MAJOR PLAYERS AND MARKET SHARES

Market Highlights:-

The Indian telecom industry can be primarily divided into basic, cellular and internet services. It also has segments such as radio paging services, very small aperture terminals (VSATs), public mobile radio trunked services (PMRTS) and global mobile personal communications by satellite (GMPCS).

MTNL and BSNL are the two premier public sector companies under the Department of Telecommunications that have been successfully meeting the growing requirements of telephones and other related services.

MTNL had achieved a customer base of 8.87 million at the end of December, 2010. MTNL has allowed all its GSM mobile subscribers access to 3G services in order to make the 3G services popular among its subscribers. The company had 0.914 million broadband customers at the end of December, 2010.

BSNL formed in October, 2000, is the World's 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India. Within a short span of ten years, it has become one of the largest public sector service providers in the country serving 112.36 million subscribers including 86.71 million wireless customers (including CDMA and GSM) in December, 2010.

Major Players:-

The Indian telecom sector is largely dominated by private operators that control a share of more than 85% share of the entire sector. Among the top players in the telecom sector, Bharti Airtel owns the largest share, followed by Vodafone, Idea, state-owned BSNL, Tata and Reliance. Other key players are Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Aircel and Tata Teleservices, BSNL, Videocon, Uninor, Loop Mobile. Vodafone has recorded the fastest growth rate in the month of February 2011, at 17.61 % in its subscription base according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) database.

The wireless segment includes GSM and CDMA services and is much larger than the wire line segment in India. About 527.6 million GSM subscribers account for 83% of the market and 107.9 million CDMA subscribers account for the remaining 17%. Private players such as Bharti Airtel Limited, Reliance Communication, Vodafone, Tata, BSNL, Idea Cellular and Aircel cumulatively hold a major share of the wireless market.

Top 10 Telecom Companies in India 2013:-

With over 900 million wireless subscribers, India is one of the biggest markets in the telecom industry globally. From GSM, CDMA and even broadband subscribers, the overall penetration in India is nearly 75 percent. Here is a list of the top 10 Indian telecom companies based on their market share.

1. Bharti Airtel Market Share: 27 percent

Airtel is the largest telecom service provider in India and operates in 20 countries across south Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands and provides 2G, 3G and 4G services. Ranking third mobile telecommunications company in the world, it has nearly 261 million subscribers out of which 200 million are in India. The biggest mobile telephony provider, it is known as being the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource all its business operations except marketing. It is the first telecom service provider to achieve a Cisco Gold certification. Among the countries where Airtel marks its presence, some are, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia etc. Airtel collaborated with RIM and launched its Blackberry services in October 2004. According to the annual survey conducted by brand Finance, it is the sixth most valuable brand.

2. Vodafone Market Share: 22 percent

Vodafone India, previously known as Vodafone Essar and Hutchinson Essar is one of the well renowned telecom service providers in India headquartered in Mumbai. In 2011, Vodafone Group agreed to buy the share of its partner Essar from the Indian mobile phone business. Vodafone paid $5.46 billion to take 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It left Vodafone with 74% of the Indian business, while the other 26% is owned by Indian investors. The company is valued to be $18.8 billion. It launched 3G services in the country in the January-March quarter of 2011 and has plans to spend up to $500 million within the next two years on its 3G networks.

3. Idea Cellular Market Share: 19 percent

Idea Cellular is an Indian telecom service provider headquartered in Mumbai. Previously ran by Tata Cellular, it was bought by Birla-AT&T in 2000. This merger of Birla-Tata-AT&T was popularly known as Batata and was rebranded as IDEA. However, in the subsequent years, AT&T and Tata sold their stake in Idea and it became an entity of Aditya Birla group. The three companies held an equal stake in the company before AT&T decided to sell its stake. Both Tata and Birla bought AT&T’s stake with 16.45 percent each. Tata was still holding Idea when the company filed for a license to operate in Mumbai. For this reason, Idea could enter late in Mumbai after the intervention of the Department of Telecom. Tata left Idea but only for a major sum of money amounting to   44 billion. Currently, Birla’s hold 49.05 percent shares in Idea and the remaining is held by Axiata Group and Providence equity.

