Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Analysis of the Indian telecom industry

JAI HIND COLLEGE BASANTSING INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & J.T. LALVANI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE
Bachelor of Management Studies

Yashh Berry

YEAR : 2011-2012

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

JAI HIND COLLEGE BASANTSING INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & J. T. LALVANI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE
23-24, Backbay Reclamation, A Road, Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020

Bachelor of Management Studies

Analysis of the Indian telecom industry

Name of the Student: Yashh Berry Seat No.: _____________ Name of the Guide: Mrs. Adarsh Suri Date: ________________

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DECLARATION
I, Yashh Berry of Jai Hind College of T.Y.B.M.S. (Semester V) hereby declare that I have completed this project on Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry in the Academic year 2011-2012. The information submitted is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Signature of the Student

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

CERTIFICATE
I, Mrs. Adarsh Suri hereby certify that Yashh Berry of Jai Hind College of T.Y.B.M.S. (Semester V) has completed this project on Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry in the Academic year 2011-2012. The information submitted is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Signature of the Project Coordinator

Signature of the Principal of the College

Signature of the Course Coordinator

Signature of External Examiner

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It has always been my sincere desire as a management student to get an opportunity to express my views, skills, attitude and talent in which I am proficient. A project is one such avenue through which a student who aspires to be a future manager does something creative. This project has given me the chance to get in touch with the practical aspects of management. I am extremely grateful to the University of Mumbai for having prescribed this project work to me as a part of the academic requirement in the Bachelor of Management (BMS) course. I wish to appreciate the BMS Coordinator of Jai Hind College, Dr. Rakhi Sharma for her valuable inputs. I would also like to thank the management and staff of Jai Hind College, BMS for providing the entire state of the art infrastructure and resources to enable the completion and enrichment of my project. I wish to extend a special thanks to my project Guide Mrs. Adarsh Suri without whose guidance, the project may not have taken shape. Finally, I thank all my friends and family members who have directly or indirectly helped me towards the execution of this project.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Executive Summary
In todays information age, the telecommunication industry has a vital role to play. Considered as the backbone of industrial and economic development, the industry has been aiding delivery of voice and data services at rapidly increasing speeds, and thus, has been revolutionising human communication. Although the Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, the current teledensity or telecom penetration is extremely low when compared with global standards. As majority of the population resides in rural areas, it is important that the government takes steps to improve rural teledensity. No doubt the government has taken certain policy initiatives, which include the creation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund, for improving rural telephony. These measures are expected to improve the rural teledensity and bridge the rural-urban gap in tele-density. Over the years, the Indian Telecom Industry has contributed significantly towards Indias economic as well as social development. The size of the telecom industry in terms of subscriber base has grown by more than 5 times in a span of 5 years. The subscriber base has increased from 77.64 mn in FY04 to 429.72 mn in FY09, which can be largely attributed to the significant reduction in tariffs during the last few years on account of intense competition. Teledensity in India has also witnessed substantial improvement backed by robust growth in subscriber base. While the teledensity has improved substantially to 36.98% by end of FY09 from just above 2% in FY99, there still exists a huge digital divide between the urban and rural areas. On one hand the urban teledensity at 89% indicates a rapidly saturating urban market and on the other hand teledensity of less than 20% in rural areas points to a huge potential for growth in the telecom industry. Despite the Indian economy witnessing a significant slowdown in growth on account of the global economic crisis, the Indian telecom industry has shown resilient performance - with

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry revenue growth of approximately 18% (y-o-y) during FY09. The subscriber base of internet services reached 13.5 mn on March 31, 2009, as compared to 0.09 mn in 1997, primarily driven by the rapid growth in subscriber base of the incumbent public sector. However, internet penetration in India is substantially lower than international standards. Limited fixed line coverage, low PC adoption, cost of operation and maintenance, low penetration in urban and rural population, service pricing and low computer literacy has affected internet penetration in India. The Indian telecom sector offers unprecedented opportunities in various areas, such as rural telephony, 3G, virtual private network, value-added services, et al. Nonetheless, the lack of telecom infrastructure in rural areas, lowering telecom tariffs, falling ARPU of telecom service providers, lack of telecom infrastructure in semi-rural and rural areas, could inhibit the future growth of the industry.

Over the years, the telecom industry in India has emerged as the third highest recipient of FDI a clear indication that the sector has tremendous potential. Moreover, the Indian telecom industry has been able to offer the lowest tariffs in the world due to the competitive environment that prevails in the sector. However, despite being the most competitive and high growth telecom market in the world, the rural market remains highly underpenetrated. This is a huge opportunity for further growth and service providers are expected to tap into this nascent opportunity in the near future. Combined with the proliferation of newer technologies involving wireless communications and initiatives such as e-Agriculture, eHealth, e-Education, and rural BPOs, telecom penetration in rural areas is likely to increase manifold. Indias high potential in telecommunications will eventually be realised on the back of improving telecom infrastructure, favourable investment climate, competitive tariffs, positive reforms and policy focus on increasing rural telecom coverage.

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INDEX
SR NO. CONTENTS PG NO.

