Events that made headlines in 2009

As we say good bye to 2009, here is a look at the events that made headlines around the world.  

2009 undoubtedly belongs to Barack Obama who was sworn in as the 44th, and first African American, President of the United States. He received Nobel prize for peace for no apparent reasons raising many eye brows. Perhaps his order to close within a year the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, where the US had held non-citizens whom it accused of terrorism, did the trick?

In February, the deadliest bush fires in Australian history began; killing 173, injured many, and left 7,500 homeless. The fires came after Melbourne recorded the highest-ever temperature (46.4°C, 115°F) of any capital city in Australia. The heat was so unbearable the Aussies turned to poor Indian students and beat the hell out of them.

Tiger woods became the first sports person in history to admit transgressions. He decided to take time off from golf to concentrate on adult movies.

The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson in June triggered an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event crippled several major websites, as the abundance of people accessing the web pushed internet traffic to unprecedented levels. It turned out that most of the people were searching the internet to figure out if he was Black or White.

Swine Flu is deemed a global pandemic and even terrorists are looking at ways to take it to their advantage.

Dubai sneezes and the world catches a flu. In November, Dubai requested a debt deferment following its massive building projects, as well as the late 2000s economic crisis. The announcement caused global stock markets to drop.

Copenhagen climate meeting began with a bang but ended up with the world leaders banging up each other. Leading Bollywood actresses threatened to drop their clothes potentially pushing up global warming if a resolution is not made at the summit.

2009 also witnessed earth quakes, Tsunami, plane crashes, solar eclipse, terrorist attacks and a Hollywood movie telling us that the world will end in the year 2012. Finally, James Cameron the director who gave us the movie Titanic returning after 12 years with the mother of all movies Avatar with a $400 million budget. The movie is receiving rave reviews and the initial sign is that it is going to be a mega block buster.

That said, my personal favorite event is the rise of an unexpected star. YouTube announced that its 2009 star was Susan Boyle, the frumpy Scottish woman who mesmerized the world with a heartwarming rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" on a British talent show in April.

Boyle, now 48, ended up taking second place in that competition, but no one came close to outshining her on YouTube. Her "Britain's Got Talent" videos attracted more than 300 million views worldwide.

Entertainment weekly said that Boyle's performance was a victory for talent and artistry in a culture obsessed with physical attractiveness and presentation. New York's Daily News said that an underdog being ridiculed or humiliated but then enjoying an unexpected triumph is a common trope in literature, and the stark contrast between the audience's low expectations and the quality of her singing made Boyle's performance such an engaging piece of television.

Boyle's first album, I Dreamed a Dream, was released on 23 November 2009. The album made it to No. 1 spot in UK, Ireland, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland. 

As we embark ourselves to say good bye to 2009 and welcome a more exciting 2010, enjoy Susan Boyle's performance at Britain's Got Talent and be inspired.

Mobile tariff war to hit revenues

With the entry of mobile operator Uninor in Dec 2009  into India's crowded mobile market, the competition takes a new turn in an already heated market. Uninor launched their operation with an unprecedented 29 paise per minute for local calls and 49 paise per minute for STD calls. Uninor is a collaboration of Unitech wireless and Telenor Norway in which Telenor holds 67.25% stake. 

The tariff war by new telecom entrants in India and the likely retaliation by incumbent operators, will have a significant impact on industry revenues and profitability. The reduced tariffs will lower the average revenue per user (ARPUs) and operating margins for all industry players. The latest figures indicate average revenue per user (ARPU) remains below Rs 200. Keep in mind that this is a significant decline comparing to figures early in 2005 when the operators enjoyed an arpu of Rs 400. Despite the significant drop in arpu, operators still enjoy a margin due to continuous addition of new subscribers. 

As per rating agency Fitch, the Indian telecom industry is witnessing price wars with the entry of the new telecom operators, which were allotted universal access service licenses (UASLs) in February 2008 by the Department of Telecommunication (DOT). The new entrants (Aircel, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) and Tata Docomo (GSM)) have launched aggressive tariff plans in an effort to garner subscriber market share. These new entrants have launched per second billing, either selectively or throughout their networks forcing incumbent operators to follow suit, while Tata CDMA has launched tariffs on a per call basis, irrespective of duration (Re 1 and Re 3 per call on local and STD, respectively). Following this trend, Reliance communication has reduced the tariff to 50 paise per minute for local, STD, roaming and SMS, for both off-net and on-net calls.

However, Fitch expects new entrants to face increasing difficulties in garnering any meaningful market share, with already low tariffs leading to lower ARPUs, a lack of adequate spectrum quality and restrictions on spectrum sharing. Fitch believes that the reduced industry profitability will likely expedite industry consolidation in the medium to long term reducing the number of players in the market.

As of end Oct 2009, mobile subscriber base in India stood at 482 million with Airtel leading the pack with 23.45% market share.

Here is how the picture looks like in terms of market share as of 31 Oct 2009.

Rajesh Kumar