Q109: Quarterly India Internet & Mobile Numbers, And A Wireless Internet Story

The TRAI has released a report on the performance of telecom services, downloadable here. Some details we gleaned from the exhaustive 126 page report.

Internet
Wireless Internet
What surprised me most is the suggestion that there were 75.97 million wireless Internet users in India at the end of June 2008 (Q109). If you read the fine print (and we did), here’s the truth: that is essentially the number of users capable of accessing data services including Internet through mobile handset (GSM/ CDMA), and not the actual number. So even the growth in this base is not indicative of usage trends: June 2007 - 38.02 million, Sep 2007 - 46.37 million, Dec 2007 - 57.83 million, March 2008 - 65.50 million, June 2008 - 75.97 million.

Industry insiders have told us the number is more likely between 10-15 million users accessing the wireless Internet, and mobile operators have also spoken about an increase in the depth of WAP usage among customers. But, but, but - it’s NOT 75.97 million, and it looks like there’s spin involved in numbers even from regulators.

Dialup
– 11.6 million dialup subscribers by the end of Q109, up marginally by 510,000

– Around 5604 subs added per day.
– Growth rate declined Quarter on Quarter - from 7.08 percent in Q408 to 5.09% in Q109
– ARPU of Rs. 225
– Subscriber base: BSNL has base of 5.94 million (up from 5.64 million last quarter), MTNL has 1.92 million, while Airtel has 0.87 million.
Important: very low usage on dialup - of only 225 minutes per subscriber per month. The high cost of dialup may have something to do with this - it’s an ARPU/minute of Re. 1.

Broadband
– 4.38 million at the end of Q109, up from 3.87 million at the end of Q408
– Growth rate of 13.18%.
– The split:

DSL: 3.72 million
Cable Modem: 0.42 million
Ethernet LAN: 0.11 million
Fiber: 0.045 million
Leased Lines: 0.018 million

Important: 58.97% of wireline service providers reported more than 3 fault incidences per 100 subs per month. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s underreporting of faults.

Mobile

GSM
– Total subscriber base of 212.51 million, up from 192.70 million in the previous quarter.
– Growth for this quarter is 10.28 percent
– Bharti Airtel is the largest GSM operator, with 69.38 million subs, Vodafone has 49.20 million, BSNL has 36.36 million and Idea has 27.19 million.

– All India blended ARPU has declined by 9.3% from Rs. 234 Rs. 264 in March to Rs. 239 in June
– Postpaid ARPU declined to Rs. 600, down 5.9% from Rs. 638 in March
– Prepaid service ARPU declined to Rs. 204, down 8.9% from Rs. 224/- in March
– Minutes of Use: increased to 505 from 493 in Q1
– Metros have the lowest outgoing Minutes of Use per subscriber
– Outgoing SMS per subscriber continued to decline. Rate of decline has doubled to 14.5% in the quarter under review from a 7% decline in the quarter ending March 2008.

CDMA
– Total subscriber base is 74.36 million, up from 68.37 million in the previous quarter.
– The growth in this quarter is 8.76% as against 11.37% for the previous quarter.
– Reliance remains the largest CDMA mobile operator (42.71 million subs) followed by Tata Teleservices (26.33 million) and BSNL (4.59 million respectively.

– All India blended ARPU has declined to Rs. 139, from Rs. 159 for the quarter ending March 2008.
– According to the revenue reports submitted by the service providers for the quarter ending June 2008, revenue, net of “pass through”, from CDMA full mobility service is Rs. 2332.68 crores which was 2410.00 crores in the quarter ending March 2008 registering a decline of 3.20%.
– Postpaid ARPU was 3.95 times than that of prepaid ARPU - attributed to declining importance of processing fee on recharge coupon/ voucher purchased by prepaid subscribers.
– The total MOU per subscriber/ month has shown decline to 354 from 364 in March
– Outgoing MOU has shown increase to 182 from 180 per subscriber per month in previous quarter

