Ready, 1, 2, 3G...

With the successful payout for the 3G spectrum and the availability of the service becoming imminent, a new era awaits the 800 mn (as per Trai) telecommunications subscribers in India.

The Indian government managed to raise `67,718.95 crore from the auction with `50,968.37 crore from private telecom operators and `16,750.58 crore from the state owned telecom operators, BSNL and MTNL. The 2 circles of Delhi and Mumbai together account for 39.19% of the total money, while the top 5 circles-Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh-account for 65.56% of the bids.

Till now 3G services in India are being introduced in pockets based either on geography or on user segmentation. Operators are talking about covering the metros, then urban areas and finally moving to rural areas. On an average, almost all the private operators have launched 3G services in 2-5 cities in the first phase.

MTNL

MTNL was the first to start 3G services on February 6, 2009 whereas BSNL started its services on February 22, 2009 followed by Tata Teleservices on November 4, 2010. MTNL started with a pilot in December 2008 and now has launched 3G services in Delhi and Mumbai and has a subscriber base of 250,000.

MTNL introduced the concept of 3G roaming inter city. If a 3G customer of a certain operator moves to a different service where the operator does not have 3G facility. MTNL has offered its service areas to the operators who do not have 3G license in Delhi and Mumbai. Many operators have shown interest and sent their request to MTNL.

MTNL this way can get an extra revenue stream for its unutilized resources. For this model, MTNL asked for 20% revenue share and a fixed cost of `140 crore per city per year.

To further strengthen its 3G subscriber base before the launch of 3G services by private players, MTNL is looking to improve its 3G VAS portfolio. It has recently launched India's first 3G-driven mobile TV services in association with Aksh Optifiber. In February 2010, MTNL tied up with Spice Digital to offer 3G based VAS offerings like video-on-demand (VoD). The operator has also launched location based services, enabling users to avail of information while on the move.

BSNL

BSNL launched its services in February, 2009 and is operational in 700 cities pan India. The company crossed the 1-mn 3G subscriber mark in March 2010 and launched 3G services in Maharashtra and Gujarat in June 2010. The service has now been extended to 760 cities and presently, BSNL has around 1.5 million 3G subscribers. The company claims to have 3 mn subscribers as on 31st March, 2011.

The company has been focusing on providing innovative VAS services through 3G to compete with private players. In September 2009, the operator launched VoD services for its 3G customers. BSNL's 3G services and subscriptions were mostly seen on the data front. Earlier the data usage in both its services areas was around 50 GB per day. But now, it has grown to 1,400 to 1,500 GB data usage in each city.

TTSL

TTSL was the first private operator to launch 3G in India in November 4, 2010. TTSL's GSM arm DOCOMO became the first operator to launch 3G services in the country in 110 cities and presently has around 1.5 mn subscribers.

To get a headstart in the 3G domain, TTSL fast-tracked its rollout of 3G services by roping in 2 vendors-NSN and Huawei. It awarded a contract to NSN to set up its 3G infrastructure for broadband and better quality voice call services. The operator also signed a contract with Huawei to set up networks for 3G mobile telephony services in 5 of its 9 telecom circles.

Tata Indicom, TTSL's CDMA brand, launched its high-speed Tata Photon+ data service over the mobile phone in April 2010. This service offered speed as high as those provided by 3G services. In addition, services such as live TV, pushmail, and VoD were launched as a part of this package.

Reliance

Reliance Communications has also launched its 3G services in 150 cities of its 13 circles including that of Delhi and Mumbai. 3G is available in the 9 circles of Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, UPW, Maharashtra and Goa, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

In 2010, the operator had selected ZTE and Huawei to upgrade its mobile network for 3G services as its GSM network is fairly new. The 2 vendors are supplying GSM network equipment to RCOM.

While Huawei reportedly won the 3G equipment contract for RCOM's operations in Delhi and Mumbai, ZTE clinched a $200 mn contract from the company to supply a mix of 3G and 2G equipment in 8 circles. So far, ZTE has delivered 15,000 base stations in the West Bengal, Kolkata, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Northeast, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh circles.

