COAI director general Rajan Mathews on Friday said the telecom operators’ body would welcome the entry of new foreign mobile giants through the December 2013 spectrum auction.
But he warned that Indian telecom market will be healthy if the country has around 4-5 serious players from the current 9-11 telecom operators.
At present, Bharti Airtel is the dominant player in the country. Vodafone and Idea Cellular are the top two GSM players which are doing well in India. GSM+CDMA operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are continuing to face pressure from GSM players.
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There were industry speculations that at least 1-2 telecom giants will show interest in the Indian telecom market, which has around 850 mobile users, during the forthcoming spectrum auction that will be conducted during the current fiscal at cheaper price.
COAI director general also said poor quality broadband network is a concern for telecom operators. “Operators have invested heavily into spectrum and now they will invest more into networks to improve coverage, speed and quality.”
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He also spoke about telecom regulatory challenges, merger and acquisition policy, COAI’s new logo, spectrum pricing, OTT players, etc.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com