Showing posts with label RCom GSM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RCom GSM. Show all posts
29.9.08
RCom soft launches GSM service in Mumbai, Delhi
Reliance Communications (RCom), the telecom arm of the ADA Group, is all set to launch its GSM mobile services in major cities.The company soft launched its GSM services in Mumbai and Delhi circles yesterday with about 10,000 of its employees participating. With RCom too entering the Mumbai’s telecom space, it would be the second player after Idea Cellular to launch its GSM services in the city, one of the largest telecom services in the country. Besides the two metropolises, the company has also started testing its GSM network in pockets of UP, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and the four southern states. According to sources, RCom has started testing its GSM network in cities which account for 45% of the Indian telecom subscriber base. Testing in others places will start soon. Depending upon how quickly the network is optimised, the final launch for customers could take a couple of months or more after the soft launch, industry players said. An RCom spokesperson confirmed that with the plan to launch its pan-India GSM service, the company has started testing its network in several circles in the country. The company had earmarked about Rs 6,000 crore for launching its GSM services in those circles where it is not present. Source said telecom equipment providers like Huawie, Alcatel and TenXc are engaged in the setting up the network for RCom. As of now RCom has GSM as well as CDMA footprints in some of the eastern and north eastern states, while rest of the country is covered by only CDMA services. Currently, the company has a total subscriber base of about 55 million from 20,000 towns and over 4 lakh villages across the country. While in the first phase of the soft launch the company’s employees are being given test SIM cards, in the next phase RCom will get associates, vendors and some others on the network for testing the robustness of its network.
17.9.08
RCom's GSM push
Reliance Communications Ltd, (RCom) plans to invest more than $3 billion (Rs13,980 crore) for the November launch of mobile phone services based on the global system for mobile (GSM) technology standard.The company plans to introduce GSM services initially in 250 big cities and expand by mid-2009 to other parts of the country, matching the coverage of its current services based on the rival code division multiple access (CDMA) standard that has nearly 47 million customers.
RCom is the country’s second largest mobile services provider by subscriber base, trailing only Bharti Airtel Ltd, and has a market capitalization of Rs75,690 crore.Almost 80% of the electronic equipment required for the first 250 cities is already in place.Equipment for the next 1,750 towns where RCom plans to introduce GSM services has also been arranged.Telecom firms are expanding into smaller towns and villages as cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi reach saturation levels.
RCom also plans to start retailing GSM handsets bundled with its service after the rollout or even without it, a business strategy that would earn bigger margins for the Mumbai-based company and make the handsets available at lower prices, said the person mentioned earlier.
The company has already tied up with manufacturers such as Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson, LG Group, Bird International, Fly Mobile Ltd and Huawei Corp. to exclusively launch some handset models in India or offer them to its subscribers just before they hit the market.Talks are also under way with Nokia Oyj and ZTE Corp.
GSM is a popular platform for offering mobile services in India, the world’s fastest growing market for mobile phones and the largest wireless market after China.The GSM market serves 75% of the about 300 million mobile customers in India, and adds about eight-nine million users every month. CDMA transmits simultaneous digital signals over a shared portion of the spectrum—a technology that RCom currently uses for providing cellular services.
RCom’s entry into the GSM space was probably driven by the fact that it delivers higher Arpu, or average revenue per user, than CDMA.The company’s overall GSM investment will likely be higher than $3 billion.RCom has already spent $1.2 billion on the electronic equipment required and paid a license fee of Rs1,651 crore.It will also need to invest significantly in the new towers needed to offer the dual service. Reliance Infratel Ltd, an RCom unit that is to build, own and operate telecom towers, is ramping up the number of towers from 36,500 by the end of fiscal 2008 to 50,000 by the end of the current fiscal year and will invest $2 billion in it. A part of this spending will be for the GSM service.
An RCom spokesperson said the nationwide GSM rollout “is progressing as planned and is currently under advanced testing stages”, and that it is slated to commence from end-2008 as planned. Trial runs are already under way in New Delhi.
RCom is the country’s second largest mobile services provider by subscriber base, trailing only Bharti Airtel Ltd, and has a market capitalization of Rs75,690 crore.Almost 80% of the electronic equipment required for the first 250 cities is already in place.Equipment for the next 1,750 towns where RCom plans to introduce GSM services has also been arranged.Telecom firms are expanding into smaller towns and villages as cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi reach saturation levels.
RCom also plans to start retailing GSM handsets bundled with its service after the rollout or even without it, a business strategy that would earn bigger margins for the Mumbai-based company and make the handsets available at lower prices, said the person mentioned earlier.
The company has already tied up with manufacturers such as Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson, LG Group, Bird International, Fly Mobile Ltd and Huawei Corp. to exclusively launch some handset models in India or offer them to its subscribers just before they hit the market.Talks are also under way with Nokia Oyj and ZTE Corp.
