I get more excited than necessary when I get to read / hear availability of broadband in different parts of India and as consumers get a choice. Reliance Communications will expand its EVDO based Reliance NetConnect+ Broadband offering to more than 500 cities / towns across India. From a modest beginning of 35 Cities in March-2009, it will now be covering 15 times the area in 2 years. Good job, in my view, they need to become more aggressive and improve their customer care which is probably the worst in India.
I think I had written to RCom to expand their Wireless Broadband offering 2 years ago and now they have sent out feelers that ~10% of their Wireless Revenues will be from EVDO based broadband services. Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ has a subscriber base of 2 Mn with an ARPU of ~ Rs 750 / Month.
In the next few months, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India will launch PAN India 3G Data Services as well but their rates are unlikely to match that of Reliance NetConnect / Tata Photo / MBlaze. The advantage these CDMA EVDO based operators is the lower frequency of 850MHz (which has a ~3x propagation range compared to 2100MHz on which GSM 3G will be offered).
Right now, only two operators rolled out commercial 3G services and they are Reliance and Tata. Interestingly their 3G data plans are almost similar to each other, and also similar to their EVDO offerings!
Really a GR8 move.
Few thing that keeps them far behind BSNL EVDO and in some cases below TATA PHOTON + too are
1) Coverage still less compared to BSNL
2) Lack of unlimited plan without any fair usage policy or cap of any type like BSNL (Rs. 750.00 per month)
2) Lack of small value plans like daily and weekly.
(http://www.tataphoton.com/tata-photon-on-mobile.aspx click on Tariffs tab)
3) Lack of plans with small value and greater validity. ( http://bsnl.co.in/service/internet_on_cdma.htm all plans big or small value have at least 30 days validity)
Few suggestion that would like to give to make EVDO more affordable are
1) Still reduce price of the EVDO data card
2) Give plans with small value,less MBs but more validity.(follow tataindicom or try to give better plans than them)
3) have top up plan to add MBs if they have validity.
4)have plans that have less per mb cost than BSNL 3G plans.
When we choose an operator we see following things
1) coverage
2) affordability (value for money)
3) service
-most people use internet on mobile/laptop just to check mails and social networking.
-wireless internet can’t replace wired internet.wireless net is just used where wired internet is not available.
Hi, the information you sheared is good, i think the 3G connection plan cost will come down as the number of connections increase, it will happen it only by increasing the area and the cities, which will in turn increase the costumers.
thanks
do you have any idea on the number of RCOM/Tata EVDO data-card customers?
In the following Economic times article, MTS claims that they are adding “60,000 to 70,000 data customers every month”
“Sistema Shyam open to merger call in India”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/sistema-shyam-open-to-merger-call-in-india/articleshow/7368900.cms
“We are adding 60,000 to 70,000 data customers every month, and I see trends of improving Arpu in the coming months,”
India adds 2.5 Lakh CDMA data card subscribers every month
“In terms of net additions per month, both Reliance and Tata are in close competition. Both are adding one lakh customers a month with an additional 50,000 being added by MTS and the public sector operators.”