COAI (Cellular Association of India) chairman and Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania today spoke at a press meet to announce the new logo and brand identity of COAI.

TelecomLead.com, India’s #1 B2B telecom portal, is sharing the highlights of the speech of the MD of Idea Cellular, which is expanding its presence in Indian rural market and 3G with a number of innovations.

COAI, since its inception in 1995, with a core group of 6 members, today represents over 70 percent of the mobile market of the country.

COAI has facilitated a smooth and productive dialogue between the GSM telecom operators in India, the Indian telecom regulator (TRAI), and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) of the Government of India, to help perpetuate affordable mobile services to Indian citizens in all corners of the country.

We engage with not just the government and regulators, but handle multiple mobile services public concerns. We are actively involved in creating better telecom standards and technological excellence in this field through, Telecom Centres of Excellence.

To keep in tune with the emerging new business models in telecom beyond voice into next generation services, the association decided that it was time to re-brand ourselves.

The association’s re-branding exercise represents the new energy and dynamism in the sector, the evolution of consumer expectations and preparedness of the association to adapt to emerging technologies and ever-changing needs and aspirations of Indian consumers.

COAI will strive hard and try to exceed all the expectations and goals identified in the National Telecom Policy 2012 by introducing the latest innovative technologies, affordable products, as well as continuing to extend telecom services to all strata of society. The next wave of telecom will cover the rest of rural India, the bottom of pyramid customers at one end, while ushering in an era of deep mobile broadband penetration across the length and breadth of the country. The government’s own estimate indicates a forty fold increase in broadband subscriber base in the next eight years, and I would like to reiterate the GSM sector and COAI’s wholehearted commitment to this daunting task laid out by the government of connecting this large nation.

India is today inching towards the landmark figure of one billion mobile subscriptions by the year 2014. By the middle of 2013, the Indian mobile subscriber base stood at 875 million and the country contributed over 13 percent to the global subscription base. Inspite of its overweight, India is still a part of the unfinished growth story in global voice telephony and subscriber growth.

Based on April to June 2013 quarter revenue release, the Indian mobile industry has grown to an estimated Rs 160,000 crore or $27 billio, but the nation remains a global pygmy in revenue terms – a meager 2.3 percent of estimated the global telecom revenue of $1,160 billion. This is because Indian operators have sacrificed short term gains for meeting the government’s long term objectives of ‘mobile for all Indians’ by offering among the lowest global tariffs. Inspite of these low voice realized rates, the GSM industry has accounted for among the highest cumulative FDI in the country, heavily financially leveraged by over Rs 211,000 crore to invest aggressively with an aggregate gross block of over Rs 663,000 crore.

But, despite a huge period of low & negative profitability, the GSM body is solidly behind the vision for India Telecom 2020. The very well-articulated NTP 2012 vision document reflects that a huge unfinished task still remains for the growth of rural voice services expansion from the present 300,000 villages to 400,000 villages and the theme of Broadband for All.  The industry is eager to partner and support the Govt. to achieve its goals.

Today, India continues to be one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world. The telecommunications sector contributes about 3 percent to India’s GDP, along with Information Technology, and has greatly accelerated the growth of the economic and social sectors. The industry has demonstrated, time and again, that this critical infrastructure can be utilized for the upliftment of the society and even help overcome natural or man-made disasters.

This year alone, we have witnessed two of the biggest natural calamities in the history of the nation. Our people held their nerve and braved the terrains of Uttarakhand to fully support the relief and rescue operations in the region. The network was restored in record time, re-connecting the stranded people and their families with their loved ones back home, according to Idea Cellular MD.

Be it in the mountains or the sea-coast, the telecommunications infrastructure has stood by the people! The recent cyclone, too, could not deter our spirits as the industry members worked 24×7 to ensure that the local citizens and Govt. authorities could leverage our networks in this time of crisis.

The industry efforts in connecting the unconnected has resulted in a three-fold growth in wireless subscriber base from 300 million in 2008 to nearly 900 million today. However, rural wireless teledensity is still at a low of 40 percent and over 300 million Indians are not connected yet. I’m hopeful that the industry will also attract certain incentives from the Govt. if it continues to remain focused on growing rural telephony.

Looking forward, voice is likely to remain the mainstay of mobility services for the next few years. While we broaden our horizons, we should also continue our efforts to grow basic voice telephony services and increase rural penetration. The growing MOU on our networks suggest that the mobile users’ appetite for voice services is not likely to go down, anytime soon. This is yet another indication that Voice still has a lot of juice!

