 "Vodafone goes rural with data")
Vodafone India is planning to expand its data services to every village with more than 5,000 residents.
The country’s second largest operator by subscribers has already covered 70 per cent of this target. With data as an extra product added to its offerings, rural operations have become more viable for the operator.
Vodafone India’s data revenue grew 75 per cent in the past year and data usage grew even faster. The operator expects some of this growth to spill to rural areas as well. “Until now, the rural market was only about voice. Now, that data has started growing, it is not incorrect to say that task has become more challenging with data,” said Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer.
Handsets hurdle
Though a major part of subscribers who are looking to try the internet are the youth from metro areas, there are a lot of them from the semi-urban and rural areas, too, whom Vodafone is looking to catch.
Mathur also says while most of them go in for 2G data, as they try the internet for the first time, some directly start using 3G as well. “The only impediment we see for the choice of 2G over 3G is the availability of a handset. The price difference between these products (2G and 3G handsets) is very significant,” he said.
The operator currently has 41.2 million data subscribers, which accounts to 26.6% of its total customer base. It has 3.7 million 3G subscribers. These numbers could grow as smartphone sales increase. Mathur expects smartphone sales to grow twice as much since last year. Smartphone sales grew by 95% to 13.9 million.
Vodafone, unlike Idea Cellular, does not plan to sell branded handsets. “It is not our core business,” says Mathur. The operator has tied-up with many handset makers which sell entry-level handsets in the Rs 5,000-10,000 range, for bundled offers. Some of their offers include free data for a month, wherein a subscribers is allowed to sample Internet.
The operator also plans to spruce up its network and provide handholding to possible data users.
“For many of these subscribers, mobile is where they use the Internet for the first time. They need a lot of hand holding. While voice is an easy product to understand, data with MBs and KBs isn't. Our store operators are trained to educate them and help subscribers understand how to check the mail or download a song,” says Mathur.
The operator already has 0.9 million of its total 1.6 million multi-brand retail outlets in rural areas. Most of its exclusive stores, 6,000 of 8,000 are also in semi-urban areas.
The country’s second largest operator by subscribers has already covered 70 per cent of this target. With data as an extra product added to its offerings, rural operations have become more viable for the operator.
Vodafone India’s data revenue grew 75 per cent in the past year and data usage grew even faster. The operator expects some of this growth to spill to rural areas as well. “Until now, the rural market was only about voice. Now, that data has started growing, it is not incorrect to say that task has become more challenging with data,” said Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer.
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The company aims to get more subscribers to use its data services. It believes the possible data subscribers’ pie is as high as 350 million. “They want to use data but have not yet started to use mobile internet,” said Mathur. In the past year, the sale of data trial packs more than doubled, indicating an increasing interest in data products among first-time users.
Handsets hurdle
Though a major part of subscribers who are looking to try the internet are the youth from metro areas, there are a lot of them from the semi-urban and rural areas, too, whom Vodafone is looking to catch.
Mathur also says while most of them go in for 2G data, as they try the internet for the first time, some directly start using 3G as well. “The only impediment we see for the choice of 2G over 3G is the availability of a handset. The price difference between these products (2G and 3G handsets) is very significant,” he said.
The operator currently has 41.2 million data subscribers, which accounts to 26.6% of its total customer base. It has 3.7 million 3G subscribers. These numbers could grow as smartphone sales increase. Mathur expects smartphone sales to grow twice as much since last year. Smartphone sales grew by 95% to 13.9 million.
Vodafone, unlike Idea Cellular, does not plan to sell branded handsets. “It is not our core business,” says Mathur. The operator has tied-up with many handset makers which sell entry-level handsets in the Rs 5,000-10,000 range, for bundled offers. Some of their offers include free data for a month, wherein a subscribers is allowed to sample Internet.
The operator also plans to spruce up its network and provide handholding to possible data users.
“For many of these subscribers, mobile is where they use the Internet for the first time. They need a lot of hand holding. While voice is an easy product to understand, data with MBs and KBs isn't. Our store operators are trained to educate them and help subscribers understand how to check the mail or download a song,” says Mathur.
The operator already has 0.9 million of its total 1.6 million multi-brand retail outlets in rural areas. Most of its exclusive stores, 6,000 of 8,000 are also in semi-urban areas.