Mobile Tariff Hike - My Thoughts !

When Vodafone Idea announced their plan to hike tariff, I expect an increase of Rs 10-25 in most of plans, on 28 day validity plans. So on 84 day plan that would be Rs 30-75 increase. 

But as it shows, the increase is Rs 150 on 84-day validity plans (i.e. 3 months pack). That's nearly 40% increase. Also they proved themselves that they are hypocrites, as both incumbents separate onnet and offnet calling, just like Jio did that on the ground of IUC. 
Update: Both incumbents removed offnet call capping from their plans. 
Update 2: Jio continues to offer free Jio2Jio calling and adds some minutes for offnet calling, while Airtel and Vodafone offer unlimited calling to any network with their unlimited packs.

As they declared new revised plans on 3rd December, Jio too announced a tariff hike scheduled on 6th December. 

Jio will be the maximum Gainer !!

Jio told that they will be cheapest service provider, they could not hike tariff. With decision taken by incumbents, Jio now can blame the incumbents for market's motion of tariff hike. 

Jio is pretty much non-liable for payment due compared to incumbents, who have to shell out Rs 1 lakh crore for AGR adjusted payment due to GoI. So as the wave of tariff hike is going on, their ARPU will go up, and all will improve Jio's finance, way
better than Airtel and VIL.

Jio will declare their plans later, so they will have a look into others, and may offer cheaper tariff than incumbents with extra benefits like more data. That might kill dual SIM market, as with multiple SIM the spending will be much higher (Rs 130 to 190 on avg), and may be users shift to Jio. More customers, more revenue - Jio may have the best balance sheet among telcos in coming days. 

As operators divide onnet and offnet calls, TRAI must withdraw 6p/min IUC and make it zero with immediate effect.  

Update: If you have WiFi at home and office, grab Jio's 329 plan (84 days validity, 3000 offnet calls, 100 text/day, 6GB data). With Rs 50 coupon you can get it at Rs 279. [per day cost Rs 3.32]

Vodafone Idea in Big Financial Mess

Vodafone Idea Ltd, the one of three private carriers of the country is in big trouble, mostly financially. VIL and Airtel is hit by 16 year old dispute with DoT, the AGR calculation, as verdicted by highest court of the country by end of October, 2019. As per Supreme Court, operators have to pay Rs 92,641 crore dues (breakdown = Rs 23,189 crore as the disputed amount, Rs 41,650 crore of the levy of interest, Rs 10,923 crore as penalty and Rs 16,878 crore as interest on penalty. Just about three years ago, the total dues were just Rs 29,474 crore). 

Out of this 46% would be from non-existing operators like Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and others. 

Carriers Adopting Cloud Platforms to Embrace 5G

As 4G goes mainstream, operators want to be a step ahead of each others, and that cann't be done without technological advancement. 

Jio has been partnering with Microsoft for some time, and utilizing Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to cater the needs of local business. 

Vodafone Idea is also partnering with Red Hat Inc, to transform its network data centers to open standards. VIL will use Red Hat's open hybrid cloud platform OpenStack. Not only that VIL has also extended partnership with TCS for another 5 years, and they will use Business 4.0™ framework of TCS. 

Bharti Airtel is also optimizing the expenditure - recently they acquired 26% in AMPSolar Evolution Private Limited for Rs 8.4 crore to go ecofriendly, and to meet green energy needs and to optimize energy costs. Airtel is also gearing up to use 5G-ready Cloud packet core from Ericsson, which consists of virtual Evolved Packet Gateway (vEPG). This will allow Airtel to enhance network capacity, in the need of ever increasing data demand of Indian audience. 

Airtel to Shut Down 3G Completely, Jio Turns No 1, JioPhone 3 and GigaFiber Update

In an expected move, Airtel, once top player - now 3rd, has announced that they will complete shut down of 3G networks (WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+) across the country. Airtel started 3G shut down in Q2 of 2019 from Kolkata circle and has planned to do in another 6-7 circles in September. The remaining circles will see 3G shut down by March 2020. There is no news of 2G shut down as of now. 

By 3G shut down, Airtel will have more spectrum for 4G. Airtel's 3G networks are on 900 and 2100 MHz band, and sooner or later all spectrum of these bands will tranform into 4G wave. In brief Airtel's LTE network will be largest in the country, transmitting over 900, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz band. (in 2015 I wrote a story on LTE2100)

We hope that Vodafone Idea will follow the suit very soon. 

Vodafone Idea Testing LTE 3 CA in Kolkata

Vodafone Idea, the merged entity is never been a talk of the town for its LTE footprints. Vodafone is considered as best metro coverage on 2G and 3G and Idea is good in rural areas, but when it comes to 4G - these operators never became a frontrunner. They wait, watch and implement.

However as Jio is ruling in the country with extensive 4G coverage of 98.8% and Vodafone and Idea stands at a distant 84.6% and 82.8%, the merged entity is now gearing up to shorten the coverage gap.

It's been heard from Vodafone Idea that they are strengthening their LTE network by adding more sites, small cells, massive MIMO and carrier aggregation.

It's really interesting to see Vodafone Idea is following Airtel's steps to refarm 900MHz or may be 2100MHz to add a new carrier to its existing LTE deployment of 2CA. It's now 3CA. And I don't know what is the third carrier on Vodafone Idea's LTE network.

Vodafone-Idea Runs Narrow Band IoT Trials with Genus in Jaipur

As telecom sector remains dull, and creating losses for most of the companies, country's largest telco Vodafone Idea plans to jump into internet of things (IoT) on narrow band spectrum (NB-IoT). The enterprise arm Vodafone Idea Business Services (VIBS) has partnered with Genus Power Infra and conducting trials at Jaipur - the trials are quite promising.

Vodafone Group has launched NB-IoT in Europe, Africa and Bexit.Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Australia, Netherlands, South Africa etc.

Though Europe and United States are always front runner in technical advancements, analysts expect India, being the tech hub of the world with a population of more than 120 crore, will see an overwhelmed growth in the upcoming sector of IoT.