Other noteworthy facts:
– The Gross Revenue and AGR of the Public Sector units in Telecom Sector is Rs.9756 Crores and Rs.8467 Crores respectively as against Rs.12233 Crores and Rs.10417 Crores for the previous quarter.
- The Gross Revenue and AGR of the Private Sector enterprises in Telecom Sector is placed at Rs.25555 Crores and Rs.18524 Crores respectively as against Rs.23537 Crores and 17427 Crores for the previous quarter.
- Average % of License Fee paid by Telecom Service Providers to AGR is 8.58% and Average % of Spectrum Charges to AGR is 2.76%.

Helion And Charles River Ventures Invest $11 M In SMS GupShup

So it’s official: Helion Ventures and Charles River Ventures have put in $11 million in SMS GupShup, the push SMS based Mobile social networking community. When the deal had been reported in July, SMS GupShup had offered no official comment to us - and neither a confirmation nor a denial, and Helion never got back. Helion also, strangely, publicly denied funding SMS GupShup, and continued to deny the funding to many execs whom we spoke to. This funding must really be a very very big deal, y’know. Now Helion appears to have timed the announcement of the funding to coincide with the launch of Google’s SMS services, hoping to ride that PR wave.

Nothing new in the press release, except that SMS GupShup is going to target other geographies. Given that the cost of SMS is significantly lower in India as compared to other markets, it’ll be difficult for them to sustain the numbers. We’ve detailed the costs of this business before, and given that advertising budgets are significantly affected in a recessionary economy, their dependency on advertising doesn’t augur well. GupShup could focus on building their enterprises business for revenues.

Also, I wonder if companies like SMS Gupshup and MyToday will get into reselling SMS‘? They get charged a much lower rate (Rs. 0.05 each, or less), while others who buy lower SMS’ are charged anything between Rs. 0.15-0.45 per SMS. They can thus reduce the burden on by reselling. I wonder how Bulk SMS players will react to that - when their clients begin competing with them on price. Whatsay?

Services On Airtel DTH: Indiatimes Shopping, MakeMyTrip, WorldSpace, MapUnity, AskLaila, StarsTell

Internet companies feature prominently on Airtel Digital TV (DTH), and services appears to be a significant differentiator for Airtel. Some of the content and media services on offer:

- iAstro: powered by StarsTell, a services from WorldPhone, a VoIP player which is a part of Times Private Treaties (screencap)
- iCity: has two components. The Maps are powered by MapUnity, and the estimations of traffic are a function of the number of mobile phones on a particular road. The other component is local business information (restaurants) and events, being powered by AskLaila. . Screencaps: Mapunity 1, Mapunity 2 , Asklaila
- iLearn: is being powered by Edurite, and developed by Infosys (screencap)
- iMatinee: powered by BookMyShow, a Web18 site
- iNet: isn’t really Internet access on the mobile, but actually widgets which you can place on your TV screen. Widgets cover sports, news, stocks, a world time clock. The data is refreshed real time. (screencap)
- iShop: powered by Indiatimes
- iTravel: travel packages are powered by MakeMyTrip. You can’t book a ticket, but you can SMS a package to a number, and MMT will call back to close the deal. (screencap)
- Games: provided by NDS. The content will be refreshed on a regular basis.
- Worldspace: 10 Wordspace radio channels are available for free. (screencap)

The deals are essentially on revenue share. As far as the customer is concerned, depending on the package he opts for, he’ll get access to an application.

What’s interesting is that there’s a section called “Airtel Live”, like in case of the mobile WAP deck. Some of the services on offer on Airtel Live are free, while others are paid. As far as services are concerned, Airtel appears to be taking the mobile approach to DTH, where they will provide TV channels, and then bundle in other services that users can subscribe pay for.

