2006, growing to USD 15 billion by 2010. said Ms Milanesi. Revenue from broadcast TV will grow from USD 200 million to 10.8 billion over the same period.
Consequently, Gartner is advising operators to consider revenue models for mobile TV carefully. According to Ms Milanesi, rather than competing on tariffs, they should instead focus on creating a unique ‘Mobile TV experience’ in order to attract an increasing number of subscribers.

“The most successful operators where mobile TV is concerned will be those that treat it as a long-term opportunity, not a quick fix.”

Mobile TV Subscribers, Worldwide, 2006-2010
Transport Cellular Broadcasting Total
2006 10 942 000 5 972 500 16 914 500
2007 37 76 700 21 872 300 59 640 000
2010 356 058 700 132 692 800 488 751 500

Source: Gartner

Japan to have 50m wallet phones by 2010

Eurotechnology Japan KK estimates that within this year about 30 million phones in Japan will be wallet phones which can serve as electronic cash, mobile credit cards, ATM cards, apartment keys and train tickets.
The consulting house predicts that if current adoption rates continue about 50 million wallet phones be in the hands of subscribers in Japan around 2010.
Wallet phones are likely to change the face of the credit card industry, and create new industries. This impact is only starting now.
Eurotechnology Japan calls wallet phones innovation and disruption for established industries, such as credit cards.
Wallet phones in principle can take over all functions, which our wallet has. Wallet phones enable mobile operators to enter new industries, especially the payment and credit card industries.

Telcos in Chaina and Germany face union problems

Executive members of the state-run Chunghwa Telecom Co. Workers' Union have charged that telco's management of ongoing "inhumane" worker layoffs aimed at cutting costs. At the same time in Europe a German labor union sanctioned brief walkouts in protest of plans by Deutsche Telekom to institute longer hours and lower pay for thousands of workers.

In China, protesters demanded that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), which holds a 36-percent stake in Chunghwa, should replace its designated chairman, Ho Chen-tan. Workers claim Ho has resorted to "inhumane" means "of all kinds" since 2006 to lay off workers in order to "please" foreign investors. If Ho is not replaced, the union threatens to mobilize 5,000 workers to protest at the ministry headquarters May 1.
According to the workers union, some 1,600 workers were scheduled to be pink-slipped this month, with Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union Secretary-General Chuang Ping-tang saying the carrier has a "layoff quota" that includes forcing "targeted" workers to quit by changing work schedules and duties with no prior notice. Apparently, anxiety is so high among Chunghwa workers that one generator-room technician committed suicide last year.
Chinese legislators have criticized highly profitable carrier ($1.2 billion last year) for violation of an agreement it signed with the workers' union in 2005 when it began the process of privatization. That agreement stipulated that no workers were to be laid off during the first five years of privatization.

In Europe, some 1,000 call-center representatives and technical-service members of Germany's ver.di service workers' union, located at six Deutsche Telekom sites, staged brief "warning strikes" lasting for one shift in protest of the incumbent's proposed plan to transfer as many as 50,000 staffers to a new service unit, called T-Service. (Apparently, these targeted mini-strikes are used by German unions to show they mean business while not disrupting business too much.) Workers claim the carrier plans to amend workers' labor contracts to secure more hours at less pay.
Last month, Deutsche Telekom announced that, effective July 1, its call-center activities, technical customer service and operative units would be "integrated in three units." In the collective bargaining, which is beginning now, Deutsche Telekom is seeking to negotiate service-oriented employment conditions with ver.di and a payment structure that is in line with the market. In return, Deutsche Telekom has signaled its willingness to make an early extension to the agreement to avoid compulsory redundancies, which expires on Dec. 31, 2008.
As such, the carrier wants to increase the work week from 34 hours to at least 38 hours. Gradually, and in a socially considerate manner, pay levels are also to be moved closer to the market level.

Erricsson aims growth via multimedia division

As per an interview given to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, a Swedish daily, Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg has said that he sees more acquisitions on the horizon to grow the firm's multimedia division. He said that networking equipment will continue to be Ericsson's largest business over the next five years. Recent acquisitions include a Norwegian digital broadcast systems maker and an IP messaging components company. Svanberg is quoted saying, "There will be more acquisitions on the multimedia side. We do not need to take a breath just because we have made several acquisitions." In addition, he said the Alcatel-Lucent merger has helped Ericsson with the merger of two competitors in one.

