Airtel introduces Broadband Speed Cap on Unlimited Plans + Speed on Demand
Airtel Broadband has quietly introduced a cap on broadband speed its customers can use every month. For instance, if you look at their website for Home 2222 Plus plan, the company is supposd to provide 1 Mbps unlimited data transfer for a month. However, Airtel now says that they provide speed of 1 Mbps for the first 50 Gigs of data transfer later it will be capped at 512 Kbps. Last October, Comcast in the US introducted similar caps restricting 250 Gigs of data transfer / month. However, unlike other ISPs Airtel still hasn’t gone ot the extreme of Traffic manipulation. As Google speaks of Open Network and Net Neutrality, Telcos are running for cover 
It is now evident on why Airtel introduced this new product – Speed on Demand. If you are one of those heavy users and have exhausted your 50 Gigs limit and urgently need to download a Linux ISO, then all you can do is, make use of the Speed on Demand and pay extra for the same.
Quickly wanted to comment on the promise of Airtel’s broadband speed – 1 Mbps is only upto your ISP node 
In reality, it will be between 2/3rd to one-half of the promised speed if you do a Speedtest.
Airtel’s product manager has done a good job by introducing this product to boost the bottomline of his company. Aditionally, he should put an effort to make Airtel’s website compatible with Mozilla Firefox.[If you feel its compatible, drop me a line and I'll show how it is incompatible]
Pubmatic / Komli Platform Helping Large Publishers Increase eCPM
This blog may not be categorized into the category of Big Publishers [ couple of millions of Page Views / Month]. However, volunteering to be the Webmaster for others, I am looking for a solution to monetize big inventory across 3 different verticals. At first I thought Google was the best Advertising Platform [sure, it is for Search Marketing], however, Google Adwords data suggests that rates have been knocked off by as much as 30% in the past 4 months [I am talking on India specific keywords].
PubMatic / Komli has done a good job acting as a B2B facilitator between Advertisers and Publishers. Their recently released reports claim that Publishers have been able to see a mark-up in eCPM across various categories.
- Entertainment + 51.4 %
- Gaming+ 148.3%
- Men’s Interests+ 148.4 %
- Music + 121.8 %
- Real Estate + 138.6 %
- Reference+ 177.9 %
- Social Network 215%
PubMatic has successfully solved the problem of Static Ad Network Daisy Chain [Ads are Fixed and if Advertiser decides to Wihdraw, Space is blank - 80% of the inventory is unsold at times] by developing Algorithm and introducing a new concept of Dynamic Ad Ad Network Daisy Chain [On the fly get the best Ad suitable for the Spot, so essentially, an Ad is served 30-300% increase in eCPM]. This should really help Large Publishers [ atleast 1 million Page Views Per Month]
PubMatic has more than 300 Advertising Networks hooked up to its system to serve 5,500 large publishers. The success of Google is attributed mainly for developing Contextual based Ad serving system. Not sure how good PubMatic’s Ad System is, when it comes to Contextual serving. However, more and more advertisers are moving towards brand building by serving Display Ads, PubMatic may well be considerd as a choice. If you have used or currently using PubMatic, do let us know your experience. Download the report here [PDF]
Reliance gets 5 mn GSM Customers in Jan – Airtel’s Mittal in Emergency Meeting
I just saw a newsflash on CNBC TV18 that Reliance GSM has added a whopping 5 mn customers on its newly launched GSM Platform. [I believe this is an all time India Record] The rest of GSM Pack led by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL etc have managed to add 9 mn customers in Jan. Bharti Airtel’s executives had downplayed Reliance GSM move, but this is strong indication that Anil Ambani will break the COAI lobby before MRTPC gets into action.
If you had read my coverage on Reliance Communication’s analyst call, they had clearly indicated they will break many more records after rolling out. [I am expecting them to announce their reach has been enhanced further]
Sorry, Airtel’s Mittal in an emergency meeting is just my personal guess, don’t be seriousÂ
Post will be Upadted… stay tuned.
Update:
Bharti Airtel added 2.7 mn half of which came from category B & C service areas. Vodafone India added 2.4 mn subs, but its share of net adds slipped below the 25% mark. Idea cellular [Spice included] witnessed a strong growth. Idea’s subscriber growth was driven by strong additions in Mumbai where the company tripled its net additions from 84,000 to 278,000 due to an attractive offer in response to RCOM’s GSM launch. The company added 2 mn new customers or 20% of GSM net adds in Jan-09.
Excluding RCom’s GSM segment, the GSM mobile subscriber base at the end of Jan-09 is 267.5 mn. Recent reports say that net 5 mn subscriber addition by RCom includes CDMA + GSM [ nothing new about how our news channel cover and flash updates]. Waiting for official response
Reliance + BSNL lose Revenue Market Share to Airtel + Idea Cellular
Another important parameter to measure the strength of a wireless operator is on the basis of Adjusted Gross Revenue – AGR, which is the first indication of the relative financial strength All figures are for the end of Dec-2008 quarter.
