Cablevision, a Bethpage, NY (Long Island really) based cable company has announced that it is increasing the speed of its standard broadband connection to 15 megabits-per-second and 2 megabits per second upstream, without any additional costs to the customers. In comparison, the company used to offer speeds of 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream as a standard previously.

The company is also announcing Optimum Online Boost, a new 30 megabits per second service, at a higher cost. Optimum Online Boost is available for an additional cost of $14.95 per month, $9.95 per month for residential customers who also subscribe to Optimum Voice. Okay I know there is this whole competition thing with Verizon FIOS, but still, I am glad to see Cablevision increase the speeds, in keeping with the demands of today’s digital life. I wish my cable company, Comcast got its act together and gave us San Francisco people a bit of a speed boost.

PS: In case you were wondering about the LIE comparison - You cannot drive faster than 30 miles per hour during week days and 15 miles per hour on the weekend (with the rich Manhattan moving en-masse to the Hamptons) on LIE.

1:01:40 PM    comment   

According to the Indian Telecom Industry Report released by Voice & Data, around 38 million mobile handsets were added in 2005-06.

Nokia leads with over 50% of handset market, while LG surprises by coming second with about 18%.

The GSM mobile phone market had a 73% and grew at 42%, clocking revenues of Rs 10,506 crore.

The market for CDMA handsets grew at 164% to reach Rs 3,752 crore.

The fixed phones market slipped by 6% to settle at Rs 1,799 crore.

Nokia remains the top telecom equipment vendor in India with revenues of Rs 12,062 crore.

LG Electronics jumped from the sixth place in 2004-05, to become the number two telecom vendor in India.

The telecom equipment market grew at the rate of 25% in 2005-06 to settle at Rs 52,998 crore.

The market for carrier equipment stood at Rs 29,040 with a growth of 13% and the market for telephones (mobile and fixed) grew at 50% to reach Rs 16,057 crore.

Source: Business Standard

9:10:25 AM    comment   

Business Standard reports that Reliance Communications may launch its GSM services in Delhi and Mumbai by March 2007. It expects the 1,800 MHz spectrum to be allocated by October.

The company has also roped in JM Morgan Stanley (JMMS) as financial advisor for a proposed re-organisation.

Even though the exact details for the reorganistaion were not available, sources speculate that this could be bringing all its telephony operations - internet, CDMA, GSM and submarine cable - under one umbrella.

Reliance maintains that it has no intention to exit its CDMA business. The company plans to operate a national GSM network through its subsidiary Reliance Telecom.

Reliance has earmarked around Rs 2500 crore for its GSM foray into new circles. It plans to invest about Rs 1200 crore for the Mumbai and Delhi circles, and about Rs 1500 crore for the existing GSM eight circles.

The funding for the project will be done from the $1.4 billion capex for FY07, and Reliance Communications expects the GSM rollout to cost around one-third of a greenfield rollout.

• Will save 30% on basic infrastructure, because the cell sites, the steel structures and the back haul network will be common to both CDMA and GSM networks.
• The cost of equipment has reduced by half in the last four or five years.
• Will save another 15% on distribution as it will use its 200 Web Worlds to sell the GSM service.
• Branding cost will be lower as the main brand is already well established, though it may create a sub-brand.

9:01:05 AM    comment   

One of the supposed reasons behind Reliance’s GSM entry is the high royalty fee it has to pay to Qualcomm. It is said that the royalty payout increases cost of handsets, which may not be viable in price-sensitive rural markets where the next round of mobiles growth is expected.

[base ']ÄúThe royalty on the chipset charged from Indian operators like Reliance is 7 per cent, in China 2 per cent, Korea 2 per cent and for US operators it is zero[base ']Äù, sources said.

They added that the burden of royalty of a handest on an operator worked out to around $10-15 per device in India and only $3 in China.

Speaking to Business Standard, Qualcomm India president Kanwalinder Singh dismisses the theory.

• Royalties on handsets charged by the company are in single digits
• Royalties are paid by device makers, not operators
• CDMA operators in India were sourcing handsets in the sub-$40 wholesale price range
• On that the royalty overhead worked out to $2 (less than Rs 90) per handset
• Royalties on devices are a very small contributor to the cost of handsets

The company claims that unfavourable regulatory policy (biased towards GSM) is the real reason for Reliance’s GSM foray.

“Based on reports, it appears that Reliance’s Mumbai and Delhi plans are linked to CDMA operators not getting enough spectrum. We believe the primary challenge for CDMA operators in India is lack of spectrum. Current Indian regulatory policy favours GSM by making significantly more spectrum available for them. ..

“The policy is short-sighted, not practised any where else in the world, and will cause distortions like the one reported in the press - an operator can claim double the spectrum by standing in the GSM line rather than the CDMA line,” Singh added.

This kind of reaction was expected from Qualcomm. Reliance has over 7% of the estimated 270 million CDMA subscribers spread across the globe. Reliance is one of its biggest customers and its GSM plans can stunt the growth of CDMA in India.

8:18:35 AM    comment   

According to Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President, Mobility at Bharti the number of cellular subscribers in India will treble to 300 million in the next three to five years.

Bharti is confident of sustaining its addition rate of more than a million subscribers per month. Kapoor said Bharti’s net adds would continue to outpace overall new mobile user growth in the Indian market.

In the year ended March 2005, Bharti increased its net adds by 67 per cent, compared with the market’s growth of 55 per cent. In the year to March 2006, Bharti’s new subscriber growth was 78 percent, versus 73 per cent in the broader market.

8:17:02 AM    comment