Experts said telecom players were looking for market capitalization and consolidation.
"The operators have started to focus on subscriber quality and have done away with the lucrative dealer commissions and promotional minutes. After 2008, for the first time, India has witnessed a surge in voice tariff," said Jaideep Ghosh, partner witn KPMG.
He also mentioned that to increase data user penetration, operators have dropped their 3G tariff (by as much as 75-80 percent). As a result it is comparable with that for 2G services.
On the subscriber front, India continued to make progress.
At the end of December 2012, India had 864.72 million mobile phone subscribers and 30.79 million fixed-line connections for a total of 895.51 million wired and wireline. By this October, this increased to 875.48 million mobile while fixed-line connections declined to 29.08 million.
Thus, the total number of connections stood at 904.56 million end-October, with the overall tele-density in the country increasing from 73.01 at the end of last year to 73.32 at the end of October.
More importantly, the share of urban subscribers declined from 62.20 percent in December to 60.26 percent in October-end, while rural telecom penetration rose from 39.64 percent to 39.74 percent in October.
According to analysts, one principal area where the government faltered in 2013 was in the area of auctioning precious airwaves, or radio frequency spectrum. This, they said, did not materialise in March 2013 due to artificially-high reserve price.
Now, all eyes are on Jan 23 next year when the next round of spectrum auctions is set to begin. The government, this time, feels it has kept the reserve price at a moderate level and hopes it will fetch the exchequer some $650 million.
Highlights of 2013:
-National Telecom Policy of 2012 introduced
-Foreign equity of 100 percent allowed in telecom
-Vodafone evinces interest in buying entire stake of Indian partner
-Mergers and acquisition policy approved
-Dominant player can hold up to 50 percent telecom market share
-Telecom tower business given infrastructure status
-Clearance for unified telecom licences in respect of technology
-Total telecom connections at 904.56 million end-October.