Bharti Airtel has consistently gained in the past 12 months with its market share rising from 29.8% to 33.9% [Remember, it has subscriber market share of just 25%]
Idea Cellular [including Spice] has surprised us. Its AGR has grown over the past 4 quarters from 9.5% to 11.6% and who knows may occupy the third slot very soon. [Subscriber market share of 11.1%]
Reliance Communications [GSM + CDMA] has consistently lost revenue market share in the past one year from 15% to 12%. [Subscriber market share of [17.9%]
Vodafone India has managed to increase its revenue market share from 18.5% to 19.6% i nthe past year. [Subscriber market share of 17.8%]
State owned telecom companies BSNL + MTNL are leading the losers pack with with revenue share deteriorating from 15.2% to 11.8% . [Subscriber market share 12.1% BSNL + MTNL - N. A] Thus, they hurriedly launched 3G services to arrest the downfall.
Tata Teleservices, full fledged CDMA operator is another laggard with revenue share declining marginally from 8% to 7.2% over the past year and a quarter. [Subscriber market share 9.3%]
Important Observation: CDMA Operators Consistently Losing to GSM Operators
Indian CDMA operators have consistently seen a decline in Revenue Market share from 21.6% in Q3 FY08 to 17.9% in Q3 FY09. While GSM operators managed to gain the loss of CDMA operators and now control a whopping 82.1% of the Indian wireless space. Will the trend change with Sistema’s entry into the space ? Or something needs to be changed in the CDMA ecosystem to make it fit in the context of the second largest wireless market in the world ?
Steve Ballmer’s Wired Dream in his speech to US House of Representatives
I normally restrict my coverage in the context of India. However, I found this speech of Steve Ballmer really interesting.
American technology was certainly at the heart of the innovation that played the central role in the process. The PC, the Internet, fiber optics: Those things were things that continue to keep America at the forefront of technology, and really at the lead of a growing global economy.
In my view, American companies aren’t going to be able to weather this economic downturn just by cutting costs either. You may have heard that Microsoft, our company has decided that we need to reduce 5,000 positions. What you may not know is that at the same time we’ve decided we’ll also create two to three thousand new jobs — mostly in the US — as we continue to push into new areas that require investment. [ In the analyst call he said he will hire in Search, don't recall other areas.]
I joined Microsoft essentially for the PC revolution. The Internet revolution, we have the revolution of what I might call pervasive computing. Computers that are as thin and light as this on which you can have access to the world’s information will be kind of expected over the next five and 10 years.
Imagine, for example, an intelligent energy system in your home that’s linked to a smart energy grid. With that infrastructure, your dishwasher and washing machine would know to run when electricity is cheapest. That kind of intelligence and control could really have a major impact on residential power consumption, which is a very large piece of energy consumption in this country. [Just wondering if its his or Bill's idea
There’s always broadband. My number one encouragement to you is start with government itself. Every school, every hospital, every government building, is it wired, have we funded that infrastructure; very important. (Applause.)
And in the context of India, we still have politicians like A. Raja and Businessmen inheriting the license raj culture to be favored ; losing the whole vision of linking the Indian diversity, using the telecom infrastructure for rapid education, which will ultimately lead to its own innovation. Sigh!
The first time ever I have found Steve interesting after throwing chairs or monkey dance at Dev Day. Time to re-read his speech.
Understanding Indian Toll Free Number Incompatibility
If you are wondering like me why do they mention call 1-800 180 0016 [BSNL / MTNL only], then here is the answer. I was extremely unhappy and thought Toll Free Calling was a mess created by Telecom service providers. No!!! Business Establishments and Corporates establishing the connections are equally responsible.
It was one of my many goals this year to get the toll free number calling streamlined by writing and lobbying with TRAI and issue regulations which I will still do, but businesses like your credit card, bank, auto company etc have an equal say in this anti-consumer practice.
I finally got to speak to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications representatives to understand the Toll Free Number mechanism in India. It works such that if I opt to establish a toll free number, I can decide on calls originating from which networks to be accepted and which can be rejected. The reason for rejecting other network calls is Telecom Operators treat them as STD calls if they originate from Inter-Circle and it will cost the party establishing the service Rs 2.40 / minute. Compare this to OnNet [same network] Calls from anywhere in India at Rs 1 for every 3 minutes Bingo business houses want to save on this and thus we consumers have to suffer.
At first, I thought this got to be streamlined during the number portability, but subsequent research showed its all together a different issue as we need to know the Interconnect charges and how they can be brought down to ultimately help the 350 mn wireless users in India Feel free to share your thoughts.
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