Intro n all
What is hurting Indian telecom industry?
Caught between regulators, courts and the government, India's telecom sector is a battered thing, far removed from its heydays a few years ago. Though former telecom ministerAndimuthu Raja doled out licences to new players through a flawed first-comefirstserved procedure, the result was more competition and the promise of better and cheaper services. Since February , when the Supreme Court scrapped all 122 new licences issued in Raja's regime and asked for fresh auctions, many gains of India's telecom revolution are under threat. Consider competition. Regulator Trairecently suggested rules to auction spectrum. These rules peg the minimum price of spectrum at 13 times the amount under Raja's dispensation. The auctions will take place over several years and a tiny amount will be sold each time. High reserve prices and spectrum sold in dribbles will ensure the playing field tilts in favour of incumbents, who already have bandwidth and networks, and against new entrants. The last thing to go under the hammer, in 2015, will be more bandwidth for 4G technology, for which only Reliance Industries (RIL) holds a pan-India licence. When the courts and government auditor CAG look at telecom spectrum, they see money that got away. When the government sees it, it sees windfall gains for the exchequer. The regulator frames rules that are anti-competitive and promise to raise costs and delay services for consumers. The main victim of all this will be growth and development. Cheap wireless services could have revolutionized the way Indians learn, farm, trade and make things. This looks unlikely now. Costly spectrum means costly services, which mean low penetration. In Europe and India where3G spectrum was auctioned at sky-high rates, the services have failed to spread rapidly. In Japan and South Korea, where bandwidth was allocated cheap, 3G use is widespread. Punched around by allegations of scams, the government has discovered auctions with the zeal of a convert. It now runs the risk of selling out of a far bigger reform project that could have been achieved with cheap connectivity.
Idea Cellular
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Idea Cellular Ltd.
Type
Public BSE: 532822 NSE: IDEA
Industry
Telecommunications
Founded
1995
Headquarters
Santacruz East, Mumbai, India[1]
Key people
Kumar Mangalam Birla
(Chairman)
Products
Mobile telephony, Wireless broadband
Revenue
15,389.00 crore (US$3.07 billion)(2011)[2]
Operating income
2,879.33 crore (US$574.43 million)(2011)
Net income
844.60 crore (US$168.5 million)(2011)
Total assets
US$5.334 billion (2010)
Owner(s)
Aditya Birla Group
Employees
6,481 (2010)
Parent
Aditya Birla Group (49.05%) Axiata Group Berhad (15%) Providence Equity (10.6%)
Website
www.ideacellular.com
Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian mobile network operators based in Mumbai, India. Idea is the 4th largest wireless carrier in Indian market with over 100 million customers and also provides broadband Internet to its customers.
Contents
[hide]
1 Inception and growth
1.1 Customer service
2 Holding 3 3G 4 Idea 3G Smartphone 5 Pan India 3G Coverage
5.1 3G Coverage
6 Subscriber base 7 Competitors 8 Video Calling ISD Booth 9 References 10 External links
[edit]Inception
and growth
In 2000, Tata Cellular was a company providing mobile services in Andhra Pradesh. When Birla-AT&T brought Maharashtra and Gujarat to the table, the merger of these two entities was a reality. Thus Birla-Tata-AT&T, popularly known as Batata, was born and was later rebranded as IDEA. Then Idea set sights on RPGs operations in Madhya Pradesh which was successfully acquired, helping Batata have a million subscribers, and the licence to be the fourth operator in Delhi was clinched. In 2004, Idea (the company had by then been rechristened) bought over the Escorts groups Escotel gaining Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West) and Kerala and licences for three more UP (East), Rajasthan and
Himachal Pradesh. By the end of that year, four million Indians were on the companys network. In 2005, AT&T sold its investment in Idea, and the year after Tatas also bid good bye to pursue an independent telecom business. And Idea was left only with one promoter, the AV Birla group. Rs 2,700 crore adding Punjab and Karnataka circles. Modis joint venture partner, Telekom Malaysia, invested Rs 7,000 crore for a 14.99% stake in Idea. Just around then, Ideas subsidiary, Aditya Birla Telecom sold a 20% stake to US-based Providence Equity Partners for over Rs 2,0000 crore.