1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Introduction to the Indian Telecom Industry History of Cellular Telephony In India Evolution of Indian Telecom Industry Indepth Analysis of Indian Telecom Industry Mobile Network Operators in Recent Times Government Policy Case Study on Airtel Circles in India

9 11 12 14 21 30 37 43 44 50 54 57

10. Research Methodology 11. Information Analysis 12. Project MOST 13. Bibliography

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Introduction to the Indian Telecom Industry

Last year, the telecom industry saw an intense tariff war as a result of which tariffs fell to rock bottom levels and the rediscovery of the value of a paisa. Growth in the mobile voice segment continued robustly, however, broadband continued to lag behind. While significant inroads were made into the rural areas by private operators, the pace of rural penetration could have been further enhanced with the launch of new schemes supported by the USO. The most important event of the year was the launch of 3G (Mobile Broadband) services in the country. After the successful auctions of 3G spectrum, operators have now started rolling out the services. 3G will not only lead to introduction of new VAS applications but will also give a boost to initiatives on new revenue streams such as m-education, m-governance, telemedicine and most importantly will become the backbone for the broadband penetration. There will be significant increase in the number of persons accessing the internet from their mobile platforms. Other trends expected with 3G are that data will be segmented and the plans will be tailor-made for different segments of the population. The tariff plans are expected to be competitive and innovative. Though I believe that initially the take up of 3G services will be concentrated more among urban subscribers and gradually it will move towards rural areas. Another important event of the year was the successful implementation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in the country. COAI took a lead in this initiative and made the launch of MNP a success due to its untiring efforts along with the Ministry of Communication, TRAI and the Telecom Industry. No other country had introduced MNP as quickly when there was this level of complexity with ten to twelve players operating in twenty two telecom circles, two MNPOs, several ILD and NLD carriers and over 700 million subscribers. This laudable achievement was made possible due to the successful Public-Private Partnership of Ministry, DoT, TRAI, Service Providers and the MNPOs.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry In fact, within two months of introduction of MNP, the predictions made by COAI regarding the preferred service providers selected by customers were also confirmed. In the data released by TRAI, it was evident that the GSM players are the preferred option selected by the cellular subscribers. It is a world-wide trend that consumers of mobile services prefer GSM over CDMA. GSM networks are hailed for their better network quality, wide selection of valued added services and a variety of handsets and open networking systems.

Growth of Wireless Industry in India

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

History of Cellular Telephony In India

1992 Telecommunication sector in India liberalized to bridge the gap through government spending & to provide additional resources for the nations telecom target. Private sector allowed participating 1993 1994 The telecom industry gets an annual foreign investment Rs 20.6 million License for providing cellular mobile services granted by the government of India for the Metropolitan cites of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata & Chennai. Cellular mobile service to be duopoly (i.e. not more than two cellular mobile operators could be licensed in each telecom circle), under a fixed license fee regime for 10 years. 1995 1995(August) 1997 1998 1999 1999 1999(March) 2000(June) 2000 (January) 19 more telecom circles get mobile licenses Kolkata became the first metro to have a cellular network Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is set up Annual foreign investment in telecom stands at Rs 17,756.4 million. FDI inflow into telecom sector falls by almost 90% to Rs. 2126.7 million Tariff rebalancing exercise gets initiated National Telecom Policy is announced. FDI inflow drops further down to Rs 918 million coming Amendment of TRAI Act.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Evolution of the Indian Telecom Industry

Indian telecom sector is more than 165 years old. Telecommunications was first introduced in India in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government near Kolkata (then Calcutta), although telephone services were formally introduced in India much later in 1881. Further, in 1883, telephone services were merged with the postal system. In 1947, after India attained independence, all foreign telecommunication companies were nationalised to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a body that was governed by the Ministry of Communication. The Indian telecom sector was entirely under government ownership until 1984, when the private sector was allowed in telecommunication equipment manufacturing only. The government concretised its earlier efforts towards developing R&D in the sector by setting up an autonomous body Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984 to develop stateof-the-art telecommunication technology to meet the growing needs of the Indian telecommunication network. The actual evolution of the industry started after the Government separated the Department of Post and Telegraph in 1985 by setting up the Department of Posts and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The entire evolution of the telecom industry can be classified into three distinct phases.

Phase I- Pre-Liberalisation Era (1980-89) Phase II- Post Liberalisation Era (1990-99) Phase III- Post 2000

Until the late 90s the Government of India held a monopoly on all types of communications as a result of the Telegraph Act of 1885. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, until the industry was liberalised in the early nineties, it was a heavily government-controlled and small-sized market, Government policies have played a key role in shaping the structure and size of the Telecom industry in India. As a result, the Indian telecom market is one of the most liberalised market in the world with private participation in almost all of its segments. The New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) provided the much needed impetus to the growth of this industry and set the trend for liberalisation in the industry.

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In-depth Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

The Indian telecommunications has been zooming up the growth curve at a feverish pace, emerging as one of the key sectors responsible for India's resurgent economic growth. India is has surpassed US to become the second largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over 300 million in April, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Segment-wise growth
Wireless segment has emerged as the preferred mode of telephone service by the consumers, reflected in the rising share of mobile phone connections to total connections. 1. The share of mobile phones has increased from 71.69 per cent at the end of March 2009 to 87.68 per

-cent at the end of May 2010. 2. 3. While total mobile subscriber base was 277.92 million, wire line subscriber base was 39.05 million. Consequently, overall tele-density has increased to 27.59 per cent at the end of May 2010. India is

likely to be second largest mobile market in the BRIC nations, with560 million mobile users representing the next great growth curve for both mobile and interactive marketing industries, according to a report by Marketers.

Investment
The booming domestic telecom market has been attracting accelerating amount of investment. During April 2000 to March 2008, cumulative FDI inflows into the Indian telecommunications sector amounted to US$ 3.84billion, accounting for 6.81 per cent of the total FDI inflows into the country.In fact, the surge in mobile services market is likely to see huge amount of investment implying a mobile in the hands of every second person in the country. Buoyed by the rapid surge in the subscriber base, huge investments are being made into this industry by companies like

Maxis Communications-owned mobile service provider Aircel Isrei Group's Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) The Central public sector enterprises(CPSEs) have lined upinvestments for infrastructure sectors like

telecom energy and power for2008-09.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry Vodafone Essar will invest US$ 6 billion over the next three years in a bid to increase its mobile

subscriber base from 40 million at present to over100 million.

