Launch of Reliance Jio, led to large scale consolidation and faster growth of mobile broadband in India

FY2016-17 was a remarkable year for telecom service providers in India. The year saw large scale mergers and acquisitions in the market leading to reducing Indian service providers to only eight operators which includes: Bharti Airtel (includes Telenor and Tikona), Vodafone and Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications (MTS and Aircel), Tata Teleservices,  and Quadrant Televentures. The Indian operators will also see one more phase of consolidation between operators reducing Indian telecom players to 4-5 only. 

The year saw Bharti acquiring Telenor and Tikona for spectrum and subscribers. Reliance Communications merging with Aircel to form a merged entity with equal representation on the Board. The combined entity will enjoy substantial benefits of scale. The biggest of all consolidation was when Vodafone and Idea Cellular agreed to merge with joint control of the combined company. The implied enterprise value of Voda-Idea was $23.2 billion and the transaction is expected to close during 2018. 

The launch of Reliance Jio 4G (mobile broadband) services in FY2016-17 led to aggressive price war between operators. This resulted in per GB bandwidth cost reducing to its lowest level not only in India but also globally. The per GB cost of bandwidth is presently Rs. 10-15. There was a mad rush of customer acquisition in mobile broadband and Reliance Jio was the clear winner thanks to its 360 degree approach of content, network and device packed with aggressive marketing strategy. The incumbent operators were late to react and is trying to match or better the Reliance Jio offer but they were not able to apply brakes to 100 million subscribers of Reliance Jio in a record time of 170 days.     

Both consolidation and mobile broadband is presently benefiting Indian consumers in a big way but telecom operators are caught up in large debts thanks to increased investment in capex and drop in profitability due to aggressive pricing by Indian operators. It would be interesting to see how long will this continue before mobile broadband price stabilises in the country. 

Bharti Airtel 

Bharti Airtel is the largest wireless operator in the country both in terms of customers and revenues. Airtel offers postpaid, pre-paid, roaming, internet, m-Commerce (Airtel Payments Bank) and other value added services.

Airtel’s 3G services are spread across key cities in the country offering high-speed internet access and a host of innovative services like Mobile TV, video calls, live-streaming videos and gaming. Airtel’s 4G services have presence across the country except J&K, offer wireless services with buffer-less HD video streaming and multi-tasking capabilities to its customers.

The national long distance infrastructure provides a pan-India reach with 223,607 Rkms of optical fiber. Airtel’s distribution channel is spread across 1.5 million outlets with network presence in 7,892 census and 784,769 non-census towns and villages in India covering approximately 95.3% of the country’s population.

Airtel’s enterprise services provides diverse portfolio of services to enterprises, governments, carriers and small and medium business. For small and medium business, Airtel is a trusted solution provider for fixed-line voice (PRIs), data and other connectivity solutions like MPLS, VoIP, SIP trunking. Additionally, the company offers solutions to businesses audio, video and web conferencing. Cloud portfolio is also an integral part of its office solutions suite, which offers storage, compute, Microsoft office 365, e-commerce package through shopify and CRM packages on a pay as you go model. Along with voice, data and video, Airtel services also include network integration, data centers, managed services, enterprise mobility applications and digital media.

Airtel’s strategically located submarine cables and satellite network enable our customers to connect across the world including hard- to-reach areas. The global network runs across 230,000 Rkms, covering 50 countries and 5 continents.

The company continued to invest on upgradation and expansion of network towers. The company had 160,199 network towers. Out of the total number of towers, 113,367 are mobile broadband towers i.e. those are either 3G or 4G equipped. The company has significantly stepped up its data investment in preparation of a future data world and now has 170,844 mobile broadband base stations (3G and 4G base stations across all technologies i.e. 900/2100/1800/2300), as compared to 99,297 mobile broadband base stations at the end of the corresponding quarter last year and 148,078 at the end of the previous quarter.

