Comment on the current state of the Indian Telecom Sector.

XYZ: The Indian Telecommunications sector is currently one of the most dynamic and progressive sectors amongst the varied constituents of the Indian economy. This sector has seen impressive compound annual growth over the years and is steadily moving towards becoming the numero uno telecommunications market in the world. The Indian telecom sector is constantly expanding based on the growth in its chief constituents - mobile equipment, telecom networks and mobility software. What do you have to say about the increasing brand switching by customers? XYZ: I think that telecommunication has moved beyond just providing voice calls. People are expecting more and more services from telcos apart from just voice calls. I think three factors play a major role in deciding whether a customer switches or not. These factors are quality of service, affordability and promotional offers. Do you think the traditional revenue generating services of voice and SMS have hit the ceiling? XYZ: I think it is we as the operator community, who are to be blamed for nondevelopment of voice and SMS. I think while the operators were milking these, the OTT players were busy innovating on voice, video and on chatting services. Obviously, a lot of revenues are likely to move out to them. Given this handicap, we need to move our dependence away from voice, VAS and SMS to data and I think all operators realize that. While the price wars over voice are over, are the data price wars also phasing out? XYZ: Seemingly no. Some sell 3G at the 2G price and, with supply of services and proliferation of smart devices coming of age, the volumes of data are bound to increase and prices will have to reflect the fully loaded costs and future investments. The realizations from operator to operator on 3G are varying from 15 paisa to 30 paisa per MB and these do not cover fully loaded costs. I would say the data prices would go up in the coming months, especially after the auctions, as operators will have to pay large amounts for spectrum. How will be the year 2014 for the Indian Telecom Sector? XYZ: Indias telecom industry is set for a transformation in 2014 that will see it leap from a chronic spectrum crunch to an abundance of the airwaves, offering mobile phone companies opportunities to emulate global business models and offer data services across radio frequency bands. I think that two policy changes that came into effect in 2014 will enable operators to increase there holding of airwaves. The airwaves cap in the new M&A policy is 74% higher than the existing limit. At the same time, the government is most likely to get the armed forces to vacate additional 3G airwaves in the 2,100MHz band during the next couple of months, and put at least three slots of these frequencies for sale in the next fiscal. This will provide an opportunity for telcos to expand their 3G footprints.