Will ibibo’s free calls add more mobile VAS on social networks ?
ibibo social network became the first network in India to offer free mobile to mobile chat to its members. Yes!!! you can call your friend in the network and he maybe located anywhere in India.
What ibibo is essentially doing is connecting you and your friend for a brief mobile chat just like Google’s click to call service. The conversation is limited to 2 minutes, that’s the big disappointing feature. This development is significant in many ways,
- ibibo may tie up with mobile operator and offer credits to call or ibibo which is already offering monetary incenetives can convert them to free call credits, endless marketing possiblities.
- Being web asocial, I have no personal experience about these networks. But learning from others, especially Facebook freeks, there are significant number of people who keep spying on friends of friend and want to touchbase with them, mostly to Party or Date. This feature will let folks not to reveal their numbers and yet continue to talk
- I had heard of a feature called gifting a Rose on facebook for a $. On similar lines, windows of opportunities open for mobile value added service provider. Why can’t you gift a ringtone, a game, screen saver, SMS + MMS greetings as ice-breakers etc…
Now, Reliance ADAG controlled BigAdda is in a better position to leverage this market being a Cellco and having good Value Added Services bouquet of offering.
I just can’t believe that we are already into a converged world of Web and Mobile. Many thanks to the Americans, for setting a new trend, give up Real life and move towards wired life. Wait a minute, being a Convergence blogger how lazy and a procastinator I am for not being on any of these networks.
Tags: Mobile, Social Networking, Mobile VAS, Ringtones MMS SMS, Click to Call,
Telecom Licenses + Spectrum in India
There is a massive rush from different corners of corporate India to run mobile services. It all started with realty firm Parsvnath Developers, followed by Unitech and DLF. IndiaBulls, retail stock broking chain has also thrown its hat in the ring. Existing operators, HFCL and Spice who have slept over a decade have suddenly woken up. Flip flop cellco, AT&T is also belived to be in the race [I don't recall where I have read, but for sure they are exploring ways to get back after they parted ways in Idea Cellular].
I normally don’t like to predict things, but looking forward on how things can possibly shape up in the next 12 months and eliminating choices, here is what I think is likely to happen.
- Committee will submit report after scrutinizing Telecom License applications on who the final and real beneficial owners are. [Applicable in case of promoters like Ruia's of Essar and Anil Ambani of Reliance]
- Expert committee comprising of mostly technocrats will submit their opinion on efficient use of spectrum [Currently GSM operators get nearly twice the spectrum than CDMA operators by virtue of previous recommendations.] This time GSM operators will be told to use better mix of GSM technology to make the best use of spectrum.
- Current PAN India mobile license costs mere Rs 1,500 crore. Going by the democratic stand adopted by TRAI not to deny license to anybody, Government is likely to raise the fees to eliminate weaker souls. Telecom is no Finance or Software Exports business.
- Atleast 5 companies would still want to realize their Telecom dreams and apply for approvals and spectrum. With atleast 8 different operators in one circle and small amount of spectrum availability, IT ministry will have no choice but to auction fresh spectrum.
- My guess, fresh spectrum will be atleast thrice as more expensive than the cost of acquiring current spectrum. With high entry costs for new players, Red numbers on their balance sheet is not ruled out.
- Existing players will continue to offer services at existing rates or at slightly higher rates. New entrants will have an uphill task. Now the bottomlines of listed entities may take a hit, but there is a blessing in disguise, the spectrum. Idea, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar’s spectrum valuation will be an hidden asset. If Dalal Street continues to rock, then these stocks will get re-rated by the virtue of their Spectrum which is expected to be valued atleast 3 times than existing rates. [This ofcourse, is after assuming that the government will untouch already allocated spectrum. Though, newer recommendations will ask them to upgrade networks and make best use of allocated spectrum thus delinking the model of allocation based on subscriber numbers. If allocation continues on subscriber numbers, then for sure, GSM lobby has an upper hand in the corridors of North Block]
A single unhappy soul can land the entire process in TDSAT or Supreme Court which will mess things badly and hurt the growth.
India for sure wants cheaper telecom service. Innovation is very essential to keep things rolling. Is there a way to deploy Wimax or other wireless networks which can be optimized for Voice traffic ? Reminds me of what Dr. Paulraj said, Indian government must take the lead and encourage companies to innovate in the field of wireless technologies. We Indians can’t always ride on technologies invented by others, at some point of time we have to step on to the cycle of innovation
Reliance to feed Google’s hunger for bandwidth
As web applications get more and more bandwidth intensive, Google can’t afford to sit quiet and dance to the tune of Telcos. Last week Om wrote about Google’s Trans-oceanic bandwidth needs. Latest reports suggest, Google is reportedly in talks with Reliance Communication’s Flag Telecom to lease 500Gb of dark fibre at around $100 million. In addition to international bandwidth, Google also has plans for nationwide wireless network in the US. All this means Cringley’s prdictions about Google Net and Cube coming true very soon.
