Recently Trai has issued a notice about the telecom operators percentage contribution to the billing disputes by Aircel, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL and MTS which varies between 0.11 percent and 2.42 percent. Of which lowest score is 2.42 percent scored by Aircel’s Maharashtra.

Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Rajasthan were most of the disputed regions where Aircel postpaid bill has dropped from 0.11 to 0.25 percent.

Jammu and Kashmir, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa also face the same billing dispute but only to the prepaid segment customers. In terms of percentage Aircel has contributed almost 0.11 to 2.42 percent in the above following circles.

Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka were facing off the same problem i.e. non-compliant billing benchmark for Idea postpaid subscribers.

As per Trai’s new report, Aircel & Idea were the two telco operators could not resolve  the billing benchmark issue.

Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (East) were some circles where Vodafone does not meet Trai’s billing benchmark expectation not fulfilled by the company in terms of postpaid segment. In prepaid segment company faces 0.24 percent bill disputes in Bihar circle.

Recently as per news launched by the regulator lot of customers is saying that a call is being answered nowadays in more than one minute from the so-called operators like Aircel, BSNL, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Uninor and Vodafone.

A new ICRA to be signed on between two big private operators one is Aircel & another is Reliance to continue uninterrupted services by expanding the network coverage across the whole country by offering handsome amount of facilities.

Already RCOM’s possess network foot print which would be expanded by 10,000 base stations which will attract 100 million customers where the market value is around 10,000 crore. So, Reliance is very much interested in ICRA which going to be initiated soon to the existing 2G GSM operators across India. The main advantage will be for the roaming customers as they will not be charged any additional fee.

‘Pay As You Use’ model is the term mentioned in the agreement between Aircel & Reliance to improve quality of service & also to operate efficiently. Capex and Opex will get optimized as soon as the alliance becomes effective which will really improve network coverage like in-building & outdoor.

At the end of second quarter Reliance is hoping that some positive outcome will be there as the company is in talk with several other operators.

A low cost data plan has introduced by mobile operator Aircel & by introducing this offer company’s main objective was to push the threshold mark of mobile internet. The plan has named as PI 24 under brand name Pocket Internet. The users can avail this facility for 30 days with 100 MB usage of data.

Right now the above plan is available for 2G customers but the company is planning to launch the similar kind of offer to 3G customers. Again if the data volume usage finishes beyond 100 MB then the customer has only two option one is to recharge the plan again & another is to switch to another plan.

”India has the third largest internet users in the world and is rapidly adding 70 million mobile internet users a year. It is ironic that despite this exponential growth, a majority of the Indian population has never experienced internet on their mobile phones. These customers have used internet in cyber cafes and desktops but have never experienced internet on their phones due to limited awareness and knowledge of mobile internet. With Pocket Internet 24, we aim to tap this segment and drive internet adoption among first time internet users,” as per commented by Chief Marketing Officer Mr. Anupam Vasudev.

North East, Jammu & Kashmir, Orissa, Kolkata and Rest of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Bihar were some of the circles where Pocket Internet 24 will be available & in rest of the circles it will launch on 24th April,2013.

This concept of Pocket Internet provides a span of time for an user to think about the internet surfing process & removes the fear of overspending the money.

ICICI & Aircel together had launched a new banking service known as Mobile Money. This service will be run on Visa mobile managed service.

This facility will bring such exclusive financial services like cash withdrawals,cash deposits and money transfer to third parties.

As per joint press release from telco operator & bank these great service will be soon roll out in other parts of India with Tamil Nadu  being first in this current year.

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The new tariff plan has named as ”One Nation, One Rate’’. This unique plan has an unique facility for all mobile subscribers across India i.e. the user can avail the voice, data, sms facilities in home & roaming circle at a same rate.

Surely, by launching this unique product Aircel will bring a revolutionary change in the telecom history.

The Tariff details are mentioned below:

Voice: 1 p/sec Local & National Calling in Home & Roaming Circle. But while roaming incoming calls will be free on Aircel network.

SMS: Re 1 for Local & National SMS.

Data: Mobile Users will be able to take away their dongle while on roaming for free.

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COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) one organization which tracks subscriber database of GSM operators. Recently, Operators have subscriber base of around 657.16 million already given away 6.62 million i.e. down by 1 percent from November month.

There were quite several reasons behind such reduction of subscriber base. One of them is inactive SIMs disconnection & another is customer verification of SIM on every new connection.

The number of subscriber lost by Vodafone is 3.28 m, Airtel is 1.7 m, Idea is 0.19m & Aircel is 1.97 m. On the other hand Uninor is on the profitable side by adding up 0.91 m subscribers due to the cheaper tariff plans.

