Bharti Airtel Buys Augere

Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire Augere Wireless Broadband India, as the nation’s top telecom carrier looks to consolidate its 4G footprint ahead of the launch of similar high speed broadband services by rivals such as Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Upon acquisition Augere will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel. Augere had won a block of 20 MHz of 4G spectrum in the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh circle for Rs 122.46 crore in 2010 auctions. The company owned by France Telecom and a clutch of private equity funds such as Harbinger Capital and New Silk Route initially announced plans of rolling out 4G services in late 2011.

The latest move will allow Airtel to expand its 4G high speed broadband footprint ahead of the 4G launch by Reliance Jio and Vodafone, scheduled for December. Idea launch is slated for early next year. Airtel had bought airwaves in the 2300 MHz band in Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka in the 2010 spectrum auctions and later acquired chip-maker Qualcomm airwaves in another four circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana.

Both 4G and 3G spectrum are critical for the next phase of growth of mobile phone operators as mobile data increasingly replaces voices as the main growth driver for them. Airtel posted almost 80% growths in its mobile data revenue in the first fiscal quarter through June. In March, Airtel entered into a partnership with China Mobile, the world’s largest telecom operator. 

Companies Social Media Strategies

With increase in use of Social Media Platforms, Companies are shifting their focus towards Social Media and engaging with their customers and employees. In PepsiCo, the company launched a responsiveness survey through which all teams are related on responsiveness every two months and the feedback is related to organization verbatim. Under this, the CEO shares his observations experiences, thoughts with employees in a weekly letter.

To get real time opinions from the ground, Vodafone has its own People Survey Engagement Index and Management Index. Through ‘My Voice’, the company collects feedback from new joiners on recruitment, compensation, performance management, training, and engagement. “Employees make suggestions to the cross-functional senior management team in the forum captioned ‘Voice of Customer’. The company also runs the website Idea Space to encourage employees to share suggestions and ideas. A survey tool called ‘Qualtrix’ helps in gathering internal employee voices for short-term initiatives.

Over the past one year, through gaining feedback with employees from a mix of informal coffee corner sessions and frequent leadership meets, Philips has revamped some of its policies, like launching their own internal retail portal of discounted Philips products for staff. The company has also tried to engage employees in groups through discussions on important business plans before notifying them on emails.

An internal radio channel called InfyRadio serves a twin purpose of keeping employees informed about activities within the organization and ensures they are motivated. Tools like ‘My Voice’ provide executives with a simple online platform to log enquiries or grievances within built tracking and escalation for monitoring and follow up. ‘YES Connect’ provides YES bankers a platform to bond with colleagues and share best practices. Organizations who listen to their employees and are transparent, create trustworthy relationships that breed loyalty.

Twitter partners with TV channels in India

Television partnerships are a key way in which the company is looking to monetize its user base globally. Last year, it paid $67 Million for Bluefin Labs, a startup that uses analytical to tie social media charter to television. In order to increase its user base globally, San Francisco based company, Twitter Inc. is speeding up its partnerships deal with television channels in India.

The move is expected to help Twitter, as it increases the conversation around hit shows and helps the channels by getting new viewers to tune in. The company also launched its Amplify product, which helps networks monetize content, last month with Star Sports and Vodafone. Twitter already has a tie up with Airtel DTH, which allows customers to view tweets on their television screen. More deals in the space are underway. The channels are also using Twitter to discover more audiences for their shows, for instances shows like Roadies, Big Boss, and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa etc. promote tweeting to boost viewership. Star Plus is debuting the promo for the Aamir Khan hosted Satyamev Jayate on the site by asking fans to tweet with a hashtag.

Apart from this, Twitter Inc. has announced its plans to raise $1.3 Billion in its first debt offering by issuing convertible senior notes. Until now, Twitter has made around 41 acquisitions. Twitter has recently introduced new product experiences, launched new web profiles with a number of new advertiser tools. The firm has also acquired three companies as Gnip, TapCommerce, and SnappyTV. The company has also acquired mobile advertising startup Namo Media for a deal amount of around $50 Million. The company has launched “pay by tweet” service with American Express and “Keyword Targeting ad feature.” It had collaborated with WPP to increase its advertising revenues and offers text based password recovery service.

Second screen devices such as Tablets, Ultrabooks, and Smartphones are likely to be principal force behind social TV experiences. TV and video content providers such as cable companies have a great opportunity to target heavy users with Social TV in order to reduce potential churn. Twitter had also added a new video sharing feature on Mobile with two of the World Cup Advertisers Visa, and Adidas.