Manufacturing
India is emerging as a handset super-power as more manufacturers set up base in the country, it is not only the world's fastest-growing telecom market but it is also making remarkable progress in the telecom manufacturing space. The Indian telecom equipment manufacturing sector is set to become one of the largest globally by 2010.Simultaneously, India's surging domestic market is also providing excellent investment opportunities in other segments of telecom equipment industry.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is shifting its global services business unit headquarters from

Munich to India. Nokia set up its manufacturing plant in Chennai Samsung has set up its GSM mobile manufacturing base in Manesar. Motorola has established a manufacturing plant in Sriperumbedur. Sony Ericsson has set up GSM Radio Base Station Manufacturing facility in Jaipur and R&D centre

in Chennai. LG Electronics set up plant of manufacturing GSM mobile phones near pune. Elcoteq has set up handset manufacturing facilities in Bangalore

Value Added Services Market

India's runaway success in mobile telephony has also given a boost to the mobile value added services (MVAS) market. According to a study by Stanford University and consulting firm BDA, the Indian MVAS is likely to grow at a CAGR of 44 per cent 2012.

Government Initiatives
The Government has taken many proactive initiatives which has provided a framework for the rapid growth of the telecom industry. Opening the industry for private sector participation. 100 per cent FDI is permitted in telecom equipment manufacturing through the automatic route. FDI ceiling in telecom services has been raised to 74 per cent.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry Establishment of an independent regulator - the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)-for the telecom sector. Introduction of a Unified access licensing regime for telecom services on a pan-India basis. Implementation of New Telecom Policy (NTP'99). Introduction of Calling Party Pay (CPP) regime and lowering of access deficit coupled with introduction of revenue share regime in ADC. Introduction of Mobile Number Portability in a phased manner, starting with the fourth quarter of 2008. Allowing service providers to share active infrastructure.

Road Ahead
According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, while only one in 20of the world's first two billion mobile subscribers live in India, as many as one in every four of the next billion subscribers will be an Indian. The department of telecommunication estimates the total subscriber base to total 500 million by 2012, out of which 80 million are expected to be from rural areas. The Indian telecom industry's revenue, likewise, is estimated to increase, which according to Ernst & Young is expected to total US$ 35billion, accounting for 3.6 per cent of the total GDP of the country .With such growth projection, this industry is likely to see increased investments. In fact, total investment is projected at US$ 76.6 billion during the eleventh plan period (2007-12). Private sector is estimated to continue its dominant share, accounting for 67 per cent of the total projected investment while public sector accounts for the rest.

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Top players
The top players based on cellular subscriber (in millions) base were

Cellular services can be divided into two categories: 1) 2) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom.

Surprisingly, CDMA market has increased its market share up to 30% thanksto Reliance Communication. However, across the globe, CDMA has been losing out numbers to popular GSM technology, contrary to the scenario in India

Reasons for growth

The two major reasons that have fuelled this growth are 1.Low tariffs 2.Falling handset prices.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Problems faced by the bottlenecks for ' Indian Telecom Industry ' are:
Slow reform process. Low penetration. Service providers bears huge initial cost to make inroads and achieving break-even is difficult. Lack of infrastructure in semi-rural and rural areas, which makes it difficult to make inroads into this market segment as service providers have to incur a huge initial fixed cost. Huge initial investments. Limited spectrum availability and interconnection charges between the private and state operators.

Rural Telecom Market an emerging market

According to numbers compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, nearly 21 per cent of the mobile user base now reside in the villages of India, where a few years ago none of the operators wanted to venture. As on September 2011, out of the 209 million mobile users in the entire country,43 million were in rural areas. Rural India will wrest 40 percent of new telecom market Indias rural telecom connectivity is poised for explosive growth in the next five to 10 years, grabbing a 40 percent share of the new market, a study released Wednesday said. Of the estimated new 250 million Indian wireless users, in next 5-10 years approximately 100 million will be from rural areas,said the study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Ernst and Young. Operators have demonstrated they can achieve profitability by reducing fixed costs, controlling variable costs and carefully tailoring services to the requirements of their customers. A similar model with minor customization could be emulated in the rural areas. The government will roll out new incentives for mobile networks in rural India. Its also planned that the ultra-low cost handset of approximately Rs.840($20) to the market with built-in subsidies, lifetime validity and minimal maintenance costs have promoted mobile usage in remote areas. Moreover, operators could learn from business models that have been experimented across the developing world for expanding rural connectivity.

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Reasons for rural inclination

Far from being considered as a social obligation , offering telecom services in rural areas has now become the hot spot for private telecom operators. Nearly 75 per cent of the mobile users in the villages are now owned by private operators as cellular phones catch the imagination of rural consumers. Until now, stateowned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was known to be the only significant rural telecom operator in the country .Analysts said that the share of rural telecom consumers will continue to increase as operators have initiated an aggressive roll-out plan to cover remote areas of the country. This is primarily driven by a slump in the growth rate of mobile user base in the metro and urban areas. According to the data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India Circle C and Circle B States such as Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are showing better growth rates compared to the metros. Therefore, most of the mobile operators are investing heavily in setting up infrastructure in these circles. The telecom regulator has suggested a number of initiatives to make mobile connection attractive , including lower entry cost to make it more affordable. .
All India GSM Cellular Subscriber Base

Industry added record highest number of 163 Million GSM subscribers globally during 2010. India recorded the highest monthly GSM subscriber addition of over 17 Million.

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All India Cellular Subscribers- Annual Net Additions

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Mobile Network Operators in Recent Times

Aircel
Aircel group is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, that provides wireless voice, messaging and data services in India. It is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current shareholders are the Reddy family of Apollo Hospitals Group of India, with Maxis Communications holding a majority stake of 74%. Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and is today the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam, NorthEast and Chennai. It is Indias fifth largest GSM mobile service provider & seventh largest mobile service provider (both GSM and CDMA) with a subscriber base of over 51.83 million, as of January 31, 2011. It has a market share of 6.72% among the GSM operators in the country. Additionally, Aircel has also obtained permission from Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to provide International Long Distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) telephony services. It also has the largest service in Tamil Nadu.

