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Get, Set, Go!

author-image
VoicenData Bureau
New Update

Is registering 1,000 subscribers within a

year a good achievement? The Mobile Radio Trunking Service (MRTS)

operators in Delhi think so. Delhi crossed the 1,000 mark early

this year. ProCall, the Punwire-Motorola joint venture, has the

major chunk of the subscriber base with more than 900

subscribers, while Arvind Telecom’s Omnitalk, the other

operating service provider, which got commissioned in Delhi on 1

October 1997, has opened its account and has won over 100

subscribers. In addition to this, both these companies have

tapped the radio trunking service market in other cities and

towns, though not as successfully. Are we finally seeing the

concept of radio trunking reaching out to the all-important user

segments? The answer could be yes in some metros and bigger

cities and no in other cities and towns.

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State Of The Industry

The Department of

Telecommunications (DoT) had on records, as of 28 February 1998,

157 licences signed by 27 private companies for providing mobile

radio trunking services in various cities across the country. Out

of these 27 companies, 16 have 31 systems commissioned for

services in 20 cities.

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As per the licence agreements, licensees were

allotted frequencies of 300, 400, or 800 MHz on which they could

operate radio trunking services. A licensee had to obtain

separate "no objection certificates" from about 20

existing users (government agencies) of the frequency spectrum,

before DoT’s Standing Committee for Frequency Allocation

(SACFA) issued the final clearance. After that, generally a

licensee puts his system on air and demonstrates it to DoT’s

Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) to get the final approval.

At the same time, he gives out terminal units to prospective

clients on trial basis, demonstrates usage, and involves himself

in various other activities aimed at selling the concept and

creating prospects which could be later converted into clients

once his service gets commissioned. Once the system in usage

passes various specifications set by DoT, the service operator

can start billing his customers. A service becomes commercial

with effect from the date of commissioning.

Type:

Passenger Car Manufacturers



Company:
Honda Siel



Location:
Delhi
src="<%=imgpath%>radio-1.gif" width="74" height="17">
src="carman.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="99">
size="1">Manufacturing companies have always needed a

fast and easy way of communication among various groups

within a company (both inter- and intra-departments).

Radio trunking has served as a good option. Honda Siel,

for example, has the bulk of its employees use trunking

facilities. The need for trunk radios arose when the

cellular phones were not able to pick up signals from the

precinct, especially basements, of its manufacturing

plant in Dadri. The decision to use radio trunking for

the marketing force bore fruits, says Anjali Baweja, the

company’s administrative officer, "when during

registration period of the Honda car, various dealers

made use of trunk radios to find out the availability of

cars to take quick decisions while committing a deal to

customers".

DoT in view of ensuring proper utilization of

radio frequencies had specified in the licence agreement that a

radio trunking system would be allotted with only five channels

each at a time, with the operators needing to load 70 percent of

the 450 users, after which only he could get additional five

channels.

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By the time these lengthy processes were

completed, cellular and paging services had penetrated into some

of the segments targeted by these operators. A fact which

discouraged and forced a majority of licensees to drop out.

Radio trunking licensees are sore about the

fact that connectivity with DoT’s telephone networks, by

which a radio could communicate beyond closed user groups, is

still not allowed. Especially, when users migrating from cellular

services expect PSTN features as well. Five months back, the level of confidence among

most players was at its lowest. The industry was just emerging

from a shake-out period, which consumed more than half of the

original licensees. The going was not to be smooth as

anticipated.

Sure, the painful process of licensing and

commissioning of services has taken its toll. It enabled

industries like cellular and paging to take away some of that

crucial chunk of prospects. Dark moods, low confidence, and angst

against DoT marked this period. However, the licence process was

not without its positive side. One, a valuable national resource

like frequency spectrum was not allowed to go waste by careful

allocation. Two, it paved the way for serious and talented

companies to lead the way. And forced non-serious players to

realize that the way to success was strewn with too many thorns,

and pushing them to drop out of the race. The customers’

interest thus was protected in the process.