[edit]Customer
service
The company has its retail outlets under the "My Idea" banner. The company has also been the first to offer flexible tariff plans for prepaid customers[citation needed]. It also offers GPRS services in urban areas. Idea Cellular won the GSM Association Award for "Best Billing and Customer Care Solution" for 2 consecutive years[citation needed]. IDEA Cellular has been recognized as the 'Most Customer Responsive Company' in the Telecom sector, at the prestigious Avaya GlobalConnect Customer Responsiveness Awards 2010[citation needed].
[edit]Holding
Initially the Birlas, the Tatas and AT&T Wireless each held one-third equity in the company. But following AT&T Wireless' merger with Cingular Wireless in 2004, Cingular decided to sell its 32.9% stake in Idea. This stake was bought by both the Tatas and Birlas at 16.45% each. Tata's foray into the cellular market with its own subsidiary, Tata Indicom, a CDMA-based mobile provider, cropped differences between the Tatas and the Birlas. This dual holding by the Tatas also became a major reason for the delay in Idea being granted a license to operate in Mumbai. This was because as per Department of Telecommunications (DOT) license norms, one promoter could not have more than 10% stake in two companies operating in the same circle and Tata Indicom was already operating in Mumbai when Idea filed for its licence. The Birlas thus approached the DOT and sought its intervention, and the Tatas replied by saying that they would exit Idea but only for a good price. On 10 April 2006, the Aditya Birla Group announced its acquisition of the 48.18% stake held by the Tatas at Rs. 40.51 a share amounting to Rs. 44.06 billion. While 15% of the 48.14% stake was acquired by Aditya Birla Nuvo, a company in-charge of the Birlas' new business initiatives, the remaining stake was acquired by Birla TMT holdings Private Ltd., an AV Birla family-owned company. Currently, Aditya Birla Group holds 49.1% of the total shares of the company. Malaysia based Axiata controls a 14.99% stake in the company.[3]
[edit]3G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Idea paid 5768.59 crores for spectrum in 11
circles. The circles it will provide 3G in are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West).[4] On 28 March 2011, Idea launched 3G services in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.[5] The launch cities were Ahmedabad, Shimla and Indore. This makes Idea the sixth private operator (eighth overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Tata Docomo, Reliance Communications, Airtel, Aircel and Vodafone. Idea currently supports up to 21.1 Mbit/s over 2G speeds of 256 kbit/s. However, different handsets support different speeds, from 384 kbit/s, 3.6 Mbit/s, 7.2 Mbit/s or 21.1 Mbit/s. Speeds also depend on the 3G plan/recharge that users opt for.[6] The operator announced that IDEA 3G services will be available in 200 towns of 11 3G circles by mid-April 2011, progressively growing at the rate of ten towns per day to cover 750 towns by mid-2011 and 4000 towns by the end of 2012. Idea cellular has announced a cut of 70% in the tariff of its 3G services.[7]
[edit]Idea
3G Smartphone
5,850. Both handsets are based on Android2.2 Froyo.[8]
On 23 November 2011 Idea Cellular launched two affordable 3G handsets in India: Idea 3G Smartphone Blade priced at 7,992 and Idea 3G Smartphone priced at
Idea has also launched a Dual-SIM Android smartphone in India on June 15, 2012 named as Idea ID-918 at a price point of Rs.5,994 ($108 approx.) It features Android v2.3 OS, 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3G, Wi-Fi and 3.2 MP rear facing camera.[9].
