Snehal khanna Blog

Industry shows signs of stabilisation, as incumbent operators manage to expand their wireless broadband user base LATEST NEWS :  Reliance Jio is witnessing continued momentum in subscriber additions even after the company raised tariffs in July. The company added 5.9 million customers, the highest among all telecom operators, in September to take its user base to 138.61 million. The Mukesh Ambani-owned company had added 4.1 million subscribers in August. According to a report by UBS, Reliance Jio’s active subscriber base grew by 7.3 million in September after slowing down to 2.2 million in August. Reliance Jio’s market share increased to 11.7 per cent at the end of September. The incumbent operators have also been able to expand their wireless broadband user base, indicating the industry is stabilising. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has put out data that shows Airtel gained one million subscribers in September and its market share increas...

Charges to be zero in two years; incumbents set to move court LATEST NEWS : In a fresh blow to incumbent mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has cut the interconnect usage charges (IUC, also known as terminating charges) by 57 per cent to 6 paise per minute effective October 1, from 14 paise currently. In two years, the charges would come down to zero, meaning there won’t be any payment for calls landing on other telcos’ networks. The new charges are being seen as a relief for the latest entrant, Reliance Jio . It is estimated to save about Rs 3,800 crore annually from this move. However, the reduction is likely to hit the profitability and revenues of the incumbents further. Analysts at HSBC said in a recent note that a significantly lower IUC would be a boost for Jio and there may be some more pricing disruption after downward revision of IUC rates. Jio has, since its launch last year, paid about Rs ...

The pack is available at multiple affordable price points ranging from Rs 5,000 for 28 days to Rs 500 for every 24 hours usage LATEST NEWS :  Vodafone India on Wednesday launched unlimited international plan across the UK and Europe for Rs 180 per day, the company said here. International travellers can now easily activate a pack and use their number overseas from the UK and other popular travel destinations of Europe like Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. The company statement said apart from Europe, travellers can also use unlimited calling and data in the US, the UAE, Singapore and Malaysia with the same pack, taking the total tally of "unlimited" countries to 18. The pack is available at multiple affordable price points ranging from Rs 5,000 for 28 days to Rs 500 for every 24 hours usage. Apart from offering unlimited usage in 18 countries, the same pack also allows consumers to us...

With current market share, Jio stood 4th in overall base, behind Airtel, Vodafone and Idea LATEST NEWS    : Reliance Jio added nearly 5 million users ( 4,786,324 subscribers )  and controlled 9.94 per cent of the telecom market in May, shows the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). In May, Airtel led in terms of overall telecom market share, with 23.59 per cent subscribers. It was followed by Vodafone with a 17.86 per cent share, and Idea with 16.62. Reliance Jio was a distant fourth with 9.94 per cent subscribers. According to the report, the telecom industry saw a net addition of 6,228,813 customers in May. While Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, Reliance Jio and Idea Cellular continue to add subscribers to their base, telecom operators such as Telenor and Tata lose most of their subscribers. Last year, Reliance Jio had entered the highly competitive telecom space with a free preview plan that offered unlimited free 4G high-speed ...

Key challenge to come from the launch of 4G feature phones by the RIL subsidiary, say analysts LATEST NEWS :  The share prices of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained on Wednesday, on the expectation of the new rate plans announced by Reliance Industries’ (RIL) telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio (Jio), leading to improvement in their operating metrics. The price plan announced by Jio on Tuesday is estimated to be 30-57 per cent higher than earlier promotional offers. Brokerages say this is positive and a clear indication of rationalisation of pricing. Analysts at UBS say the first Jio price increase in almost 12 months supports the brokerage view that sector revenues are close to bottoming out, with the top three operators and Jio expected to incrementally take share from smaller entities. Credit Suisse in a note said the new Jio rates would start the process of normalising these from the current discounted levels. Also indicating that RIL is looking at monetising its...

Indian telecom industry is at a critical juncture & improvement is crucial for its long-term health Breaking news : The Indian Telecom sector has been under pressure for the last 8 years because of rising competitive and capex intensity. During this period the contribution of telecom services to GDP has declined from 2% of GDP in FY09 to just 1.2% in FY17. The return ratios for the telecom players has also consistently declined during the period and all the telecom companies do not manage to earn their cost of capital because of continuous investments in spectrum purchases. While competitive intensity has changed with entry and exit of players, the capex intensity has consistently risen because of spectrum auctions. The industry at this juncture is at its weakest because of the high degree of financial leverage and margins impacted by rising competition from new player Reliance Jio . In the current state, the industry has insurmountable challenges which are leading to h...

Apart from Jio price war, rising losses, increase in interest payments are other reasons RELIANCE JIO - The woes of Tata Teleservices continue to mount with its net worth eroding by Rs 11,653 crore at the end of the financial year ended March 2017, on rising losses and interest payments. The company announced a loss of Rs 4,617 crore for FY17, compared to a loss of Rs 2,023 crore in FY16. This is a bad news for its promoter, Tata Sons, which will have to keep investing in the company’s equity so that it can meet its liabilities, bankers said. But, the company’s debt stood reduced almost five per cent from Rs 30,192 crore in FY16 to Rs 28,766 crore in FY17. Because of the price war in telecom spurred by the entry of Reliance Jio, the Tata group company’s turnover declined to Rs 9,419 crore in FY17 from Rs 10,588 crore in FY16. The Tata group company is not the only one which struggled during the year. Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular also reported losses of Rs 400 ...