More on IPTV and Airtels strategy, and slides from their presentation:

(more…)

Reports & Numbers

Live: Airtel Launches DTH Services Targeting 62 Cities

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of Airtel Digital TV, a DTH service targeting 62 cities, with over 21000 retail outlets. The service is on a I’m at the press conference, where Manoj Kohli, CEO & Jt MD of Bharti Airtel, outlined the companys strategy of switching from a “land-grab”, from having Airtel grab more and more of the customers wallet.

Kohli said that the market is currently at an initial stage - the penetration is just at 3 percent, with just 7 million DTH customers. “We believe that in the gestation period, the other players have spent and educated  the customers, and the time is right for us to take up this 225 million household market. We’re confident of taking up the leadership position in the DTH segment.”

Atul Bindal, President of Telemdia Services for Bharti Airtel:
Digital TV is the third age of television in India - it is a high definition ready, interactive, and this is what is taking the market to the third stage. The customers have evolved to become more price sensitive, and are demanding the best in terms of quality.

Smart-ass retort of the day: following the preview of the TV commercials for Airtel Digital TV,with 9 celebrities signed up, Atul Bindal said that “this is the first time that 9 celebrities are coming to your home.” Immediately, a retort from a photographer right in front - “When?”

Adlabs Gets Into The Digital Cinema Business

While Bharti Airtel is still considering the digital cinema business, Adlabs has announced plans for digitizing 500 cinema screens over the next 18 months, reports ET. Adlabs has access to Reliance Communications’ optic fibre network, and also plans to leverage the network owned by Reliance Globalcom (FLAG Telecom), for global digital distribution. Adlabs Digital Cinema, with Patrick von Sychowski as its COO, is encoding the films at DAKC in Mumbai.

The model for digital distribution used by UFO Moviez and Pyramid Saimira involved encryption of films, and then distribution of the content via satellite to theatres. A setup at the theatres would decrypt and project the film on screen. The same will probably apply to Adlabs, except that the distribution will be via an optical fibre network, not satellite. Digital Distribution enables exhibition of content in remote areas, particularly on the day of the release. Earlier, prints were distributed physically, where there was a risk of theft and piracy, and remote areas would be able to screen the films much later than a city release.

This move by Adlabs highlights the advantages of being present across the value chain for ADAG: keep in mind that Pyramid Saimira pulled out of the business in 33 theatres in India, citing a lack of viability.

Also check out: Adlabs Digital Cinema COO Patrick von Sychowski’s blog, here.

Related:

- Pyramid Saimira Winds Up Film Distribution In India; Defers Reel Acquisition
– Airtel Considering The Digital Cinema Business
– UFO Moviez Group Buys Defunct VoD Service MovieBeam

BK Modi To Invest $1 Billion In Media & Ent Via Spice Enfotainment; Gaming Co Buy

Many a headline making statement from BK Modi in this interview with Mint, which gives you the big picture of the billionaires investment plans. Modi, who had sold his stake in Spice Communications to Idea Cellular reportedly for over $450 Million, now plans to invest $1 billion in the media and entertainment business through Spice Enfotainment. And, he is singing a digital tune. Some key points:

– Gaming Acquisition: Modi is looking to acquire “a big gaming company” from the Israel to Indonesia region. Any guesses?
– The MSM deal has not been completed. Despite several reports to the contrary in May, it appears that BK Modi has not closed the 32% stake buyout in MultiScreen Media. He says they’re in talks with Sony on the films side, and may come in as a financial investor in SET. So the deal is still in the balance.
– M Films: Modi’s launching a film production company called M Films, which will invest $200 million to produce 5 films in the next 3 years
– Cellebrum back on track? Apparently. Modi says that Cellebrum has filed its IPO prosectus again, after SEBI had pointed out issues with it earlier. It was a topic much debated at MediaNama.

Key themes from the interview:

– This Is The Time To Buy: companies in the media and entertainment space, which requires significant investment in content production and distribution, are either hard up for investment, close to bankruptcy, or looking to sell out. The funds that were backing them earlier have dried up. So if someone like Modi has the money, this is the time to pick up stake at lower valuations. A case in point is Lehman Bros backed California based Culver Studios in California, which Modi can now buy from the liquidator. He says that ” at least six companies that are talking to us.” What’s interesting is that he’s not looking at majority control, but to be the single largest shareholder, and have board control.