Airtel has also doubled its overall transmission capacity and increased the mobile backhaul capacity by eight times to roll out high speed broadband network with 4G and 3G coverage in all 22 telecom circles. This deployment has been supported by addition of 14,500+ Km of fibre to Airtel’s national fibre backbone along with 3,666 new fibre PoP nodes.

Airtel Payments Bank, a fully digital and paperless bank, aims to take banking services to the doorstep of every Indian by leveraging Airtel’s vast retail network with massive reach in rural pockets. Airtel Payments Bank currently has a network of over 250,000 neighbourhood Airtel retail stores, which also function as banking points. This is more than the total number of ATMs in the country. The bank aims to scale its network to 600,000 banking points across the country.

Airtel Payments Bank has committed an investment of Rs. 3,000 crore across its national operations and plans to build a digital payments ecosystem with over 5 million merchants. Over one million merchants have already been onboarded across India.

Vodafone 

Vodafone India is a 100 per cent fully owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group with operations across the country serving over 207 million customers of which over 106 million is in rural areas. Building on its global experience and expertise and offering a comprehensive portfolio of technologies - 2G, 3G, and 4G, Vodafone is uniquely positioned to actualise the vision of Digital India. Vodafone’s mobile wallet, M-Pesa is a unique and innovative money transfer service from Vodafone that fosters financial inclusion. 

Vodafone SuperNet 4G services are available across 17 circles in India - Kerala, Kolkata, Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Assam & North East, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra & Goa, Uttar Pradesh (West). These circles cover around 91% of our service revenues and 94% of our data revenues.

On international roaming front, Vodafone India 4G customers will now be able to roam seamlessly on high speed 4G networks while travelling overseas in over 40 countries. With the combined strength of its own network and that of its network partners across the globe, Vodafone now has the world’s largest 4G footprint on international roaming. Combined with Vodafone’s best international roaming packs, that allow free incoming as well as calls & data browsing at home prices, Vodafone users can now enjoy worry free roaming  in countries like: USA, UAE, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, Albania, Hungary, Luxembourg, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Mauritius and Morocco. 

Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides total telecommunications solutions across both mobility and fixed line platforms and enables global enterprises, corporates, SME’s and government segments to communicate, collaborate and connect. VBS specifically addresses the connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and converged communications needs of its customers.

Today with more than 7.5 million mobility corporate customers as on March 31, 2016, VBS is providing services to global and national businesses equipped with a robust network infrastructure and a 24x7 NOC.

In India, Vodafone’s range of IoT solutions include Vodafone Location Tracker, Automotive Telematics, Remote Asset Management, Managed IoT Connectivity Platform, Wireless Payment solutions, Security & Surveillance solutions, Smart Metering solutions and Special SIMS designed for operating in harsh conditions.

Vodafone M-Pesa is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet which enables complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from the mobile. It caters to all segments of the society, from the unbanked to the under banked and to the net-savvy and evolved customers. Today, with a pan-India distribution of over 130,000 agents and more than 4.5 million customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking correspondent in the country and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce.

These circles cover around 91% of our service revenues and 94% of our data revenues.

Idea Cellular  

Idea Cellular is the sixth largest mobile operator in the world based on number of subscribers. Idea has around 186 million subscribers and carried around 2.28 billion minutes on a daily basis during quarter Q3 FY17. 

Idea provides pan India GSM mobile services in all 22 service areas, 3G services is available in 21 service areas of India (except Orissa), including through Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) arrangements with other operators. In October 2016, Idea expanded its 4G spectrum ownership from 11 to 20 service areas, covering 9 new service areas of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar & Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Mumbai, West Bengal, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir. Idea holds 47 4G carriers across 20 service areas of India (ex Delhi & Kolkata). The 4G spectrum profile of the company covers around 94% of its own revenue and and around 90% of industry revenue in these 20 service areas.

