It is rather surprising to see that nothing much has happened in India with regard to the 3G services. We are still hearing of the auctions that are yet to take place and it is late July in 2009. The actual talks started early last year and elicited some interest from the public. However, the prolonging talks and finalization procedures have stunted its own growth. People have started looking towards other features that they already have rather than wait for something which they are not sure will ever reach Indian telecom industry. There are talks that 3G did not get enough appreciation from the Indian mobile users and the mobile users in the select cities in which it has been launched by BSNL / MTNL have elicited very little response. They were able to get less than 1000 subscribers in the past six months. This figure does not encourage the telecom companies to bid for higher value.
One of the reasons that it has not received enough appreciation is because, it has not been promoted well. If the same service were to be launched by Airtel or Reliance, it would have received a huge publicity from these private companies and they would have swept the market by now. Low profiled advertising strategies will not work with the Indian public that is not yet fully aware of the benefits of having 3G connections. Once people understand the benefits of 3G they will rush to book their connections. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the telecom service providers that are already holding the spectrum to educate the public. Probably, BSNL does not want to set aside a huge budget in marketing the service as this will set the stage for the private service providers when 3G comes in full swing to the Indian market.
BSNL / MTNL have invited foreign telecom companies to take part in the bid. However, this decision based on the data that they have currently in hand is not a wise move. Because the figures that they have in hand can be highly misleading because, they cannot expect a huge turn up for a service that is poorly advertised. Many common mobile users do not even know that there is something called 3G.
Once the market is opened to the international players, it will become very difficult for the local players including BSNL to get a good market share. The entire process requires rethinking and better implementation. Local telecom companies should be given a better chance to prove themselves in this field.
As of now the auction dates for 3G mobiles in India has been postponed. There are rumors that it may not happen until the end of this year. Postponing the auction dates further and the implementation of the 3G network is the best way to discourage the Indian market. This service needs to be launched in a few more cities to assess the popularity of this service.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If we talk about BSNL & MTNL, they mainly cater to the low-end strata. So there is a possibility that these subscribers are not much interested in 3G. Data users like you & me would rather want to have Airtel 3G than going for BSNL (which requires a number change too) as we are aware the kind of service government provide. Second thing, as you rightly said, is the poor marketing strategies. Third, initially there were only 3 services which were launched by BSNL and later they introduced more services. Private players have different things in mind .3G in Indian market would definitely be a big thing and in my opinion it will be successful to some extent.
3G auctions are still a distant dream and we are already into 2010, God know how long it is going to be before we get to see the face of 3g at affordable prices.