Following the trend, Reliance Communications (RCOM) has also planned to open its own application store like its counterparts. To launch the facility, the operator has partnered with GetJar, the world's second largest application store. The operator is also planning to create VAS platform for its 3G services in the country. Currently, it is planning to roll out a specialized MobileNet plan, which will offer unlimited internet access across 24,000 cities and 600,000 villages.
RCOM's offerings in the VAS space also include 'Live Chat'; 'Socially', which enables users to track their friends' recent activity; 'iStock', a portfolio-tracking application. Boosting one of its 3G offerings, the operator has launched mobile TV services in the country. It has also introduced the 'sachet pricing' scheme for VAS offerings to drive the uptake of these services in the Indian market. Under this scheme, users can try out services on a time based measure.

Airtel

Airtel's 3G services have already been launched in all 13 circles. Currently, it claims to have over 3 mn users enjoying the airtel 3G experience. Also given their revenue market share, a disproportionate share of 3G handsets and devices in India are today powered by airtel 3G networks.

It chose Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch its 3G services in the country. A major part of airtel's contract was outsourced to Ericsson, which was awarded a `1.3 bn contract to manage 7 circles of the incumbent operator.

NSN, which has been Bharti airtel's infrastructure partner for a long period of time, was selected by the operator to manage its 3G network in 3 circles in India. In early 2010, Bharti also awarded a $700 mn contract to NSN for the expansion and upgradation of its 2.5G network across 8 telecom circles. Huawei Technologies has been selected as the third partner for offering 3G services in the remaining 3 telecom circles where the operator has won 3G licences.

Keeping this in mind, airtel today is highly promoting its data services through powerful marketing tools and ad campaigns. Like others, it is also highlighting facility of video calls and high-speed internet. To bank on 3G services and promote them aggressively, airtel also reinvented its signature tune and brand logo to give a new outlook to the services offered to its customers.

Airtel expects Indian customers to show the same growth on data that has been experienced in other parts of the world where 3G services have been launched. From an industry perspective, airtel foresees a huge amount of acceleration on how the ecosystem will shape up to address 3G market requirements. To accelerate this 3G movement, the company is tying up with handset vendors and content aggregators for various affordable offerings to their subscribers.

The operator is also wooing its customers with multiple VAS offerings to their network like airtel Voice Blog, airtel Krishi Card, Cricket IVR, m-Greeting portal, location based services etc. Airtel has set up public call office boxes for about 100 farmers across 20 villages in Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Another initiative by the operator in the mobile VAS segment has been the operationalization of the mobile application store. Providing such facilities has been a recent trend in the industry since handset manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung opened their application stores.

Having initial rollouts in all their licensed circles, airtel is now trying to cover more areas (including C and D category towns).

Vodafone

Vodafone launched 3G services in all its acquired 10 circles-Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (E), and West Bengal and has already collaborated with other operators through intra-circle roaming arrangement to provide 3G services to its customers in regions where they do not have licences. Vodafone tested its 3G services in December, but launches for most companies were delayed due to objections from the DoT over the security surveillance of services such as video calling.

Vodafone Essar's 3G network contract was won by NSN and Ericsson with the deal size estimated at about $500 mn. The operator selected NSN to supply, implement and manage its 3G network in 6 of the 9 telecom circles-Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal and Haryana-where it has secured 3G spectrum.

Currently, its aim is to drive adoption for data usage and to get the consumer to experience 3G. With adoption at the core of their strategy, Vodafone is offering its customers a month of trial period of 3G services at 2G rates with no additional costs.

Vodafone aggressively campaigned its 3G launch with its advertisement tool ZooZoo and brought in various campaigns to brainstorm the customers with various 3G services like video calls, high-speed internet on-the-move, mobile gaming, mobile TV, video-on-demand etc. The Advertising Campaign of 'Smarter, Faster and Better' clicked very well with the subscribers giving a better picture of 3G technology to the common man.

