The internet and broadband segment in India witnessed significant activity last year. With a saturated voice market, operators turned their attention to this space and launched a slew of low-cost innovative packages to enhance revenues. For example, TATA DOCOMO launched two data packs that offered customers unlimited use of the WhatsApp chat application. The data packs are priced at Rs 15 and Rs 30 and are valid for 15 and 30 days respectively.

Such initiatives provided a boost to the data segment. As per data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the total number of internet subscribers (including those accessing the internet through mobile devices) increased from 198.39 million at end-June 2013 to 210.38 million at end-September 2013, registering a quarterly growth of 6.04 per cent.

The number of companies offering internet services (excluding those providing internet access through mobile devices) and the internet subscriber base (excluding those accessing the internet on mobile devices) stood at 182 and 22.19 million respectively as of end-September 2013.

In terms of internet subscriptions (excluding users accessing the internet through mobile devices), the share of broadband subscribers stood at 69.18 per cent, while that of narrowband subscribers was 30.82 per cent, as of end-September 2013. The number of broadband subscribers increased from 15.2 million at end-June 2013 to 15.35 million at end-September 2013.

The increasing uptake of 3G services over the past year drove growth in the internet and broadband segment. Owing to lower tariffs, increasing penetration of smartphones and the growing demand for broadband applications, the 3G subscriber base increased from about 11.5 million in March 2012 to about 25 million in March 2013, witnessing a growth of 117 per cent. To drive 3G service uptake, a large number of operators reduced 3G tariffs in 2013. For example, following a 50 per cent reduction in 3G prices in July 2013, Reliance Communications (RCOM) reported that one-third of its 3G handset owners, who were earlier using 2G data services, migrated to its 3G network. The move led to an increase in 3G data usage per customer by 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, the uptake of 4G services continued to be slow, since the industry is yet to witness 4G service roll-out by the majority of players. Bharti Airtel is the only broadband wireless access (BWA) licence holder to have deployed the long term evolution-time division duplex platform for introducing 4G services (in Kolkata). It later extended its 4G coverage to Bengaluru, Pune and Chandigarh. The 4G segment is likely to receive a boost with several BWA licence holders including Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (erstwhile Infotel Broadband), Tikona Digital Networks and Aircel aiming to launch 4G services in select circles in 2014.

tele.net examines the initiatives taken by leading operators in this segment?

BSNL

Competition notwithstanding, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has a comfortable lead in the broadband segment, with a 65.6 per cent market share as of June 2013. It has set up a world-class, multi-gigabit, multiprotocol-convergent IP infrastructure that supports services like voice, data and video.

To further boost these services, BSNL Rajasthan recently launched a free data roaming offer for prepaid 3G customers. The operator has also reduced the tariff of existing plans. As per the new tariff, customers will be charged Rs 139 per month for 1 GB of data as against to Rs 250 earlier.

The service provider has launched the Flexi General Combo Plan 1500, which entails a monthly rental of Rs 1,500 and a download speed of up to 4 Mbps for 20 GB of data download and 256 kbps beyond this limit.

RCOM

The company has identified data as its key growth segment. The data segment, together with GSM services, currently accounts for over 60 per cent of its wireless revenues. To drive 3G uptake and increase service penetration, RCOM has significantly reduced its 3G tariffs. Its total data traffic increased by 116 per cent between September 2012 and September 2013, driven by 30.8 per cent growth in the data subscriber base. As of September 2013, the company?s data user base stood at 34 million, of which 9.1 million were 3G customers.

Moreover, the company aims to become a leader in terms of providing large-screen broadband access through dongles by converting CDMA into a high speed data network. Scaling down of operations by competitors such as Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited and Tata Teleservices Limited has helped RCOM establish itself as a strong player in the dongle business.

The company recently launched four post-paid broadband plans in the Thunder series. Thunder 549 entails a monthly rental of Rs 549 and offers 1 Mbps download speed and unlimited data usage. Thunder 699 offers 2 Mbps connectivity speed and unlimited data download, and has a monthly rental of Rs 699. Thunder 899 offers connectivity speed of 4 Mbps up to 20 GB, after which the speed reduces to 1 Mbps, the scheme entails a monthly rental of Rs 899. The Thunder 1099 plan entails Rs 1,099 as monthly rental, and offers 4 Mbps connectivity and unlimited bundled data usage.

MTNL

To arrest the drop in its subscriber base and given its strong position in the broadband segment, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is working towards increasing the penetration of these services through fibre and 3G data cards. The operator plans to expand services based on popular technologies like IP-MPLS and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) based on gigabit passive optical networks and access networks. The company has already launched data services on FTTH commercially and is exploring partnership opportunities with other stakeholders.

The company?s latest broadband offerings are the Trib combo UL data 999 and Trib UL data 999 plans. The plans offer download speeds of 1 Mbps, unlimited monthly free data usage and a monthly rental of Rs 999.

Bharti Airtel

Initiatives in the data space are likely to drive the company?s growth over the next year. In fact, data services are steadily becoming a top priority for Bharti. The share of non-voice revenues in the operator?s total revenues grew from 16.2 per cent in March 2012 to 17.4 per cent in March 2013. Currently, the company has over 43 million mobile internet users and 6.4 million active 3G customers. Its 3G services are available in over 1,100 towns through home-grown and shared networks.

In terms of 4G expansion, Bharti plans to launch services in Mumbai and Delhi where it holds BWA licences by virtue of its acquisition of Qualcomm?s broadband business in India.

In Kolkata, the operator currently offers the 2999 two-month plan and the 3999 three-month plan. The plans offer a monthly download limit of 15 GB and 12 GB respectively.

For post-paid users, Bharti Airtel offers 10 plans with monthly rentals ranging from Rs 450 to Rs 2,000. The data download limit offered under these plans is 2-40 GB.

Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited

The company offers home broadband plans and business broadband plans.

For the home user category, it is currently offering plans under two categories ? Unlimited Download Plans and Limited Download Plans ? in Delhi.

The former includes four plans offering speeds of 600 kbps to 2 Mbps and fair usage policy download starting from 19 GB.

Meanwhile, the Limited Download Plans category offers the Powerway plan, which provides 2 Mbps download speed, 16 GB download limit and involves a rental of Rs 1,800 for four months.

Net, net, the broadband and internet segment is gaining momentum. Going forward, the country?s broadband subscriber base is expected to grow at 20-25 per cent on a quarterly basis. This growth would be largely driven by wireless broadband penetration.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, mobile broadband services are expected to generate revenues of Rs 940 billion by 2015. However, given the growing data demand and limited wireless spectrum availability, wireless networks alone will not be able to address the increasing broadband requirements in the long run. Therefore, service providers will be required to set up strong fibre infrastructure to provide bandwidth-intensive applications in the future.