PwC India today shared top trends and wish-list for Indian telecom industry in 2015 and said India will have 10-15 million 4G LTE subscribers next year.
Incidentally, Reliance Jio Infocomm, the Mukesh Ambani-promoted telecom venture of Reliance Industries (RIL) are gearing up to launch its 4G on both TD-LTE and FD-LTE technologies early next year.
“We expect 4G LTE subscribers to reach 10-15 million by December 2015 driven by competitive pricing, superior network experience and affordable smartphones,” said Arpita Pal Agrawal, leader – Telecom, PwC India, in a statement.
This apart, Bharti Airtel, the Sunil Mittal-promoted telecom operator, is slowly expanding its 4G presence in select cities using TD-LTE technology. Airtel will also likely to launch 4G on FD-LTE next year.
Currently, Bharti Airtel and Malaysia’s Maxis-joint venture Aircel have limited 4G presence. Though Aircel officially announced the launch of 4G services, its website does not have any tariff details or other related data.
On Thursday, Uninor, a subsidiary of Telenor, said it would start trials on narrow-band LTE due to limited availability of spectrum, one of the main demands of Indian telecom operators.
ALSO READ: Uninor plans narrow-band LTE trials in India
With limited spectrum and lack of eagerness to invest in advanced technologies such as 3G and 4G, Indian telecom operators are unable to increase their ARPU. For instance, Indian operators’ ARPU stands at nearly $3 against Verizon’s ARPU of $47. The huge difference is because of income levels and investment in network technologies that can improve customer experience.
ALSO READ: Wireless ARPU of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile dip
At a telecom event organized by mobile network vendor Ericsson and COAI, participants urged Indian telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to release additional spectrum to ensure better services and coverage.
ALSO READ: Ericsson India’s Chris Houghton: Telecoms need to invest in new networks
One of the demands of Ericsson India head Chris Houghton was investment by telecom operators in advanced networks and availability of spectrum.
The following is the wish list of PwC India
# In 2015, Indian players will be launching 4G on a more efficient 1800 MHz spectrum and Indians subscribers will adopt 4G wholeheartedly to satiate their need for mobile data.
# Public Wi-Fi will be a bigger phenomenon; while wired broadband will remain work-in-progress. India will see a significant spurt in Wi-Fi hotspots driven by both Government Smart Cities and Digital India and private sector initiatives. Wired broadband for retails consumers is likely to remain work in progress by end of 2015.
# In the wearables space, Indian consumers have shown most interest in buying fitness monitors (80 percent), smart watches (76 percent) and internet-enabled eyeglasses (74 percent). Price points are expected to go down with Chinese / local manufacturing. Increasing penetration of smartphones and their ability to carry confidential subscriber data will be a significant driver for traction in security applications for smartphones.
# Given the steadily increasing divergence between data revenues and cost, a trend that will likely sharpen in 2015, mobile companies will start looking at unconventional monetization options. These would span strengthening of internal capabilities to offer differentiated network experience (Smart Pipes), as well as harnessing the extended ecosystem including OTT plays.
# Current M&A guidelines have not been able to stimulate any consolidation in the sector despite all policy makers having expressed the need for it. With new network launches expected in 2015, rapidly growing data market will witness intense price competition and will rekindle memories of 2010 voice led price wars.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
