Idea’s Mumbai entry to heat up competiton

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Mumbai, Aug 21: With Idea Cellular’s entry into the financial capital of the country - Mumbai - competition is expected to hot up in the telecom space. While telecom players say they are not feeling the heat now; analysts feel there could be a change in the subscriber metrics. Some of the analysts that FE spoke to said telecom players will now have to work on the quality of service in a bid to attract new subscriber base, as all of them have almost similar tariff plans.

Manu Talwar, CEO-Mumbai circle, Bharti Airtel said, “Whenever there has been a new player like Aircel and Virgin Telecom, the penetration in the city has gone up. There is a space for everyone in this city. Mumbai being an important location, our capex would be definitely higher for the city.” Vodafone’s chief marketting officer Harit Nagpal, said, “Whenever a new player comes in, the competition intensifies. Our capex additions do not depend on the new competitor but on the requirements of the city.”

Though analysts are quite bullish over Idea adding up new subscribers on the basis of quality service, it will be difficult for the company to catch the high- paying subscriber. Romal Shetty, executive director, KPMG, said, “It will be easier to attract the new subscribers for Idea but it will be only after 6-9 months that the company will see high-end subscribers adding up.”

Mumbai had 4 million subscriber additions in June. Manoj Mohta, head, CRISIL Research, said, “Typically, a telecom player would require about 1500-2500 Base Transceiver Station’s (BTS) for a reasonable coverage and market share of 1.5 million subscribers in the city.”