Telecom Infra
Telephone subscriber base shrinks in November quarter
NEW DELHI: The number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1,201.72 million at the end of October to 1,185.88 million at the end of November, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 1.32%.
The urban subscription declined from 697.54 million at the end of October to 684.89 million at the end of November, and the rural subscription also declined from 504.19 million to 500.99 million during the same period. The monthly decline rates of urban and rural subscription were 1.81% and 0.63% respectively during the month of November.
The overall Tele-density in India declined from 92.92 at the end of Oct-17 to 91.61 at the end of November. The Urban Tele-density declined from 171.08 at the end of October to 167.72 at the end of Nov-17, and the Rural Tele- density also declined from 56.94 at the end of Oct-17 to 56.54 at the end of Nov-17. The share of urban subscribers and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of Nov-17 was 57.75% and 42.25% respectively.
Wireless Subscribers
Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA <E) declined from 1,178.20 million at the end of October to 1,162.47 million at the end of November, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 1.33%. The Wireless subscription in urban areas declined from 677.52 million at the end of October to 664.94 million at the end of November, and wireless subscriptions in rural areas also declined from 500.68 million to 497.53 million during the month.
The monthly decline rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 1.86% and 0.63% respectively.
The Wireless Tele-density in India declined from 91.11 at the end of October to 89.81 at the end of Nov-17. The Urban Wireless Tele-density declined from 166.17 at the end of October to 162.84 at the end of Nov-17, and Rural Wireless Tele-density also declined from 56.54 to 56.15 during the same period. The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 57.20% and 42.80% respectively at the end of November.
As on 30th November 2017, the private access service providers held 90.44% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 9.56%.
Active Wireless Subscribers (VLR Data)
Out of the total wireless subscribers (1,162.47 million), 1,006.40 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of Nov-17. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 86.57% of the total wireless subscriber base.
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented first in Haryana service area w.e.f. 25.11.2010 and in the rest of the country w.e.f. 20.01.2011. Inter-Service Area MNP has been implemented in the country w.e.f. 03.07.2015. Now, the wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another.
During the month of Nov-17, a total of 15.99 million requests were received for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 314.99 million at the end of Oct-17 to 330.98 million at the end of Nov-17, since the implementation of MNP.
In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Rajasthan (about 27.54 million) followed by Gujarat (about 23.33 million).
In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Karnataka (about 34.36 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh (about 29.21 million).
Wireline Subscribers
Wireline subscribers further declined from 23.53 million at the end of Oct-17 to 23.41 million at the end of November. Net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.12 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.49%. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 85.20% and 14.80% respectively at the end of November.
The Overall Wireline Tele-density (%) declined from 1.82 at the end of Oct-17 to 1.81 at the end of Nov-17. Urban and Rural Wireline Tele- density were 4.88 and 0.39 respectively during the same period.
BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, held 68.10% of the wireline market share.
Broadband (≥ 512 Kbps download)
As per the reports received from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 340.16 Million at the end of October to 350.70 million at the end of November with a monthly growth rate of 3.10%.
Top five service providers constituted 92.92% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Nov-17. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (152.08 million), Bharti Airtel (69.38 million), Vodafone (50.16 million), Idea Cellular (32.90 million) and BSNL (21.37 million).
As on 30th November 2017, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.43 million), Bharti Airtel (2.14 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.27 million), MTNL (0.92 million) and Hathway Cable & Datacom (0.69 million).
As on 30th November 2017, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (152.08 million), Bharti Airtel (67.24 million), Vodafone (50.15 million), Idea Cellular (32.90 million) and BSNL (11.94 million).
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India’s telecommunications services provider, today announced the launch of its ultra-fast 5G services in 125 cities. Airtel 5G Plus service is now available to customers in over 265 cities in the country.
Airtel 5G Plus has three compelling advantages for customers. First, it runs on a technology that has the widest acceptance in the world with the most developed ecosystem. This ensures that all 5G smartphones in India seamlessly work on the Airtel network. Second, the company promises to deliver the best experience – between 20 to 30 times higher speeds than today coupled with brilliant voice experience and super-fast call connect. Finally, Airtel 5G Plus network will also be kinder to the environment with its special power reduction solution. Powered by the reliable Airtel network infrastructure, Airtel 5G Plus will provide superfast access to High-Definition video streaming, gaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos et all.
Commenting on the launch, Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel said, “5G has revolutionized the world of internet, ushering new era of connectivity and communications that will prove to be a game-changer for the country. At Airtel, we remain committed to delivering the highest quality of network and service to our customers as we roll-out 125 more cities today. Airtel was the first in the country to offer 5G services in October 2022, and today’s mega launch is our promise to connect every Airtel customer in the country with ultra-fast Airtel 5G Plus. Our 5G rollout is on track to cover all towns and key rural areas by March 2024.”
Airtel 5G Plus service availability will continue to rapidly expand – including service in all towns and villages in the country soon – as the company is working towards offering nationwide coverage. Airtel is now offering its 5G services in every major city from the upper northern city of Jammu to the southern tip of Kanyakumari.