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Type:

Tent House Company



Company:
New Variety Decorators



Location:
Delhi
src="radio-1.gif" width="74" height="17">
src="tent.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="63">
size="1">Radio trunking services are being increasingly

used by the tent house companies to avoid the confusion

and crises, improve efficiency of the field people, and

be in constant with each other during marriages, parties,

and other functions. In Delhi alone, there are more than

60 tent house companies which are using radio trunking to

improve their business. As it is easy to use as well as

affordable. For instance, New Variety Decorators, a

Delhi-based tent house company, has subscribed to

ProCall. In fact, it used a personal radio system to

communicate before trunking services arrived on the

scene. Taking ProCall’s services was a logical step,

as maintaining one’s own system was costlier and

ProCall radios were far more efficient. Says Rajiv Sud,

director of the tent house company, "I can take

decisions easily now."

Radio Trunking–The Dark Horse: An

industry–with little confidence till some time back–now

coming back with strength and character, can be best defined as a

dark horse. With an estimated national subscriber base little

above 3,000 now, and the figure increasing by 200-300 every month

at this stage, the radio trunking industry is steadily growing.

This figure would of course look ridiculous in comparison to the

large subscriber base of cellular. Here, it is important not to

forget the huge amount of licence fees which had to be paid and

the dithering infrastructure costs involved in the case of

cellular. The licence fees for radio trunking were pale in

comparison. As for infrastructure costs, setting up a radio

trunking is about Rs 80 lakh while just the cost of the first

phase of rolling out a cellular network runs into several crores

of rupees. All this, meaning that the time it would take this

industry to break even, if things go right could be comparatively

less. The one method of doing it would be to load the systems as

quickly as possible.

The Players

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Service: size="2"> On the services side, we have the Motorola JVs leading

from the front. ProCall, the 49:51 JV between Motorola and

Punwire, is the market leader, with almost one third of the total

subscriber base of the country well in its bag. It is the only

operator which has more than one slot of five-channels as of

today. It is now effectively operating on 15 channels. Starting

off in early 1997, this company is a role model as far as radio

trunking services is concerned. With one of the best sales forces

in the industry today, ProCall almost pioneered the art of

selling the radio trunking concept effectively. What has to be

emulated from this company is the way it successfully penetrated

into some distinct segments like the emergency services,

manufacturing companies, media houses, construction companies,

and small businesses such as tent house companies. Also it

markedly succeeded in converting prospects into real subscribers.

A hall mark of a good service company. However, it is yet to

achieve anything in the other cities worth even measuring upto

its success in Delhi

Type:

Golf Resorts Proprietors



Company:
Landbase



Location:
Delhi
src="radio-1.gif" width="74" height="17"> src="<%=imgpath%>golf.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="80">
size="1">Hotels, resorts, restaurants, and clubs are

coming up in a big way in all most all major cities. The

competitive edge is better communication and

co-ordination. Which include co-ordinating with waiters,

security guards, bell boys, and the transportation group.

Landbase, the company which runs the Classic Golf Resorts

in Gurgaon, uses trunk radios to communicate between the

company’s headquarters in Vasant Vihar located in

Delhi and its golf course site office in Gurgaon.

Headquarters needed to be in constant touch with the site

office for booking of tee-time reservations. Landbase

used cellular phones fitted with car kit antennas for

this purpose before trunk radios came to relieve them of

this botheration. They now use three base stations, one

each at security site, headquarters, and site office.
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Omnitalk which holds licences for 14

service areas has commissioned three systems so far, in

Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Vadodara. It has started well in Ahmadabad

and Delhi with little more than 100 subscribers each in these

cities. Omnitalk, however, is a company with immense potential.

It already has a good number of prospective clients in cities

like Bangalore, Mumbai, Surat, and Vadodara. It is awaiting TEC

approval for commissioning services in these cities. Omnitalk is

already getting to be bullish. It is learnt that the company

would soon be applying for another five channels in anticipation

of loading up the 70 percent of the 450 subscribers allowed on

its existing five channels in its Delhi system.

