Radio Trunking shows a steady rise

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Voice&Data Bureau
New Update

The

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radio trunking segment which was losing ground in the previous fiscal
demonstrated some modest innings in FY 2009-10. Affected by the economic
recession in a major way, the industry showed a firm resolution to climb the
charts. The industry was determined to fight back the inertia that was looming
large on the segment. The segment also reaped benefits in terms of major orders
that it got this year. Its subscriber base grew by 3.5% to touch 33,341.

Arya Omnitalk Radio Trunking Services stole the show by having a major share
of the radio trunking services. Arya Omnitalk Radio Trunking Services (AORTSPL),
as of March 31, 2010 had 18,686 subscribers. Today, after the merger of all the
licenses, AORTSPL has emerged as the biggest PMRTS operator in the country with
a market share of over 56%. The Agrani Group 's subscriber base declined by 2%.
While Arya Omnitalk has a market share of 56%, the rest 44% is held by the
Agrani Group.

Developments

The radio trunking segment, which was a major disappointment, picked up
gradually although the rise was not phenomenal, yet it managed to show marginal
improvements. Arvind Mills, part of Arya Omnitalk -which operates in Delhi,
Faridabad, Mumbai, Vashi, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Bharuch, Chennai, Bengaluru-has
picked up the market dynamics.

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Radio trunking is one segment which has grown in cities like Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Bengaluru. Reportedly, Delhi has the highest number of subscribers. In
Delhi, the service providers are Container Movement, German Express, United
Liner Agencies, Procall and Arvind Mills. This also highlights one major trend
that PMRTS services still has large untapped markets. The industry is very well
shifting from analog to digital, and this trend has been adopted well in India.

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The announcement of de-merger of their PMRTS business by Arvind and JM Baxi
Group into AORTSPL was made in January 2010. The licensed PMRT business carried
on by each of the following companies have been merged into AORTSPL as per the
various High Court orders and approvals granted by the Department of
Telecommunication (DoT), Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India.
Arya Omnitalk received many orders in the last fiscal from companies like
Hewlett Packard India, IBM India, Goldman Sachs, Wipro, Bank of Baroda, IOCL,
Western Railways, Kingfisher, E&Y, NTPC, Comptroller & Auditor General Of India,
Capgemini India and Gangavaram Port. AORTSPL executed its license agreement with
the DoT on March 11, 2010, and with effect from this date, all these clients
have now become customers/subscribers of AORTSPL.

Innovations

Technology and sports are increasingly complementing each other. Karnataka
State Cricket Association (KSCA) selected digital radio trunking service
provider, Procall, for use among the umpires officiating in matches held in
Karnataka, the ground's men and other officials. With this KSCA becomes the
first association to adapt the digital radio with the push-to-talk (PTT
)
facility. The new digital technology with handsets featuring Motorola's
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) and many more advantages than the
conventional analog radios which are currently being used in other places, gives
the umpires, ground's men and other officials easy, swift and effective
communication gadgets that will ensure smoother proceedings in all matches.
Procall's first ever digital PTT service in India is being hailed as a landmark
event.

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Future Prospects

With the PTT advantage growing, a steady growth in the market is being
expected. And also the deployment of tetra
technology in the forthcoming CWG
will further boost the services. On the product side, Motorala innovated a lot
in mission critical innovations and came up with the next generation of Tetra
radios. With better network coverage, greater audio performance, high-speed data
connectivity being expected, Tetra is one of the biggest promises. A lot of
companies have put in efforts to overrule the major hurdle of pricing by making
cost-effective business cases. A lot of public private partnerships are also
giving an upthrust to the segment.

Although the industry has not shown euphoric rise in the last two fiscals, a
modest inning has been displayed and a positive growth is being expected in the
current fiscal.

Archana Singh

archanasi@cybermedia.co.in