Post introduction of 4G service on December 23, 2015, Idea has moved fast, launching 4G services in nearly 2,900 towns and 15,700 villages in 11 service areas (Maharashtra & Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Orissa, NESA, Tamil Nadu & HP), now covering 211 million Indians, 37.6% of Indian population in these 11 circles.

Idea is consistently investing in optical fibre cable (OFC) transmission network to tap the future potential of wireless broadband and currently has laid and energised over 133,800 km OFC. Idea has over 8,820 OFC PoPs (4G, 3G & 2G) in all circles. Idea has also introduced worlds’ latest high capacity 100G DWDM network technology to cater to rising data demand.

Idea has around 24.5 million 3G data subscribers and 2.5 million 4G data subscribers. In December, Idea Cellular has launched two exciting monthly voice packs priced around Rs. 148 and Rs. 348, these packs provide the customers with unlimited voice calls to anywhere in India, along with data benefits. 

Upon recharging with Rs. 148, Idea customers will be able to make free Local and STD Idea-to-Idea calls across India and get 50 MB of data. Customers with 4G handsets will get 300 MB of data in addition to voice benefit. 

The company has also announced its arrival into the digital world with the launch of 3 new exciting Mobile Apps – Idea Music Lounge, Idea Movie Club, and Idea Game Spark – giving birth to a “Digital Idea”. These digital content applications will serve as a one-stop entertainment destination initially for Idea subscribers, providing access on the fingertips to a large collection of popular and premium content, including a rich assortment of Hindi, Vernacular and International content. 

Idea Music Lounge offers a rich library of nearly 2 million Indian and international music tracks initially, going up to nearly 20 million tracks soon and is available on Google Play Store and coming soon on iOS store. Idea Music Lounge hosts diverse content not only across 13 Indian languages, including Bollywood, South Indian Cinema etc, but also across International artists, albums and tracks from several major Music labels.

Idea Movie Club caters to the ever-growing video content needs of consumers, offering thousands of blockbuster movies, Live TV, 7 days catch-up TV, along with a series of Original content and Short Videos across all genres and several languages. The rich content of videos and movies from Bollywood, South Indian & Regional Cinema will appeal to people across all age groups, including kids, for whom there is a host of animation and learning videos. Live and Catch up TV including premium channels, is offered in collaboration with Ditto TV. The app is available on Google Play Store and iOS store.

Idea Game Spark is the ultimate gaming destination with a collection of over 1,500 games across all genres. Targeted at the gaming aficionado and the casual gamer, the games can be played both in the online and offline mode.

A new company ‘Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited’ (ABIPBL) has been formed to setup the payments bank services with ABNL and Idea as shareholders. The senior management team of this company is in place. Post necessary regulatory approvals from RBI, ABIPBL is likely to commercially launch its services by first half of 2017. 

The company will acquire and service new Payments Bank customers both ‘Online’ leveraging the power of over 50 million digital customers of Idea and ABG’s as well as ‘Offline’ leveraging the strength of Idea’s 2 Million+ retail distribution channel across over 400,000 towns and villages. 

The Payments Bank intends to promote a wide range of banking products & services including current and savings bank account, domestic remittances, merchant payments etc. while partnering with ABG financial services, select universal banks & financial institutions for offering range of full banking products including Fixed Deposits, Micro Loan, Debt & Equity linked Mutual Funds, other related investment and Insurance products to its payments bank customer.

Reliance Jio 

Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries has built next generation all-IP data network with latest 4G LTE technology. Reliance Jio is the only network built for mobile video network and also for providing Voice over LTE technology.

The Jio network has 100,000 sites backed by state of the art all IP network and LTE spectrum across 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz. In terms of coverage, Reliance Jio network provides 100 per cent urban coverage and is also present in 6,612 blocks/tehsils in India thereby providing a population coverage of 75 per cent. Jio’s plan is to cover 95 per cent population coverage by the end of this year. The company has around over a million retail partners for sale of mobile broadband services. 

