Russian Telco Yota To Enter India’s Wimax Scene
Russian telecom operator Yota, backed by Intel Capital may form an alliance with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Yota currently offers WiMAX services in three major regions of Russia. They wish to offer WiMAX-based broadband services in Mumbai and Delhi from their partnership with MTNL and rest of the country from their alliance with BSNL.
Companies looking to expand their international markets find India one of the key markets. Yota is one of them who will have the first mover advantage by partnering MTNL and BSNL. Besides, not having to buy spectrum through a competitive bidding slated for later this year would be an additional advantage.
Mr Yegor Ivanov, Director, Business Development, Yota said that 20 Mhz of spectrum would not be enough for operators to provide broadband services. At least 30 Mhz of spectrum is required for WiMAX services to function without any issues. IPTV services are provided in Russia to the Yota’s broadband subscribers. While in India IPTV is available through copper or optical fibre cable infrastructure. Hence operators will have to invest more on infrastructure.
Depending on the number of international players keen to enter the Indian broadband market, the Government are looking forward to auction spectrum for WiMAX services towards the end of this year. Not only Russian companies, Japenese and Malaysian companies are also looking forward to make best of these oppurtunities.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!
Leave a Comment and Follow the replies through Post Comment Feed