India's explosive cellular
growth By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In the past few weeks, India,
already suffering from terror attacks, has been
witness to explosions of another kind - apparently
defective mobile-telephone batteries bursting and
injuring users.
In the past few days,
several incidents of explosions and also burn
injuries have been reported in the states of West
Bengal and Gujarat. Most of these bursts seem to
have happened as the
users have tried to charge
the phones.
India is one of the
fastest-growing mobile-phone markets in the world,
with more than 200 million users, rising at more
than 25% and expected to cross 450 million in the
next three to four years.
Finnish giant
Nokia, the world's largest cellular-phone maker
and which dominates the Indian market, has blamed
cheap fake batteries and tinkered-with phones for
the battery explosions, while advising customers
to use original components.
"Every single
incident is being investigated, and almost all
cases where an explosion took place either
involved fake batteries or the phones were
tampered [with]. We are doing our best to educate
our customers about the disadvantages of using
counterfeit accessories," D Shivakumar, managing
director of Nokia India, said at a press
conference in New Delhi on Monday.
A fake
Nokia battery can be purchased for as little as
Rs10-40 (24-97 US cents) in the illegal market,
compared with the original cost of Rs200-400 for
various models.
Backing Nokia, the
Cellular Operators Association of India said: "A
mobile [phone] is as safe as any other consumer
electronic device used at home. However, consumers
need to be mindful and should follow steps advised
by the manufacturers to ensure safety of their
cell phones and longevity of the batteries."
Last month Nokia recalled an estimated 46
million batteries globally after a "product
advisory" that they could overheat and explode.
Nokia said Japanese company Matsushita
manufactured these batteries between October 2005
and November 2006 and will cover the replacement
costs.
Last year, Sony Corp was forced to
recall more than 9.5 million laptop-computer
batteries because they could overheat and catch
fire in rare cases.
In India, almost
300,000 Nokia customers are set to get
replacements for the supposedly faulty BL-5C
batteries, with users keen to procure new
batteries. Nokia has been inundated with more than
6 million calls and messages from across the
country.
After the controversy, Nokia's
competitors in India, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and
Samsung, reported a jump in their mobile-handset
sales in August.
Indeed, the recent
incidents could be a cause for wider concern.
In the past week, three incidents have
been reported from West Bengal involving batteries
and phones of different makes, not all of them
Nokia. In Gujarat, at least two incidents
involving Nokia phones have been reported.
According to reports, a pregnant woman was
injured at her south Kolkata residence last week
when her Nokia handset's battery that she
purchased three years back exploded 10 minutes
after she had plugged in its recharger. The
battery was a BL-D3 and not the recalled BL-5C
series. But reports say Matsushita manufactured
both types. Though her injuries are superficial,
the woman is said to be in shock and her husband
is looking at legal options against Nokia.
Experts in India say that apart from
buying original parts, users should be careful not
to use the phones while they are being charged, as
there is always some risk involved even with the
best of technology.
However, most
observers say the good tidings in India's telecom
sector will continue and the latest incidents
could end up being just blips in the high-growth
radar. This year the number of telephone
subscribers in India crossed the 200 million mark
because of a big rise in cell-phone users.
It has been confirmed by the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India that there were 207
million telephone subscribers as of March 31, up
47% from a year ago. The additions were due to
mobile-telephone connections even as fixed-line
subscribers dipped.
Reliance
Communications (RCOM), India's second-largest
wireless operator, has announced plans to spend in
the range of $4 billion to $5 billion on network
expansion, especially in rural areas.
Again, Sweden's Ericsson has netted a $2
billion, two-year deal to help top mobile-phone
operator Bharti Airtel expand as it looks to tap
rural markets to maintain growth.
Bharti
Airtel Ltd is India's top mobile-services firm,
with its main competitors RCOM,
Vodafone-Hutchison-Essar, and state-run Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
RCOM chairman
Anil Ambani recently said the company plans to
sell stakes in its tower and undersea-cable units
to help close the gap with Bharti Airtel. The RCOM
network will aim to cover 900 million people and
23,000 towns across India, Ambani said. The
network now covers 60% of India's 1.1 billion
population in more than 10,000 towns and 300,000
villages.
"It is expected that telephony
usage will continue to grow at the present rate of
6 [million] to 7 million additions per month over
the next several years to reach 500 million
connections by 2010," Ambani said.
RCOM
recently awarded two network expansion contracts
worth more than $600 million to Alcatel-Lucent and
China's Huawei Technologies.
RCOM has also
acquired US telecom data-service provider Yipes
Holdings for $300 million, marking its entry to
the lucrative US enterprise data market.
Not to be undone, Ericsson will help
design, plan, deploy and manage Bharti Airtel's
GSM operations across 15 of India's 23 telecoms
"circles" or zones, the firms said in a statement.
"This is the biggest deal our company has
got into. It is a clear testimony to the big
growth that is taking place in this market," Akil
Gupta, group managing director for Bharti
Enterprises, said.
The recent joint
statement said the deal would allow Bharti to
expand its reach into key rural areas. Bharti also
recently signed a $900 million deal with Nokia
Siemens Networks.
Ericsson last year
emerged as the lowest bidder in a tender for 45.5
million 2G (second-generation) and 3G GSM (Global
System for Mobile Communications) lines issued by
state-run telecoms firm BSNL. But new Telecoms
Minister A Raja has asked BSNL to negotiate a
lower price with the Swedish firm.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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