Yep, Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli has harsh words for Indian MNOs – his view is that there will be acquisitions led by overseas networks (the big Tier 1 Operating groups I would expect), along with other Operator just plain going outta business!
India is a tricky market, and yet an exciting one – as a (relatively) untapped population for numbers of IT services, the “potential” is definitely there – but there are many issues around the geography (size) of the region, and the CAPEX required to lay down a network – particularly given the lower ARPU that has been found to be returned per customer.
Whilst volumes sounds great, if each person is only paying a small (lesser) amount than perhaps traditionally expected, suddenly the economics take quite a bashing. Nevertheless, there is a school of thought that suggests mass-aggregation of many smaller players, could lead to a scale of operations that would prove profitable.
Interestingly, as Mobile Entertainment mentions, NTT DoCoMo have got in on the act, paying $2.7bn for a 26% slice of Indian Operator Tata, who are currently ranked sixth. If DoCoMo are getting involved, you’ve got to think someone has done their maths and come out with a good answer!
[Via: Mobile-Ent.Biz / FT.com]