The mobile phone is increasingly becoming the first screen for many people. It is now the first screen, and many a times the only screen, for a large population residing in rural areas where TV and Desktop computers are still a distant reality due to lack of access and power. This trend transcends rural-urban boundaries and demographic profiles

It is our duty to give to our future generations, the best in technology, for their overall development and further advancement, in a safe and secure environment. It is time to shape the future! It beckons freedom and convenience through a digitally empowered life. The mobile device is increasingly becoming the fulcrum of all user activities, and we vow to empower the user with an ecosystem that can provide them with world-class services and experience.

The pre-requisites for enabling digital lifestyle are – Devices, Applications, and Coverage – to name a few. The ecosystem is growing, but more needs to be done. Devices are getting smarter, but affordability and availability of relevant content and applications, still remain an issue. Innovation in these areas, both at global and local levels, can bridge this gap! Device manufacturers have demonstrated capabilities of creating futuristic devices. We hope that they can now cater to the wallet of an average Indian consumer. Applications have to be localized to increase their uptake amongst diverse audience groups in different parts of the country. Last but not the least, Coverage can be enhanced with availability of more spectrum.

Unfortunately, India has become a case of limited spectrum quantum availability and high reserve price per MHz of spectrum. We would be happy to see rationalization in pricing of the spectrum to be in line with the Indian consumers’ ability to pay for these services and attract serious investors to invest in the business.

We are now bracing up for the mobile broadband revolution in India. Over 143 million people access internet on mobile devices, as compared to only about 22 million on desktop devices. The rapid pace of mobile broadband growth can be assessed from the fact that it was only about a year ago when internet access from mobile devices overtook desktop devices. However, a global comparison reveals that mobile back in May we reported that India’s fast growing mobile Internet usage was all set to overtake the country’s use of the fixed-line Web and now, four months later, the landmark has been crossed, according to StatCounter data from August.

The Internet measurement firm reports that, last month, mobile accounted for 51.63 percent of Web usage, with desktop devices making up the remaining 48.37 percent. That’s a first for India, and it follows a steady uptick in the share of Internet usage from mobile and tablet devices.

Internet penetration in India is still at an abysmal low level of just 4.9, against China’s 17.2, Singapore’s 123.3, Japan’s 113.1, and the US’ 74.7, according to an ITU report in 2012. Clearly, a lot of ground has been covered, but plenty more needs to be done.

The Broadband Wireless Access Auction in 2010 has been a major step in shaping the future of mobile-enabled India. This event not just showcased the prowess of e-auction and fine policy-making by the Government, but also kick-started the mobile broadband revolution in India. As per a recent report, in the last three to four years, people accessing Internet via 3G alone, surpassed the fixed-line broadband connections accrued over the past 17 years. This clearly shows the quick and wider acceptance of 3G.

The growth of mobile broadband and the robust telecom infrastructure in rural and urban India has opened a plethora of opportunities. The sector can be credited with not just empowering the rural communities socially and economically, but also enabling other critical basic services such as Health, Education, Banking etc on the mobile platform. Initial steps have been taken by us to enable m-Health, m-Education, m-Banking, and even m-Governance services to reach out to the remote corners of the country.

Each of these services not only has the capability to transform lives, but also huge business opportunities for the sector. For eg. mHealth will enable access to medical and healthcare services for a large section of people who don’t even have basic medical facilities in their vicinity. It is also a revenue opportunity worth Rs 3,000 crore in India, by 2017 (estimated by PwC).

mBanking is a major step in realizing the Govt’s dream of financial inclusion. The Banking and financial sector has limited access to the country’s population; juxtaposed with 80 percent of tele-density. The only way for Banking and financial services to reach out to the un-banked in a secure manner, is by leveraging the mobile platform.

Mobile Governance is the next big area of opportunity, both for the Government as well as for the Telecommunication industry. It allows transparency, convenience, reach, and rapid scale-up for the roll-out of various development programs like NREGA, AADHAR, AAKASH tablet, etc. 15 years ago when EVMs were first introduced for public voting in general elections, people were unsure of its efficacy. It will be a norm in the general elections of 2014. I will not be surprised if the mobile phone replaces EVM soon.

A shining bright day is ahead of us! The growth momentum has already been built. With our collective and sustained efforts, we can comfortably achieve the target of 600 million broadband connections by 2020.

Speech by COAI chairman and Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania at a COAI event
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