My take on the road forward on 3G in the country: The new entrants versus the established players
In fact you have closed on all macro issues regarding the 3G subject. My take on the issues brought up...
1.The problem that has been with the Indian telecom operators is that most of them have taken the lowest cost route to the consumers.
2.The call rates are ridiculously low and the operators are bent over for adding subscribers. (always not a profitable level)
3.Operators have not really looked into the quality of the services and the coming of Number Portability would create a churn amongst dissatisfied users.
4.The new license holders starting to launch their services would create more competition.
5. Absence of a PAN India footprint would be a serious limiting factor for the new entrants (both 2G and 3G). However operator infrastructure sharing and collaborations can be used to tide over these problems.
6. As far as the 3G spectrum is concerned, the entrenched players would try to make it a price game.
7. This is because the existing operators know least tariff route the best. Their business models support enonomies of scale!
8. For a foreign entrant, the best differentiating route would be quality and exclusivity of service!
9. 3G is not something that would go down to the rural areas in a hurry
10. Instead if the cities are focus, then the clear point of differentiation is service. Trust me 3G needs more than Service. It would probably also thrive on exclusivity.
11. Thus profit models would have to centred on the broadcast/feed quality and customer centric services. There is a business model out there.
12. A dog fight with the Airtel/Vodas of India would mean loss of blood. Thus the new operators would need to avoid a tariff fight.
13. On a later day, once these operators get their critical mass going, they could look at expansion to tioer 2/3 and so on...
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