Case Study Telecom

STATUS
Operator/ Subscriber/ Market Share

• Bharti 1,606,702/22%
• Hutchison 1,510,296 21%
• IDEA 911,942 12%
• BPL 976,851 13%
• Reliance 414,175 6%
• BSNL 26,127 2 All India
• MTNL 201,174
Source: ITU
 Competitor Profiles
Brief profiles of key competitors in wireline:
• • BSNL / MTNL: These are the state-owned incumbents.
While MTNL services Delhi & Mumbai metros,
• BSNL operates services in the rest of India. As of March
2001, BSNL had 29 million subscribers and
• MTNL 4.4 million in Delhi & Mumbai.
• • Tata Teleservices + Hughes Tele.com: Following the
recent merger of these entities, they are currently the
largest basic services operator with 175,000 subscribers
across two circles – Maharashtra (includingMumbai) &
Andhra Pradesh. The Tata group has received Letter of
Intent for 15 wireline licences but selected four circles
(Delhi, TN, Karnataka & Gujarat) for implementation in
the first phase.
• • Reliance: Has plans to offer wireline services all-India in
17 circles. It currently offers services in parts of Gujarat
with about 5,000 connections in operation. Apart from the
focus on corporate clientele & data services, Reliance is
the only basic services operator with plans for extensive
WLL roll-out.
• • Bharti: Current operations in Madhya Pradesh has
128,000 subscribers. It plans to offer wireline services in
four more circles viz. Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka & Tamil
Nadu.
• • Shyam Telecom: Provides both wireline & GSM services
in Rajasthan circle. Its current wireline subscriber base is
estimated at 15,000.
• • Himachal Futuristic: Has rolled out services in Punjab
circle with an estimated 15,000 subscribers at present.
 Competitive Profile of the
Telecommunications Sector
The cellular sector is reasonably competitive with three
private operators providing service in almost all the circles
and metros.
While MTNL has started service in Mumbai and Delhi and
BSNL in a few states their presence so far is marginal. On
the other hand, in basic services, MTNL and BSNL
continue to dominate with only marginal presence of
private operators. In long distance BSNL is still the
dominant operator, with Bharti having made an entry as
the long distance carrier for calls from cellular. Bharti and
others may be able to compete with BSNL for fixed-line
traffic once carrier selection facilities have been put in
place, as per the direction of the TRAI. In International
Long Distance the new entrants are likely to provide
significant competition to VSNL, which after privatization
has to compete for BSNL and MTNL's international traffic
TRAI's assessment of competition in
wireline services
• In the case of basic services, the TRAI's
recent consultation paper on 'Tariffs for
Basic Services' notes that
• the share of BSNL and MTNL in basic
services continues to be over 98% of the
total market.