Telecom Diary News Today

Since 2018, the telecom regulator Trai has been diligently working to combat the nuisance of spam calls. However, despite their efforts, it continues to persist as spammers find ways to circumvent regulations everytime. Ultimately, it is the mobile consumers who bear the brunt of this ongoing challenge.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom players including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, has been demanding ‘same service same rules’ with a fair charge to be levied and decided mutually between telcos and OTT players who must contribute towards creating and developing digital telecom infrastructure in India in exchange for using the network.

The recent numbers show Vodafone Idea continues to witness subscriber churn with a 2 million (month on month) decline in gross subscriber base to reach at 225 million in October while active subscribers base declined by 1.4 million (month on month) to reach 198 million in the same month. It’s 4G subscriber base came down as well 0.8 million (month on month) to 126 million.

The telecom industry may have taken the lead in the launch of 5G services but availability of affordable handsets assumes importance for wider adoption of services. Along with this, emergence of relevant 5G use cases for consumer and enterprise segments is key to solving the monetisation riddle for telecom players.

At the event, the Hsinchu-based firm launched its flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9300 for premium 5G smartphones. The chief executive believes that the new chipset could bring in over $1 billion for the company.

Reliance Jio: Both the firms plan to launch their services soon but are understood to be eyeing different audiences. Jio plans to tap rural and remote areas, as well as urban locations to give users multiple options to access the internet. While OneWeb is looking at tapping the enterprise segment for the satellite communications market in India, like it does across the globe. The enterprise segment would include defence sector, maritime, aviation and government departments.

According to the latest data from telecom regulator TRAI, Vodafone Idea lost 1.32 million million subscribers in the month of July. It has been losing out on its subscribers to rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio for more than a year now. In the same month, Jio added 3.9 million mobile users while Airtel added 1.51 million users, partly weighed down by sharp tariff hikes taken in its base prepaid rates.

According to analysts at JM Financial, the industry continues to struggle with the development of any exclusive use cases of 5G apart from 5G FWA. Though with 5G FWA as well, monetisation is likely to be gradual with limited penetration amidst the absence of killer use cases.

Satellite Communications: Both the segments are taking turns to present legal opinions from the fraternity to add weightage to their viewpoint. Jio has submitted two legal opinions from former Supreme Court judges batting for the auction model. This has come close on the heels of satcom companies sharing views of former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi who opined auction isn’t the most appropriate and efficient method of resource allocation.

Vodafone Idea: Last August, it bought 5G spectrum in the 3300 MHz and 26 GHz frequency bands for Rs 18,799 crore. The airwaves were allocated to Vi by the middle of September 2022, and that binds the telco to fulfill mandatory auction conditions.