This deal is a steal for Reliance Communications considering the paltry sum Mukesh Ambani, then CEO of Reliance group paid to acquire Flag Telecom [$207 Million].
Tags: Google, Bandwidth, Reliance, Flag Telecom
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IndiaKaHero = Contest2Win + Web 2.0
Is it under the inspiration of Indian Idol or Contest2Win ? I am unsure, but India Ka Hero for sure is a neat idea to let users exhibit their talent and let others choose the most talented.
India Ka Hero has launched four contests and the prizes for each of them are as follows,
- Jokes Ka Hero – Honda Activa
- Songs Ka Hero – Jet Holiday
- Mimcry Ka Hero – Sony Home Theatre
- Dance Ka Hero – Laptop
It is a combination of Contest2Win and a Web 2.0 idea [Bix - It is now a Yahoo! company]. Internet ranks third in popularity in India after TV and Mobile. So it will be really cool, if India Ka Hero ties this up with Mobile to reach wider audience.
How to accelerate Broadband growth in India ?
TRAI has initiated a consultation paper [PDF] on how to accelerate the growth of broadband services in India. At the end of June-2007, there were 2.52 Million broadband subscribers in India. TRAI’s target for 2007 is 9 million and is is likely that we will not even touch the half way mark
Key recommendations are,
- BSNL / MTNL should be encouraged to appoint franchisees to push broadband services. [So TRAI is aware of the shortcomings that exist in BSNL and MTNL offices]
- Standardisation of Customer Premises Equipment, opening the specifications and encouraging local manufacturing of the same. [What about upgrades to loop infrastructure ? This is a major problem with BSNL and to some extent with Airtel]
- Expedite decision on 3G & Broadband Wireless access policy [Currently, they have moved a step backwards to examine the shortcomings in 2G policy to tackle the spectrum crunch, so 3G can wait for some more time]
- Utilization of Universal Service Obligation fund to push broadband infrastructure [Good Move]
- India has 71 million cable TV subscribers. This network advantage can be leveraged by suitable measures to push broadband to consumers.
- Encourage DTH platform for broadband services
- TRAI suggests that new buildings / dwelling units be broadband ready, internally.
BSNL / MTNL together own more than 40 million copper loops in India, which are not open to private operators. In a related development, BSNL and MTNL are opposing to open their last mile infrastructure and are moving to the TDSAT to appeal against TRAI’s recommendation.
Before you are frustrated with the way TRAI recommends things, as visible from the implementation of NDNCRegistry , you send your thoughts and suggestions to TRAI’s S.K. Gupta – guptask61 @gmail.com.
Accelerated coverage helps more Indians go Mobile
Accelerated coverage into interiors of India helped mobile operators add more cellular subscribers in August-07. As usual, RCom doesn’t have its numbers yet[Ambani doesn't want to be first here ?] and excluding it, GSM operators added 5.95 million subscribers in August-07 taking the total GSM subscriber base to 147 million.
Bharti Airtel continues to rock the show with net addition of 2.05 million in Aug-07 and it is expected to close FY2008 with 62 million mobile subscribers. Vodafone Essar added 1.68 million with just 16 circles under operations. It is awaiting spectrum in 6 more circles and is the top contender. Idea Cellular added 867,000 subscribers in Aug-07. BSNL the loser, managed to get mere 725,000 subscribers. Maxis Aircel has picked up steam and added 458,000 subscribers.
At the end of August-2007, the top 5 cellular service providers in the GSM segment are,
- Bharti Airtel – 46.81 mn subscribers
- Vodafone Essar – Hutch – 34.115 mn subscribers
- BSNL Cellone – 29.074 mn subscribers
- Idea Cellular – 17.871 mn subscribers
- Aircel – 7.62 mn subscribers
Reliance Telecom [GSM wing of Reliance Communications] is out of the Top-5 .
Surprise of August-2007 Data – Net additions in Circle – C has recorded a negative growth. BSNL is the market leader in these circles and due to its capacity constraints it couldn’t perform. However, it is surprising that Bharti Airtel was a non-performer in these circles.
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