Indian Telecom Markets Heat Up as 3G Roll Out Date Nears
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The 3G scenario in India seems to be heating up big time. First, it was RCom trying to push the envelope for an early 3G rollout for the CDMA technology, which later got shelved because of the GSM market. Then came the announcements from Vodafone and Airtel to launch Apple’s iPhone 3G very soon. Not even a month after that, Airtel started promoting the launch of HTC Touch Diamond (touted as the iPhone killer) on televisions and print all over the country.
If AFP reports are to be believed, Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja plans a global auction for the 3G spectrum, that will enable high speed data transfer rates, in turn making the government a handsome profit of up to 10 billion dollars. Yes, it’s a global auction since even foreign players are allowed to take part in the bidding where the floor price has been set to 480 million dollars for the licenses. As of current plans, 5 operators will initially be allowed in each circle, while only 2 – 3 have been allocated for Mumbai and Delhi.
Although the 3G policy has still not been rolled out, MediaNama suspects that BSNL must already been working on it, experimentally, with its EVDO data cards that provide a data transfer speed of over 2Mbps and have been offered by the public sector telecom company at a meager price of Rs 700 per month, for those who cannot afford the same for Rs 6800, at one go. A closer look into the EVDO technology, via the eyes of Wikipedia and WiseGeek.com, reveals that it belongs to the CDMA sect of telecom technology. This piece of evidence forces us all to double back on the earlier news of DoT ditching CDMA off the 3G scenario. What position does all this make the government fall in?
Talking about controversies, I could not help but mention an article from Times of India that suggests RCom to become the first company in India to offer both CDMA and GSM services, after Anil Ambani’s GSM telecom arm was launched in Delhi, yesterday. Yes, it’s true that Reliance Infocom is a force to reckon with. However, that never changes the fact that BSNL’s MTNL’s Garuda, another CDMA service, has been in the market for quite a few years now.
Anyway, 3G rollout in India shall convert many an occasional mobile user into a mobile internet enthusiast and data cards being synonymous to “anytime, anywhere connectivity” just might cease to exist. This shall also help is bridging the technology divide in the country’s geography and shall in turn help increasing literacy, if the latest IDEA advertisement is anything to go by (hoping that our policy makers are ingenious enough to take pointers off that beautiful ad).
Well, all hail to technology and hope against hopen that 3G gets rolled out without further ado and also come at affordable prices for the masses!
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