Idea cellular signs a ten year IT outsourcing contract with IBM

IBM has landed a ten-year IT outsourcing contract worth an estimated $600-$800 million from Idea Cellular, India's fifth largest cellular carrier. The exact value is based on Idea revenues, and could potentially grow into the billion dollar range. The deal is believed to position IBM as the number one player in telecoms IT outsourcing in India. If follows a somewhat similar 10-year revenue-sharing deal it snagged in 2004 from mobile market share leader Bharti Airtel Ltd. to manage its core IT infrastructure. That deal was estimated at $750 million when it was signed but, with the Indian cellular market literally exploding estimates are now that it may be worth $1.5 billion to IBM.
Idea had 13.6 million subscribers at the end of February, compared to Bharti's 35.4 million. However the deal with IBM looks to be more extensive than the one signed by its bigger rival. In addition to managing Idea's IT infrastructure, the pact calls for IBM to do an "end-to-end transformation" of Idea's business critical processes including billing, revenue assurance, and credit collection, subscriber management, business intelligence, fraud management, customer relationship management, e-billing and payment, and customer self care.
If all goes as planned, Idea hopes that hiring IBM will spur its growth and, the two companies said, IBM's incentive to see that happen is that the fee it receives is based on a "risk reward" revenue sharing plan. Details of that formula were not disclosed, but IBM will apparently win its biggest payoff if Idea beats a set of revenue predictions included in the contract between the two.
The move to hire IBM comes as Idea begins an aggressive rollout, funded by its recent IPO in which it raised $500 million.
At IBM the Idea contract is part of an effort to win more business within India, where it now employs about 53,000 people - second only to the U.S. where it has around 125,000 workers - and is investing $6 billion over the three years through 2009 to expand service centers in the country. However most of the business at those service centers is from global accounts. Sales to companies in India currently account for less than 1 percent of IBM global revenue.

Ofcom, the UK regulator comes out with rules for VoIP telephony

U.K. regulator Ofcom has handed down its first set of rules for VoIP telephony - what it is calling a "code of practice" . The rules apply to "softphone" VoIP calls from PCs, such as those between Skype and landline users (via the SkypeOut service), as well as to calls using broadband-connected VoIP adapters and standard phones. In addition to Skype, which is thought to be as wildly popular in the U.K. as it is in most of Europe, major VoIP players in the U.K. include everyone from pure VoIP player Vonage to incumbent BT and major challengers such as France Telecom's Orange and Tesco.

Ofcom said that "the new code of practice requires VoIP providers to make clear:
>>Whether or not the service includes access to emergency services;
>>The extent to which the service depends on the user's home power supply;
>>Whether directory assistance, directory listings, access to the operator or the itemisation of calls are available; and
>>Whether consumers will be able to keep their telephone number if they choose to switch providers at a later date."
In cases where emergency service calls are not available - which in the U.K. is believed to me the vast majority of VoIP service - providers are being required the get consumer's positive written acknowledgement that they have been so informed. Ofcom suggested that getting them to check off a box on their service order could have that effect. VoIP providers also have to put stickers on VoIP phones warning users they can't make emergency calls and, should they try, have a recorded announcement to that effect. For softphones the warnings have to appear on the PC screen. Similar rules cover the issue of loss of service in a power outage.

Ofcoms' regulations hardly come as a surprise to the VoIP community. VoIP service providers had been fighting for years against Ofcom establishing any rules, a battle they have now lost. Ofcom began considering VoIP rules as far back as September 2004, the regulator noted in its ruling. A little over a year ago, in Feb. 2006, the it put forth its proposed rules.

While imposing its first regulations on VoIP, Ofcom also very carefully indicated its general approval of the emergence of the technology.
"VoIP services offer consumers the prospect of cheaper calls - especially for calls from one VoIP service to another - and valuable new services such as call handling and unified messaging," Ofcom wrote in its ruling announcement. "Over the last twelve months a range of new VoIP services have been launched and demand continues to grow."