GSM is a popular platform for offering mobile services in India, the world’s fastest growing market for mobile phones and the largest wireless market after China.The GSM market serves 75% of the about 300 million mobile customers in India, and adds about eight-nine million users every month. CDMA transmits simultaneous digital signals over a shared portion of the spectrum—a technology that RCom currently uses for providing cellular services.
RCom’s entry into the GSM space was probably driven by the fact that it delivers higher Arpu, or average revenue per user, than CDMA.The company’s overall GSM investment will likely be higher than $3 billion.RCom has already spent $1.2 billion on the electronic equipment required and paid a license fee of Rs1,651 crore.It will also need to invest significantly in the new towers needed to offer the dual service. Reliance Infratel Ltd, an RCom unit that is to build, own and operate telecom towers, is ramping up the number of towers from 36,500 by the end of fiscal 2008 to 50,000 by the end of the current fiscal year and will invest $2 billion in it. A part of this spending will be for the GSM service.
An RCom spokesperson said the nationwide GSM rollout “is progressing as planned and is currently under advanced testing stages”, and that it is slated to commence from end-2008 as planned. Trial runs are already under way in New Delhi.
1.8.08
RCom's GSM Rollout
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom), the second largest mobile service provider in India, is set to roll out its GSM (global systems for mobile communications) service in new circles by the end of the year. The company has GSM operations only in eight out of 23 telecom circles in the country.RCom expects to finish pan-India rollout of the GSM service by mid-2009, chairman Anil Ambani said in an analysts’ call after the company’s June quarter results were announced on Thursday.RCom is a CDMA (code division multiple access) major and sees good opportunities in the GSM business.The company said that the GSM service would help the company expand market share and increase its average revenue per user (ARPU) as GSM ARPUs are usually higher than those of CDMA players.The company currently has 43 million CDMA subscribers and 8 million GSM users. It was given start-up spectrum to become a pan-India GSM operator earlier this year. The GSM market is dominated by players such as Bharti, Vodafone, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Idea, and Aircel while RCom and Tata Teleservices rule the CDMA market. Tata Teleservices is also entering the GSM space, which dominates in subscriber numbers both in India and globally. At the end of June, there were 286.86 million mobile phone subscribers in India, out of which 212 million were GSM users. The total number of phone connections in India at the end of June was 325.78 million.
RCom, which recently ended its merger talks with South African major MTN, would continue to explore acquisitions abroad, Ambani said. The two companies called off their exclusivity talks citing ‘certain legal and regulatory issues’. The proposed merger would have created a $60 billion telecom entity.
On RCom’s tower business, Ambani said that Reliance Infratel was in infrastructure-sharing talks with a number of telcos.
Meanwhile, the company’s net profit rose 24% year-on-year to Rs 1,510 crore in the quarter ended June 30, posting the slowest growth in nine quarters after adding less profitable customers in rural areas. Its sales grew 24% to Rs 5,320 crore. RCom doubled the number of villages covered by its network to 6,00,000 in the nine months ended March 31, a statement on its website said.
Anil Ambani is spending $6.5 billion (Rs27,625 crore) to build a nationwide GSM network to narrow Bharti’s lead. New wireless providers, who are likely to start operations in nine months to a year, may undercut prices to gain market share leading to a “tremendous squeeze on margins” for existing operators, KPMG’s Shetty said.AT&T Inc., the biggest US phone company, in March had said it will be “aggressive” in its plans to enter India’s mobile phone industry to add customers in the world’s second biggest market for wireless services.
Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema in January said its Shyam Telelink Ltd unit will pay $630 million for phone licences in 21 areas. Sistema plans to spend as much as $7 billion with partners to expand its wireless network in India.
RCom, which recently ended its merger talks with South African major MTN, would continue to explore acquisitions abroad, Ambani said. The two companies called off their exclusivity talks citing ‘certain legal and regulatory issues’. The proposed merger would have created a $60 billion telecom entity.
On RCom’s tower business, Ambani said that Reliance Infratel was in infrastructure-sharing talks with a number of telcos.
Meanwhile, the company’s net profit rose 24% year-on-year to Rs 1,510 crore in the quarter ended June 30, posting the slowest growth in nine quarters after adding less profitable customers in rural areas. Its sales grew 24% to Rs 5,320 crore. RCom doubled the number of villages covered by its network to 6,00,000 in the nine months ended March 31, a statement on its website said.
Anil Ambani is spending $6.5 billion (Rs27,625 crore) to build a nationwide GSM network to narrow Bharti’s lead. New wireless providers, who are likely to start operations in nine months to a year, may undercut prices to gain market share leading to a “tremendous squeeze on margins” for existing operators, KPMG’s Shetty said.AT&T Inc., the biggest US phone company, in March had said it will be “aggressive” in its plans to enter India’s mobile phone industry to add customers in the world’s second biggest market for wireless services.
Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema in January said its Shyam Telelink Ltd unit will pay $630 million for phone licences in 21 areas. Sistema plans to spend as much as $7 billion with partners to expand its wireless network in India.
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