Telecom Operators in India have to think Wide

Hi Guys,

The telecom revolution started in our country in the year 2000 to be more accurate and since then there have been a lot of developments. Initially the focus was more on penetration of the services to different regions and there was a stress that more and more people should have the mobile. But now things are different. Markets are saturated and now the Telecom Operator is seeing the noose tighten on its neck as the revenues and margins both fall. In India, especially the operators have not been able to make ground orMAKE A LOT OF MONEY out of businesses like 3G and 4G though much is / has been spoken about the same.

I am not a great telecom advisor, but being in this industry for some time, 13 years "young" to be precise, would like to provide some of my views on the changing ways that should be adopted by the telecom operator in order to generate additional revenue and profit without disturbing the user ecosystem of the nation.

There is an Ocean of Opportunities for Indian TELCOS
Lack-lustre Policies are killing it

The basic theory and the execution of it lies within a solid foundation of Infrastructure that the Indian telecom industry has. Companies in India have had the luxury of laying their own fiber and have been generous enough in doing that. However this has not translated into greater thinking of how to expoit it.

Let us think how much potential does a big telecom operator (Tier-1) have with regards to offering services. And these are some of the items that have to be thought in the line of business seriously by "Telecom Professionals" not hop ons from the "FMCG" in an operator industry.

1. Generating Revenue Through Content Delivery: It seems ridiculous that in a country with so many big Telcos having the capacity to build IDCs of their own and having the capacity to provide Peering for so many ISPs down the line, there is still existence of 3rd Party CDN's appart from the operators. The operators are so big in size that they could themselves strike a deal with the content providers to distribute content on their behalf and get a share of the revenue for the content Delivery that the CDN is doing at the behest of Operators network. Today the proposition of a typical CDN is to place its equipment in the operator IDC, use resources of the Operator and earn loads of money while giving operators just a share which is peanuts. I must say that the CDNs have really got the better of the operators plainly because in the CDN industry the people who are doing the business know the place where more profitable revenue from Internet can come. On the other hand you have operators, who are big in size, but have never developed this attitude to think how better to use their system. It is a pity that this is happening with the operators who have massive infrastructures, good skill setHIRING power and very much pronounced technical staff. The only issue is the business side of the operators are not looking towards this but plainly continuing of twigging the tariff plans of their mobile services. A big operator of India with a customer base of 250 Million in Retail mobile and several enterprise ILL customers of ISPs should have this courage and authority to assert itself on content providers to share the revenue with them for content delivery and not with the CDNs.

"I sincerely wish some owner of a big telecom firm is reading this......Because below the line this point will fall on deaf ears and blurred visions......"

2. ProvidingCLOUD HOSTING Services: If I am a telco with massive resources I might as well provide hosting services to the corporates . Why does India need an Amazon to launch cloud services on the infrastructure of Telcos. Why can't the teclos themselves launch it and make that extra bit of revenue on which a company like Amazon can survive in India? What keeps these telcos from staying away from launching such services in the country that are sure shot revenue generators for them? Shortage of skill set?? For sure not.... Then... This is the shortage ofMARKETING thinking. Being a telecom professional my heart bleeds when I see the TELCOS becoming only "DUMB PIPES" for these companies who actually build their high revenues on the foundations of Telcos. A TELCO becomes a DUMB PIPE only due to lack of focus. But this being perpetual throughout India is a problem. Let us look at other countries where TELCOs are the main source of such services of hosting content.

3. Virtual Office Creation: Today there are so many small and medium enterprise in this country who cannot afford a place to work because they have to maintain costs. However, they are interested in Virtual Offices which need a lot of BW and Telecom infrastructure like Voip, Internet, Leased Lines, VideoCONNECTIVITYand so on. The TELCO can provide a very consolidated package for these people for their employees and generate the right kind of revenue which is constant and not frivolous. This is happening in India but again TELCOs are behind in this strategy and this is mostly done by some 3rd Party, again leasing DUMP PIPEs from the telco.

To summarize time has come for the Indian Telecom Industry to change... Change in Perception and in some cases if that is being altered chance in Persons. Telecom services are not Soap and detergents and cannot be sold in that way. There has to be some perpetual way of revenue generation, some alternate way of generate revenues which will actually make the industry more profitable and people working in this industry 24x7 more happy and enthusiastic. If this does not happen the TELCOs will become the biggest PREYS of their own policies.

Think about it friends.

Cheers,

Kalyan