Industry Structure and Industry Impact Indicators World Dialogue on Regulation Singapore, March 3, 2007 Payal Malik Reader in Economics, University of Delhi
Industry Structure Indicators Fixed (wireline+ FW) market share by No. of subscribers/revenue/minutes of usage Mobile market share by No. of subscribers/revenue/minutes of usage HHI for mobile market, using market share by subscriber/revenue HHI for fixed market, using market share by subscribers/revenue Market share of Pvt. vs. Public operators - mobile Market share of Pvt. vs. Public operators - fixed
Structure of the Presentation Attempt to present for each of the indicators Importance of the Indicator: Why measure? Definitional/Availability issues Limitations of the indicator for policy and regulatory prescriptions How to compare: Normalization Issues Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Indicators
Market Share: Fixed Why Measure? A measure of the Level of Competition Implications for Internet and Broadband diffusion and in some countries for Universal Service Can guide policy and regulation: LLU recommendations Market power derived from the legacy telecommunications can be transferred to the emerging broadband market Level of Public/Private Participation
Measuring Issues WLL-F, is it fixed or mobile? Other than India and Pakistan (NRAs report) market shares are calculated by the researcher using company data (subscriber-based) Market Share based on Revenue and Minutes of Usage not available for any of the 6 countries Perhaps better to measure for rural urban separately or try and show the regional differences: Thailand
What do they say? India MTNL 7.71% Bharti 2.69% Tata 8.02% Shyam Telelink 0.35% HFCL 0.51% Reliance 5.97% Source: TRAI, Performance Indicators Market Shares: Fixed Service Providers, India (March 31, 2006) BSNL 74.75%
Market Share: Mobile Why Measure? A Measure of the Level of Competition Feeds into the HHI measure: Merger and Acquisitions and application of antitrust law Relevant product market o voice vs. data market, degree of substitution, ease to switch Relevant Geographic Market o Zone/circles Efficiency concerns may override anti-competitive concerns o Failing firms may be exceptions How should it be measured? Subscriber base vs. Revenue Base vs. Minutes of Usage
Mobile Industry Structure Indicators: Status Indicator IN ID PAK PH SL TH Mobile market share by # of subscribers TRAI Calculated by researcher using company data PTA Calculated by researcher using company data Calculated by researcher using company data Calculate d by researche r using company data Mobile market share by revenue Mobile market share by minutes of usage HHI for mobile market, using mt share by subscriber/revenue HHI for fixed market, using mkt share by subscribers/revenue CMIE TRAI, CMIE TRAI, CMIE Calculated by researcher using company data Not by revenue PTA Not by revenue Not by revenue Not by revenue Not by revenue Not by revenue Not by revenue
Market Share: Subscriber base Vs. Revenue Base, Illustration Pakistan Market Share (2004-05) 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 Source: 5 Pakistan country study, 0 Joseph Wilson 70.5 58 20 17.6 7 7 4 4.9 4 5.5 1.2 0.3 Mobilink Ufone Telenor Warid Paktel Instaphone Subscriber Revenue
THE HERFINDAHL-HIRSCHMAN INDEX: Mobile and Fixed A widely accepted tool for measuring market concentration HHI takes into account the relative size and distribution of the all the firms (rather than top 4 or 5 firms) in a market and approaches zero when a market consists of a large number of firms of relatively equal size DoJ: Markets in which the HHI is between 1000 and 1800 points are considered to be moderately concentrated, and those in which the HHI is in excess of 1800 points are considered to be concentrated. Transactions that increase the HHI by more than 100 points in concentrated markets presumptively raise antitrust concerns under the Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission In India mergers and acquisitions are tested on basis of SMP and concentration ratios as per TRAI guidelines
Measurement Issues: HHIs Comparability: Many countries divide it by 10, 000 HHI: Regional vs. National Revenue based HHI should also be reported: TRAI now publishes revenue data company wise NRAs should make it a yearly practice at least of reporting HHIs
Best Practice HHI: Thailand 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 - HHI - Mobile 5,421 4,802 4,903 4,917 5,082 4,814 4,815 4,753 3,981 4,137 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
HHI Revenue base and Subscriber base Illustration: India HHI: Revenue Based 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 0.96 0.64 0.67 0.60 0.56 0.54 0.09 0.08 0.08 0.11 0.13 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 Landline Mobile Subscriber Base HHI Fiscal Year 2004-05 2005-06 HHI Fixed Service 0.67 0.58 HHI in Mobile Service 0.16 0.15 0.27
Market Structure Indicators: Comparative Picture Market Share of the Largest Operator 70 0.5 Per cent 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 21.72 0.15 India 0.47 60 59 55 54.14 50 0.45 0.39 0.38 Indonesia Pakistan PhilippinesSri Lanka Thailand Market Share HHI 0.45 0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 HHI