Quickcalls, the other JV of Motorola, a

49:51 partnership with Bhilwara Group, has had some level of

penetration in Bangalore where it has about 300 subscribers. And

is also operational in Hyderabad and Chennai, though the numbers

there are not very encouraging as yet. Quickcalls management also

looks after the other Bhilwara services companies, Bhilwara

Telenet Services and Smartalk. Smartalk is the only

commercial service operator in Pune, while Bhilwara Telenet

Services
in Vadodara is competing with Omnitalk and Punwire

Trunking Services.

Type:

Electronic Product Manufacturer



Company:
Sony India



Location:
Delhi
src="radio-3.gif" width="74" height="18">
src="<%=imgpath%>electnc.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="92">
size="1">Radio trunking can extensively improve the

quality of a service department of any manufacturer. It

can be used to establish efficient and effective

communication network which could increase the

productivity of service engineers.

size="1">A case in point is Sony India. Sony uses trunk

radios for effective functioning of its service

department in Delhi. "Omnitalk has enabled our task

completion rates to go up by 30 percent and has

dramatically reduced our pending task rates by 40

percent," states Nobuyuki Norimatsu, general

manager, Sony India. Co-ordination through trunk radios

ensured its service engineers to get on-line information

and total support from central office. Sony is likely to

go for Omnitalk’s service in other cities like

Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai too.

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TeamLink, the services from Punwire, on

the other hand, leads the race in Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Indore,

Surat, and Vadodara. In Ahmedabad, between Punwire and Omnitalk

they share about 500 to 600 subscribers, out of which Punwire

seems to be having the bulk. Sources at DoT have confirmed that

they have received applications from Punwire Trunking services

for another five channels. Groupcom, of the Arya Group, is a brand

which is expected to perform well in all the metros as well as

port cities like Kandla, Jamnagar, and Visakhapatnam. It has

licences for altogether 22 service areas. And, the advantage this

brand would have over competitors in the future is that it has

three systems each in all the metros, which minimizes black spots

(areas where signals are not clear).

In the East, it is Jasmine Telecom, which

is the leader. It has about 100 to 200 subscribers in Dhanbad,

the mining city. ITI is one company which leaves a lot to

be desired. It was supposed to do well in the southern states.

However, one has so far seen little activity on its part.

All in all, the potential of radio trunking can

be gauged by the fact that the three metros, apart from Delhi,

are still virgin land, with the markets there lying almost

untapped. Not to speak of the opportunity in the sub-urban and

fringe areas of the metros, and the teeming cities and town

across India.

Type:

Commercial Taxes (Vigilance) Dept.



Company:
Government Of Karnataka



Location:
Bangalore
src="radio-3.gif" width="74" height="18">
src="<%=imgpath%>vigilanc.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="112">
size="1">Government organizations like the Defence and

Police have been using conventional radios for their

communication purposes. Now even the other government

departments are going in for radio communication

facilities, especially because better systems and

handsets are available. And radio trunking service is

proving to be an economical way out as it allows them to

skip the maintenance headaches and the costs involved.

Government of Karnataka has shown the way in this

respect. After starting to use this service, the

Commercial Taxes Department has seen the service’s

utility in effective functioning of its vigilance wing. A

combination of mobile and static radio sets helped in

establishing an efficient and effective round-the-clock

communication network. This network has facilitated

instant communication of valuable information thereby

lifting the morale and confidence of its mobile checkpost

officers.

Equipment: The trunking infrastructure

and equipment segment is growing rapidly. Roughly about Rs 6

crore worth trunk radios have been accounted by radio trunking

services. And an estimated Rs 24 crore has been invested in

trunking infrastructure so far.

Motorola is a brand to beat in the trunk radio

handsets market. Here, the company’s strategy is to be able

to provide a handset, no matter what technology the subscriber

prefers to go in for. It presently commands a marketshare of

about 70 percent of the total handset market across technology

platforms. Punwire, the authorized distributor of Kenwood radios

in India, has a marketshare of about 25 percent. And Arvind

Telecom (Syntel), the authorized distributor of EF Johnson radios

in India, adds up to the rest 5 percent.

On the system (infrastructure) side,

Motorola’s proprietary standard SmartNet, MPT, and EF

Johnson’s LTR are the main standards dominating the scene.