[edit]Pan
India 3G Coverage
Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have begun collaborating to provide 3G coverage to their customers pan India. The agreement aims to provides for these companies to offer 3G services to their customers in circles where they have not won any spectrum. It is expected that the 3 companies will be able to provide 3G services in all circles in India except orissa where the three have not won any spectrum.[10] Ideas 3G service recently launched in Mumbai with 3G network sharing agreement with Airtel. [Idea has launched 3G services in Chennai network sharing with Vodafone]
[edit]Subscriber
base
Idea's subscriber base as at the end of August 2011 according to the [4] is totalling to 98,441,714 or 16.09% (Approx.) of the total[11] mobile connections in India. Idea leads all other telecom operators in India in the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) race, with a net gain of 10,31,380 subscribers as on 31 August 2011.[12] Idea also leads all other competitors in having the most active subscriber base, scoring highly on the VLR statistics. Visitor Location Register (VLR) is basically a temporary database of the subscribers who have roamed into the particular area, which it serves. Each base station in the network is served by exactly one VLR; hence a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time.[13]
[edit]Competitors
Idea competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Loop Mobile, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, Reliance Communications, S Tel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Uninor,Videocon, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.
Idea Cellular Limited was incorporated in 1995, and now ranks third in terms of all-India wireless revenue market share at 13.6 per cent. Idea ranks second with 23.6 per cent revenue market share in nine service areas where it holds 900 MHz spectrum and which derive about 41 per cent of the industrys all-India revenues (based on gross revenues for UAS and Mobile licenses only, for March 2011 quarter, as released by TRAI). The market positioning of Idea reflects the strength of its brand considering the fact that Idea added 11 out of its total 22 service areas in the past four years. Today, it is a pan-India player with commercial 2G operations in 22 service areas, and 3G in nine of these circles. Its subscriber base has grown multifold, from 7.37 million in March 2006 to 89.5 million in March 2011. Idea holds 16 per cent stake in Indus Towers, a joint venture with other telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. Indus Towers is the world's largest tower company with over one lakh towers. In 2007, Idea was listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Idea enjoys a market leadership position in many of its operational areas. It offers GPRS on all its operating networks for all categories of subscribers, and was the first company in India to commercially launch the next generation EDGE technology in Delhi in 2003. As a pioneer in technology deployment, it has been at the forefront through the adoption of bio fuels to power its base stations, and by employing satellite connectivity to reach inaccessible rural
areas in Madhya Pradesh. Idea has been a leader in the introduction of value-added services, and there are many firsts to its credit, including a voice portal 'Say Idea', Idea TV, voice chat and instant messenger. Tariff plans have been customer-friendly, catering to the unique needs of different customer segments, for instance the 'Women's Card' caters to the special needs of women on the move, and 'Youth Card' covers the emerging youth segment.
The company now has its own NLD and ILD operations, and ISP license. Idea has a network of over 70,000 cell sites covering the entire length and breadth of the country.The company has over 3,000 service centres servicing Idea subscribers across the country. 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 has won numerous awards and is the only Indian GSM operator to win the prestigious GSM Association Award consecutively in the best mobile technology category for the Best Billing and Customer Care Solution both in 2006 and in 2007, even in the face of international competition.
Idea was adjudged the Emerging Company of the Year by The Economic Timesand the Most Customer Responsive Company in the Telecom sector, in the year 2010. Brand Idea has won many accolades for its innovative communication. The What an Idea, Sirji ads have won four Effies from 2008-2010, making it one of the Buzziest brands in the country. In 2011 Brand Idea moved to the No. 4 position amongst all service brands in the 'Most Trusted Brands Survey' conducted by Brand Equity, an Economic Timespublication. Idea's biggest campaigns "Break the Language Barrier" and "No idea Get Idea" were ranked globally as the best brand campaigns 2011 at MMA Global Awards and World Communication Awards, London. Idea won the advertising effectiveness awards with a Gold EFFIE for the "No idea Get Idea" campaign and a Silver for the" Language Barrier" campaign. In radio, Idea won six awards at the Golden Mikes Awards 2011 and was adjudged the Advertiser of the Year. Besides, Idea has also won a series of Digital Awards, the biggest being the Yahoo Big Chair where it won Gold.
