Quality of service (QoS), one of the major concerns of Indian mobile users, is set to improve if Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Idea Cellular start utilizing their 1800 MHz spectrum effectively.
Also, 900 MHz band, which will see investment from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India, is more effective than 1800 MHz. This means, quality of voice and data services will improve for mobile Indians.
Limited 4G again
Indians are trying to cherish their mobile Internet dreams. But they need to wait more. Top telecoms will not invest in 4G in the next 1-2 years for masses. Like 3G, you will continue to experience limited 4G in select pockets. On top of spectrum investment, they are not keen to invest in infrastructure as well.
Though these telecom operators will be in a position to start offering 4G LTE on FD-LTE technology, many do not have 5 blocks of spectrum in their respective telecom circles. This will put pressure on QoS on data offerings. But voice quality will improve.
For instance, Vodafone said it will launch 4G LTE in 5 telecom circles where it bought 5 blocks of spectrum.
Uninor, the telecom arm of Telenor in India, said it will be able to improve data efficiency by 20-25 percent.
Interestingly, Reliance Jio Infocomm, promoted by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (RIL), ended up spending around Rs 10,000 crore during the spectrum auction. This is not in line with the telecom industry expectation. Reliance Jio Infocomm is yet to officially confirm the size of its bid during the auction that ended on Thursday.
Reliance Jio did not shine
Estimated by TelecomLead.com, Reliance Jio Infocomm became the third or fourth largest bidder during the process. It was widely expected that Reliance Jio Infocomm will be spending heavily in the auction this time as well.
The final bid status of main players is the following:
Vodafone: Rs 19,600 crore
Airtel: Rs 18,530 crore
Idea Cellular: Rs 10,400 crore
Uninor: Rs 845 crore
Reliance Communications bought one circle — Mumbai (1800 MHz band), while Aircel invested in 5 circles — Jammu Kashmir, North East, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and West Bengal. These are not heavy investments.
This means, Reliance Jio Infocomm bought spectrum worth around Rs 10,000 crore considering that the government received bids worth around Rs 60,000 crore.
Since Reliance Jio Infocomm did not invest heavily, its ability to offer 4G in the 1800 MHz band will be limited. It will be forced to rely on TD-LTE technology in 22 circles it bought through the BWA spectrum auction in 2010. But it will have voice services and data offerings to influence the Indian mobile users. India has around 800 million mobile customers.
What for telecom vendors
There will be limited scope of substantial growth for telecom equipment vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NSN, ZTE, Cisco, etc. this year. But as and when telecoms start investing in new roll outs, vendors excitement will increase. Also, investment by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in the 900 MHz will reward vendors.
Pix credit: The Hindu BusinessLine
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com