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Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3Gservices depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world with about 230.8 million subscribers across 19 countries at the end of June 2011. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 173.73 million subscribers at the end of October 2011. Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve this Cisco Gold Certification. To earn Gold Certification, Bharti Airtel had to meet rigorous standards for networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by Cisco. The company also provides land-line telephone services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in over 96 cities in India. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

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Idea Cellular Limited

IDEA Cellular is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India with wireless revenue market share at 13.6 %. It recorded a subscriber base of over 93.75 mn as of 31st May 2011. Idea is a pan-India integrated GSM operator and has its own NLD and ILD operations, and ISP license. Idea won 3G spectrum in 11 service areas which contribute about 80% of the companys existing 2G revenues. Idea has now launched 3G services in 9 service areas and is committed to extend services in 10 new towns per day to progressively grow to cover 3,200 towns by the end of FY 2012. Ideas service delivery platform is ISO 9001:2008 certified, making it the only operator in the country to have this standard certification for all 22 service areas and the corporate office. Idea emerged as the biggest gainer, post the launch of Mobile Number Portability in India. Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based in Mumbai, India. Idea has recorded of over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011.

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Uninor

Uninor is a young mobile operator in India. Uninor holds Unified Access Service Licenses to offer mobile telephony services in each of Indias 22 circles with spectrum in 21 of these. Uninor services are retailed across 320,000 points-of-sale and 622 exclusive stores and over 1700 distributors. The company employs close to 10,000 direct and partner employees and has already crossed the 25 million subscriber mark across India. The 13 telecom circles where Uninors services are commercially available together account for over 900 million people or 75% of Indias population. Uninor is an Indian mobile network operator based in Gurgaon, India. The company holds Unified Access Service(UAS) licences to offer mobile telephony services in each of Indias 22 telecom circles, and has received spectrum to roll out services in 21 of these (excluding Delhi). The company is a joint venture between Telenor Group, a telecommunications company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and Unitech Group, an Indian real estate company. Telenor owns a controlling majority stake in the company (67.25%), which has been branded Uninor in the Indian market. Uninor offers mobile voice and data services based on the GSM technology, currently on a 4.4 MHz spectrum. Uninor services are commercially available in 13 circles across India. With a value for money proposition in the market, Uninor targets youth and other communities within the Indian mass market.

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Videocon
Videocon is an industrial conglomerate with interests all over the world, and is a Indian multinational company. The group has 17 manufacturing sites in India and plants in China, Poland, Italy and Mexico. It is also the third largest picture tube manufacturer in the world. The group is a USD 4 billion global conglomerate. Videocon Telecommunications Limited, a Videocon group company offers GSM mobile services under the brand name .Videocon Mobile Services. The GSM services are being provided in 16 service areas namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu incl. Chennai, UP East, UP West & West Bengal and shall soon provide mobile services on a pan-India basis. The Videocon group has an annual turnover of 4 billion USD, making it the largest consumer electronic and home appliance companies in India. Since 1998, it has expanded its operations globally, especially in the Middle East. Today the group operates through six key sectors: Consumer electronics Mobile Phones Colour picture tube glass Oil and Gas DTH Telecommunication

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Vodafone
The company now has operations across the country with over 139 million customers. Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with over 370 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as at March 31, 2011. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents Products promoted by the Group include Vodafone live!, Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem, Vodafone Connect to Friends, Vodafone Passport, Vodafone Freedom Packs, Vodafone at Home, Vodafone 710 and Amobee Media Systems. Between June and August 2009, Vodafone suspended roaming charges within 35 different countries, allowing their customers to take their standard UK price plan abroad. In October 2009, it launched Vodafone 360, a new internet service for the mobile, PC and Mac. On 15 February 2010 Vodafone launched world's cheapest mobile phone known as Vodafone 150, will sell for below $15 (10) and is aimed at the developing world. It will initially be launched in India, Turkey and eight African countries including Lesotho, Kenya and Ghana.

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Ericsson
Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. Ericsson, one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks. Ericsson is currently the world's largest mobile telecommunications equipment vendor with a market share of 35%. Directly and through subsidiaries, Ericsson also has a major role in mobile devices and cable TV and IPTV systems. Ericsson was also the inventor of Bluetooth. Founded in 1876 as a telegraph equipment repair shop by Lars Magnus Ericsson, it was incorporated on August 18, 1918. Headquartered in Kista, Stockholm Municipality, since 2003, Ericsson is considered part of the so-called "Wireless Valley". Since the mid-1990s, Ericsson's extensive presence in Stockholm has helped transform the city into one of Europe's hubs of information technology (IT) research. Ericsson has offices and operations in more than 180 countries, with more than 17,700 staff in Sweden, and also significant presences in, for example, Brazil, China, Finland, India, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, the UK and the US. In the early 20th century, Ericsson dominated the world market for manual telephone exchanges but was late to introduce automatic equipment. The world's largest ever manual telephone exchange, serving 60,000 lines, was installed by Ericsson in Moscow in 1916.