– Cross Media and Digital: Modi is looking to set up or acquire companies that will create digital content which can be repurposed across platforms for monetization. So he is eying the film and TV production business, and looking to buy gaming and music companies. Then there is the distribution element, where Cellebrum fits in on the mobile, and on TV - the TV channels he will have a stake in. What’s missing is the mobile operator play, which he exited. Appears to be on the lines of Anil Ambani’s plans for media and entertainment domination.

I wonder what Modi’s plans are for the Internet space. Do read the entire interview, which touches upon many other Media and Entertainment topics.

Related:
– “Is the Cellebrum IPO still on?” Apparently Not
– Virgin Comics Reincarnated As Liquid Comics; Thoughts On Cross-Media Content
– Reliance ADA Group Inks BIG $1.2 Billion Dreamworks Deal
- Sony Entertainment Television Sells 32 Pc Stake To BK Modi For $320 Million

IPTV Roundup: Aksh - Sony Pictures Content; Colors - The New Media Group; BSNL

Aksh Optifibre Gets Sony Pictures Content For VoD
Aksh Optifibre, one of the IPTV franchisees for India (alongwith Smart Broadband, Time Broadband and IOL Netcom) has signed a 3 year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment for Hollywood movies for their Aksh’s video on demand platform iControl. Aksh powers BSNL services in 20 cities across north India, and IPTV in Delhi and Mumbai. The problem that we’ve identified is, that the other IPTV service providers are also operational in the broadly the same zones. [via TelevisionPoint]

Colors On IPTV In Japan, Korea, Taiwan And Australia
This landmark carriage agreement represents the first ever global launch of a major entertainment channel on IPTV as customers across the globe shall be able to preview COLORS for 1 week at no cost, courtesy Viacom 18 and World On-Demand. The channel will be free for a week, and will be distributed across TNMGs network in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. TNMG had launched UTV channels in the same markets a couple of months ago. [via release]

BSNL IPTV Rollout
BSNL continues with announcing rollouts in separate cities - in Lucknow on October 15, Nagpur by November, and Nashik by Diwali. The service has recently been launched in Pune. Why can’t they prepare the infra in each city for a launch, and do a national rollout, instead of launches city-by-city?

On Reliance GSM And Mobile Number Portability

A few weeks ago, a senior exec working with a mobile operator gave me his take on when Mobile Number Portability (MNP) would be implemented in India - not a date, but “Once Reliance Communications has established its GSM network in India.” The reason, according to him is that RCom wants to free itself from the royalty it pays to Qualcomm on handsets, which make them more expensive than the GSM handsets available in the market. This issue was reportedly resolved last year, but according to this particular exec, it isn’t over yet.

RCom soft-launched their GSM service in Delhi and Mumbai circles last week (via ET), and is testing the network in “parts of UP, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and the four southern states” - in cities that currently have around 45 percent of the subscriber base. The network has been live in Delhi for a while, and Presstalk wrote about it first a couple of weeks ago.

So the network for a GSM-CDMA switch is being readied, and it appears that the policy will allow a switch as well: ET reports that the MNP norms have been modified, to allow consumers to change from CDMA to GSM, remain with the same operator offering both platforms, and yet retain their mobile number. This is being called Internal Mobile Number Portability. I thought that was a given, since the policy should not differentiate between technology, and if an operator wants to switch users to a different technology, its his choice.

In this context, it’s very interesting to note the COAIs (GSM lobby) reaction to a proposal for Internal MNP: the headline to this story in BS is misleading, but they’re essentially against allowing Internal MNP before allowing users to switch mobile operators. Why is that? Obviously because once RCom starts switching users from CDMA to GSM, the GSM operators want to acquire some of RCom’s users. For the mobile operators, it’s all about the mobile subscriber base right now.

