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Thursday, 15 December 2011

Organizational Structure of a Telecom Company

Organization Structure of any Telecom company seems like a super-set of  an FMCG or Banking company. Here is a typical organization structure:



Network operations looks after rolling out BTS's (Base Tower Stations) and their maintenance, along with general maintenance of the signal levels in any area. This department is typical to Telecom only.

IT, Legal, Finance and HR are general departments of any company. So we focus on other 3 critical departments apart from Network.

1. Sales: Telecom sales is perhaps the most intensive and largest department as compared to other industries. A typical distributor does Revenues of about Rs 1 Crores a month and there may be as many as 50 distributors in a typical metro city. In rural areas, sales is done through Associate Distributors which handle an area of Rs 20-30 Lakhs a month. This turn over is huge as compared to any other industry.
Telecom sales is not just about revenues. An equally important part is the acquisition of New Subscribers to build a revenue pipeline for the future, which is done separately for Prepaid and Postpaid or is clubbed under one in many circles/operators.

2. Marketing:
Telecom Marketing is much more than Branding. Usage and retention (promoting better products to customers through micro-segmentation and retention of old base), Value Added Services (includes caller tunes, Data, Mobile Alerts, SMS etc), Roaming, and Acquisition are departments unique to telecom.
Marcom (marketing communication) is the most vibrant and colourful of all departments, especially in Telecom where every 3rd shop is a telecom shop. Little differentiation among offerings from various operators leaves the game to Marcom to position a brand to its target segment. Example customer perception of Vodafone and Airtel is of best network providers, Uninor and Docomo are youth focussed, Reliance and Tata are famous for providing cheap STD calling rates in India.

3. Customer Service:

Telecom after-all is a service industry to its core. Airtel through Airtel Relationship Centers, Vodafone through its Vodafone Stores and Ministores and similarly other operators through various outlets provide customers a resolution to their problems. Call Centers similarly handle all customer queries. CSG (Customer support group) handles CAF (Customer Activation Forms) collection and processing.

4. Credit and Collections
This department is a straight lift from any financial company. It handles Postpaid Bill Payments.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

10 Interesting Facts about Indian Telecom Companies

  • The Vodafone pug in its famous ad “wherever you go our network follows” is named Cheeka!
  • The credit of being the country's oldest telecom service provider is taken by Loop Mobile (earlier BPL) which boasts of being the first operator in the country to offer services of MMS, GPRS and Caller Ring Tunes.
  • Airtel is the first mobile phone company in the world to outsource everything except marketing and sales and finance.
  • In Jersey and Guernsey, Airtel and Vodafone operate under a joint venture company called Airtel-Vodafone and marks the partnership of two of the world’s most important telecommunications companies. http://www.airtel-vodafone.je/
  • Idea Cellular was earlier known as Batata, as  it was formed by a collaboration of Birla-Tata-AT&T
  • Aircel placed an actual dinghy lifeboat to a downtown billboard in Mumbai. A rope with a sign reading, “In case of emergency, cut rope”, held up the branded raft. July 15, 2009 the monsoon arrived with flooded streets and so did Aircel customer service. The dinghy was cut down and pedestrians were safely transported.


  • The logo of Uninor is same as that of its parent company Telenor.

  • On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India ended. Infotel Broadband, a subsidary of Reliance Industries, won pan-India licence in the auction across 22 circles, the only telecom operator other than state-owned BSNL/MTNL to do so.
  • DOCOMO name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network”
  • Vodafone used to have a 10% stake in Airtel till Feb 2007 when it acquired Hutch. It still has a 4.4% stake in Airtel.

Airtel's Green Towers P7 Program

The Telecom industry today faces tough challenges in providing access and connectivity to remote areas. One of the most critical challenges is the limited availability of grid power. Also the operators are required to meet minimum roll out obligations (coverage) and quality of service levels, (network up time), failing which they are highly penalized and often lose their licenses. To minimize environmental impact, all operators first use battery power and when these run out, they switch to diesel generators which increases the cost of operation by three or four times and adds to various operational complexities.