In the last one year, Airtel has demonstrated the power of 5G with a host of powerful use cases that will change the way customers lead their lives and do business. From India’s first live 5G network in Hyderabad to India’s first private 5G network at the BOSCH facility in Bengaluru to partnering with Mahindra & Mahindra to make its Chakan manufacturing facility, India’s first 5G enabled auto manufacturing unit, Airtel has been at the forefront of 5G innovation.
NEW DELHI: Comviva, a global leader in customer experience and data monetization solutions today announced the launch of its 5G compatible Application Driven Network Platform, ADriN to offer a unified, simplified, secured experience to the B2B2X value chain of Digital Service Providers, Enterprises, Hyperscalers, application developers and the smart device ecosystem.
Comviva’s ADriN platform boasts dynamic capabilities that allow it to understand the behavior of connected devices in real-time. This enables the platform to orchestrate and deliver personalized, intent-driven experiences in a secured and controlled environment, regardless of the underlying experience providers – DSPs, Enterprises and Hyperscalers.
Excited at this development, Comviva CEO, Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra said, “At Comviva, we prioritize creating unique experiences for our customers’ end-users to remain relevant. Our commitment to deeper customer engagement and significant investments has led to the development of ADriN, a platform that simplifies the user experience in the untapped B2B2X segment. With new engagement models centered around ARR and Network-as-a-Service, ADriN is positioned to become a critical contributor to any experience provider’s top-line growth.”
ADriN simplifies the process of capturing and understanding the intentions of end customers of enterprises and digital service providers. It offers an easy-to-use interface that delivers a trusted and secure service experience. Using ADriN, intentions are captured and processed through machine learning applications across various devices, which in turn creates a real-time service catalogue. This enables networks and infrastructures to respond in a specific manner to ever-changing intentions.
This creates lucrative monetization opportunity for the custodians of the B2B2X value chain with the adoption of ARR models, such as Network-as-a-Service. The monetization opportunity is highly attributed to the intents captured from the end consumer’s devices or machines or interface through their simple native language. ADriN effectively processes and converts this intent into open call models and open APIs, which seamlessly integrate into the ecosystem. This orchestration results in a personalized experience for the consumer, without the need to worry about the network custodians they are connected to, be it G network or other networks.,
Speaking at the launch, Swapnil Shah, Vice President for 5G and Edge Business Group at Comviva said, “ADriN has received strong validation in recent time from niche ecosystem players like digital service providers, enterprises and hyperscalers. With the growing popularity of AI-based operations, ML-driven devices, and application developer communities, ADriN is poised to make a distinct impact on the B2X and B2B2X value chains in the coming years. The collaborative efforts of CAMARA, 5G PPP, ORAN, TIP, 5G ACIA, GSMA Op, ETSI, 3GPP, VEPP, and DSPs have also contributed to democratizing organic networks for developers, while government-driven initiatives have paved the way for an intent-driven future.”
ADriN utilizes an ecosystem agnostic platform approach to comprehensively understand the intention of devices. It dynamically creates policy configurations, marketplace operations, generates slices, and performs numerous other functions over a nimble service engine that seamlessly interacts with infrastructure, hyperscaler, and network functions. The platform is highly flexible, enabling it to meet the unique needs of diverse ecosystems.
NEW DELHI: Apple Inc has rolled out a beta programme to enable 5G on Apple devices as the upgrade lets users try out pre-release software.
This software upgrade enables 5G access on Apple devices, as and when service providers Jio, Airtel and Vodafone enable 5G network access, sources said.
Apple Users have to enrol for the Beta Programme on the website, install a profile and download the software.
Jio users using iPhone 12 and above, in cities where JioTrue5G has been rolled out, will be invited to the Jio Welcome Offer. Jio Welcome Offer provides unlimited 5G data at up to 1 Gbps speed to users at no additional cost. However, there is a condition that prepaid users must be on active Rs 239 and above plan. All Postpaid users are eligible for this trial.
Airtel is not providing any special 5G offer like Jio to their users. In the cities/areas in which the Airtel 5G network has been launched, users can trial 5G services as a part of their existing plan, once they have updated the latest Apple Beta software.
While an email sent to Apple did not solicit an immediate response, the firm had last month stated: “We are working with our carrier partners in India to bring the best 5G experience to iPhone users as soon as network validation and testing for quality and performance is completed. 5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December”.
Airtel and Jio customers on iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 and iPhone SE (3rd generation) models can experience 5G as part of Apple’s iOS 16 Beta Software Program. The Apple Beta Software Program is open to anyone with a valid Apple ID who accepts the Apple Beta Software Program Agreement during the sign-up process.
If a user has an iCloud account, that is an Apple ID, it is recommended they use that. If they do not have an iCloud account or any other Apple ID, they can create one.
Customers who want to try the beta software should back up their iPhones before installing the beta software. It is recommended to install the beta software only on non-production devices that are not business-critical. Users can also provide feedback to Apple on quality and usability, which helps Apple identify issues, fix them, and make Apple software even better.
The iOS beta comes with the built-in Feedback Assistant app, which can be opened from the Home screen on the iPhone or iPad or from the Dock on the Mac.
Source: Press Trust of India