In this entire switch from CDMA to GSM, it’s Qualcomm that loses out.

Internet Site Advertising Trends For TV And Print

AdEx India, a division of TAM Media has published an assessment of advertising spends from Internet sites for January-June 2008. An analysis of the TV advertising spends is available at Indiantelevision.com, and the print advertising spends are at exchange4media.com. Bear in mind that these trends outline volumes, and not the actual spends.

Going through both stories, we observed the following trends:

– Travel portals have shown a preference for Print over TV: None of the travel portals are among the top 10 advertisers on TV (in terms of volumes), but they dominate the print segment with 41 percent of column-cm bought by Internet companies. Ezeego1 advertised most in Print, with 18 percent of the total mix.

— More growth in Print over TV: Overall, the growth in TV advertising from portals was flat - only an increase of 7 percent year on year, while the increase in print (in column-cm) was greater among Internet portals at an 89 percent increase, year on year. Is there more value for money in print, or are the ads just cheaper?

– Network Effect comes into play: cross promotion of media company owned portals is, but, expected. On TV, Network18 owned properties like Homeshop18 (11 percent), Moneycontrol (4%) Jobstreet (3%) are all among the top “spenders”, while ESPNStar is at 6%, MobileNDTV is at 5%, and Indiatimes Mail at 3%. Spare a thought for those spending without any media company backing (so the money doesn’t stay within the group) - sites like - Monster India (4%), AOL (3%), 99Acres (3%) and Shine (3%). In print, Shine (7%), Travelguru (6%) and Indiatimes shopping (3%) were a part of the mix. This gives you a sense of what media company support can do in terms of advertising, though ironically, there aren’t many private treaties companies in the mix, apart from TravelGuru and Ezeego1.

I do think AdEx needs to take another look at their research - the “general category” needs to be split further for the TV analysis to be meaningful. More on TV and Print advertising by Internet sites.

Disclosure: I own shares of Info Edge and Network18

NDTV Board Approves Demerger Of News, Non-News Businesses

BSE listed NDTV Ltd will be split into two groups of companies - one of which will focus on the News business, while the other will focus on the Entertainment business. Both the companies will be listed on the BSE, and for every one share of NDTV Ltd, shareholders will receive one share each of the News and Entertainment businesses. The names for the two entities haven’t been announced yet. The demerger will take place on 1st April 2009.

Impact On NDTV Convergence and NDTV Networks PLC
NDTV Convergence, which houses the groups Internet and Mobile businesses, is a subsidiary of NDTV Networks PLC, will not be affected directly by this move. However NDTV Networks PLC, which is a subsidiary of NDTV Ltd, and had raised $150 million for a 26 percent stake from NBC Universal, is, in all likelihood, going to be a part of the Entertainment segment.

While the market isn’t right (take a look at the decline in NDTVs share price), our take is that the two businesses have been separated in order to raise further capital for the entertainment business. Fundraising for the News and current affairs business is constrained by a government mandated 26 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit. By separating the two, NDTV will be free to sell as much equity as it wants for the Entertainment business. Who’s going to pick up stake in the Entertainment business? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s NBC Universal that increases their holding.

Info Edge To Launch FirstNaukri.com For Freshers

In the year-end earnings call in April, Info Edge MD Sanjeev Bikhchandani had said that they’re evaluating the freshers segment, and may be launching a site within 6-9 months. With the Q2 having ended, and no earnings results yet, Info Edge has announced that they’re launching a job site called FirstNaukri targeting freshers segment, reports FE.

The site isn’t live yet, but what’s interesting is that they acquired the domain name from FirstNaukri Solutions Pvt Ltd, around 6-9 months ago. Here’s a screenshot of the old site (via Sitereviewboard)

While one may argue that they are just carving one particular segment out of their main jobs site Naukri, this is a segment that requires separate focus: most jobs on job sites seek those with work experience. A separate site for freshers will allow them to have a separate team focusing on this segment, and effectively keep the same users within the Naukri ecosystem from the time they seek admissions (Shiksha) to when they’re looking for their first job (FirstNaukri), and finally, job switching (Naukri).