The regulator also cited industry estimates that, by the end of this year, there will be some 3 million VoIP users in the U.K. That estimate may be quite low, and may not include softphone users such as those on Skype and Microsoft Messenger. In January BT put out a statement bragging of its one millionth VoIP customer, for instance, saying it hit the target a half a year earlier than it had expected.

With 341 FTTH service providers, USA leads Japan in Fiber-to-the-Home growth rate

According to a new study jointly released by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the number of homes hooked up directly to fiber has nearly doubled during the past year in USA.
The study, says that nearly 8 million homes now are passed by fiber, up from 4 million a year ago. Of those, 1.3 million are connected to the fiber, better than double the 671,000 that were connected in March 2006. Verizon's FiOS remains the leader of the U.S. FTTH business, accounting for nearly all of the 899,500 homes connected to fiber by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). According to study, there are 341 other U.S. FTTH providers, each with an average of 1,249 connections. In fact, small rural telephone companies are actually leading the way in terms of penetration - with 3 percent of their combined customer base now connected via FTTH.
The study however did not discuss the issues surrounding the speed of Verizon's FTTH rollout that, by many estimates, is moving more slowly than had once been planned.
The research firm also notes that, while Japan has more FTTH connections than does the United States, the growth rate in America now is higher.

Major deregulatory changes in Telecom sector in Canada

Canada's Government has ordered the immediate deregulation of a majority of the Canadian phone industry. Canada's major telco's have been given the right to launch a battle to regain customers lost to both pure-play VoIP houses and cable companies offering VoIP services. Predictions are for a price war in very short order. Bell Canada is said to have lost 181,000 subscribers to VoIP-based competitors in the latest quarter alone, and Telus may have lost 31,000.

The orders have been issued despite opposition from Canadian regulator the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The commission had passed its own set of "market-based" rules covering the regulation of voice carriers. But Canadian law gives the minister the ability to overrule the CRTC.

Under the new rules, a telco will only have to show there are three different competitors offering phone services, including wireless, in a given residential market or two in a business market, in order to apply for the deregulation of its rates. The CRTC then has a limit of 120 days to act on the applications. Previously, telcos had to prove they had lost 25 percent of their customers before their rates could be deregulated. The new rules also eliminate the so-called "win-back" restrictions the CRTC had imposed, forcing phone companies to wait three months before trying to lure back customers who had defected.

Canada's New Government is pursuing an ambitious policy agenda for the telecommunications sector, the essence of which is a new regulatory framework that is more modern, flexible and efficient.

Use of telecom in South Asia by Bottom of Pyramid - research report

A study of teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid were officially released in Singapore at a media workshop on 28 February 2007. The research findings were presented to and then discussed with the journalists by Dr. Harsha de Silva and Ayesha Zainudeen of LIRNEasia and Dr. Lorraine Carlos Salazar of ISEAS, Singapore. followed by discussion with the journalists.

The presentations can be downloaded below-

Research Methodology and Key Findings Harsha de Silva

Cost Cutting Strategies at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The SMS Story, Missed Calls, and others Lorraine Carlos Salazar

The next billion customers Ayesha Zainudeen

USO bid for setting rural telecom towers

The Department of Telecom has received bids from 22 stand-alone infrastructure providers and all telecom operators for the setting up 8,000 telecom towers in rural India at an estimated cost of over Rs 3,000 crore. The government will provide the capital to set up these towers from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) through a bidding process. All Telecom companies pay 5% of their adjusted gross revenues towards the USOF, which is used for funding telecom infrastructure in rural India. Last year, the government had allocated Rs 1,500 crore towards the USOF in the budget. As per the Economic Survey released on Tuesday, off the Rs 10,787 crore collected towards USO fund till March 2006, only Rs 4,232 crore has been disbursed so far.

China Mobile now has 306.10 million customer base

China Mobile, the Hong Kong-listed unit of China's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, has reported that it added 4.86 million customers in January, up from 4.83 million new subscribers in December.

The monthly addition was the largest China Mobile has reported to date.
The carrier said 4.54 million of its new customers in January were prepaid subscribers and 324,000 were contract customers.
The January additions raised China Mobile's total number of subscribers to 306.10 million, from 301.23 million at the end of December.

China Mobile's smaller rival, China Unicom, reportedly added 1.38 million subscribers in January, taking its total number of mobile customers to 143.74 million.