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Reliance
Reliance Communications Ltd. (commonly called RCOM) is an Indian broadband and telecommunications company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. RCOM is the world's 16th largest mobile phone operator with over 144 million subscribers. Established on 2004, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group. The company has five segments: Wireless segment includes wireless operations of the company; broadband segment includes broadband operations of the company; Global segment include national long distance and international long distance operations of the company and the wholesale operations of its subsidiaries; Investment segment includes investment activities of the Group companies, and Other segment is consists of the customer care activities and direct-tohome (DTH) activities. It ranks among the top 5 telecommunications companies. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers. The company has established a panIndia, next-generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the next-generation IP-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

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Loop Mobile

Loop Mobile (Formerly BPL Mobile), usually referred to as LOOP is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage in Assam, Kolkata, North East, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan after receiving a license to operate across 21 telecom circles by DoT. BPL Mobile Communications is the countrys oldest mobile telecom service provider been established in 1994 and currently operates in Bombay, with over 3 million subscribers. However, BPL Mobile was renamed to Loop Mobile in March 2009, following the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the TPG Nambiar-owned BPL Group. Having consistently met and exceeded TRAI benchmarks, is now ISO 9001:2008 certified. Loop Mobile has had several firsts to its credit in the Value-added service (VAS) space which are technologically state-of-art and yet customer friendly. Being the country's oldest telecom service provider, Loop Mobile is the first operator in the country to offer services like MMS, GPRS and Caller Ring Tunes. Other VAS include Reply-All, Roaming on Prepaid, Intelligent network, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Multimedia Messaging Service(MMS), Missed Call Alert, Caller Ring Tune, Mobile Tracker, Doctor-onCall, "1 paise per sec prepaid plan, Karaoke Messaging among others. Apart from Mumbai, it is among the new mobile services companies to be awarded licenses to operate across 21 circles by DoT. Loop Mobile uses the latest NGIP (Next Generation Internet Protocol) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) technology.

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Government Policy
First and foremost mandate of the policy should be to clearly state that the telecom sector is to be recognized and treated as part of the national critical infrastructure with the attendant benefits and responsibilities of this category. There is a need for a National Telecom Infrastructure Policy which is essential for a uniform procedure to be followed across all States. This should be defined by the Central Ministry for the optimal growth of telecom infrastructure in the country.

The scientific and technological progress of a nation is a major determinant of its state of development. Innovation and knowledge will be the key factors in our nations progress in the 21st century. We must, therefore, foster an environment that promotes and nurtures technological achievement and makes us a world leader in creating intellectual property. Mobility or services on the move will drive adoption in India. Voice Networks will converge around data networks. Higher bandwidth coupled with technology innovations will bring about a radical change in the country's mobile market, as it would facilitate higher speed and data throughputs, enabling the delivery of a wide array of multimedia services, such as video streaming, music, movie downloads and mobile TV. Network equipment providers will increasingly provide backward and forward compatibility with various generations of networks and will provide for seamless migration.

Another area of focus for the NTP should be that the convergence of markets and technologies is forcing a realignment of the industry. Telecom and broadcasting industries are encroaching upon each others territories and technology is blurring the difference between various conduit systems such as wireline and wireless. The growing trend of transmitting data in digital form is leading to a convergence that makes the distinction between voice, fax, data, video, and other forms less relevant as all are carried over the same networks. Thus, there is a need to work in sync with different ministries in India to come up with comprehensive guidelines for promotion

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry of services. Convergence of technology is happening rapidly but there is need for matching convergence of regulations.

Certainty and confidence in the regulatory environment is essential for the steady growth of this sector. Micro-regulation should give way to a market based approach.

The new policy also needs to focus more on strengthening research and development efforts in the country and provide an impetus to build world-class manufacturing capabilities.As the renewal of existing telecom licenses are around the corner, it should be done in a transparent and rational basis.

There is also a dire need to make more and more wireless spectrum available to the industry to meet the growing demands of the industry. There is a need to lay down a clear roadmap for increased availability of spectrum introduce a simple, fair and transparent spectrum usage charges regime that is easy to administer and enforce and will help avoid arbitrage opportunities, Identification of new spectrum bands for commercial use, especially exploiting the digital dividend band (700 MHz) for delivering affordable & expeditious mobile broadband to all.

The future technological developments in mobile/ broadband are all focused on higher data speeds, as the need of the future would be higher and higher data speeds. This is also the reason why international bodies like ITU have named them IMT-Advanced technologies. This would also limit access and competition in the market. Thus, it is suggested that in future, in the country, no spectrum band should be allocated/ dedicated to a particular generation of technology. The choice of the technology should be left to the operators as they will decide which is best suited to customer demands.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry We appreciate that the Government has realized the potential of Broadband and is working towards facilitating its penetration. The Government is working towards making a national optical fiber backbone to promote broadband in the country. However, the National Broadband Plan does not cover the last mile taking services from the towers to the homes/ in the hands of the subscribers. It is a known fact that wireless is the quickest and most efficient medium to provide broadband services in the access network. The future growth of broadband in developing countries, especially India, will see wider deployment with greater emphasis on wireless networks. Thus, it is required that all available technologies should be leveraged for building up such a national broadband plan.

The Government should fund broadband proposals that leverage existing underutilized infrastructure in innovative ways to deliver the needed services and significantly improve coverage. The funding must avoid costly overbuild or duplication of the existing network where it is capable of delivering acceptable broadband at a lower cost than fiber based alternatives. Special subsidies may be provided to specifically meet the national broadband objectives of the Government. For example, operators who provide broadband services by use of 3G & BWA services, a subsidy in the form of lower spectrum charges be provided to them.

