Mobile congestion level gets better
|
TRAI
cites improved interconnection among operators as reason |
Clear
signal
Congestion
levels were
rising because BSNL was not being able to provide adequate interconnection to
private operators.
This is
the first time
that congestion levels have come down ever since the telecom regulator started
measuring it.
Our
Bureau
The next time you make a call
using your mobile phone, the chances of landing in a congested network has just
become lower.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (TRAI) on Friday indicated that things are improving as far as mobile
congestion levels are concerned due to better interconnection among operators.
This is the first time that congestion levels have come down ever since the
telecom regulator started measuring it.
“The point of interconnection
congestion report analysis for the month of April 2007 to June 2007 shows that
the performance of the cellular operators with respect to the congestion has
improved a little in the month of June, as compared with the performance in
March. The number of points of interconnection having congestion has decreased
from 499 in March to 457 in June,” said the TRAI report.
Point of interconnection is the
physical place where two operators link their network. Until now, congestion
levels were continuously rising because the state-owned BSNL was not being able
to provide adequate interconnection to private operators. Therefore call
traffic between private operators’ subscribers and BSNL users were getting
clogged. While this congestion is still on the higher side, the good news is
that it is beginning to slide. For instance, the number of congested points of
interconnection between BSNL and private operators has decreased from 337 to
312 during the three-month period. As per TRAI benchmark only one call per 200
calls should face congestion. While now there are 218 points of interconnection
where 10 out of 200 calls face congestion compared to 245 earlier, there are
only 151 points where the level is as high as 40 calls per 200, compared to 183
in March.
The States which are badly
affected due to congestion are
Source:
The Hindu Business
BPL’s telecom licence
application comes under DoT scrutiny
|
‘Possibility
of cross holding violations ’ |
Licence norms
As per the cross holding norms, a single
company or an individual cannot hold more than 10 per cent equity stake in two
different companies in the same circle.
Thomas
K. Thomas
New Delhi, Sept 28 BPL
Communication’s (the Mumbai-based operator which was bought out by Essar Group) application for a pan India telecom licence has come under the scrutiny of the Department of
Telecom for a possible violation of the cross holding norms with Essar’s equity in Vodafone Essar
Ltd.
BPL’s applications were made in the
name of Shipping Stop Dot Com in which BPL Communications holds about 74 per
cent stake while the Ruias directly own 9.9 per cent
stake through an Essar Group subsidiary. At the same
time, the Ruias promoted Essar
Group also holds 33 per cent stake in Vodafone Essar,
which has presence in all the 22 circles for which BPL has also applied.
As per the cross holding norms
stipulated in the unified access licence conditions,
a single company or an individual cannot hold more than 10 per cent equity
stake in two different companies in the same circle. The norms also say that promoter company or an individual may not hold even a single
share in more than one company in the same circle. “Clause 1.4 (ii) of the
unified access licence states that no single
company/legal person, either directly or through its associates, shall have
substantial equity holding in more than one licensee company in the same
service area. Substantial equity means an equity of 10
per cent or more. Also a promoter company/legal person cannot have stakes in
more than one licensee company for the same service
area. We are going to scrutinize all applications including that of BPL to
check if they are consistent with these norms,” said a senior DoT official.
When contacted an Essar Group spokesperson said, “The applications are fully
compliant with the DoT norms.” Sources in Essar Group added that DoT norms
did not apply to BPL since the Ruias had reduced
their stake to less than 10 per cent stake in BPL. They also said that there
was no common promoter company between Essar Vodafone
and BPL and therefore there was no question of any violation.
However DoT
officials said that they would ask the company to give details of the equity
structure of Shipping Stop Dot Com including those held by BPL Communications
and Capital Global before taking a decision on the application. Earlier a
similar controversy had arisen when the Birla Group
had alleged that Tata Group was violating cross
holding norms by holding more than 33 per cent stake in Idea Cellular even as Tata Teleservices had rolled out
a pan
Videocon seeks telecom licence
The rush for telecom licences continued today with consumer durables major Videocon entering the fray. The company has applied for a
pan-India unified telecom licence and is in talks
with a US-based telecom player for setting up a joint venture. This takes the
total number of new applicants to 16 with many more expected to join the race
before the October 1 deadline. The Hindujas and Omaxe are among those who are expected to put in their
application with the Department o f Telecom though the two companies did not confirm
such a move. The list of licence seekers includes Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF, Indiabulls, Shyam Telelink, Stel, Swan, Cheetah, Datacom and HFCL.
— Our Bureau
BSNL to revamp branding strategy
|
SINGLE
IDENTITY |
The move is in line with the
industry trend where large integrated operators are offering all of its
services under a single brand.
Thomas K
Thomas
New Delhi, Sept. 27 After Vodafone
Essar, it is now the turn of State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to undertake a major revamp of its branding
strategy.
The telecom major has decided to
bring seven of its brands for various telecom services under a uniform
identity.