In the handset market, the operators themselves

have become the channels, just like in cellular. Here too, the

idea is to start with indirect sales and move on to direct sales,

as the market evolves.

The Concept Selling

To reach cash break-even is the

first goal of any service industry.
Some

of the pertaining questions today are: why has radio trunking

taken so long to set up shop? And how long is it going to take

for it to become a strong and profitable industry?

Type:

Taxi Services



Company:
Coolcabs



Location:
Mumbai
src="radio-3.gif" width="74" height="18"> src="radio-2.gif" width="44" height="52"> src="<%=imgpath%>taxi.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="75">
size="1">In cities like Mumbai and Calcutta, cabbies have

a life of their own. But with times, the cabs have also

changed. In times of competition, they have felt the need

to form a communication network to efficiently function

together. Both for keeping in constant touch with each

other and to give better services to passengers.

Mumbai-based Coolcabs, a fleet of more than 150

air-conditioned taxis, have decided to try out the

concept of radio taxis. Already more than 100 taxis have

been fitted with trunk radios majorly from Omnitalk and

partly from Arya Communications, both radio trunking

operators in Mumbai. A control room with telephone

numbers has been set up at Ballard Estate, Mumbai, where

customer calls will be picked up and forwarded to all

unoccupied taxis in the area.

Though the target segments of trunking is

distinct from those of cellular or paging, in an immature market

like India, the customer really does not know what he actually

needs for his communication. And noticeably, some of the target

users have already been enamoured by cellular services, with its

various lollipops, which looks a lot more trendier. And so the

trunking operators had a tough job at first hand–that of

educating customers.

The process is already on, with trunking

companies putting their sales force on the road. The hump as they

put it has to be crossed. The transition from gullibility to

awareness of communication needs among users has to be affected.

Once this phase gets over, the spread of wireless services will

be more logical. And users will know better than to commit a

mistake of getting swayed by sugarcoated pills–services

which offer the initial solutions which in the longer run turn

bitter. To be able to affect this transition in the minds of

users would not only benefit radio trunking but usher in a new

era of wireless technology usage.

Type:

District administration and police



Company:
Government Of India



Location:
Indore
src="radio-2.gif" width="44" height="52">
src="<%=imgpath%>police.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="103">
size="1">That the best solution for communication needs

of the government agencies is radio trunking can be

ascertained by the growing trend of these agencies

outsourcing their communication requirements to private

radio trunking service operators. The Indore district

administration and police force are examples. The

district collector, additional collector, and a team of

15 magistrates of this city have been provided with

trunked radios, which have significantly removed their

communication bottlenecks. Recently, this use facilitated

the success in revenue recovery under "Brisk

Scheme". The police force followed in their footstep

by equipping the Superintendent of Police (SP), and his

12 ASPs, DSPs, and CSPs with radio trunking handsets.

Which resulted in lifting up their moods and enabling

effective functioning of their jobs.

Significantly, the need of the hour in trunking

is an intense but healthy competition. Concept selling needs

intensity and extensiveness. Extensiveness, in the sense that if

the concept of trunking has to be spread much faster, it can be

best affected by a concerted effort. "More the torch bearers

the better." A healthy strategy has to be adopted. The

communication industry has already learnt the hard way that

freebies are the easy way to a user’s heart but not

necessarily to his pocket. Schemes are necessary. And to some

extent, subsidies. But, to overdo these would be to kill oneself.

Never to cross the Lakshman Rekha is the writing on the

wall. 

Type:

Oil Refineries



Company:
HPCL



Location:
Visakhapatnam
src="<%=imgpath%>radio-2.gif" width="44" height="52">
src="<%=imgpath%>oilref.gif" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="2"

width="118" height="76">
size="1">The manner in which radio trunking has been

effectively used by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd

(HPCL) exemplifies the benefits of trunking in an

emergency situation involving a large corporation. In a

major fire incident in 1997, the HPCL plant in

Visakhapatnam looked likely to be reduced to cinders.

Radio trunking played a critical role in co-ordinating

all resources to fight the fire. A hassle-free

communication, the need of the hour, was effectively

enabled through it. This apart, trunked radios are being

used for security, announcement calls, and other routine

activities.
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