The Nielsen Company has revealed in its findings that Reliance Communications is the number one service provider in network reliability in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while Tata Communications ranks first in Uttar Pradesh. The findings are based on Nielsen’s network Benchmarking programme in India known as Nielsen Consumer Experience Mobile Test Program. The program measures wireless network performance for all national and select regional telecom operators, covering nearly 100 million people in the country.
The results indicate that out of 18 circles (regions of operation) tested on reliability, a clear leader exists in just four circles and in ten out of eighteen circles tested. There is a tie for first place for network reliability. In the remaining four circles, there is neither a clear leader, nor a tie for first position.
The programme, launched in India in August 2008, measures the performance and quality of top six service providers across India by taking into consideration voice and data networks.
As per the company’s release, the study shows that in India there is a huge disconnect between what is important to consumers and what is being focused on by operators. Due to this consumers don’t know who the market leaders are in network quality in their circle and are compelled to make choices based on popular perceptions.
“The Indian service providers are in a frenzy to capture market share as quickly as possible. Thus, new service providers will find it difficult to gain market share in the crowded wireless market. They will face challenges in terms of high subscriber acquisition costs, lower ARPU customers and lack of adequate spectrum quality. Getting superior network quality and communicating the same to the consumers will prove helpful,” said a spokesperson in the statement.
Nielsen’s Consumer Experience Mobile Test Program data has been integrated with its Mobile Consumer Insights data to understand the customer perception of a service provider compared to its actual network performance. The Nielsen Mobile Consumer Insights survey indicates that network satisfaction is driving overall satisfaction with services, offered by the service providers, and has increased from 50 per cent in the latter half of 2008 to 54 per cent in the first half of 2009.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) organised a conference on third generation (3G) spectrum in New Delhi on Monday to explain the auction and bidding process for the said spectrum. The process, slated to take off on January 14, 2010, will be carried out in four stages: invitation, pre-qualification, auction and grant of spectrum.
The India 3G auction had been pending for a long time and the final date was announced only in October. DoT has said that December 21 is the last date for applications for companies who are planning to take this auction. The auction will enable operators to offer better voice quality, improved mobile broadband speed and richer value added services.
At the conference, DotEcon Ltd’s Dan Maldoom, an economic advisor to companies and regulators, explained that the auction is divided into two stages – the clock stage and the frequency identification stage.
In the clock stage, there will be simultaneous bidding for slots in each of the stated circles (regions of operation) where the spectrum is available. At the end of this stage, for each circle, each bidder’s highest bid made so far in any round will be reserved. The provisional winning price associated with these bids will be equal to the lowest price at which the provisional bidders submitted their bids.
The second stage or the frequency identification stage will allocate specific frequency blocks to successful bidders in circles where they have won a slot in the clock stage.
For the 3G auction, the government has decided to auction 20 MHz of spectrum in the 2.1GHz Band in the telecom service areas where 25 MHz or more paired spectrum is available. Blocks have been reserved for BSNL and MTNL in their service areas.
DoT has kept reserve prices for the auction at Rs 320 crore for Delhi, Mumbai and Circle A (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu), Rs 120 crore for Kolkata and Circle B (Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (W), Uttar Pradesh (E), Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal) and Rs 30 crore for Circle C (Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Assam).
At the conference, Maldoom also spoke on the scheduling of the auction process. He said that there is a default timetable for clock rounds, which goes on from Monday till Friday between 9 am and 5.30 pm. If any bidder fails to submit the bid on time, the system automatically triggers a time extension. The bid will be carried out through an electronic auction system.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), in association with Sterlite Technologies Limited, a transmission services provider, has announced the launch of prepaid Broadband for its residential and enterprise customers in Mumbai.
The state owned company, which currently has 400,000 broadband subscribers in Mumbai and around 340,000 in Delhi, says that this service will enable users to customise their broadband subscription plans, based on their Bandwidth usage.
In an email interview with Telecom Yatra, GVRS Kumar, general manager, marketing and public relations, MTNL, said that vouchers for this service will be available at MTNL customer care centres located in all MTNL offices and will be shortly available through distributors. The recharges can also be done online.
On why MTNL is also targeting corporate customers for this service, Kumar said, “The enterprise customers will have better control over their usage and there are no hassles of paying bills at counters.”
He added that prepaid broadband will be shortly introduced in Delhi, the other circle where MTNL operates.Sterlite Technologies is providing end to end solution to MTNL for its pre paid broadband service. Sterlite’s scope of work for this project includes project management, installation and deployment, network operations, network maintenance, integration and testing.
The pre paid broadband service comes in three plans – Rs 499 with 1.3 GB free download and one month validity, Rs 3999 with 15 GB free download and 12 months validity and Rs 5999 with 25 GB free download and 12 months validity.

Geodesic, a mobile communication services, based in Mumbai, has launched Spokn to enter the voice communications space. The internet or IP telephony service will be a bridge between public telephone networks and VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services. Spokn enables users to make long distance calls at cheaper rates from mobile phones, smart phones and regular landline phones apart from computers. The subscriber can acquire a local number for $1 a month.
The company has launched it in 40 countries and a subscriber can make calls at local rates from these countries.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra about the marketing of the service, Kiran Kulkarni, chief executive officer, Geodesic, said,” As of now we are planning to market through the online medium and social media. We also will leverage our existing user base.”
The company plans to have a million plus subscriber base in 6-8 months down the line in addition to the current base.
The primary target audience of the service would primarily be individuals with family and friends outside India. The company plans to gradually focus the enterprise space with simplified solutions.
Commenting on the speed of the service Aashar Farhan, chief technology officer, Geodesic, said, “Spokn has a speed of 16 Kbps. Therefore it can run on GPRS and other mobile internet platforms too.” The service is operational on Windows and MAC operating systems.

Idea Cellular has announced that it is going to launch its services in Assam and the North East by December 2009. The service provider has recently started operations in Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Kolkata.
Rajat Mukarji, vice president, corporate affairs, Idea Cellular, made the announcement at Telecoms World India 2009 in New Delhi. He also said that Idea Cellular will have a pan India presence by December 2009 after the commencement of its operations in Assam and the North East.
Idea currently has 53 million subscribers in the country and is present in 21 circles. Other operators who have a pan India presence are Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Reliance and Tata Teleservices.
In October, the company had sought additional wireless spectrum for two circles from the Department of Telecommunications to support its increasing subscriber base.