Jio has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live a digital life. Since commencement of services on 5th September 2016, Jio has become the fastest growing start-up technology company in the world. It crossed 50 million subscribers in just 83 days, and 100 million in 170 days, adding at an average rate of 6 lakh subscribers per day. Jio continues its rapid ramp-up of subscriber base and as of 31st March 2017, there were 108.9 million subscribers on the network. Jio is witnessing the largest migration from free to paid services in history and is committed to provide its customers the world’s most affordable data and voice services. 

Reliance Jio has the best suite of applications with the most comprehensive library of content ensuring stickiness of customers (free upto March 2018 for Jio Prime customers). 

With more than 110 crore GB of data traffic per month and 220 crore voice and video minutes a day, Jio has become the largest network globally in terms of data carried and contributed to India becoming the leading country in the world for mobile data usage. Jio users are today consuming nearly as much data as on all the mobile networks in the USA and 50 per cent more data than mobile networks in China in a clear indication that India will adopt digitisation and digital life faster than anyone else in the world.

Reliance Retail operates the largest consumer electronics store chain in India through a network of 1,996 Reliance Digital and Jio stores. Reliance Retail’s device distribution business sold 2.6 million LYF and JioFi devices during the quarter and nearly 10 million units in the financial year. LYF and JioFi devices continue to be available through over 500,000 retailers, Jio.com, AJIO.com and across all major e-commerce portals. The company has sold one million devices every month. 

Jio has the world’s largest greenfield 4G LTE wireless broadband network, with over 100,000 mobile towers. The company is planning to add another 100,000 towers to the network in the coming months. Jio is the only operator which has deployed pan-India LTE network across the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands, giving it tremendous capacity advantage.

During the quarter, Jio announced industry redefining tariff plans as it embarked upon the world’s largest migration from free to paid services. It announced the Jio Prime Membership for its initial customers. Jio Prime members would enjoy ALL UNLIMITED benefits at tremendous value, along with host of other benefits for a nominal, one-time enrolment fee of Rs. 99. In addition to its offer of free voice  (domestic) on its network – no local, STD, roaming charges, to any operator, anywhere in the country, Jio also provides the best data experience with the lowest price globally. Within a month of announcing the Jio Prime Offer, over 72 million Jio customers signed up for JIO PRIME, making it one of the most successful customer privilege programmes anywhere in the world.

Jio further announced new ALL UNLIMITED plans with special benefits aimed at encouraging Jio subscribers to live the digital life without restrictions – Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan! The plans start with the most affordable Rs 309 ALL UNLIMITED PLAN, which provides Unlimited SMS, calling and data (1 GB per day at 4G speed) for 3 months on first recharge. The company also announced the Rs 509 ALL UNLIMITED PLAN for daily high data users offering Unlimited SMS, calling and data (2 GB per day at 4G speed) for 3 months on first recharge. In order to smoothen the migration from free to paid services, Jio has implemented simple, affordable and regulatory compliant plans in customer interest.

Reliance Jio is offering FTTH (Fiber to the Home) beta trials both in Delhi and Mumbai and is planning to expand the scope of beta trials in the next few months. 

Average consumption is around 10 GB per month across all circles be it urban or rural. 

BSNL 

BSNL is the leading provider of mobile and wireline services in India with 98.91 million mobile subscribers and 13.88 million wireline customers. BSNL is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and innovative solutions in every corner of India. BSNL is continually evolving its mobile offering with services that deliver a high-quality mobile experience.

BSNL is planning to deploy deploy around 40,000 Wi-Fi hotspots during current financial year i.e. FY2017-18. The Wi-Fi under this scheme will be provided in all states wherever services are techno-commercially viable. Under CAPEX based Wi-Fi service, BSNL has started Network Operating Center (NOC) and Network Management System (NMS) at Bangalore.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is working with Nokia to accelerate the development of 5G ecosystem in the country. The 5G technology enables extreme high-speed broadband and ultra-low-latency, which allows service providers to support the future network demands of connected devices associated with Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart City. 