The company at present uses
different brands including CellOne for its mobile
services, Bfone for fixed line telephone, DataOne for broadband and Tarang
for CDMA-based WLL limited mobility phones.
All of this is now being put under
BSNL corporate identity which means that its cellular services will be branded
as BSNL Mobile, Bfone as BSNL Fixedline
Telephone, and broadband service as BSNL Broadband.
The company is also changing the colour of its corporate signature from a blue to black.
The move is in line with the
industry trend where large integrated operators are offering all of its
services under a single brand.
For example, the largest private
telecom player Bharti Group offers all its various
services under the Airtel brand. Likewise, Tata Teleservices also offers its
services under the Tata Indicom
brand.
Senior BSNL official said that a
single identity would make it easier for consumers to relate to the brand.
They said that while BSNL was a
well known brand even in remotest of villages, its other brands such as Excel
and DataOne were not as popular.
Uniform branding also makes it
easier for BSNL brand managers to work on creating an identity in the minds of
consumers, officials said. “With so many operators vying for a market share in
this highly competitive sector, it is important that BSNL does not confuse its
subscribers with a large number of brand names.
Uniform branding simplifies it and
enables BSNL to stand out as well known brand across the country,” said a BSNL
official. The new branding would come into effect from October 1.
Hindujas redial into telecom space
DoT gets a raft of applications as the
October 1 deadline nears.
The scramble for telecom licences in the country is increasing, with the Hinduja Group
readying an application for telecom licences.
This is a significant move as the group
had earlier exited the telecom space by selling its 5.11
per cent stake in Hutchison Essar to Hutchison Telecom International (HTIL).
According to sources close to the
development, the group is aiming at a pan-India Universal
Access Service Licence (UASL) which would cost around Rs
1,600 crore.
It plans to apply for 2G licences, enabling it to offer GSM services in 22 circles
in the country.
However, a Hinduja
group spokesperson declined to comment.
The group had earlier offloaded a 5.11
per cent stake in Hutchison-Essar (now Vodafone
Essar) to Hutchison Telecom
International for $450 million.
This had resulted in HTIL increasing its
stake in the GSM services provider to 67 per cent,
which was later sold to the
The Hinduja
Group’s decision to join the ever-increasing rush for telecom licences comes as
the October 1 deadline for 2G licences draws near. Moreover, it follows a similar move by
consumer electronics company Videocon
and realty players such as DLF and Unitech.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has fixed October 1 as the deadline for new
applications.
Shyam Telelink, a
CDMA technology-based operator offering fixed line and mobile services in
Rajasthan, has also applied for a licence.
Indiabulls, Unitech, Parsvnath Developers, ADAG-backed Swan and Cheetah Telecom,
HFCL
and the Ruia-backed
BPL are among the others who have applied.
This takes the total number of companies
that have applied for telecom licences to thirteen.
Business Standard
Now,
use different handsets with same SIM
Do you prefer to carry a lighter, smaller
handset in the evening and a bulkier multi-functional
smartphone during the day in office but tired of
changing SIM cards between phones? Don’t
worry. Now, you won’t have to go through the
hassle of pulling out SIM cards to insert in
another handset.
A UK-based mobile applications company
has tested such a service in
with leading Indian operators to roll out the
'single line multi-SIM' facility by next year.
The company has launched an application
where in multiple SIM cards carrying same number
can be provided to a user. Thus a user
wishing to carry another lighter or jazzier handset in the
evening can just switch off the earlier one and
the second one becomes operational. The SIM
cards will be active one at a time.
Or if the user has opted for 3-4 SIM
cards with the same number, they can just download a
java application from the internet. The
application will provide a user interface wherein a user
can chose to activate SIM card number 1, 2,
3 or 4.
The other option will be to set a time schedule(night/day) at which the different SIM cards will
be active. “You can dial your customer care
to set the time for activation/de-activation of a
particular SIM,” says Michael Crossey,
vice-president of UK-based Aopena, a mobile
applications provider.
"We have already tested the service
in
interest in our service. We are hopeful to launch
the service in
Crossey told ET.
The service has many utilities. “For
instance, some people like to carry a bulky smart phone
with all the features of a computer during
daytime for office use. During evening, they like to
switch to a lighter, jazzy phone. The service
will remove the hassle of changing SIM cards,”
says Mr Crossey.
The application may also offer a feature
where in one SIM card receives incoming calls and the
other just makes outgoing calls, he adds.
Another utility of the ‘multi-handset
single line’ (MHSL) service is that on loss of a phone, an
extra SIM ensures seamless connectivity. One
doesn’t have to go through the hassle of resubmitting
documents and getting a new SIM card.
Though, a similar multi-line single
handset (MLSH) service is common, the single line on many
mobile phones is still uncommon. In the
multi-line service, a handset can carry two SIM cards
(be it GSM or
CDMA or both) at the same time. One can switch between numbers by switching
off and on a handset. One can also switch
between lines through a Java application on the
phone.
