Hopeful of launching 4G services in next 2-3 yrs: Idea

Jan 14, 2014, 06.23 PM IST

Himanshu Kapania of Idea Cellular is hopeful that the government policies would help the overall growth for the sector.

Tags India business leader awards (IBLA), Himanshu Kapania, Idea Cellular, Indian telecom industry, mobility voice, wireless broadband, gross domestic product (GDP), 5 MHz

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Himanshu Kapania of Idea Cellular is hopeful that the government policies would help the overall growth for the sector.

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Hopeful of launching 4G services in next 2-3 yrs: Idea

Himanshu Kapania of Idea Cellular is hopeful that the government policies would help the overall growth for the sector.

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we are looking forward to support from the government and policies to make sure that the licence renewal goes through smoothly for all operators irrespective of the price that is paid.

Himanshu Kapania

Idea Cellular

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the India Business Leader Awards (IBLA), Idea Cellular 's Himanshu Kapania said: "We are looking forward to 2014 to be the turnaround year for wireless broadband. Large investments have already gone for the 3G space. There is an auction which is coming and if this spectrum is available in contiguous form at the right prices there is a potential of converting the success that we had in mobility voice to the wireless broadband. This will help grow not only Indian telecom industry but also help grow the overall gross domestic product (GDP) of the country."

Moreover, he was hopeful that the government policies would help the overall growth for the sector. He said: "On licence renewal which is critical for the year 2014 and 2015, both licenses are due for renewal in 2014-2015 and 2016; it is important that these licenses be retained and customer service is not disrupted at all. So, we are looking forward to support from the government and policies to make sure that the licence renewal goes through smoothly for all operators irrespective of the price that is paid."

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Kapania said now there is a belief that the hockey stick curve is going to happen for wireless broadband, we would have lot of spectrum available for us to be able to expand our 3G businesses from regional status as of now into pan India status and hopefully also be able to launch 4G services over the next two to three years.

"There is a lot of hope from telecom sector and we believe in the new age economy telecom is going to play an important role for revival of economy of the country," he added.

Answering a query on if they would be bidding for auctions, he said it would be premature to talk about it and would wait for the final decision. He highlighted two-three things that need to be ironed out.

"Firstly, about the spectrum usage charges. Our association has written about that and we will believe flat spectrum usage charges is critical for auction to go through. Secondly, there is currently the combined spectrum of contiguous spectrum which is to be used for future wireless data in slots of 5 MHz as well as spectrum which is in slots not in 5 MHz and what we call discontinuous spectrum. We are hoping the government will resolve those issues as far as not combining contiguous and non contiguous spectrum. As well as we are also hoping that government will resolve the issues of licence renewals and make sure that existing licenses are not in the threat," he added.

Idea Cellular stock price

On January 14, 2014, Idea Cellular closed at Rs 167.25, up Rs 4.80, or 2.95 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 188.35 and the 52-week low was Rs 101.10.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 3.70 per share as per the quarter ended September 2013. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 45.2. The latest book value of the company is Rs 42.26 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 3.96.

Kebugaran Hidup