Synopsis
From a humble start, growth in India’s mobile sector rapidly picked up pace and developed a sustained momentum, aided by higher subscriber volumes, lower tariffs and falling handset prices. Home to a clutch of global operators working with local companies, India had around 900 million mobile subscribers (including both GSM and CDMA services) at the start of 2012; the market was continuing to grow at an annual rate of around 40%. While ARPU has been steadily declining as competing operators offer cheaper tariffs the usage levels have remained reasonably high thus slowing the decline in revenues. There had been a major push in recent years to take mobile services into the poorer and rural areas of the country, a move that was weighing down on ARPU. The arrival of two more operators also added to the heat in the market place as they launched networks in late 2009. In 2010 the long-awaited 3G auctions finally took place. In 2010/2011 the 3G networks were being rolled out and services delivered to customers. But things went sour for the mobile industry in particular when the unfolding scandal over the awarding of 2G licences in 2008 took centre stage at the beginning of 2012. The Supreme Court directed that 122 licences awarded four years earlier be cancelled, throwing the sector into chaos. Further court decisions and the subsequent responses of the regulators are key to the eventual outcome.
This report looks at the mobile market in India and presents a set of relevant market statistics. It also examines the technology platforms in place and those being put in place. And finally the report looks at the range of mobile voice and data services in India.
Key developments:
A competitive market continues to see the subscriber base expanding by 20% annually; with mobile penetration of around 74% in early 2011 there was room for further growth; ARPUs continue to shrink, however, much to the consternation of the operators; the crowded mobile market is showing the first signs of a fresh move towards rationalising the number of operators; the launch of 3G services has commenced and proceeding briskly; 3G may present operators with the chance to re-build ARPUs; the so-called 2G scandal has seen the large scale cancellation of mobile licences; many issues remain to be resolved in the wake of the court decision directing these cancellations.
Companies covered in this report include:
Aircel/Dishnet, Bharti Airtel, Loop Mobile (BPL Mobile), Quadrant (HFCL), Idea/Spice, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar, Uninor (Unitech), Videocon, S Tel, Bharti Telenet, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices, Sistema (Shyam Telelink), Swan Telecom, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Data Access, Hughes Telecom, Videocon, SingTel.
