Posts tagged India

In the week that the Indian authorities finally gave the green light to MVNOs (virtual operators that piggyback on a cellco’s wireless network), sources said Nokia and Ericsson were both interested in launching their own MVNOs in the country.

Many big international names are said to be interested in using the virtual route to get a foothold in the rapidly growing Indian mobile market, but most of these are already operators in their home countries – British Telecom, Telekom Malaysia and France Telecom among them.

For equipment makers to become MVNOs might seem to bite the hands that feed them, but Nokia has already set the stage by launching a virtual cellco in Japan, under its luxury Vertu brand. Leaks from the Indian Department of Telecom, quoted in the local business press, suggest that Nokia may be working with its Vertu network partner, NTT DoCoMo, to enter India. DoCoMo recently took a 26% stake in Tata TeleServices, and sees the subcontinent as one of its most hopeful growth areas, but its brand would certainly carry less weight among Indian consumers than Nokia’s. On the Finnish giant’s part, an MVNO would reinforce its strategy of becoming a web services supplier under its own brand, a bid that is particularly focused on large emerging economies like India, where the mobile internet is likely to be vital in underpinning growth and new business processes.

Ericsson’s motivation is less clear, unless it plans to use the Sony Ericsson brand, or alternatively, create a ‘wholesale MVNO’ – leasing network capacity from one or more telcos and then including it in end-to-end deals, along with equipment and managed services, for clients that do not own their own spectrum, such as enterprises. This was a concept trialled, somewhat ahead of its time, by NextWave Wireless.

Research firm Ovum believes MVNOs should not compete head-on with the rising number of 2G and (in future) 3G carriers, but should segment markets carefully, targeting bases such as people with relatives abroad (a tactic used successfully, in reverse, by European virtual operators Lycatel and Lebara); or offering concierge services to wealthy people, as Dutch MVNO Baron already does in some markets.