BSNL has plans to upgrade more than 32,000 TDM based telecom exchanges with IP Next Generation telecom exchanges. The company has already converted 15 lakh line capacity into Next Generation Network (NGN). NGN Based Telephone Exchanges provide both voice as well as broadband facility to the consumers. In addition to voice & data, several value added services which were not available in TDM technology are being offered to NGN customers. Value added services like “All India close user group” (wings CUG), fixed mobile conversion, multimedia video conferencing, and Prepaid telephone. These facilities are made available across India to customers who are migrated on NGN technology.

BSNL has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BBNL, Department of Posts and BSNL for providing broadband connectivity of BharatNet to post offices in rural areas. The tripartite agreement will provide broadband connectivity to about 1.3 lakh post offices in rural areas and 25,000 sub-post offices for high speed internet connectivity to the rural masses. BSNL is the service provider, that would provide broadband services, the cost of setting up of infrastructure and the operational expenses would be paid by the Department of Posts.

The government will roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi in 2,500 cities and towns across the country in over three years. The programme involving an investment of up to Rs 7,000 crore is to be implemented by BSNL. The free ride will be only for a limited time, after which users will have to pay for further access, a model similar to what is being offered at airports and other places by private operators.

Around 50,000-60,000 Wi-Fi hotspots will be set up as part of the programme. The cities where it will be rolled out include Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Bhopal, Jaipur, Patna, Indore, Chandigarh and Ludhiana. BSNL is hoping that a favourable tariff plan offered for Wi-Fi services will help it gain mobile subscribers. 

BSNL has signed an MoU with Essel Group for three things. First, acquiring and creating new broadband customers using BSNL through VNO route. Second, Essel Group is rich in content and would like to deliver these contents to broadband and mobile user of BSNL. In addition to this they would like to use BSNL broadband network to deliver their DTH customer base video on demand service. Third, Essel Group would like to partner with BSNL in new emerging area of smart cities where government of India has declared a plan throughout 100 cities across the country. 

Aircel

Aircel is one of India’s leading innovative mobile service providers. The company is a pan-India 2G operator with 3G spectrum in 13 circles and is credited with the fastest 3G roll out ever in the Indian telecom space. As a young data led telecom player, Aircel has constantly been at the helm of introducing innovative and value for money products and services for its customers, be it the Aircel Pocket Internet, taking the first step in making 3G affordable for the masses or launching revolutionary Industry first data products aimed at fuelling Internet adoption. 

Aircel is one of India’s leading innovative mobile service providers. The company is a pan-India 2G operator with 3G spectrum in 13 circles, BWA spectrum in 8 circles. The company has around 91 million subscribers.

RCOM

RCOM is an integrated telecom operator with presence across wireless, enterprise, broadband, passive infrastructure and DTH. The company is leading global data communication business under GCX with subsea cable network of 68,698 Km. The company has 43,000 towers, 62,000 cell sites and 190,000 Km of OFC and 1.1 million square feet of datacenter.  

RCOM is playing a major part in the consolidation of the telecommunication sector in India by integrating SSTL’s wireless business into itself and merging the integrated wireless business with Aircel to create a large & strong pure-play telecommunication service provider. Post these transactions, RCOM will primarily have a strong and stable B2B portfolio comprising Data Center business, Enterprise products and solutions and fiber optic cable assets domestically and internationally. These businesses will benefit from the exponential growth in data consumption and would have annuity type revenue profile.

Reliance Communications is India’s foremost and truly-integrated telecommunications service provider.The company has a base of 86.27 million wireless subscribers. Reliance Communications’ corporate clientele includes over 39,000 Indian and multinational corporations including small and medium enterprises and over 290 global, regional and domestic carriers.

Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, Next-Generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network capable of supporting best-in-class services, spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 21,000 cities and towns and over 400,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world’s largest Next-Generation IP-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 280,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable systems in India, the United States, Europe, the Middle-East and the Asia-Pacific region.

