BSNL to bid for Millicom’s Sri Lanka operations

The management committee of BSNL on Wednesday approved a proposal to submit a bid to acquire the company.

Millicom International is selling its operations in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos. In Sri Lanka, its Tigo network is the third-largest mobile network with a subscriber base of over 2 million (20 lakh).

“We are looking at various opportunities to expand our operations in foreign markets,” said Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL. “This is one of them.” BSNL has undersea cable connectivity in Sri Lanka.

“BSNL has global aspirations and it has got cash reserves,” said B.K. Syngal, senior principal, Dua Consulting. “The PSUs have perception problem. They can not take quick decisions even if a deal is good. This deal could be a small step in demonstrating that BSNL can make acquisitions.”

At Rs 34,000 crore, BSNL is India’s second-largest telecom service provider, after Bharti Airtel’s Rs 37,000 crore.

Industry sources said BSNL would have to compete with a number of operators including Malaysia’s Axiata Group, Russia’s Vimpelcom and Etisalat from United Arab Emirates.

Sources said that Bharti, which already has operations in Sri Lanka, may also show interest in Millicom. Bharti’s subsidiary has over 1 million (10 lakh) subscribers in Sri Lanka.

BSNL’s foreign foray is in tune with Indian telecom companies looking overseas for expansion. Bharti Airtel is negotiating with South Africa-based MTN for a deal that will lead to the merger of the two companies. Essar group has bought telecom licences in Kenya and has ambitions to expand its operations in Africa.

Reliance Communications has plans to acquire telecom companies in overseas markets. It had earlier entered into negotiations with MTN but even after they failed it retains its Africa plans. The government-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is also looking at acquisitions abroad, said an MTNL official.

Just a sec: Tata-DoCoMo offer may intensify telecom tariff war

Bangalore: Gajanan Gowda (name changed), a teacher from Chikmagalur district in Karnataka uses his cellphone sparingly. Usually, his calls last less than a minute. But even if he makes a 20-second local call, he pays the price for a one-minute call.

In effect, Gowda pays for the extra 40 seconds that he is not using. For a large number of Indians like Gowda—especially those from semi-urban and rural areas where 50 paise and 25 paise coins are still valued—this is set to change.

Tata DoCoMo, a late entrant in the country’s hugely-popular GSM sector, has launched its services where customers will pay a paise for each second of usage. So for Gowda’s 20-second call, he will pay 20 paise, and not more. On a monthly basis, this could cut down on Gowda’s phone bill substantially.
The ‘pulse war’, as the telecom industry is terming the Tata DoCoMo move, was launched a month ago and has already caused a big flutter in the Indian mobile phone market. While it could change the way an average Indian pays for his mobile calls, the plan could also force incumbent telecom companies to either cut tariffs or go the Tata DoCoMo way of payby-the-pulse service

Many tier-II towns and rural areas are witnessing serpentine queues for Tata Do-CoMo Lifetime SIM cards. They cost Rs 99 and come with Rs 43 talktime.

Tata DoCoMo has entered nine circles including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, the rest of Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The service provider has been allocated spectrum for all the other telecom circles, except Delhi, and a country-wide rollout is expected in a few months.

“I had to stand in queue for hours together for three days to get a Tata DoCoMo SIM card. On the first two days, the SIM cards got over much before my turn came,’’ said Raju P M, a technician with Doordarshan in Dharmasthala in Karnataka.

Over 80,000 Tata DoCoMo SIM cards were sold on a single day in and around Mangalore. “I have been trying to get a SIM card since its launch, but, so far, I have not been successful,’’ said Ganesh Kedar, a teacher from Koppa in Chikmagalur. Similar stories have emerged from Lucknow, Nagpur, Kochi and Guntur in AP.

Tata officials told TOI that the market response was unprecedented. “It’s too early to give a number, since the service is just a month old now. However, we are truly overwhelmed,’’ said Anil Sardana, MD of Tata Teleservices. Tata DoCoMo has already exhausted the first 10-lakh number series in all their nine circles. In some circles, the service is close to moving to the third lot of 10-lakh numbers.

According to telecom analysts, no telecom tariff can get more simple and cheaper and therefore, Tata might become a true game-changer in the market. “Tata’s pulse game has actually made the rest of the industry sit up and take notice. The market will soon witness a ruthless onslaught with others too trying out similar services,’’ said a telecom analyst.


BSNL is said to be working on a pulse-based mobile service. However, BSNL (Karnataka), principal general manager, Ghosh Shubhendu, said he was not aware of any such plans.


Deepak Kumar, head of telecom research in IDC India, said, “The industry is currently in a wait-and-watch mode. Technology is not a barrier for anyone, but implementation and integration with existing networks and systems can be challenging.’’ According to a recent Trai survey, on an average, 20% of telecom tariff is levied against unused air-time. For instance, irrespective of the length of the call—be it 5 seconds or 60 seconds—callers are charged for the full minute.

Tata DoCoMo also offers a wide range of VAS (value added services) for the same tariff. Test messages are charged at a paisa a letter, without counting the space in between words. A message like “How are you?’’ will cost the subscriber 9 paise.

Source :Timesofindia

Chennai unit top producer for Nokia

Nokia’s Chennai factory is now the Finnish giant’s largest cellphone manufacturing facility by volume in the world, edging past China.


China has two factories while Chennai has one. Nokia’s Chennai plant has now gone past the larger of the two Chinese factories, which till date was the company’s largest in the world.


Nokia factory - Chennai


While the company refuses to divulge the annual capacity at its Chennai factory, a senior member of its global planning team said the unit is now indeed its largest manufacturing facility. Unofficial reports suggest Chennai manufactures over 100 million phones every year.

Interestingly, women make up over 70% of the 8,000-strong employee pool at the Chennai plant and are involved in a mix of running productions lines, maintenance and assembly & testing operations.
Nokia operates nine state-of-the-art mobile phone manufacturing units in India, Finland, China, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Romania and Hungary.

“The Chennai factory is the largest in Nokia’s global ecosystem, although the dynamics in terms of product line vary in each market. But the international markets that we serve out of Chennai have seen the largest growth in terms of volume. At present, Nokia ships GSM phones from the Chennai factory to over 50 markets spanning South-East Asia-Pacific (including Australia), India, the Middle East and Africa,” said the senior official who did not wish to be named.



courtesy : reuters