GSM Subscription Numbers
12.29 million GSM subscribers were added in the month of June, totaling the GSM subscriber base to 456.58 million (Coai).
Airtel added 3 million subscribers while Vodafone added 2.71 mn. Here is the breakup of market share (as of June) for GSM players.
ibibo to Launch e-serial
ibibo is launching an e-serial (called i-Serial) which will be delivered in 24 episodes.
“The serial is first-of-its-kind talent hunt initiative called Maruti Suzuki- Ibibo i-Serial Star which gave users the chance to write, direct and even act. The serial has eight actors, two directors and two scriptwriters. Selection of the winners was based on the number of votes obtained by participants and the choice made by the panel of judges comprising Raman Kumar, who created Tara for Zee TV and Khalid Hashmi, who launched Zee News.” [source]
BSNL’s 3G Check – Union asks for Refund
Even though BSNL received an early mover advantage in 3G spectrum, the company failed to capitalize on the same (3G in India – Gloomy subscription numbers from BSNL and MTNL). And now., the ever ‘supportive’ BSNL Union is demanding the government to refund the money and threatened to go on strike if the demand was not met.
According to them, BSNL was not given the option to bid and choose circles of its choice like other private players. Rather, it was given spectrum for all the circles barring Delhi and Mumbai (where another PSU, MTNL, got the radio waves) and asked to match the winning bid.
“BSNL has been arbitrarily forced to pay on 3G and BWA airwaves in total contravention of the provisions envisaged in National Telecom Policy, 1999. Blatant discrimination meted out by insensitive and indifferent bureaucracy in DoT to BSNL by depriving it of legitimate opportunity to bid for choice of circles of commercial potential deserves strongest condemnation,” .
Micromax Forays into Bangladesh
Micromax will launch its phone in Bangladesh, ranging from 2,000 BDT (Bangladesh taka) to 16,000 BDT (1 BDT = 0.7 INR). These include feature-rich mobile phones, ranging from 30-day long battery backup, dual sim, qwerty chat-phones, music-touch phones, lifestyle phones and utility phones (source).
Micromax Trivia: 80% of companies’ sales is driven by Rural India and the company has presence in Sri Lanka, HK, Dubai and Nepal.
