Telecom spectrum bands and their significance

After the TRAI's recommendation on pricing of several spectrums, people might be thinking why 700 MHz band is priced so steep to 1800 Mhz band. The basic answer to this question is that lower level spectra can travel more with the same number of towers. In other words, operators would need to install much lower number of towers in lower-range spectra. As such, such spectra is more valuable.

Spectrum can be broadly divided into six classes. As their frequency (MHz) increases, their penetration power falls and the operators need to put more and more towers to cover the same area. It is approximately 70% cheaper to provide mobile broadband coverage at frequencies around 700MHz than using the core 3G frequencies at 2100 MHz. 

Following is a short description on each of the spectrum bands currently being used in India.

700 MHz -- Used for terrestrial TV transmission (Doordarshan) and possibly ready for broadband use by 2015.

Indian Telecos added 5.3 million subscribers in Aug 2011

The GSM operators in India added just 5.33 million subscribers in August, compared to 7.65 million in the earlier month.

Bharti Airtel, india's largest GSM player, added 1.15 million users in August, taking its total subscriber base to 171.84 million as per COAI. It had 28.09% market share at the end of August.

Vodafone Essar added 1.13 million new subscribers during the month. Its subscriber base reached 144.14 million in August. vodafone had 23.56% market share as of Aug 2011.

Telecom tarriff war ended - Bharti hikes call rates, Telecom stocks hit 52 week high

Bharti Airtel , India's top mobile carrier, has raised call prices by up to 20 percent for prepaid users in some of its Indian telecoms zones, signalling a possible end of the telecom tarrif war.

Telecom stocks at 52 week high

Telecom stocks are back to life after being dead for almost 2 years. Amid all the 2G controversies and fear of intense competition, bigger players have emerged stronger and this is getting reflected in the prices of the stocks of bigger listed telecom players like Bharti and Idea. RCom being directly accused in 2G scam it has not been able to perform in line with the sector.

Idea cellular today touched Rs. 82.55 (52 week high) in intraday before closing at Rs. 81.35. Bharti Airtel touched an intraday high of Rs. 409.45 (52 week high) before closing at Rs. 398.10.

Indian Telecom Companies Subscriber Data - May 2011

Indian Telecom Companies subscriber addition figures are out for the month of May 2011. Market leader, Bharti Airtel has managed to add 2.45 million users which made its total Subscriber base at 167 million while Vodafone Added 2.44 million users, a tad less than Bharti Airtel.Videocon mobiles has lost 186,161 users on the month of may 2011.

The company wise subsription detail is given below: 

Bharti Airtel added 3 Million 3G subscribers till date

3G sbscription in India has shown good growth since its launch. Around 9 million consumers have already taken a 3G mobile connection since the services were launched in the country four months ago.

Bharti Airtel cornered most with 3 million subscribers followed by Tata DoCoMo with 1.5 million users.

Idea Cellular, Vodafone and BSNL have over a million 3G customers each.

Reliance Communications did not give out its numbers but sources said that it also has close to a million 3G connections.

Telecom operators in India are targeting around 100 million 3G connections by 2015.

Telecom Operators subscriber addition in April 2011

Telecom Operators market share in India as on April 2011 remained almost same as that March 2011. Together the GSM operators added 11 million customers in April 2011.

Bharti Airtel added 2.41 Million customers while vodafone added 2.40 Million customers. Idea cellular however cornered most number of GSM subscribers with the addition of 2.45 Million new subscribers.

Aircel added 1.1 Million customers while BSNL added 6.8 lakh subscribers.

MNP Gainers and Losers in India

Mobile Number Poratbility in India did not had huge impact on the fortunes of the Telecom Companies but some players faired well while some performed badly. Following are the gainers and losers of the MNP game till April 2011.

# Vodafone is the biggest MNP gainer with a net gain of 5,13,259 consumers.

# Bharti is the second biggest MNP gainer with a net gain of 5,06,828 consumers

# Idea was third with a net gain of 4,70,986.

# RCom is the biggest MNP loser, with a combined net loss of 10,70,747 users,

# State-run BSNL lost almost 4,09,028 users

Note: The data as per GSM body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) data, as of April 28.

Telecom companies market share

Telecom Companies market share in India as of August 2011



Sl. No.	Name of Company	Total Sub Figures	Additions in Aug	% Market Share
1	Bharti Airtel	171,846,824	1,150,298	28.09%
2	Vodafone Essar	144,144,031	1,133,024	23.56%
3	IDEA	98,441,714	2,330,239	16.09%
4	BSNL	90,622,219	388,057	14.81%
5	Aircel	59,191,661	602,312	9.68%
6	Uninor	27,738,154	349,488	4.53%
7	Videocon	6,382,493	-652,383	1.04%
8	MTNL	5,298,081	32,932	0.87%
9	Loop Mobile	3,181,967	19,035	0.52%
10	Stel	3,433,988	-67,259	0.56%
11	Etisalat	1,477,495	52,941	0.24%
12	All India	611,758,627	5,338,684	100.00%

# Telecom Companies market share in India as of march 2011