Airtel’s GreenTowers P7 initiative is a comprehensive, energy efficient and alternate energy program covering seven high impact initiatives, which are aimed at reducing diesel usage and therefore the carbon footprint.



Some Commendable initiatives:

  • Solar DG Hybrid: Having been successfully deployed on 650+ tower sites, it helps in massively reducing noise and emissions from DG sets and also in reducing dependency on diesel, thereby contributing towards low energy intensity and better energy security.
  • Variable Speed DCDG: Variable speed DCDG project helps in reducing carbon emission by up to 60%, thus further contributing towards higher energy efficiency and better energy security.
  • Fuel Cells, DCFCU, IPMS, GenX & Fuel Catalyst:All 5 sub-projects help in improving local community impact by reducing noise and emission from DG sets and also giving opex saving of up to 25%


Bharti Infratel has installed almost 3 MWT of solar capacity on network, generating more than 5 mn units of electricity every year. All this has been creditably achieved despite the absence of subsidies on solar unit installations – a move contemplated widely by various agencies and the MNRE for a while now, without any significant action or policy being announced.

The GreenTowers P7 program is scoped for 22,000 tower sites (primarily rural areas having low or no Grid Power availability) out of which 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the first year as a part of this 3-year program. Once completed, the initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 66 mn liters per year with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 lac MT per year.

This project already holds the unique distinction of being one of the largest of such initiatives around the world, while also having the largest green footprint in India, by any telecom tower company. Bharti Infratel bagged the 2011 'Green Mobile Award ' at the GSMA Mobile World Congress at Barcelona and was also awarded the 2010 innovative infrastructure company of the year award, at the CNBC Infrastructure Awards, for this groundbreaking initiative. 

Source: www.bharti-infratel.com/cps-portal/web/gogreen.html

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Overview of Telecom Industry in India

Scale of Industry: An example:

Evolving Indian Demographics...

Rapidly Growing Telecom Market...

Telecom Landscape...
The S Curve...

 The telecom industry is still evolving and is a baby compared to centuries old FMCG and Banking institutions. As we evolve this blog, we analyze all that and more. 

Sunday, 11 December 2011

The Crazy Indian Telecom Scene

It has simply been a dream run for Telecom in India. The way it has come into our lives and become an indispensable part of it has been so smooth and subtle and yet so overwhelming. It has been with us, celebrating festivals, changing our landscapes and penetrating not just urban but the rural core of India. The following pics are just a glimpse of how an infant industry has been growing at a frenetic pace and yet is becoming closer and closer to our lives...

Celebrating Durga Pujos...

Changing our landscapes...

Penetrating Slums and Rural Villages, the heart of India...

All handmade stuff made by a retailer for Vodafone. Which other industry boasts of a retailer taking pains to do all this to promote a brand!

Airtel, a telecom brand originating in India and spreading its wings in the world. Arguably the most respected brand in India along with Vodafone...

Reliance, originating from the dream of a visionary Dhirubhai Ambani, for having call rates cheaper than that of a postcard. Now foraying in the world of faster internet with 3G...

Vodafone, the most trusted brand of 2011 in Delhi, Gujarat and Kolkata circles. Here demonstrating the use of an internet dongle using a canopy and laptop...

The new players, Uninor and Docomo are working their magic on the younger generation...

After-all it is a service industry, and this market communication by Idea leaves no stone un-turned to emphasize that...

Finally, the below picture shows how deeply Telecom has become a part of the extended family that not just sells but cares. A CSR activity on cleanliness and literacy by Vodafone...

This is a blog where we'll sit back and enjoy the roller-coaster ride which Telecom sector is imparting to the industry. We'll closely observe the trends, direction and the strategy adopted by major companies across the world and how are Indian companies faring. We'll also use it as a platform to share and discuss various issues plaguing the industry and the way forward. So just sit back and enjoy the ride...............