Another area of concern and immediate attention of the industry is that the revenues are stagnating and operating costs are constantly rising. Despite the drop in tariffs, MoU havent seen any increase. On the contrary, MoU have fallen by more than 25% in less than two years. As a result, the ARPU levels have almost halved during the same time frame. Other factors contributing in the falling ARPU levels are urban market saturation, expansion in rural markets, use of multiple SIMs and churning of subscribers.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Changes that the market will undergo in the coming year

Market Consolidation: Next year will witness consolidation in the countrys crowded telecoms market, with new entrants scaling down their rollout plans and shying away from reducing tariffs further. Shift of Focus from Urban to Rural: With rural teledensity at about 30% as compared to urban teledensity of over 100%, the next wave of growth will come from rural areas. Connecting the unconnected will be the prime focus in the coming year 2011 as we look towards a great rural push by all service providers. Broadband will get a boost with the launch of the National Broadband Plan. Indigenous Telecom Manufacturing: In spite of being the second largest telecom market in the world, telecom equipment manufacturing in India is still to take off and the repercussions of this delay are now being felt. The growing demand, impetus from the Government will surely result in boosting the manufacturing of telecom infrastructure in India. Voice to Video and Data Applications: Increased utilization of Video and Data and other Applications will lead to more revenue streams and will contribute enhanced revenue. Voice will see a gradual downward shift. Financial Services on Mobiles: There will be a significant increase in the banking and other financial services, as well as other payments being offered on the mobile platform. With dedicated efforts in the implementation of allocation of the UID, this has the potential to facilitate financial services significantly in the coming year. Brand differentiation: One of the key differentiator between operators would be the VAS offerings they have in their portfolio and the quality of service they are providing. This is expected to gain momentum, with the introduction of MNP and 3G.

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Growth Drivers, Trends and Services for the coming year

Mobile Banking: Another initiative expected to gather pace in this year is that of Mobile Banking. Operators in India will increasingly leverage Mobile technology to open up channels beyond the branch network of the banks and create a banking footprint to reach banking services to the un-banked masses.

Use of Non-Conventional Energy Sources: Some mobile operators are already in the process of carrying out trials on the use of non-conventional energy sources. This year will see a greater emphasis on use of alternate energy in telecom sector.

Shift Towards smart handsets: Though the trend was started in last year, we believe that the demand for smart phones will pick-up this year because of growing economy, increasing demand and affordability.

Keeping the above market changes and growth drivers in mind, COAI is all geared up to contribute incalculably towards the success of the industry.

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Governments Commitment to the Telecom Sector

Dec 8, 2011, 05.52AM IST Companies:

Vodafone Group PLC Idea Cellular Ltd.

NEW DELHI - The government is committed to sustaining growth of the country's telecoms sector, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday, seeking to boost investor confidence in the once-booming sector that has been hit by regulatory uncertainties. "I am aware of some concerns of the telecom industry regarding government policies in the telecom sector," Singh told a gathering of telecoms industry executives on Wednesday. "I wish to reassure industry of the government's full commitment to sustaining growth, creativity and enterprise in this vitally important sector of our economy." India's telecoms market, the second-largest in the world after China, has struggled in recent years due to ferocious competition and a massive graft scandal, prompting authorities to overhaul the decade-old industry regulations. A former telecoms minister in Singh's government and a lawmaker of the ruling coalition are among the 14 individuals and three companies charged in a case involving alleged rigging in the grant of licences in 2007/08. The Comptroller and Auditor General has estimated a potential revenue loss of up to $39 billion to the government due to sale of licences at below-market prices in that period. Telecoms firms are now bracing for a steep increase in prices of second-generation spectrum and other possible rule changes that may increase their costs of operations. The heads of leading telecoms firms including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone's Indian unit, last week met Singh and some other key ministers over the regulatory concerns.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry In the new telecoms policy, which is expected to be finalised by early next year, the government seeks to relax rules for mergers and acquisitions in the telecoms sector to facilitate consolidation in the crowded 15-player market. India opened the sector for private participation in the mid-1990s. Lower call tariffs and aggressive network expansion by companies to smaller towns and rural areas has seen the sector adding mobile phone users at a fast pace to 870 million currently, from about 5 million in 2002. "The telecommunications sector is one of India's success stories," Singh said. "I would like to take this opportunity to assure all of you that our government will continue to formulate forward-looking policies that will encourage further growth of the telecom sector."

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Case Study

The Vision & promise by 2012, Airtel will be the most admired brand in India: Loved by more customers Targeted by top talent Benchmarked by more businesses We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of our customers and how we want them to feel. We deliver what we promise and go out of our way to delight the customer with a little bit more

Bharti Airtel

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group, has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in the telecommunication sector.Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, Indias largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBUs) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services& Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 94cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.

The Brand

Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven to seize the day with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service. Airtel, after just ten years, has risen to the pinnacle of achievement. As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role as a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence. Today they touch peoples lives with their Mobile services, Telemedia services, to connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates.

Business Divisions

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FUTURE Development

In the mobile business, Bharti Airtel plans to make considerable investments in Network expansion to establish presence in all census towns and over 500,000 villages across India by 2010, thereby covering 95% of the countrys total population. The companys strategic focus will be on further strengthening the Airtel brand through best-in-class customer service, which is backed by wide national distribution. The Airtel subscriber base according to COAI - Cellular Operator Association of India of May 2010 was:

The total is 67,425,935 or 32.81% of the total 205,460,762 GSM mobile connections in India till May 2008.

Achievements

Airtel was the first private player in telecom sector to connect all states of India. Airtel is the first mobile service provider to introduce the lifetime prepaid services and electronic recharge systems. The network has spread over 93 per cent along the National Highways and 88 per cent of key rail routes across the State .
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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Having achieved huge success in mobile services- postpaid and prepaid- Airtel has now entered fixed-line telephony providing broadband services in 92 cities across India. The company has an optical fiber network of 35,016 km and a customer base of 35,440,406 GSM mobile and 1,819,083 broadband subscribers. Airtel is listed on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) and The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). Rapidly expands network, to roll out across all census towns and over 5,00,000 villages covering over 95% of the population. Bharti Airtel crosses the 50 million customer mark OCT 1,2007( 65million is the latest figure & adding nearly 2 million subscribers every month) Becomes the fastest private telecom company in the world to achieve this milestone Enters into the league of the worlds top telecom companies, moves towards top 5 global mobile companies Adding 25000 towers every month expanding their network all over India. Wide range of Value Added Services like ringtones, caller tunes, news etc

Targets

Aggressive efforts are on to provide a superior network service that is congestion-free and to help customers get connected the first time.

