Mobile Firms Add 7.3 M GSM Users In March

New Delhi: Mobile operators added a record 7.3 million users in March on the popular GSM platform, an industry body said on Friday, boosted by cheap call tariffs in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

The jump underscored robust demand in a market where only a quarter of the population has access to a phone, and followed 5.9 million customers signed in February, data from the Cellular Operators' Association of India showed.

The mobile market in India is booming thanks to call rates of as low as one U.S. cent a minute, availability of cheap handsets and expansion of networks to smaller towns and rural areas.

At end-February, there were nearly 251 million wireless subscribers in India, behind China and the United States.

By mid-April, India is expected to become the world's second-biggest mobile market, the country's telecom regulator said last month.

Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile operator, led the signings, adding 2.3 million subscribers in March to take its to almost 62 million.

The latest data does not include Reliance Communications Ltd, India's No. 2 mobile firm, whose customers are mainly on the rival CDMA platform.

In February, it had added 1.61 million users, including on its expanding GSM services, giving it a total of 44.2 million.

Vodafone Essar Ltd, controlled by Britain's Vodafone, added 1.57 million users in March, to take its subscriber base to 44.1 million, the association said.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd added 1.64 million users in March, taking its total to 36.2 million. The firm had added 824,284 users in February.

Idea Cellular gained 1.1 million subscribers in March, lifting its user base to 24 million.

Spice Communications Ltd, which operates in only two of India's 22 telecom zones, added 126,464 users in March to have a total of 4.2 million subscribers.

State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which operates in the Delhi and Mumbai circles, added 120,020 GSM mobile subscribers in March, taking its total user base to 3.2 million. MTNL also has some CDMA subscribers.

Nokia Revamps Biz Strategy

Goa: In a bid to sustain its leadership position in the Indian mobile handset market, Nokia is shifting gears by restructuring its business strategy with a focus on offering services and solutions.

Under the new organisation, Nokia will have three main units. Until now, Nokia had its operations under mobile phones, enterprises and multimedia businesses. These three segments have been collapsed into a single devices unit, responsible for creating the best device portfolio for the marketplace. In addition, Nokia has introduced two new business divisions - Services & Software, reflecting Nokia’s strategic emphasis on growing its offering of consumer Internet services and enterprise solutions and software and markets, responsible for management of Nokia’s supply chains, sales channels and marketing activities.

Ovi initiative

As part of Nokia’s new focus on the services segment, the company is in talks with Indian operators to offer a range of Internet applications on its recently launched platform - Ovi. Nokia plans to offer services based on music, gaming, navigation and entertainment.

D. Shivakumar, Vice-President & Managing Director, Nokia India, told Business Line, “Ovi is an important initiative for Nokia in its efforts to bring the power of communication to the consumer. Ovi, meaning ‘door’ in Finnish, enables consumers to easily access their existing social network, communities and content, as well as acts as a gateway to Nokia services. We should be in a position to roll this out in India in phases this year."

As part of Ovi, Nokia will bring its Music Store and N-Gage that will enable mobile users to buy music and games from a range of artists and publishers, including exclusive content available only through Nokia. The company is in talks with all major Indian music labels for this initiative.

Also under the Ovi umbrella is Nokia Maps, a navigation service that offers maps, city guides and more directly to compatible mobile devices. The company plans to charge a fee from users for the service though India-specific plans are still being worked out on this front.

Pricing issues

However, the key issue would be the price point at which the services will be offered to consumers. “In India everything is free. TV is free and so is Internet. So we have to find a way to monetise the services being offered by Ovi. It could be a mix of free and paid content,” said Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Go To Market, Nokia India.

Another issue will be the revenue share arrangement between Nokia and the operators.