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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quartersawyer who wrote (32530)	2/17/2003 4:03:22 PM
From: quartersawyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196546

GSM Operators: United They Fight Continued from Page 3 Joint Industry Development>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The cellular industry has been one of the best examples of joint industry development. The operators know there is a huge market ahead of them—so, the benefit of growing together has been larger than competing against each other. In Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry has not only the country’s most aggressive vertical-industry liaison unit but also a well-oiled initiator of joint business development and promotion activities. This organization has shown the way to all other associations how industry data is collected and presented. COAI’s subscriber tracking mechanism is certainly among the best in the world. Though not sacrosanct, the monthly cellular subscriber base that it tracks is confidently cited internationally by the government, industry, media, financial analysts, banks, and regulators. GSM India, the India interest group of GSM World (the premier global GSM industry association) has also been there for some time, doing some work on the common technology and operational fronts. While COAI fights the case against WLL, GSM operators have to worry about the interim period before the court cases are decided The Reliance Trigger Just when things were coasting along, the cellular boat was hit by the wave of WLL mobile services. While overtly the WLL players were playing the affordability and limited mobility card to introduce mobility, the technology that they were using for mobility was by no way limited in any sense. CDMA worldwide has been known to compete well with GSM as a mobile technology, though it is a newer technology and has not been implemented as extensively as GSM. And this fact did not take long for consumers to learn. Today, it is quite implicit among the service providers as well as customers that WLL mobile is as good as cellular. Everybody knows quite well that it is the regulation and not the technology that’s keeping CDMA from unleashing a whole array of value-added features that are similar and in some cases better compared to features provided by GSM. The cellcos are fighting hard to keep WLL’s wings clipped. But their confidence is greatly eroded by the fact that the biggest Indian private sector company, a master in lobbying and influencing, is also in the fray. The Reliance camp has also been proactive in projecting the major benefits of CDMA technology. Unlike others, it has gone ahead with a campaign that does not seem to be affected at all by existing regulatory norms about limited mobility. Its army of Dhirubhai Ambani Entrepreneurs (DAEs) is going ahead with spreading the word around that there is nothing in the WLL licence that prohibits such CDMA features as Internet browsing, multimedia, e-mail, gaming, applications—precisely the things in which CDMA is perceived to score over GSM. The Reliance camp already seems to be convinced that it is just a matter of time before these things are allowed in WLL mobile. Taking on CDMA It is this confidence of Reliance that is the most worrying aspect for the GSM industry. And the joint industry development activities of GSM operators have to be seen in this context. While COAI fights the case for stopping the introduction of WLL mobile services, GSM operators worry about the interim period before the cases are decided. COAI is taking on the promotional activities in addition to what it did earlier. It has taken every opportunity to put across the fact that the cellular industry has been the star performer of the communications sector, having established a 10 million subscriber base in quick time and bringing in almost 50 percent of the Rs 43,000 million cumulative FDI into the telecom sector since 1993. Also, the organization has been playing on the consumer’s emotions by bringing out advertisements to that effect—an example being that of pleading for justice in the case of interconnection on behalf of 10 million mobile consumers. The GSM Supplier Association (GSA) came to India, holding their first seminar in December 2002. The agenda was to put to perspective the competitive advantages of GSM over other mobile technologies. The seminar identified SMS, roaming and scale of volumes as major advantages of GSM. The core message was, "It is vital that India is able to capitalise on the extended value proposition that GSM can deliver today and in the near future." GSA also announced the setting up of GSA India chapter which will spearhead the joint promotional activities of the GSM technology and solutions provided by the vendors. Individually too, cellular service providers have been trying their best to remind their customers that they would be bringing down their prices. SMS have been sent to that effect and the company executives have made public statements saying that cellular service providers would match the WLL mobile tariffs, provided there is level playing field. After the early days of 1996-97, relationship marketing is back. COAI to Play Bigger Role Though COAI has been proactive in carrying out its regulatory and liaison functions, it has not gone beyond the basic data collection and occasional promotion work. It has to focus on activities that it has listed out as its objectives. These includes studying industry best practices, facilitating enhancement of standards and quality of service, continuous effort to ensure customer satisfaction. The COAI can take a leaf out of NASSCOM which does an excellent work of doing market research, forecasting and events towards promoting Indian software industry. Nareshchandra Laishram