This is by no means a new segment: JAM Magazine, a youth-centric magazine had launched a job site called JobOKPlease last year. Rajiv Dingra of WATBlog had a job site called jobs4freshers, but that now appears to be defunct. Any others?

Update: other sites targeting freshers include Hello Intern, Freshers World, …

What Naukri Can Do Differently

At present, Naukri lists only 3967 jobs for Freshers and Trainees, though I suppose freshers would also apply for jobs that require only 1-2 years of work experience. I also think that Naukri should approach this segment a little differently; they already are in touch with colleges for their educational portal Shiksha.

They can allow colleges to host portfolios of their students online; remember, private colleges like Amity, Wigan & Leigh and IIPM pitch their placements to students in order to get admissions, and this would address a pain point for their placement committees, by allowing recruiters to go through the profiles online. That, however, will require a regular interface with colleges, and getting all the colleges to put up student profiles will be quite a pain. They might just go in for a simple marketplace model.

Disclosure: I own an inconsequential number of shares of Info Edge (India) Ltd

Teething Troubles For Google’s SMS Channels In India; Battle At The SMSC

If you’re a publisher who has set up a Google SMS Channel, it’s likely that you already know about this: Google has been having problems delivering SMS / text alerts since the launch. Some messages aren’t being picked up from the RSS feeds, they’re being delivered as much as a day late, or aren’t being delivered at all. We’ve faced these issues with the channel we had set up, and readers have SMSed us regarding undelivered messages (they’ve had to “poke” for updates), not just from the MediaNama channel, but also from Google News.

It’s likely that the problem is with the overburdened SMS Center (SMSC), which routes all the SMS traffic on an operators network. Below is a simple diagram of how SMS’ are sent and received in an operator network, for both pull and push services.

SMSCs can be both mobile operator managed, or set up by a third party. Assuming around 300 million SMS being delivered in India a day, that’s an average of around 3470 SMS being sent per second in India; some of the SMSCs of larger operators like Airtel, Idea and Vodafone will be handling substantially more traffic, and the number will obviously be higher for the daytime hours. As Thejo had mentioned in response to my comment on his blog, availability of bandwidth on the SMSC is huge issue, “one that will determine whether the service is going to do well.”

But the opportunity
The flexibility of converting RSS feeds to SMS’ is immense, and this is where Google has a distinct advantage. For example, you can take the RSS feeds for your GMail email, and create a separate, closed SMS channel, and set up an alert for every time you get a new mail. Similarly, you can do a Google News search, say, for “Lewis Hamilton”, and add that RSS feed to a separate Google SMS Channel. And you create your own news alert. Just like Google offers email alerts, I wouldn’t be surprised if they began offering SMS alerts of their service directly to users, without them having to manually set up an SMS channel.

But then there’s no point if you’re getting the alert a day late, or not at all.

Does MyToday Feel Threatened?
Rajesh Jain, MD of Netcore (MyToday) doesn’t think so. He tells WATBlog:

“When one is first in a market, there is bound to be competition sooner or later. In fact, in the coming months, I expect many more companies to enter this space. In the Internet too, IndiaWorld was the first portal (which I had launched in March 1995), and in the subsequent years we had various players enter the market. Over the subsequent years, many dropped out. IndiaWorld thrived, consolidated its market leadership position, and won…One (Google SMS) is a user-generated and ad hoc content, while we (MyToday) believe in offering editorial content with specific deliverables which help in creating habit in consumption as our recent Nielsen study (covering 5,000 users) had shown.”

What MyToday and GupShup have is a captive user base on SMS: that takes time to acquire, and people tend not to unsubscribe from free subscription services unless the spam becomes unbearable. It’s unlikely that one will cannibalize on the other, but for a publisher, the quality of the service is critical, and that battle will be won at the SMSC.