4. BSNL Market Share: 15 percent

BSNL or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is a publically held telecom service provider in India. With its headquarters in New Delhi, it is the largest provider of fixed-line services and subsequently provides broadband services across the nation. Before the liberalization of Indian economy BSNL held the monopoly across the country except for Delhi and Mumbai which were covered by MTNL. It is India’s oldest communication service provider and enjoys a customer base of 95 million throughout India. Among the services that BSNL provides, some are, Universal Telecom Services, Cellular Mobile Telephone Services. BSNL has 24 telecom circles, 2 metro districts, 6 project circles, 4 maintenance regions, 5 telecom factories, 3 training institutions and 4 specialized telecom units.

5. Aircel Market Share: 9 percent

Aircel is an Indian telecom service provider jointly held by the Maxis Communications and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited. The Malaysian-based Maxis Communications hold a majority stake of 74 percent in the company. The current share-holders of Sindya Securities & Investments are the Reddy family that is famed for its Apollo Hospitals Group of India.  Headquartered in Chennai, it is one of the leading telecom service providers in Tamil Nadu, North East, Assam and Chennai. With a subscriber base of nearly 51.83 million, it is ranked seventh among the Indian mobile service providers (GSM & CDMA) and fifth among the GSM mobile service providers.

6. Uninor Market Share: 5 percent

Uninor is an Indian telecom service provider that is jointly held by two companies: a Norway-based telecommunication company Telenor and an Indian real-estate company Unitech. Telenor holds a major stake of 67.25 percent in the company. Uninor is headquartered in Gurgaon (NCR Delhi) and provides its services in all of India’s 22 telecom circles. It offers voice and a data service based on the GSM technology and is commercially available in the 13 circles across India. Its major target is the youth and is a pioneer in charging as per day time and geographic location. It is targeting 8 percent market share in the coming years.

7. Videocon Market Share: 1.78 percent

Videocon Telecommunications Limited is a Videocon group company owned by Venugopal Dhoot. It is headquartered in Gurgaon (NCR Delhi). Launched in April 2010, Videocon Telecommunications Limited provides GSM services in almost all parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Mumbai, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh among others under the brand name of Videocon. The Videocon group, an Indian Multinational company, is a global business conglomerate that has its roots spread in diverse markets and generates revenues worth $4 billion annually. Videocon has one of the strongest distribution networks in the country and enjoys a well-established reputation in the global market.

8. MTNL Market Share: 0.76 percent

MTNL or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited is a publically-held telecom service provider which operates only in metro cities; Mumbai and Delhi and the island nation of Mauritius (Africa). Before the liberalization of the Indian economy, MTNL held a monopoly in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai which it lost after the market was opened for other service providers. The Indian government currently holds a 56.25 percent stake in the company that has a motto “Transparency Makes Us Different”. Though, MTNL’s inability to stand the stiff competition it faced from other major telecom providers later has reduced its market share to minimal decimals.

9. Loop Mobile Market Share: 0.46 percent

The company started its operations in 1995 as BPL Mobile. Subsequent to the change of shareholding in 2005, the Khaitan Holdings Group took ownership control.  It has recently been nominated in 2011 ET Telecom Awards in Customer Experience Enhancement Category for Service Guarantee and Network Challenge initiatives. Loop Mobile introduced for the 1st time in India a Network Challenge as giving subscribers money back for every call drop since December 2010. It also created a new benchmark in service in Mumbai by launching again for the 1st time in India in December 2010 a ‘Service Guarantee’. This has two promises - to activate any service within 15 minutes flat or answer all calls at call center within 10 seconds or else provide a free coffee voucher to the customer.

Sector Prospects

Even after achieving astounding growth over the past few years, Indian telecom market has still a huge untapped potential to grow further. With a large population, India is yet to have complete access to telecommunications across the length and breadth of India. With overall tele-density in India still being 66.17% and rural tele-density at 31.22%, there is significant growth opportunity for the sector, especially in rural areas, especially with 3G and BWA yet to make significant inroads.

The future progress of telecom in India is very promising. The addition of over 18 million connections per month during 2010 puts the telecom sector on a strong footing. The target of 600 million telephones by the end of 11th five year plan has already been achieved in February, 2010. Rural tele-density target has been set at 40% by 2014. Industry estimates suggest that there is a potential to reach beyond one billion telephones in India by 2015. According to industry estimates, the revenues of the Indian telecom industry are projected to reach US$ 45 billion by 2012, compared with US$ 33 billion in 2009.

It has also been projected that the users for the broadband base are going to reach 100 million mark by 2014, particularly after the telecom companies roll out their 3G services, as per a research study conducted by Crisil.