Telecom Lead India: India’s top telecom operator Airtel
is about to mark its entry into the 4G arena with the launch 4G LTE services,
and will try to get the market lead. Entry of Reliance Industries (RIL) into
the 4G sphere is still not clear. Though the company will soon start 4G trials
in Jamnagar, in a pilot before the project is escalated nationwide, it will
miss the first mover advantage. RIL said last month that Nagpur would be a hub
for its 4G operations.
According to RIL business plan, according to industry
sources, will focus on offering mobile broadband connectivity to every Indian
in the country. The company is in the process of fine tuning its strategies so
that RIL can achieve better economies of scale as compared with other players
including Airtel.
RIL with the market cap of Rs 249,166
crore is the only private company to have the license to roll out
services in all 22 circles, with the acquisition of Infotel Broadband, which
won the pan-India license for BWA services. RIL bought 95 percent stake in
Infotel Broadband for Rs 13,000 crore.
RIL has plans to invest around $5 billion in telecom
over the next two years, including $1 billion in rollout Capex and around $2.75
billion in BWA spectrum fees.
Although, there is no clarity on RIL’s 4G launch, but
still industry can anticipates about its pan-India launch.
With pan-India license RIL will surely try to compete
with other incumbents such as Airtel and Augere.
Aditya Kaul, practice director, Mobile Networks at
ABI Research, said that Reliance should provide a combined voice and Internet
package rather than simply focusing on 4G internet. They need to tie up roaming
agreements for 2G or even 3G if they are to really be competitive.
He added that RIL should use existing cell sites to setup
network rather than create new greenfield sites. Best fit would be Reliance
Group who has existing CDMA and GSM networks and site infrastructure.
Furthermore, RIL should tie up with the large media
houses to provide specialized and curated content for their 4G network, along
with a large ecosystem of devices, most of which should be multimode, not LTE
only.
Recently,
Infotel Broadband Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, entered into a
strategic agreement with TV18 and Network18 Media and Investments for
preferential access to all their content for distribution through the 4G
broadband network being set up by it.
Infotel will have preferential access to the content of
all the media and web properties of Network 18 and its associates and
programming and digital content of all the broadcasting channels of TV18 and
its associates on a first right basis as a most preferred customer.
The combination of India’s leading TV content provider,
with a bouquet of nearly 25 channels, and Infotel, will be a significant step
in bringing a live TV experience to broadband customers across the country.
Likewise, Network18’s web portals and e-commerce operations will provide value
added services to Infotel’s broadband subscribers. This unique alliance is
expected to differentiate Infotel and create value for all stakeholders.
In India, the growth of 4G services will face challenges
from high priced devices, lack of localized content and lack of willingness to
pay for high-speed broadband. In order to win the consumers, companies should
keep all these aspects into their minds whilst offering 4G services.
Danish Khan
editor@telecomlead.com