Related:

- Google Gets Into The Push SMS Business In India, Takes On MyToday, SMS Gupshup
– Analysis of the Cost of Push SMS Services

Weekly WrapUp (Sep 29-Oct3)

Most read story of the week: Google Gets Into The Push SMS Business In India, Takes On MyToday, SMS Gupshup

Others stories at MediaNama

- Telecom Operators Outsource Game Deck Management…Finally
- Report: Allianz To Sell Telecom License To Swan Just 2 Months After Receiving It
- Mobile Retailer Univercell Raised $21 Million From Peepul Capital
- Indiatimes 58888 Launches MoCoLife Keywords
- MyTime To Get Two IPTV Specific Channels - ISKON & IGNOU
- Bharatmatrimony Launched On Airtel Live
- Consim Takes On Tamilmatrimony.co.in Over Trademarked Name
- BCCI.tv Launched By Global Cricket Ventures, A Live Current Media - NetlinkBlue JV
- At Telecom CEO Conclave: Code Of Conduct, Taxes, Rural Challenges; DoT Approval For VAS?
Our coverage of the NASSCOM EmergeOut Conclave

– Subroto Bagchi, Mindtree: Customers, Products Will Change; 60% Time On Sales
– On Hiring, Planning, Investment, Networking, Pricing, Customers
–  Tips For Before And After Your Funding from Sanjay Anandram, Sanjiv Mittal, Manu Parpia

Jobs

- Marketing Manager at Opera Software - Chandigarh, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore

Detailed jobs here. To post jobs, contact nikhil@medianama.com

Report: Allianz To Sell Telecom License To Swan Just 2 Months After Receiving It

So did they just buy to sell? If this report from the Economic Times is to be believed, Allianz Infratech, which has licenses to operate telecom services in the states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, is likely to sell the licenses to Swan Telecom. Swan, itself a new telecom operator, has inked a deal with UAEs Etisalat, selling 45 percent for $900 million. ET says the Allianz deal “may run into hundreds of crores”, while Swan had only paid Rs. 30 crores for the licenses. Swan has licenses for 13 circles, and the Allianz acquisition would increase that number to 15 of the 22 circles.

As per the records published by the Department of Telecom, Allianz’ Universal Access Service (UAS) license for Bihar and Madhya Pradesh came into effect on 31st July and 1st August 2008 respectively. Take a look at this MS Excel sheet from the DoTs website, issued on the 31st of August.

This is the only grant of a license since January 25th 2008, when a majority of licenses were handed out. In fact, here’s a CNBC-TV18 report, according to which Allianz Infra failed to bag a Letter of Intent for telecom services.

The initial rejection had been due to the fact that their net worth was less than the mandated Rs. 1350 crores. Does that mean that other companies who did not get a license then, may approach the DoT again? Some transparency, please.

Mobile Retailer Univercell Raised $21 Million From Peepul Capital

Univercell, a Chennai based mobile retail chain, has announced that it has received Rs. 100 Crores (around $21.5 Million) in four tranches of investment since 2007, from Peepul Capital (formerly iLabs). The Hindu reports that Univercell will use the money to increase the number of retail outlets from 167 to over 300 by March 2009. The company is targeting an expansion into the states of Orissa and West Bengal.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a number of such retail chains set up - Subhiksha Mobile, HotSpot (BK Modi Group), The Mobile Store (Essar-Virgin Joint Venture), MobileNXT (Network18 owns 35 pc, $2 million from Advendus Advisors and angel investors). Pantaloon also has a Joint Venture with Axiom Telecom, but we haven’t heard of it since the announcement.

Univercell reported revenues of Rs. 350 crores in 2007-08. What’s interesting about Univercells plans is the tie-up with Spencers for shop-in-shop outlets at Music World, though the company appears to be more keen on opening standalone outlets.