RCOM subsidiary, Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), is equipped to support businesses through the deployment of next generation Enterprise solutions across its Cloud Delivery Networks. As on December 31, 2016, we had a customer base of nearly 95 million including 32 million data subscribers. Our enterprise clientele includes over 39,000 Indian and multinational corporations, including SMEs and over 290 global, regional and domestic carriers.

Our merger of SSTL‘s wireless operations with RCOM, marking the 1st consolidation in the Indian Telecom Industry, is now in the final stages. The DoT approvals are expected shortly. Post that, we will begin to integrate SSTL‘s operations with RCOM and will migrate the customers to Reliance 4G services.

RCOM & Jio have completed the execution of the spectrum sharing arrangements in the 850 MHz band covering 4G LTE services. RCOM customers will benefit from Jio‘s world class 4G LTE network under sharing and ICR arrangements.

Operationally, the spectrum arrangements between RCOM & Jio will result in network synergies, enhanced network capacity and will optimize spectrum utilization and capex efficiencies. Financially, RCOM would achieve considerable savings in operating costs and future investments in networks which will bolster the bottom-line of the Company and help generate positive cash flows.

Telenor 

Telenor (India) Communications is a mobile telecom operator offering most affordable and value for money prepaid voice and data services in India. It is a wholly owned company of the Norway-based Telenor Group. Telenor India has commercial operations in UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Maharashtra (including Goa) and Gujarat. In the areas where it operates, Telenor is the fourth largest operator both in revenue and customer market share. Telenor has positioned itself as a ‘full paisa vasool’ operator and has over 52 million subscriptions from the six circles.

Tata Teleservices 

Tata Teleservices (TTL) delivers mobile connectivity, content and services to consumers to 51 million across 19 telecom circles. TTL offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers under the unified brand name Tata Docomo and operates its wireless networks on GSM, CDMA and 3G technology platforms.

TTL is a growing market leader in the enterprise space and provides end to end integrated voice, data and managed solutions to large and small medium enterprises through its wider network footprint, better operational structure and enhanced customer service support to deliver incremental value. TTL has a robust and largest fibre optic backbone backhaul network running across 100,000 Km and with a 25,000 Km access network covering key cities which is a huge differentiator in providing seamless data services. With 2,000 people TTL’s strong enterprise business is present in more than 60 cities across India, works with over 750 partners and over 1,600 channel teams.

Tata Docomo Business Services (TDBS) focuses on enterprise space providing integrated voice, data and managed services to large, medium and small enterprises across India. The enterprise team comprises around 2,000 people who work through 1,200 odd channel partners to offer ICT solutions to customers in over 60 cities across India. The company has set up a robust infrastructure which includes the largest fibre optic backbone in the country covering over 125,000 km covering major cities in India along with 14,000 P2P, 60 P2MB and over 70,000 base stations, and is well equipped to serve connectivity needs through the length and breadth of the country.

TDBS provides IoT connectivity services through Machine- to-Machine (M2M) SIMs for smart metering, location-based tracking services across industry segments. It also provides a complete suite of IoT solution comprising devices, applications, and connectivity. The company has expanded its product portfolio with a recent launch of mobile device management (MDM) services. MDM is a telecom service provider agnostic service that addresses concerns of data security over mobile devices, workforce productivity and, Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD).

TDBS offers core voice and data connectivity services as well as verticalised applications and solutions across several segments such as BFSI, Textile, Healthcare, E-Commerce, Transportation & Logistics, IT & ITeS, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Government, Services and Retail. The company has expertise in the digital connectivity space and enables companies to manage change effectively by taking end-to-end ownership of the entire solution, be it devices, applications or connectivity.

Tata Docomo Business Services (TDBS) has announced successful deployment of ICT solutions for Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank, India’s first Micro-Finance Institution by poor self-employed women, in Ahmedabad. The company has successfully deployed data connectivity solutions for Suguna Foods in Coimbatore which helped the company in achieving operational efficiency across its offices in rural areas.

