June
2017
NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expecting to garner at least Rs 500 crore from the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business annually, and it has partnered with mobile payment provider AdPay to launch India first virtual telecom firm Aerovoyce.
We expect to get Rs 500 crore from the VNO business annually on an incremental basis,BSNL chairman Anupam Shrivastava said, adding that MVNO gives an opportunity and the BSNL Board has identified it as a good revenue driver.
Consumers, according to BSNL top executive, would be able to get special services and virtual private firms could be able to fill in the gap particularly customer interaction where government-driven telco was little lacking.
Shrivastava admitted that the Jio foray made competition tougher for MVNO business and despite that the market remains lucrative for such firms.
State-owned telco would be getting somewhere Rs 10 to 15 crore in the first year for allowing bulk data and voice minutes to AdPay which has initially launched MVNO service in Tamil Nadu including Chennai circle over former 2G and 3G networks, before a pan-India roll-out.
Many companies including Oxygen, DataWind and Spectranet have approached us initially and MVNOs have already made their presence in the rest parts of the world including Europe and Africa, according to BSNL executive.
AdPay will be spending Rs 300 crore in three three years on MVNO rollout and plans to rope in at least 10 lakh customers in rural as well as tier-II and tier-III cities of the country,Aerovoyce founder and chief executive Sivakumar Kuppusamy said.
Aerovoyce, according to executive, will finalise tariff within next four to six weeks, and have aggressive plans to offer freebies to customers in order to make them loyal to the brand.
Every month, we plan to offer a minimum volume of voice minutes and data which may be convenient for the company to retain users, Kuppusamy said.
Telecom department has approved Aerovoyce license to initiate VNO services in December 2016.
The company plans to offer recharges through retail stores, online and at airports with instant customer on-boarding with a 60-minute of SIM activation.
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