History of Telecom Operators-India
Devyani Mahadevan
Assistant Manager @Marsh India || Risk Management Practice || FIII || MBA Marketing
India's wireless industry celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020. A staggering number of mergers & acquisitions in this sector have brought several brands into and out of the Indian market. Behind the rise and fall of telecommunication, there is a story full of opportunities, ambitions, and scandals. Players from both India and the world have sought to navigate the country's regulatory landscape and respond to rapidly changing consumers. Only a handful have succeeded, but most have disappeared from public memory.
The First Ever Call
On 31 July 1995, Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram and then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu made the first mobile call. The service provider at that time was Modi Telstra, a joint venture between India's BK Modi Group and Australian telecommunications giant Telstra. After a dispute between partners, the service was finally sold to Airtel.
Rise of Airtel
In 2000, the cheapest mobile phones exceeded 30,000 rupees, and local calls cost about 16 rupees per minute. In this scenario, Airtel positioned the "postpaid" service as a premium service portrayed as wealthy and robust services.
Airtel has changed that perception from a "dull and established" brand to one that young people can relate to. Har Ek Dost Zaroori Hota Hai (each and every friends is special) advertising campaign was one of the most memorable initiatives and helped make images livelier and more approachable.
Presently, In India, the company provides products and services to both end-users and businesses. The consumer business offers 2G, 3G, and 4G technology mobile phone services, landline services, high-speed DSL broadband, mobile commerce, IPTV, and digital TV. Corporate services include domestic and international long-haul services for large enterprises and network operators, as well as tower infrastructure services.
Mergers that fast-tracked the telecom industry- Vodafone-Idea
In 1994, Max Touch Cellular Service was launched through a joint venture between Hutchison and the Max Group. In 2000, Max Touch was renamed Orange. The service was renamed Hutch when France Telekom acquired the global rights to the Orange brand. In 2011, another brand change was made with a majority acquisition by Vodafone. Brand Union, a WPP company has now merged with other companies to form an agency called Super Union and has been Vodafone's brand manager for many years. A dedicated global team worked on all brand design systems. IdeaCellular was founded in 1995 as Birla Communications Limited and introduced the Idea brand in 2002. The brand logo was based on a SIM card and was created by LoweLintas.
In March 2017, IdeaCellular and Vodafone India were merged into one entity, Vodafone Idea. After the merger, a new unified brand called "Vi" was introduced on 7 September 2020. The union, for financial reasons, has merged two very different brands. While Vodafone has always been perceived as global and of high quality, Idea has had a more local and realistic personality. Both brands have carried out highly successful marketing campaigns to enhance their positioning over the years.
Reliance Jio
Jio was launched on 27 December 2015, on the eve of what would have been the founder Dhirubai Ambani’s 83rd birthday. The beta launch for the employees and the public was in 2016. Reliance Jio revolutionized the market with free data and the lowest rates. After Jio's features were made available to the public, people suddenly had means and access to unlimited 4G data, free voice calls, messaging, and other related services, and jio recharge was at a very low price as compared to other telecom competitors. It is one of India's largest cellular network operators and the third-largest mobile operator in the world, with over 42.62 crore subscribers.
In September 2019, Jio introduced Fibre to Home Services, which provides broadband, video, and telephone services for the home. Since, the launch of Jio it has seen an exponential growth in all its telecom segments- prepaid and postpaid. It has emerged as one of the biggest competitors to all existing telecom companies. Jio spread out in the Indian market like a phenomenon, acquiring about a thousand customers per minute. Within 83 days of its official launch, Reliance Jio had amassed the subscriber count of more than 50 million, which was a major milestone, that had taken Airtel about 12 years, and Vodafone and Idea around 13 years.
BSNL- Govt owned Telecom provider
PAN India Telecom Operator BSNL refers to the historic Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. It is India's 100% State-owned telecommunications company and public telecommunications service which was launched on 15 September 2000 and is headquartered in New Delhi. BSNL is one of India's oldest telecommunications service providers, which dates back to the nineteenth century to the British colonial era.
In 1854, the public began using telegraph services. In 1885, the Indian Telegraph Act was passed by the National British Legislative Council. The Govt of India in the year 2000, combined the telegraph and telecommunications services into one company and named it Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. It is now functioning as the govt's entire public sector in the economy, and since its establishment, this public sector undertaking has provided BSNL telecom and telegraph services to India. The telegram business facility was closed in July 2015 due to a complete shutdown of Telegram services.
BSNL telecom services typically offers GSM cellular service under the name CellOne. It also provides communication services such as MPLS, P2P, and Internet leased lines to corporate customers and highly provides fixed-line service and fixed-line connection using CMDA technology and its fiber-optic network. In addition, it provides the Internet for customers to watch TV and narration via IPTV, and public sector companies also offer home users the fastest broadband services. Overall, the company has seen some good days and some bad days but has emerged as been one of the top telecom companies with a pan India reach, operating under the Government.
Twenty-five years ago, it was difficult to predict the rapid integration of India's telecommunications sector. Everyone had the idea that there would remain stiff competition among the network providers and that the telecommunication industry would be a booming sector for more players to emerge. But little did we know that this sector would see the maximum change, such as the dissolution of some operators due to the 2G scam or the merging of operators due to financial turmoil, which has drastically brought down the number of telecom service provider companies.
As per records as of 31 October 2021, there were only three private postpaid mobile operators and one public postpaid mobile operator left to serve the market, consisting of about 1166.30 million wireless subscribers.