RCom doesn’t have 3G spectrum in Mumbai. Base-station sharing, upfront payments of `100 cr/per operator/circle & revenue share being discussed
Early winners of 3G spectrum — Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) — have found a novel way to make money from the next-gen telecommunications play.
The public-sector telcos are in talks for infrastructure sharing deals with private peers. They will share their 3G base stations in circles where other telcos do not have 3G spectrum.
MTNL and BSNL together have over 14 lakh 3G subscribers. While the former has 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, the latter has it in the remaining circles.
J Gopal, executive director, Mumbai telecom circle, MTNL, said private operators such as Tata Teleservices in Delhi, Reliance Communications (RCom) in Mumbai want to avail of the company’s base stations to offer 3G service. “For the subscriber it would make no difference as the arrangement is at the back end.
For us it is exciting as it is a good revenue source,” he said.
Gopal said the arrangement will mean an upfront payment of `100 crore per operator per circle, in addition to revenue share for each subscriber of the operator.
Similarly, operators are in talks with BSNL for base station sharing in most other telecom circles.
A source in RCom confirmed that the company is in talks with MTNL. “We do not have 3G spectrum in Mumbai. So we look to share MTNL base stations to enable our subscribers with roaming 3G services,” said the source who did not wish to be named.
MTNL was the first telecom operator in India to launch 3G mobile services when it launched Jadoo in Delhi in February 2009. It launched the service in Mumbai a few months later. Though it
had targeted to have 2 lakh 3G subscribers in two years, MTNL has already amassed more than 4 lakh 3G subscribers in the two metros.
“Events such as IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket helped in rapid subscriber generation. For instance, we saw about 3,000 subscriber additions per day when the IPL was on. In Mumbai, video streaming has been a hit. We have seen our average revenue per user going up by about `30 to close to `200 owing to the 3G uptake,” said Gopal.
On the other hand, BSNL, which operates in all circles except Delhi and Mumbai, has amassed over 10 lakh subscribers for its 3G services, after first launching the service in March 2009.
However, some observers say that both MTNL and BSNL would have generated at least three times the current 3G subscriber base had they focused on providing relevant application-based services to users.
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