The operator began its campaign as a part of the ICC World Cup series; during IPL, it introduced Super Weeks that allowed users to have different types of free 3G services every week. It has also set up 3G experience zones in around 67 Vodafone stores where customers can go and experience the range of products and services that Vodafone 3G has for them.

It launched 'Vodafone branded Opera mini' (customized for Indian market) to provide faster and better browsing experience to users ranging from feature phones to smartphones. It also relaunched 'Vodafone TV'-the relaunch happened with the exclusive streaming rights for ICC World Cup last year.

The company is expecting over 10% of its users in urban areas to use 3G services a year after the launch. Vodafone's 3G services are currently active in 20 countries making it the largest provider of the 3G services in the world.

In 2011, Vodafone is planning to invest more than `3,625 crore for 3G. Vodafone in India has always been competitive, including participating in tariff wars that erupted in 2008 that nearly halved the calling rates. Now the key concern is the pricing. Operators need to provide these services to attain more customer base with cheap offerings.

Aircel

Aircel has launched 3G services in all the 13 circles and covered 87 cities. The company plans to launch 3G services in other circles through strategic alliances. Till now Aircel has 6 lakh paid 3G subscribers. Aircel claims that they have invested over $8 bn already and they plan to spend a further $3 bn in the next 3 years.

The operator selected NSN to supply, deploy and manage its 3G network in the Punjab, Kolkata and West Bengal circles. NSN will operate and manage Aircel's 3G network for 4 years under a managed services contract.

ZTE was awarded an $85 mn contract to build and deploy a pan—India 3G network. ZTE will also be responsible for the upgradation of the operator's 2G network and for implementing the new 3G network, apart from subsequent upgrades. The third contract was awarded to Ericsson to roll out its 3G network across the Tamil Nadu, Bihar-Jharkhand, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, North East, and Assam circles.

Aircel has already launched its various services focusing on youth as a segment. Aircel tied up with INQ Mobile last year and announced the launched social mobile INQ CHAT 3G and INQ MINI 3G which offers social experience of being connected with friends, family and loved ones 24x7. Aircel has right from the beginning uniquely positioned themselves by being the first to introduce, products, and services that address relevant needs of the consumers be it the Aircel Pocket Internet, Aircel Pocket Apps store, Aircel Apollo Mobile Health Care and the first ever Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel.

Idea

Idea Cellular launched its 3G services in Uttar Pradesh (East) circle in its first phase. Till now Idea Cellular 3G services are active in the following cities-Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Gandhidham, Lucknow, Kanpur, Pune, Nagpur, Ambala, Panipat Gandhinagar, Mundra, Siliguri, and Punjab.

Idea has traditionally focused on growth from semi-urban heartlands of India and will continue to drive its 3G services from these industrial, agricultural, and educational regions. Idea will target areas of industrial and commercial activity, centers of learning, and high potential rural hinterlands where broadband is yet to make a breakthrough.

In an effort to explore the lucrative data services market, in 2009, Idea upgraded its countrywide network using NSNs' GPRS technology and unified charging solution. This has enabled Idea subscribers to access multimedia services which will be further enhanced post the launch of 3G. Idea entered into an agreement with IBM in 2009 for the provision of a service delivery platform (SDP) to enable the rollout of innovative messaging and WAP based content services over 2G and 3G networks. In addition to operation and management of the SDP, this contract will enable the operator to offer services like content management, subscription services, integration with business support systems, and other VAS applications.

S Tel

S Tel, which won 3G licences for 3 circles-Bihar, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh-is not planning to launch 3G services in the near future. However it plans to launch the services by the end of this year in phases.

Tying up Loose Ends

In the current Indian scenario, all the stakeholders of the industry like operators, VAS players, and device manufacturers should work in tandem to taste the real fruit of 3G. Everyone also should take up their responsibility in creating awareness regarding the service and its usability.

Akanksha Singh
akankshas@cybermedia.co.in