Do branded retail outlets have anything to offer to the average customer that a regular retail outlet doesn’t? They can never match the distribution reach of the unorganized sector, so if you’re looking for convenience, there’s probably a shop across the road or a few kilometers away from your home or office. Handset retailers like Nokia have their own after-sales-service infrastructure set up, so that’s one hassle taken care of. I’m told the margins in handset retail aren’t very high (a couple of hundred bucks), so can these chains afford to have a presence in the main markets in cities? Even when it comes to value added services, a shop in Heera Panna or Ghafar Market will give pirated content on a memory card, which these retailers can’t stock. Univercell, on its part, is offering insurance against theft and damage, in a tie-up with Oriental Insurance.

So why not a shop-in-shop model?

Disclosure: I own a few shares of Network18, which owns 35 percent in MobileNXT

Asides

• For fans of pop culture, here's a blast from the past: it appears a movie is being made on Quick Gun Murugan, a spoof of Spaghetti Western classics that used to appear on Channel V. Take a look at the movie trailer, and here's an old clip from the irreverent TV series. Expect this to spread like wildfire. Apart from "Mind it", another phrase that became a part of Indian pop culture is "We are like this only". What else? #
• ...or so it seems. Ironically, at a time when I was stuck in a traffic jam near Raj Ghat in Delhi because of a massive rally which had blocked on Ring Road, I received the following SMS: "Let us follow the path of truth and non violence shown by Mahatma Gandhi - Ministry of Information & Broadcasting" If it's unsolicited and not relevant to the user, then it is spam. I have registered a complaint (Complaint number - 18625407) with Airtel against the IB Min, as well as two other SMS spammers. I doubt that they take action against any of them. All I get is a lame SMS from Airtel that reads "Your DND Request is related to another service provider. We have  forwarded your complaint to them for necessary action." Isn't it sad that the government didn't send out an SMS at the time of the Delhi Bomb Blasts, informing people about helpline numbers, or asking them to stay calm, stay indoors and avoid marketplaces that may be crowded? That could have been relevant, even if unsolicited. P.s: I hope banks have learnt from the current financial crisis, will stop offering everyone with a mobile phone 50,000 loans a year (mild exaggeration). #
• The Jabberwock weighs in on editorial meetings, and brightens up this busy (early) Monday morning. Love the quote from  Waiting for Godot. What are your meetings like? P.s.: My favourite line from Godot - "Nothing to be done." Timeless. #
• This is for the journalists - I just read about SpinSpotter, a startup that demo'ed at Demo '08. SpinSpotter "looks for areas of news which appear to present editorial opinion as fact". It judges content on six parameters - personal voice, passive voice, a biased source, disregarded context, selective disclosure and lack of balance. The software itself isn't up to speed yet - it apparently detected no spin on Valleywag (Ha!), but will learn from the content its users mark as spin. My take - News needs to learn from History, literally, and offer multiple perspectives, multiple opinions. Thankfully, the Internet allows readers that luxury of reading multiple perpectives - a story without personal voice, and with everything balanced out is like a dry well. We need more opinionated writers, more contrarian viewpoints. Update: Raju Narisetti, Editor of Mint, weighs in on SpinSpotter here. I agree, it'll be fun to have a feature which allows readers to judge if press releases are being copy-pasted as news stories. #
• "It was also explained to us by Buro Lahiri (sadly no more) the reason behind the setting up of TSM. As per him SJ realised that the media planners plan their media 1/4 by data (can be manipulated so no one really trusts) and 3/4 by guts and what he reads. His reasoning was, as over the years the students from this Institute proliferate and join agencies and take marketing decision-making positions in Orgs they would have a natural bias towards the group thereby making the sales job easier." A post on the business of print media, by SN Bhaduri, Head of the Consumer Media Division for Thomson Reuters in India; lessons there for the digital space as well: we've heard time and again about the paucity of people in the digital space - particularly on the sales side. So far, we've got the Digital Marketing Institute. Is that it? Although, the joke is that Indiatimes should be given a university status. I've heard ex-Indiatimes executives talk about former colleagues as being from a particular "Batch" :D #