Myths and Realities of Wireless Industry

We would like to highlight the Myths and Realities in the Indian Wireless Industry. New entrants too focused on rural areas – DoCoMo witnessed the highest jump in proportion of subs coming from rural areas (11% in last two quarters) though still remains low overall (20% v/s 33% avg). Even…

Continue Reading Myths and Realities of Wireless Industry

Wireless Price Stability – End of Tariff War ?

The Telecom tariff war that began earlier this year from the new operators financed by dare devil bankers and private equity funds appears to be stabilizing. The reversal of traffic to the incumbents (after they matched tariffs, importantly) suggests that this round of action has gone to the incumbents, one…

Continue Reading Wireless Price Stability – End of Tariff War ?

Bharti Airtel Managements Views on African Wireless Business

The management of Bharti Airtel Ltd, led by Manoj Kohli plans to introduce affordability and high usage in its African portfolio which is currently a high price environment (with tariffs in some markets as high as Europe/US according to Bharti). We believe the current market environment in Africa is supportive….

Continue Reading Bharti Airtel Managements Views on African Wireless Business

Review of Bharti’s Airtel App Central Performance

In-line with Global Practices, App stores offered globally by handset and platform vendors, telecom operators and others, Bharti’s Airtel App Central was launched in Feb-10. Airtel Claims 2.5MM downloads in first month, 13MM in four months. Most apps downloaded are free (80-90% globally) .Small revenue opportunity for app store host…

Continue Reading Review of Bharti’s Airtel App Central Performance

Key Steps for Growth of Indian Internet

India with a second largest population of 1.1 Bn has just 6% of Indians connected via the internet. USA is ranked 28th in the world in connection speeds with a speed of 5 .1 Mbps while India is still struggling with 256 kbps as broadband and adding to the woes…

Continue Reading Key Steps for Growth of Indian Internet

Dark Night Before Dawn – Signs of the Light

Indian competitive situation should improve as players focus on repairing their balance sheet. Tariffs have moved up in a few cases. Bharti’s African acquisition is now complete. Sentiment should move up as management unveils the details of their African Strategy. Despite strong competition, Bharti has lost less than 120bps revenue…

Continue Reading Dark Night Before Dawn – Signs of the Light

Jeevansaathi converting 15% profiles into Paid Customers

Jeevansaathi.com the Match making website from the Info Edge group unveiled that it added 1,646 profiles during the quarter ended June-10. The company was able to convert 15% of its new customers into Paid ones generating a revenue of $ 1.2 mn. Jeevansaathi at the end of June-10 quarter had…

Continue Reading Jeevansaathi converting 15% profiles into Paid Customers

Uninor Gaining Traction – Too Early to Decide if it Can Sustain

Uninor – the JV between Unitech and Telnor reported an operating loss increase of 19% sequentially to USD220m. Despite rising operating loss (cumulative operating loss at cUSD570m), the company maintained its capex guidance. Revenue for the quarter increased sequentially by 84% to USD16m, but not enough for the company to…

Continue Reading Uninor Gaining Traction – Too Early to Decide if it Can Sustain