Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Winds of Change are Here Again – Mobile Bills May Bloat by 30% this Year

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Our mobile sector is facing one of its worst patches, thanks to the ever increasing inflation and over-enthusiastic 3G jumps by most of the big players in market in the recent past. After the relatively mild response received by 3G services despite their advertising blitzkrieg, some known names in the telecom industry are taking the easy way out to cut their losses – that is, by shifting the losses on us. In case some of you haven’t noted as yet, Vodafone mobile plan in postpaid domain has already taken a jump and that too without much ruckus.

While we act finicky, ensuring that we choose the best mobile plan, our operators are keeping us oblivious to the pending rate hikes by 20-30%, which would come in effect from the month of March. Bharti Airtel has also accepted that similar changes could be seen in Airtel mobile plan and other Airtel deals to ensure that the company continues to notch up good figures.

It is a Catch 22 situation for all of us with almost all the larger operators jumping the gun, including state owned BSNL. While you and I are busy taking immense care to save mobile bill, it will hardly bear any fruit thanks to the industry that seems oblivious to their customer’s plight.

Mobile Number Portability Likely to take the High Road

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It’s no surprise that the Mobile Number Portability services in India will now be in demand like never before, thanks to Supreme Court of India dealing a major blow to the dubious transactions in 2G spectrum allocation. Both small and big names have come under scanner and Idea, biggest MNP gainer till date, is set to loose its advantage due to this move by supreme Court. So what does that mean to you and me?

With many people across the country, especially in buisness and profesional circles, choosing to continue with the same number, MNP will be easily the preferred option. Since many of the major Indian telecom players are not affected by this ruling, those amongst us who are affected will be eyeing the known names for their MNP switch. Keeping this in mind, the bigger operators have started  churning out best mobile plans as well as floating attractive deals to the allure new customers. State-owned telecom companies have also joined the race and sudden splurge in telecom advertising can be seen all over.

It is indeed a case of somebody’s loss resulting  in another’s gain. While TRAI chairman assures that there wont be a larger impact of this ruling, mainly due to restricted reach of new operators, it’s time for us to reap in the harvest with some real economical deals.

India’s 2G Spectrum Up for Sale – Takers Anyone?

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The Supreme Court of India delivered a strong verdict recently, cancelling all of the 122 licenses which were allotted during the shady 2G spectrum auction, and creating ripples amongst the industrial and political circles. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has been instructed to come up with new framework for the fresh allocation of licenses and it would mostly be modeled upon the recent 3G auction which fetched rich gains for the government.

However, the dust hasn’t settled yet and neither does it show any signs of settling down soon with hurt investors promising to take the battle back to the court. Several mobile operators have openly declared their intentions to challenge the ruling and the protests might also hurt further telecom investments in the country. While most operators are busy promoting their 3G plan powered services, many are yet to come to terms with the revenue loss due to 2G cancellations.

Mid-February has been set as deadline for a 360 degree industry feedback. Though the signs of a renewed interest are slowly on rise, a muted response on this verdict by Indian majors is a chief cause of concern for smaller operators. It’s probably the common man who will have to bear the brunt in his monthly mobile bills.