Bharti & MTN

The media has been full of info on the newly revived interest between Bharti and MTN. The interest in these discussions is due to the following:

• Valued at $23 billion it is the largest telecom M&A deal this year (of interest in a “recession” economy)
• Both operate in emerging markets and have strong growth and expansion plans – the merger would probably lead to a telecom powerhouse in their regions of operation
• The financials of the deal are rather unique in their usage of stock - ET

The discussions will be on till end July, and the world watches to see if the deal will be clinched this time around.  Meantime, there is objection to the deal from some investors and employee unions of MTN.

Bharti: 100 million customer mark

In the weekend when the news items in the world’s largest democracy was monopolized by the landmark election results, a major news item that went rather unnoticed was Bharti Airtel crossing the 100 million customer mark. In their own words, Bharti …

Becomes the 3rd largest single country mobile services operator in the world and 6th largest single country integrated telco in the world

This is a major achievement considering that they are a fairly young operator and bears evidence to the growth possibilities in this geography.

They did take out advertisements in the national newspapers, but it was lost on some of the audience as a colleague mentioned to me that he assumed the number 100 million was something to do with the election results that were discussed in the rest of the paper.

Accidental subscription of VAS

TRAI has issued a new directive for transparency on VAS subscriptions that aim to protect the consumer from any half-baked intentions or the lack of understanding that the simple suggestion to “Press * to copy caller tunes” results in a charge on the next bill. Now, explicit consent via “SMS or fax or email” is to be obtained and acceptance of charge via pressing keys during pre-call or ring back is forbidden.

I don’t see the mobile providers rushing to implement this one (just like the January 2009 mandate stating that hard copy summary bills should be made available for post-paid customers who request for it) but they do have a clock ticking – 45 days for implementation.

India mobile subs

Much has been written about the explosive growth of mobile subscription in India.  As per current TRAI reports , we are nearing the 400 mill mark.  However, the TRAI official classification includes FWP or WLL along with the GSM and CDMA nos.

At the same time, rural teledensity has been a subject of concern (12.59 in rural vs 81.38 in urban per 100 of population).  Last month, TRAI had issued recommendations on accelerating growth of rural telephony which listed improvements on the USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) subsidy including trials involving existing post offices as points of sale with  several suggested improvements in the infrastructure setup.  As per the USOF website, mobile infrastructure is already under development and services under the scheme was scheduled for late last year (I am looking for data on such services, will update subsequently).

It remains to be seen whether there will be a significant impact via such initiatives.