Indian Telecom Commission Approved 100% FDI – Tagged with Expected Delay

Indian Telecom Commission approved 100% FDI in Telecom sector to shore up investor confidence and kick-start growth in the sector. The FDI is going to be helpful for Indian Telecom sector players to handle their debt effectively and trigger investment cycle. Post 2G license cancellation and slew of regulatory enforcement, Indian Telecom sector experience unprecedented fall in investor and investment confidence by the ecosystem players. Reeling under Fiscal Deficit, CAD; government is considering all avenues to get inflows to protect country rating which is under downgrade threat. Good move coupled with simultaneous concern raised by security and MHA to allow 100% FDI. The concern is definitely going to delay approval by another year. It is surprising that different regulatory body release their segregated reviews rather than offering consolidated recommendation post discussion with all stakeholders. Investors already feel that policy uncertainty is too high and any investment in Telecom sector may be stuck in future. I feel that Indian Telecom sector need streamlined clear policy roadmap compared to FDI approval. It is highly expected that there will be little to no investment in sector till policy and licensing aspects are crystal clear

Indian Telecom Operator Roaming Tariff Packs – Self Induced Potential Showdown with Regulators

Indian Telecom Regulator( TRAI) last month came out with amendment to enforce roaming tariff ceiling for Incoming and Outgoing calls. Regulators also approved second mechanism of voucher offering by Mobile Operators to enable free roaming. Regulators agreed to Mobile Operators and its association strong view that scrapping of roaming charges is going to have negative impact on Mobile Operators financial health. On 1^st July, two leading mobile operators came out with voucher offering to offer free roaming packs. It is interesting to observe that one of the leading operator reduced incoming call tariff while on roaming under voucher packs. It also enables subscribers to roam in its licensed geography and the tariffs are more or less same as if subscribers are making or receiving voice call to/from its home circle network. Aggressive tariff plan is nothing but another new tool for mobile operators to attract new subscribers from competitor network. Post TRAI directive, Reliance Communications showed their unhappiness regarding roaming regulation and within 24 Hours, Honourable Telecom Minister argued for frees roaming and promised to discuss potential second look regarding TRAI roaming directives. It would be extremely difficult for mobile operators to argue that they are going to lose billions of Dollars in case roaming is fully free. On one side, mobile operator’s initiates tariff war and then raise their concerns about loss and talks about raising tariff. Mobile operators recently only cut data tariff by 90% and it raises eyebrows; when they can make money by offering such a low tariff then why mobile operators kept on charging such a high tariff till now. It is going to be tough for mobile operators to raise tariff in coming years. I strongly feel that any upwards tariff move by mobile operator is going to face stiff regulatory resistance.

Indian Mobile Marketing Business experiencing fall in business post stringent regulation

The regulatory effort to protect Indian wireless and wired subscriber privacy as well as to enforce regulation started to show positive impact after 5 years of effort. In recent months, Indian regulators warned few wireless operators to twist their networks identify, block and initiate action against telemarketing flaunting regulatory compliance forced Mobile marketing tools as well as service provider to remodel their service offering. The “Telemarketing and SMS based promotional activities are termed as Wireless Enterprise Mobility” by few service providers raised their concerns regarding fall in business post enforcement of Do not Disturb, Increased termination charges and termed regulatory moves as showstopper act. I am surprised to observe that none talked about consumer pain and overall benefit of regulation on wireless ecosystem. I also carry reservation in terming Telemarketing calls and SMS based promotional calls as wireless marketing because all kind of wireless service must be supported with subscriber consent. The current solution offerings neglect consumer side.

Indian User Opinion about Pesky Calls and SMS – Lack of Awareness and Social Responsibility Adherence

Recent weeks print media is full of articles around pesky calls and SMS monster which is taking centre stage in most not all communications from regulators. Regulators are proposing stringent fines across ecosystem players involved in supporting pesky calls and SMS. Post multiple blog article posted by me on different social sites to professional sites to increase awareness about negative impact of pesky call and SMS engineering, I realised that Indian subscribers are least bothered about happening around them. I thought of another approach to figure out the unsuccessful enforcement of regulation and esteemed Indian subscribers opinion about the same. Post talking with more than 200 very educated, professionally successful, well-known names in their respective sectors; I reached to the following conclusion

• Not aware of processes to take on pesky caller and SMS originator
• No one want to get into legal process
• Even NDNC subscriber told that nothing is going to improve so it’s useless to talk about it
• No one ever launched any complaint but proudly admitted that they are getting multiple calls and SMS on daily basis
• Other few opinion were very crude and prefer not to share the same

If Industry especially Telco’s are losing Billions of $ then Telco must be part and parcel of awareness program. At the same time, there must be participation by corporate world to increase awareness among their employee about the Pro’s and Con’s of pesky calls and SMS on personal and professional information management. Government may consider stringent information technology centric regulation and announce heavy penalty on companies giving business to mass product marketing companies without adhering to government regulation.

MVAS subscription record management – New Threat for Indian MVAS Suppliers and Mobile Operators

As per the directive from government regulators, all MVAS (Mobile Value Added Service) provider both in OnNet and OffNet environment of Mobile Operator must maintain subscription record of all offered MVAS product or application or services. The new directive is going to be in force by 10^th of July 2013. In new directives, there must be a mechanism for double verification of any new subscription or renewal of MVAS on pull or push basis from OffNet an OnNet environment which is directly or indirectly connected with Mobile Operator Network. On one hand, new directive is going to be relief for MVAS users whereas it is going to bring in multiple technical, operational and financial implications. In the past one years, on accessing financial results of both Mobile Operators and MVAS ecosystem players, it is evident that MVAS regulation impacted their revenue stream negatively and new directive is going to make ecosystem players business model more negatively than positively. As claimed by TRAI that there is an easy exit mechanism in place to surrender MVAS product or services but I humbly think the other way. The exit mechanism onus should not be user initiated but should be focussed on the first step of subscription request. The new directive is going to increase the churn rate of MVAS users further and financial impact is going to be much higher than expected.

India National Roaming Tariff Ceiling Set by TRAI – Effective from 1st July 2013

The Telecom regulators came out with new mobile services tariff ceiling for National roaming and also mandated STVs and Special Vouchers offering by service providers.
On-going Tariff Rates for National Roaming

• Outgoing Local Calls – 1.40 INR/Min
• Outgoing STD Calls – 2.40 INR/Min
• Incoming Calls – 1.75 INR/Min
• Outgoing SMS – Under Forbearance
• Incoming SMS - Free

New Tariff is going to be effective from 1^st July 2013

• Outgoing Local Calls – 1 INR/Min
• Outgoing STD Calls – 1.5 INR/Min
• Incoming Calls - 0.75 INR/Min
• Outgoing Local SMS – 1.0 INR
• Outgoing STD SMS – 1.5 INR
• Incoming SMS- Free

Next post will be focussed on its impact.