Industry Impact Indicators: Status Indicator IN ID PK PH SL TH Total Investment TRAI, Definition provided PTA (no definition) TRC (no definition) Definition provided Total Foreign Investment DoT, Government, DIPP BKPM (Investmen t Board); no definition PTA (no definition) Total Approved FDI, Board of invtt., PEZA,SBMA, CDC No definition Total Tax paid by sector Total Employment in Sector TRAI, Service tax, GST, Spectrum charges, license fee, USO charges TRAI, NSO data not just for telecom, formal and informal employment PTA ( activation tax, GST, CED, Income Tax, Custom duties, PTA deposits etc.) PTA, service wise, direct and indirect employmen t 6% of total tax receipt PLDT Group to NTC re SMP, 22 Oct 06(no definition) PLDT Group to NTC re SMP, 22 Oct 06 (no definition) No definition Companies Data Different for fixed and mobile
Investment TRAI, India Gross Capital investment of Telecom Services Sector Capital Employed and Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) Definition:The Capital Employed is fund deployed to operate the business. It is sum of depreciated value of capital assets /fixed assets, capital work in progress and working capital Spells out the definition in the Accounting Separation Regulation Thailand: Definition: Investment refers to the annual expenditure associated with acquiring ownership of property and plant used for telecommunication services and includes land and buildings How to compare? Capital employed per subscriber (mobile and basic) Capital Employed Per Capita Incremental Capex per incremental subscriber: Ideal
How to compare Capital Employed? Illustration, India Capital Employed per mobile and basic subscriber 400 350 300 250 362 370 200 150 100 50 0 Capital Employed per basic subscriber India Source: TRAI, 2005 167 169 163 147 153 152 Capital Employed per mobile subscriber 2004 2005 Capital Employed per basic subscriber China Capital Employed per mobile subscriber
Foreign Investment: What is it? FDI Definition, India: Investments by FIIs, NRIs, FCCBs, ADRs, GDRs, convertible preference shares, proportionate foreign investment in Indian promoters/investment companies including their holding companies Earlier this was capped at 49% now 74%, whereas Pakistan 100% FDI allowed: so policy matters in determining the indicator Thailand Telecommunications Act, limits foreign equity holdings to 49% Foreign investors acquire complete corporate control, despite the direct equity share limitations: through indirect equity holding i.e., holding of equity shares in a series of holding companies up the company's ownership chain or through Thai nominees
Tax Paid by the Sector What should be included in Tax? Any levy is passed on to the subscriber by the service provider: So tax is a very narrow measure All that should be captured: TRAI publishes data on such levies in a detailed manner e.g. Service Tax, GST, Licence fee, Spectrum Charges, USO levy How to compare? Absolute Number does not help Total levy on telecom service as a percentage of total revenue Tax as a percentage of total telecom revenue
How to compare Tax paid by the sector? Illustration Pakistan
How to compare Tax paid by the sector? Illustration India Source: TRAI, 2005
Total Employment in Sector Formal and informal employment: PTA TRAI reports using companies data Methodology NSO India (Communication services other than those of couriers and cable operators ) workforce in the activity, separately for rural/urban/organized/un-organised segments: ASI and economic census (once every 5 years) the private organized sector estimates have been prepared using the data on estimated workforce (from the DGET source) economic activities of internet, cyber cafés, etc. have also been included How to compare? Employee per subscriber
How to compare employment figures? : India Employment 5000 4500 4000 4368.91 4294 3943.34 3821.05 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 425.57 472.95 132 158 1089 1678 Total Employees Govt. Companies Pvt. Companies Govt. Companies Pvt.Companies Source: TRAI, 2005 Employees of Telecom Companies (in '00 nos.) 2004-05 2005-06 Subscribers per Employee at year end (in nos.)
Recommendations Revenue based and minutes of usage market shares important as may reflect different market power scenarios A central agency should collect the data periodically from the operators and make it available to the general public through its website. e.g. Data for Pakistan and India mostly from NRAs. Philippines source of the data however was not government: a position paper of the number 1 telco vs the issuance of an SMP ruling Standardize definitions for investment, tax and employment for meaningful comparisons List of indicators from these parent indicators for comparability: Suggested a few
Recommendations: India NSO NSOs can facilitate employment data rather than just operator s employment data India NSO has not adopted any ICT definition; span across various NIC codes; suggest adoption for measuring ICT output, employment and other macro indicators TRAI Definitions of the data should be published Time-Series data on the financials More disaggregated data form the operators should be made public
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