MTS launches high-speed wireless broadband

Sistema has kept prices at competitive with tariffs of existing 3G and 4G services

Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which offers CDMA services under MTS brand name, on Wednesday commercially launched its high-speed wireless broadband service — 3GPlus. The service, which is expected to boost the company’s data revenue, will be available in all nine circles where the telco operates.

3GPlus  offers data downloads at speeds as high as 9.8 megabytes per second (mbps), which is more than what other operators offer under third-generation (3G) services (7.2mbps). However, this is much lower than the 4G or long-term evolution (LTE) services, which offers more than 21 mbps of download speed. 3GPlus services start at Rs 700 a month and goes up to Rs 1,498.

MTS will charge Rs 875 for 10GB unlimited data plan for post-paid users and Rs 999 for pre-paid users. A similar data plan for 3G at present costs between Rs 950 and Rs 1,499, depending on circles and operators.

While the service will initially be available over MTS data dongles, the company has plans to launch smartphones on this network by end of this year.

“Margins are higher on data, and we want to be a data company,” said Dmitry Shukov, CEO of MTS India. However, it will not be able to offer LTE services soon as it would need at least one more carrier of 1.25MHz spectrum to offer LTE or 4G services. It currently has three carriers of 1.25MHz each in nine circles. “We don’t have contiguous spectrum,” Shukov added.

At present, Sistema has operations in Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal circles. It has a unified licence, which allows liberal use of telecom technologies for providing latest services.

Leonid Musatov, chief marketing and sales officer at MTS India, said the company aims to increase its share in Indian dongle market by 50 per cent by the end of next year. At present, it has 13 per cent of the Indian dongle market by volume (about 18-20 per cent in the nine circles it operates).

To attract consumers, it will offer the data dongle with a 10GB data usage plan (valid for one month) for new pre-paid customers. Existing postpaid MBlaze customers can get the dongle by paying Rs 750 with complete cash back. While MTS has priced the data dongle at Rs 1,299, market price for data dongles (3G and 4G) starts from Rs 1,499.

According to Shukov, the company is on track to breaking even in all circles by the end of 2014. The company may look for expansion beyond its existing circles, if it gets spectrum at a lower rate. “The right price according to me is zero,” he said.