Network Natter ; From the Fisherman On the High Seas to the Vegetable Vendor On the Street to the Businessman in His High-Powered Office, the Mobile Phone has Become the Medium of the Masses and the Great Equaliser

Summary

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The mobile revolution is less than a decade-old but one doesn't have to go very far back in history to witness the rationing of telephones. In the early '90s, one waited for years for a phone connection. Today, as more than seven million mobile customers enter the networks every month, the long wait seems a distant memory. For me, this explosive telecom growth encapsulates India's transformation into a resurgent economic power. My tryst with the telecom sector began as a telephone manufacturer in the mid '80s, when handset manufacturing was opened to the private sector for the first time. But mobile telephony was different. Growth was sluggish. It took three years for the mobile subscriber base to cross the million-mark in 1998 and it was tough for operators. Out of the 25 early entrants, only three survive. Most of them sold out, a few collapsed, and some merged to form bigger players. Competition meant that operators dropped tariffs, despite facing extinction. Rates dropped from 20 cents (Rs 8) a minute to less than two cents (80 paise) a minute, the lowest ever witnessed anywhere in the world. Operators experimented with tariff plans. Payment plans like life- time prepaid managed to rope in the not-so-well-off consumers into the network and the prices of handsets fell.

Low tariff created a challenge of survival for operators. At Bharti Airtel we innovated our business model to meet the low tariff challenge. In 2004, we struck remarkable outsourcing deals. We put in the hands of IBM everything from the desktop on the CEO's desk to the most complex piece of it. It was a $750-million contract for a period of eight years. We also outsourced our networks from Ericsson and Nokia. We told them that we wouldn't be paying for the hardware they install. We would rather be paying for the traffic that comes out of these networks. It was a unique and unusual model, obviously risky, but having the potential to open up new frontiers in telecom network management.

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Network Natter ; From the Fisherman On the High Seas to the Vegetable Vendor On the Street to the Businessman in His High-Powered Office, the Mobile Phone has Become the Medium of the Masses and the Great Equaliser

The device's innovative use has also fuelled its growth. From SMSES ...

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