A load of crap from an idle brain

After losing out on MTN and pocketing Warid of Bangladesh, it looks like Bharti Airtel is on a tearing hurry.  As the world’s fastest growing telecom market, India becomes more and more competitive with more than 10 service providers already, Bharti is looking to spread the eggs across other markets.

Bharti Airtel is in $10.7 billion talks with Zain to buy most of the Kuwaiti telecom’s cellular assets in Africa — the Indian firm’s third attempt to gain a foothold in the region.

The deal, if clinched, would be India’s biggest overseas acquisition since Tata Steel’s $12 billion purchase of European steel maker Corus in 2007.

Mobile subscriber additions are running at a monthly average of about 15 million in India, making it the world’s fastest-growing wireless market. The rapid pace has attracted new foreign operators such as Telenor and Sistema, making competition more intense.

Call charges have fallen sharply, to as low as a fraction of a US cent per minute, squeezing margins and clouding earnings growth potential.

Bharti reported its slowest profit growth in more than three years for the December quarter, and average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key operational gauge — fell 29 per cent to 230 rupees ($5). The market is also showing early signs of saturation, with penetration reaching about 45 per cent.

To beat the slowdown, Bharti has been scouting overseas, with a focus on high growth-potential emerging markets. After failing to get a deal with South Africa’s MTN Group, the company has set up a new unit to drive overseas expansion. It also agreed last month to acquire control of Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom.

Africa is attractive for Bharti as the mobile user base is low there, with just over a third of the population having a mobile.

Zain’s 15 African operations included in the deal have a combined user base of about 42 million, and the operator is No.1 in 10 markets, ranking second in another four, according to brokerage reports. ARPU in these operations ranges from $3 to $25, with 10 of the 15 having higher ARPU than Bharti.

Rest of the article here

+++

Shouldn’t these have been done earlier considering the fact that much of the products that originate from China are not only spurious, of inferior quality,  harmful to humans and the security of the nation (especially the cellphones with no IMEI numbers).

The government on Wednesday put quality restrictions on mobile phones, dairy products and toys in a measure aimed mainly to block their imports from China and which may trigger another round of wrangling at the WTO between two of Asia’s biggest economies.

The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade said mobile handsets without the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, which helps authorities to track the sale and use of the phones, cannot be imported from now on. An estimated eight lakh such phones come into the country every month from China. These are unbranded and cost a lot less than the branded variety.

Security agencies had raised concern over the use of these phones, many of which, they said, were being used by terrorists to set off bombs and communicate among themselves. Since these sets do not have the 15-digit IMEI number, or cloned numbers, the authorities find it difficult to track the sale or usage. Approximately 30 million such phones are in use at present.

The DGFT also banned till January 2010 the import of toys that do not meet international safety standards and norms. This move too will hit imports of toys mainly from China and several other countries. India had blocked import of toys from China in January on health grounds, after concerns over their safety were raised in developed markets. But the restriction was eased later after Beijing questioned the restrictions on the ground that New Delhi did not put such curbs on toys from other countries.

More than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa had also banned milk and dairy product imports from China, while several others had recalled the products suspected to be contaminated. India, world’s largest milk producer, does not import milk products from China. The ban is being seen as a preventive measure.

Meanwhile, the government has asked its missions in the African region to step up vigil against bootlegged drugs being sent to those markets with fake `Made in India’ tag. The commerce department last week lodged a complaint with the Chinese embassy here and the Indian embassy in Beijing and sought action against the impostors.

The Indian action comes after Nigeria’s pharma regulator reported the detention of a large consignment of fake drugs for treating malaria. The consignment carried `Made in India’ labels but was produced in China. A laboratory test of a recent consignment of anti-malaria drugs Maloxine and Amalar tablets proved these were fake. Had the drugs flowed into the market, about 642,000 lives would have been affected.

/Newslink/

Hope the ban stays long enough.

+++