Also, the SMS capacity is sought to be raised from the current 5,500messages per second to 6,500 messages per second by March 2009.

Advertisements Airtels advertising campaigns are always admired. Their idea of creating a signature ringtone with A R Rehman was brilliant; and they still continue to use that tone. In a masterstroke they elevated the brand without having to talk of talk time , rates etc.Then came the almost magical Express Yourself campaign stunningly executed with excellent imagery and creativity. It showcased the ubiquitous utility of the mobile phone through the situations ( a fighting couple, a bride entering church, an irate mob) but converted a rational purchase decision to an extension of ones voice. And from that Bhartis market share

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry has kept increasing to being the biggest mobile service provider. They chose the countrys most popular people i.e. SRK, Kareena and Sachin for their campaign & made connection with people. Its advertisements always touch the chord of the people.

Airtel to focus on rural expansion

Bharti Airtel, which had 48 million mobile users in September 2007, had 9.80million subscribers coming from rural areas.Airtel, the leading mobile service provider, has planned to increase the pace of its network expansion in rural areas during 2008-09.People in the rural markets are ready to go mobile and the growth depends on the strength and the quality of the network. Distribution has been growing at a rapid pace and Airtel will be in easy reach for all customers in the State.

Organizational Structure of AIRTEL

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LEVELS

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The Cities/States under GSM circles are:

Metros:

1. Delhi 2. Mumbai 3. Chennai 4. Kolkata

A' Circle:

1. Maharashtra 2. Gujarat 3. Andhra Pradesh 4. Karnataka 5. Tamil Nadu

B' Circle

1. Kerala 2. Punjab 3. Haryana 4. Uttar Pradesh 5. Rajasthan 6. Madhya Pradesh 7. West Bengal 8. Andaman & Nicobar

C' Circle

1. Himachal Pradesh 2. Bihar 3. Orissa 4. Assam 5. North Eastern States 6. Jammu & Kashmir
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Research Methodology

Primary data: It will be collected with the help of a self administered questionnaire.

Secondary data: It will be collected with the help of books, research papers, magazines, news papers, journals, Internet, etc

Data collection

Sample size: 1. Teens and Youth 2. Housewives 3. Corporates

Total sample size: 35 Sampling region:

Mumbai

Genre Vie

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Questionnaire and Analysis

1. Which mobile network operators do you use? I received information on network operators from 35 respondents. On average, the organisations they worked for used between one and two network operators each, giving a total of 25 responses. Vodafone and Airtel are the most widely cited operators:

Vodafone Airtel Idea Loop Reliance Other

The other leading network operators Idea, Loop and Reliance all received less than 10 responses in our survey.

How do you rate the voice call quality from your mobile network operator? Voice calls on mobile networks can suffer from impairments like background noise, echoes and voice distortion. Improving voice call quality is a priority for network operators at the moment, and both Idea and Loop are planning trials of High-Definition (HD) voice technology this year. As far as my survey respondents are concerned, there's room for improvement in mobile voice call quality, with only a smattering of 'excellent' responses being logged. Nine out of thirteen Idea customers (69 percent) judge call quality to be 'good', while the majority of responses for the other operators are either 'good' or 'average':

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Vodafone

Airtel

Idea

Reliance

Loop Mobile

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry How do you rate the mobile broadband coverage from your network operator? Mobile data usage is on the increase, and mobile operators are constantly extending their network coverage to keep pace with demand witness recent announcements from IDEA and Airtel. But are they doing enough? Again, there certainly seems to be room for improvement, with both Vodafone's and IDEA's charts clustering around the 'average' category. Meanwhile, the two small-sample networks (Reliance and Loop Mobile) in our survey fail to muster an 'excellent' rating between them:

How do you rate the mobile broadband speed from your network operator? The current headline speed for mobile broadband in the India is 14.4Mbps, which is an upgrade from 7.2Mbps currently being rolled out by Vodafone. Airtel offers up to 4.5Mbps, while IDEA, Reliance and Loop Mobile top out at 3.6Mbps. These are theoretical maximum download speeds: in practice, factors like the distance to the nearest base station and contention rates (the number of concurrent users) will result in variable, and generally considerably lower, data rates. 'Average' is the modal judgement on speed for two most widely used network operators in our survey, Vodafone and IDEA. The latter has a noticeably wider spread of results, running the full gamut from 'abysmal' to 'excellent'.

How do you rate the service restrictions imposed by your network operator? Mobile contracts often come with restrictions on the services you can use no accessing file sharing sites, or making VoIP calls, for example. Alternatively, if you want unrestricted service, you'll have to pay extra for it. More survey respondents find their network operator's service restrictions 'acceptable' than any other category, although there are enough 'limiting' and 'restrictive' responses to suggest that some contracts are not well matched to user expectations:

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Vodafone

Airtel

Reliance

Loop Mobile

How do you rate the technical support from your network operator?

Providing a good choice of handsets and services is a mobile network operator's lifeblood. But this means that operators are also faced with fielding a wide range of support queries, via some combination of phone, email and website. So how are they doing? In my survey, Vodafone gets mostly solid 'good' and 'average' ratings, with a smattering of 'poor' and 'abysmal', while IDEA gains a couple of 'excellent' nominations. Among the lowsample-size remainder, Airtel comes off best.

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How likely are you to repurchase business contracts from your network operator?

All vendors of technology products and services set great store by customer retention, but this is particularly important to mobile network operators, for whom the basic mobile contract is potentially the gateway to a variety of lucrative add-on services. The positions of Vodafone and IDEA look pretty healthy in this regard in our survey, and also for Reliance among the low-sample-size remainder; there are indications of customer dissatisfaction for Loop Mobile and Airtel though.

