Everybody is welcome to the network that you can depend on, screamed a Vodafone advertisement just a day after the Supreme Court quashed all the 122 controversial 2G telcom licences granted in 2007-08. While the British telecommunications company made it known to the world that it was more than ready to port in subscribers who are part of the troubled telcom universe, other major players like Bharti Airtel and Aircel Maxis were busy wooing users too from the scam-hit networks.
Improving network capacity, making cold calls and aggressive advertising are all part of their gameplan to get as many new users as possible even if many of them were low ARPU (average revenue per user) subscribers. “Getting any business is good,” points out a senior official at an established telcom company. “The expectation is that they would not remain low-ARPU customers.”
Industry sources with direct knowledge of the development point out that a record number of porting requests was made through today by the subscribers of telcos who have been told to return their 2G spectrum. The apex court had yesterday termed the process of spectrum allocation in question as arbitrary and unfair. Official number of the subscribers wanting to exit such networks was not available.
A year ago, the country saw the introduction of number portability, which is about moving to another network in the same circle but retaining the same phone number. Till December 2011, around 22 million users had availed of the mobile number portability facility. The 122 licences would cover only about five per cent of the total mobile subscriber base of 900 million in India. In fact, the unique numbers (excluding those with multiple SIM) would be well below 5 per cent, according to an estimate. While Idea Cellular, Vodafone and BPL have been the net gainers in terms of subscriber adds through MNP, others like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata DoCoMo and state run BSNL and MTNL have lost.
Operators have started exploring ways to expand capacity. This will include switches and towers, according a company executive. The operators have also started calling the subscribers of impacted players to shift to their network by availing MNP.
Vodafone director (corporate strategy) Samaresh Parida says the company is “extremely happy” with the response it received so far with the rollout of MNP. However, he refused to comment anything on the impact of the Supreme Court order or the company’s well-timed advertisement on MNP.
While maintaining that MNP was not a game changer in the overall context, he says Vodafone welcomes MNP and supports it. Reason: “It gives consumers the opportunity to choose the operator that offers them the best network, service and support,” he told Business Standard.
The Bharti group did not reply to this newspaper’s query on the strategy to be adopted by the company to attract subscribers from the telcos who have been hit by the apex court order. The company excused itself from any comments, citing “silent period” ahead of its Q3 financial result. Aircel Maxis, too, did not comment on the matter.
An official at a telcom firm said the “water is still muddy” even after the court verdict, as many issues remain to be sorted out. “It was a bold order aimed at cleaning up the system,” he noted, on the condition of anonymity. Another executive said company strategies would be clear only after the regulator (Trai) comes out with its roadmap. The affected companies are Uninor (a joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and Unitech Group), Sistema Shyam (offers services under MTS brand name through a JV between Russia’s Sistema and Shyam Telcom), STel, Videocon, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Loop Telcom, Etisalat DB (JV between UAE’s Etisalat and Swan Telcom).
These eight companies together have invested between Rs 35,000-40,000 crore. Out of this, over a two-third of the money has been put in by two telcos — Uninor and Sistema.