The dual SIM card phone is quite common
though. T-Mobile in
Telecom Italia in
The Economic Times
BPL’s telecom licence application comes under
DoT scrutiny
BPL Communication’s (the Mumbai-based
operator which was bought out by Essar Group)
application for a pan
Telecom for a possible violation of the
cross holding norms with Essar’s equity in Vodafone
Essar Ltd.
BPL’s applications were made in the name of
Shipping Stop Dot Com in which BPL
Communications holds about 74 per cent
stake while the Ruias directly own 9.9 per cent stake
through an Essar Group
subsidiary. At the same time, the Ruias promoted Essar Group also
holds 33 per cent stake in Vodafone Essar, which has presence in all the 22 circles for which
BPL has also applied.
As per the cross holding norms stipulated
in the unified access licence conditions, a single
company or an individual cannot hold more than
10 per cent equity stake in two different
companies in the same circle. The norms also say
that promoter company or an individual may
not hold even a single share in more than
one company in the same circle. “Clause 1.4 (ii) of
the unified access licence
states that no single company/legal person, either directly or through
its associates, shall have substantial
equity holding in more than one licensee company in the
same service area. Substantial equity means an equity of 10 per cent or more. Also a promoter
company/legal person cannot have stakes in more than
one licensee company for the same
service area. We are going to scrutinize all
applications including that of BPL to check if they
are consistent with these norms,” said a
senior DoT official.
When contacted an Essar
Group spokesperson said, “The applications are fully compliant with
the DoT norms.”
Sources in Essar Group added that DoT
norms did not apply to BPL since the
Ruias had reduced their stake to less than 10
per cent stake in BPL. They also said that there
was no common promoter company between Essar Vodafone and BPL and therefore there
was no question of any violation.
However DoT
officials said that they would ask the company to give details of the equity
structure of Shipping Stop Dot Com including those
held by BPL Communications and Capital
Global before taking a
decision on the application. Earlier a similar controversy had arisen
when the Birla
Group had alleged that Tata Group was violating cross
holding norms by
holding more than 33 per cent stake in
Idea Cellular even as Tata Teleservices
had rolled out a
pan
Business Line
Telecom service quality impresses Trai
In a sign that the quality of telecom
services in the country has improved, albeit slightly, the
number of Points of Interconnection (POIs) with congestion has fell by 42 to 457 POIs for a
quarter ended June 2007.
This is in comparison with the 499 POS
with congestion of over 10 per cent recorded during
the prior three-month-period ended March.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai), in its POI Congestion report for the
April-June
2007, stated that the performance of the
mobile operators “has improved a little”.
PoIs are the points where an operator
exchanges calls with another service provider to enable
communication over various networks.
The congestion parametre
reflects the effectiveness of interconnection between two networks,
in turn, the quality of services.
According to the report,
were “badly affected” due to POI congestion.
The number of Points of Interconnection (POIs) with congestion has decreased by 42 to 457
for a three-month-period ended in June from
the earlier 499 recorded in March, a sign that the
quality of services in the country has “slightly
improved”.
Out of these 457 POIs
with congestion, 218 POIs recorded more than 5 per
cent of congestion
during the reporting quarter, compared with 245
POIs in March 2007.
The number of such POIs
with over 10 per cent congestion stood at 151 in June quarter, as
against 183 recorded during the previous
quarter.
However, the number of worst affected POIs with congestion levels of over 40 per cent
remained changed at 476.
On the interconnection between private
operators to state-owned Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Ltd
(BSNL), the number of POIs
with congestion decreased to 312 in June from 337 in March,
while that among private operators decreased
to 145 from 162 posted in March 2007.
Business Standard
BSNL to bring seven services under single brand
State-run BSNL which offers seven broad
services to over five crore subscribers has decided
to go for an uniform branding from October
1 as part of its new corporate strategy.
In fact, the telecom monolith has also
decided to change its corporate signature colour to
black
from blue earlier with the sign - Connecting
ambassador for BSNL.
Its broadband service earlier called DataOne will be known as BSNL Broadband and its VSATbased
broadband will be BSNL VSAT.
BSNL Cellular services CellOne and Excel will be branded as BSNL Mobile postpaid
and
prepaid respectively.
The fixed service of bfone
will be branded as BSNL landline and its internet service Sancharnet
will be known as BSNL Internet. The Tarang CDMA-based WLL Ltd mobility phones will be
called BSNL WLL.
We want to bring all our brands under one
roof and name so that customer does not have to
remember several names of our different services.
A single name catching the company would
be best way to be in the memory of
customers and in their brand recall.
BSNL's competitor Bharti
Airtel and Tata Teleservices have different services under one brand
name Airtel and Indicom respectively. Recently in a different case, the
second largest cellular
player Hutch transformed itself into Vodafone
with the change of ownership on a massive
rebranding exercise.
BSNL has of late been very aggressive in
its marketing exercise in order to shed the typical
PSU image and be seen as a lively brand
for all categories of users. The PSU has a over three
crore fixed-line 29.70 million mobile users.
The Economic Times