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Information Analysis
Graph 1 & 2
300 250 215.11 200 150 100 50 0 Metro A Circle B Circle C Circle 89.8

Number of Subscribers as of Oct 2011 (in millions)

246.13

74.36

Hence we can easily conclude that B circle and A circle have the maximum number of subscribers.

Number of Subscribers Additions in Oct 2011 (in Millions)

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Metro A Circle B Circle C Circle Total 0.22 2.35 1.11 3.44 7.12

Maximum additions in October are in B circle and then A circle and minimum in the C circle.

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Graph 3 & 4
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Vodafone IDEA 32.32 6.07 5.36 MTNL 3.54 Stel 3.21 Loop 1.57 Etisalat 101.82 91.58 60.28 173.73 145.92

Number of Subscribers as of Oct 2011 (in Millions)

BSNL

Aircel

Uninor

Videocon

From here we can easily conclude as seen in the Research that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have the maximum subscribers in India and Reliance ,Loop and Others are lesser in number.

Airtel 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 -0.5 0.95 Airtel

Number of Subscribers Additions in Oct 2011 (in Millions)

2.67

1.64

0.92 0.51 0.49 0.03 -0.20 0.04 0.01 0.05

This graph is a clear indication of the recent trend that is taking place in the mobile services sector.The excessive marketing , Low costs and various new services has led to the increasing popularity and subscriber base of Uninor.Then comes Idea due to the new VAS offered by them.

Vodafone

IDEA

BSNL

Aircel

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Uninor

Videocon

MTNL

Stel

Loop

Etisalat

Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry

Graph 5 & 6
Subscriber Figures in (millions)
700 618.28 600 500 400 300 212.76 215.11 200 100 0 Metro A Circle B Circle C Circle Total 74.14 74.36 88.69 89.8 242.69 246.13 September October

625.4

These clearly show the subscriber figures in millions. Highest being in the B Circle and then A Circle.We can also see the increase in subscriber base from Sebtember to October .

Subscriber Additions in (millions)

September 8 7.12 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Metro A Circle B Circle C Circle Total 0.58 0.22 1.95 2.35 0.82 1.11 3.17 3.44 6.52 October

This graph depicts the increase in subscriber base in millions from September to October.

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Graph 7 & 8
MTNL, 0.86 Videocon, 0.97 Etisalat, 0.25 Uninor, 5.17 Stel, 0.57 Loop Mobile, 0.51

Aircel, 9.64 Bharti Airtel, 27.78 BSNL, 14.64

IDEA, 16.28

Vodafone Essar, 23.33

This Pie Chart depicts the market shares of the major players in the telecom industry.

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Project MOST
COAI has played an active role in promoting infrastructure sharing in India. Project MOST (Mobile Operators' Shared Towers), which was aimed at promoting infrastructure sharing among all the service providers to primarily establish proof of concept of the possibility of multi-technology (GSM & CDMA) and multi operators (upto 6 operators) sharing a single tower with a view to bring down costs and enhance spread of affordable services continued to be carried out successfully by the industry. The prime objectives of this project are:

To provide better coverage and quality to the subscribers. To avoid undue proliferation of towers by leveraging the benefits of technological innovations to improve the city skyline.

To make Cellular Mobile Communications more affordable for the subscribers by reducing the costs for Service Providers.

To gear up the Mobile Communication facilities for the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in New Delhi.

The coming year will see a greater implementation of infrastructure sharing amongst the service providers so as to reduce costs and make available affordable service to far flung areas of the country.

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Analysis of the Indian Telecom Industry Mobile Instant Messaging Instant Messaging is a means of text communication between person to person (or multi-person) / members of a predefined group. It is characterized by various features, like interactive nature of text dialogue box and presence, which allows users to see whether other members on their contact list are online and available (or not) to engage in communication. Mobile instant messaging in India is a classic example of true Public-Private partnership, where all nine, both public as well as private, GSM operators in the country have joined hand to ensure expansion of telecom horizons through implementation of interoperable Mobile Instant Messaging Services. Mobile Instant Messaging service is expected to gain popularity as it provides a real time, fast-paced, multi-party conversation environment. It helps people to stay in constant touch with their groups and also allow them to exchange text and other multimedia features like emoticons, pictures, tunes, etc This application thus enhances connectivity for the subscribers. Further, Mobile Instant Messaging is a unique solution that caters to multiple consumer requirements. Besides providing anytime anywhere connectivity, MIM also supports enhances security features to block unwanted messages. Further, Mobile Instant Messaging platform can be extended to enable Secured Mobile Money transfer.

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Subscriber Verification

The entire industry together with COAI had taken up the herculean task of re-verifying its entire existing prepaid subscriber base of nearly 85 million. This task performed by the Indian mobile Operators is one of its kind, the likes of which have not been seen anywhere else in the world. To accomplish this objective, the industry has put in enormous efforts to not only ensure complete documentary proof of identity and address of each subscriber but also educate their subscribers as well as their retail chain on the identification issue. Mailers with details of the verification process were sent to each and every Point of Sale personally by the Operators.

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Bibliography
Books
1. India's Telecommunications Industry by Ashok Desai Pg. 85

Newspaper
1. Times of India

Websites 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/mobile-networks/2010/05/11/service-andreliability-survey-2010-mobile-network-operators-40050744/3/ http://www.dnb.co.in/IndianTelecomIndustry/RegulatoryFramework.asp www.ibef.org/industry/telecommunications.aspx www.cci.in/pdf/surveys_reports/indias_telecom_sector.pdf www.dot.gov.in/osp/Brochure/Brochure.htm asiancorrespondent.com/.../top-30-telecom-companies-in-india-by-m...

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