Telecom (Service Providers)

Share Prices
 

Sales and Market Share
 

Source: Cellular Operators Association of India

67. GSM Industry Adds 6.19 Mn Users In January – February 12

GSM-based mobile industry add 6.19 million users in January 2008

The GSM-based mobile industry’s total subscriber base touched 178.4 million with an addition of 6.19 million users in January 2008. While Bharti Airtel led with a market share of 32.18% and a total user base of 57.41 million, Vodafone-Essar captured a market share of 23.06% (41.14 million) and 41.14 million subscribers. BSNL added 10.36 lakh users in January 2008 and captured 18.92% of the market share. Idea Cellular added over 9 lakh users and had a total subscriber base of 21.95 million.

Source: The Economic Times

68. 8.1 M New Phone Subscribers In Dec – January 24

Total number of telephone connections reached 272.88 million by December 2007

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), a total of 8.11 million telephone connections were added during December 2007, and the number of connections in the country reached 272.88 million at the end of December 2007, compared to 264.77 million in November 2007. In the wireless segment, an addition of 8.17 million subscribers pushed the total subscriber base to 233.63 million in December 2007. The wire line segment recorded a decline in the subscriber base to 39.25 million in December (39.31 million). The total number of broadband subscribers reached 3.13 million (2.87 million).

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Trends, Marketing Initiatives and Others

69. Mobile Operators Use Lifetime Cards To Hook Users – February 05

Cellular operators capitalising on lifetime pre-paid cards to attract subscribers

With the entry of new cellular operators in the telecom market, existing service providers are depending on lifetime pre-paid cards to retain subscribers. After Bharti Airtel and other GSM operators lowered the tariff for lifetime pre-paid card users to Re 1 per minute for all local calls, Reliance Communications also lowered the cost of lifetime validity cards to Rs 199. More than 70% of the 200 million mobile subscribers use pre-paid cards and tend to change operators frequently. Lifetime validity cards were launched by all mobile operators in a bid to arrest the high churn rate (6%).

Source: The Hindu Business Line

70. More People To Have Mobile Phone Than Those Without It – February 07

Global mobile penetration rate to reach 50% in early 2008

According to International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, the global mobile penetration rate is set to reach 50% in early 2008 from about 12% in 2000. With its high economic growth and immense disposable income, India is expected to play a crucial role in global telecom expansion. The agency projects that the worldwide mobile subscriber base would cross 3.3 billion in 2008. This would amount to every tenth mobile user across the world being an Indian; consequently, the domestic industry is eyeing a total of more than 300 million subscribers in 2008.

Source: The Economic Times

Product Launches

71. Airtel Launches iBox PCO – January 26

Bharti Airtel introduced an integrated coin box PCO called Airtel iBox, which includes the coin box instrument and a fixed wireless terminal in one box. It also has an internal battery, which gives up to 4-6 hours of talk time.

72. Vodafone Launches BlackBerry – February 15

On 15 February, 2008, telecom company Vodafone, in association with Research in Motion (a Canadian wireless device company), introduced a new BlackBerry model. The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone is priced at Rs 24,990.

73. BSNL Launches Mobile Handset – February 15

On 14 February, 2008, telecom Company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) launched its mobile handset in Mysore. The mobile handsets are SIM-locked and BSNL network-locked, and will be available to both pre-paid and post-paid GSM customers of BSNL.

74. Reliance Communications Introduces Multiplayer Mobile Games – February 14

On 14 February, 2008, telecom company Reliance Communications, in partnership with CanvasM (a joint venture between Motorola and Tech Mahindra), introduced multiplayer mobile games for its customers. CanvasM Technologies is a mobile value-added services (VAS) provider and has a global presence.

75. MTNL Launches Mobile TV Service In Capital – February 14

On 14 February, 2008, state-run telecom company MTNL announced the soft launch of its mobile TV service in Delhi, which would allow its users to watch live television on their handsets.  Initially, MTNL customers would be able to watch seven channels on their GPRS-enables mobile handsets.

Advertising Campaigns

76. Reliance Mblog Shrinks The World – January 22

Reliance Mobile Blog World’s TVC showcases product features 

‘Nobody’s a stranger in the Reliance Mobile Blog world’ is the theme of TVC of Reliance’s newly launched value added service, Mobile Blog. Targeted at young people who use Reliance Mobile phones, the ad promote the features of this value-added service as enhancing the user’s life.

Created by agency Mudra, the TVC shows a young girl, seated on a park bench, scribbling her thoughts in a diary.  A modified version of the jingle ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’ plays in the background. While the young girl writes in her book, strangers from all walks of life – a teacher, an office goer, a jaywalker, school children, a monk, a scuba diver – are shown walking up to her and handing over scraps of paper with their stories on them.

The voiceover at the end proclaims, “I share my diary with the world on Reliance Mobile Blog. Because, in my world, there are no strangers. What’s your world?”

Source: Agencyfaqs