XIUS ties up with Hebitel to tap MVNO market in India

Telecom gear supplier XIUS has partnered with UK-based Hebitel to tap the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) space in India.
"Having built our own successful business in India gives us the local knowledge to provide MVNO entrants a real advantage in this complex market," XIUS CEO GV Kumar said in a statement today.
If successful, the market could easily reach USD 4 billion opportunity "very quickly", the statement added.
Under the partnership, XIUS will provide the important technology and integration expertise and Hebitel will offer experienced personnel and services like licence application, market identification and business planning.
An inter-ministerial panel, the Telecom Commission, earlier this week had paved the way for virtual network operators which will be providing telecom services in partnership with a local operator.

VNOs will lease bandwidth from operators to sell voice and data services to customers like a retailer under its own brand name.

These will have their own billing plans and are expected to trigger a tariff war in the market.
"Across the world, we see very successful MVNOs targeting youth, roaming markets, international calling and others. With the immense scale of the Indian market, we know that many niche services will spell huge success for our MVNO clients," Hebitel MD Paul Nicholas said.
Some 10-15 percent of all mobile subscribers in Europe are subscribers of MVNOs.
According to IDC forecast, total mobile services revenue in India will hit USD 37 billion in 2017.