TDBS has provided 31 Parallel, a BPO services provider based out of Shimla with secure and seamless connectivity solution, which helped the latter in achieving operational efficiency, cost reduction and improvement in customer experience. The company has announced successful deployment of ICT solutions for McFadyen, a market leader of Oracle Commerce Solutions (ATG & Endeca) implementing large-scale digital commerce and digital marketing solutions globally.The solutions offered by TDBS help McFadyen in achieving greater employee satisfaction, enhanced team collaboration and infrastructure optimization.

Dishman, a leading pharmaceutical conglomerate headquartered in Ahmedabad opted for TDBS solution to attain seamless connectivity and data security across multiple locations. TDBS offered Dishman with a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network to manage its internal communications ensuring data security across all offices.

TDBS offered SIP Trunk solutions to BYJU’s for a highly scalable and reliable voice service.

MTS 

In 2016, Sistema and Reliance Communications Ltd (“RCom”) continued to work towards the merger of SSTL’s telecommunications business with RCom. The transaction has been approved by India’s two main stock exchanges (NSE and BSE), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Competition Commission of India (CCI), and the Bombay and Rajasthan High Courts. All necessary shareholder and creditor approvals have also been properly secured. As of close of business on 31 March 2017, Sistema and RCom were in discussions with the Department of Telecommunication of India (DoT) and other regulatory and judicial bodies regarding final conditions of the potential transaction. The decisions regarding the completion of the transaction are expected to be made based on the timing of the approval processes and substance of the final conditions to be approved. Presently MTS has 6.5 million customers. 

RCOM to acquire MTS operating business in circles like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP (W) and West Bengal.

MTNL 

MTNL is the principal provider of fixed-line telecommunication service in the two Metropolitan Cities of Delhi and Mumbai. It offers mobile services in the city of Delhi including four peripheral towns Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and the Mumbai city along with the areas falling under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, New Mumbai Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation.

Presently, MTNL is providing a host of telecom services that include fixed telephone service, GSM (including 3G services) & CDMA based Mobile service, Internet, Broadband, ISDN and Leased Line services., MTNL has been in the forefront of offering state of the art technology based telecommunications services to its customers at most affordable prices. MTNL has been the first to launch some of the latest telecom technologies in the country like ADSL2+ & VDSL2 in broadband, IPTV on MPEG4 technology, VOIP and 3G Mobile service.

MTNL facilitates to provide wholesale bandwidth connectivity to other telecom operators, banks, corporate houses and various other govt agencies on lease or rental basis support.

MTNL is providing telecommunications beyond boundaries through its Joint Ventures and Subsidiaries. MTNL is present in Nepal through its Joint Venture United Telecom Limited (UTL) and in Mauritius through its 100% subsidiary Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML).

MTNL also plans to provide 1 lakh high speed Broadband connection on optical fiber and install 100 Wi-Fi Hotspots. MTNL is also focusing on Telecom asset monetization by offering 30,000 Fiber km, 500 Route Km of duct and 700 prime location towers for sharing with other service providers.

MTNL is in talk with BSNL to act as a Managed Service Partner for Mobile services of MTNL. As MTNL has huge idle network capacity and spectrum, it is also exploring the servicing tie up through MVNO, spectrum sharing and intra circle roaming.

Connect

CONNECT is a part of Videocon Group and is a pan India ISP licensee with market leadership in Punjab which consists of Punjab, the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Panchkula. The company also provides a full gamut of telecommunication services, which includes voice telephony, both wireline and fixed wireless, Internet services, broadband data services and a range of value added service viz., centrex, leased lines, voice mail and video conferencing. Connect has recently expanded its coverage footprint with launch of data services in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

CONNECT also provides wireless broadband service across Punjab. Offering high speed internet through a wireless medium, CONNECT wireless broadband enables users to access internet through their laptops, PCs, tablets, Wi-Fi enabled phones in the wireless vicinity and  FTTH.