Rajan Mathews COAI director told that “GSM customer numbers continue to drop as there has been a visible reduction in growth adds since there’s been no relaxation in DoT’s tough customer verification rules, coupled with the weeding out of idle customers being undertaken by all GSM carriers’’.

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DoT has issued a new notice to major Telco operators Airtel & Vodafone to pay onetime fee of around Rs 3,800 crore for excess spectrum.

As per some sources DoT has told Vodafone as an option to pay Rs 2093.61 crore as first instalment, out of total of about Rs. 3,599 in January.

Similarly, Airtel has also given an option of paying Rs. 1,758.07 crore this month as first instalment from the total amount of Rs. 5,201.24 crore for retaining excess spectrum.

This spectrum fee payment will also include state owned BSNL who has been asked to pay Rs 6,912 crore as a total amount, followed by MTNL (Rs 3,205 crore), Idea Cellular was asked pay Rs. 2,113 crore (including Rs. 231.5 crore of Spice), Aircel Rs. 1,365 crore (including Rs. 14 crore of Dishnet), Loop Mobile Rs. 606 crore and Reliance Communications Rs. 173 crore. But still the payment schedule remains in ascertain position.

For the excess radio waves (spectrum) hold by mobile operators , the government is likely to take Rs 18,926 for prospective charges (Future Fees) & Rs 4,252 for retrospective charges (One-time Fees). In total Rs 23,177 crore to be charged as a one time fee.

Already for 4.4 MHz spectrum mobile operators have paid Rs 1,658 crore for  pan-India operations  & extra 1.8 MHz were entitled to fill up the subscriber base criteria. In November, the government decided that the operators should pay for holding spectrum above 6.2 MHz retrospectively, from July 2008 to January 1, 2013.As per decided on last November ,they would have to pay for the remaining period of their licenses.

Sources said the Department of Telecom (DoT) has tentatively fixed provisional rate for spectrum in 1800 Mhz band for Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka circles where it did not receive any bids, as also for the more efficient 900 MHz band.

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Aircel’s expectation to launch 4G services in India in the December month 2012 was failed. As we all know that some operators like Airtel have already launched this 4G service & some operators like Reliance Infotel, Tikona is likely to launch this service in the upcoming few months.

Already Aircel has won 4G spectrum of 20 MHz on 2300 MHz band in 8 circles like – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, North-East, and Jammu & Kashmir. Mostly the circles fall under tier-II & tier-III cities.

But the biggest challenge is to provide adequate services to customers which require larger investments in BWA spectrum. Again to create that 4G (LTE) ecosystem including handsets, new optic fiber networks as well as new electronics at sites.

Recent Aircel spokesperson shared that ‘’ To start the 4G services we require good availability of 4G based handsets, fiber roll out, electronic equipments at towers site.

The main objective of this 4G service will be to provide internet on broadband, education and health care services, video on demand & others.

Already earlier Aircel has told to launch LTE-TDD/ 4G services in Chennai location in between October & December month in the year 2012.

For easier 4G service deployment Aircel has already implemented Wi-Fi Hot-Spots in many of its circles via. Spectra Net.

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Recently the Telco watch dog of India TRAI has issued a strict guidelines for all tel-co operators to maintain high quality standards in their wireless services.

Already TRAI has recommended all Wireless Service Providers to set up a test consisting of servers & test probes in those geographical locations where the providers possess licenses as per Wireless Data Services Regulations, 2012.

TRAI has recommended Wireless Service Providers to maintain following benchmarks like: activation or provision of data services, download/upload data transmission successful attempts from a test server, as per tariff plans maintain download speed from the test server, average Throughput for Packet data from a test server for all tariff plans, latency for data services from a test server, PDP Context Activation Success Rate and data Drop rate.

Lastly, the Wireless Service Providers must mention all the tariff plans & the kinds of data services available as per circles in their websites.

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Recently a battle waged between Vodafone & Aircel the two major tel-co operators in India over SMS termination charges. But as per TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) directives Vodafone must restore back the SMS service connection on Aircel network & also told Aircel to pay 5 paisa per SMS to Vodafone as a termination fee till the matter is completely resolved.

Again termination charges means the cost incurred by that operator on whose network calls or SMSs originate to the one on whose network these communications end. The charges impact tariffs.

It is told that rates of termination charges demanded by Vodafone needs to be examined  & check it whether it is according to regulation & charges applicable are transparent, reciprocal and nondiscriminatory.

Aircel put an objection on the payment of Rs 40 crore or the period between April 2011 and September 2012, demanded by Vodafone respectively of which SMS termination facility have been disconnected in 5 circles.

 Author: Biswajit Biswas (Technical Writer)

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