ravi_patent
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Posts posted by ravi_patent
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The wait is over atleast for some circle users
Tata Teleservices, which has Japanese telecom operator NTT Docomo as partner, today said it will launch the next generation mobile services (3G) on Diwali day next month in all the nine circles.
TTSL had bagged 3G spectrum for nine circles in the auction held in May this year. The operator would be one of the first private secotor companies to offer 3G services. State-owned BSNL and MTNL already provide 3G services.
The company had recently awarded the equipment contract to Nokia Siemens and Huawei to roll out 3G services.
TTSL is one of those companies who operate both on CDMA and GSM technologies to offer telecom services throughout the country. The company has over 70 million subscribers.
3G services enables subscribers to download full length movies, make video calls and watch live television programmes.
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Dear friends
Is Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ change of ownership and postpaid to prepaid conversion anywhere in india possible simultaenously.. i wanted Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ prepaid in chennai and one guy was having postpaid outside chennai.
Regards
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Dear friends
after buying lappy , i was offerd a tata photon plus postpaid with 3 months commitmnet for 1100/- upfront device cost..will this be usefull to any of you..if so i will enquire further in this regard
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win xp working with no driver issues
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@dkaile
lat 2 days were too hectic to have a feel of the lappy .moreover this is first one..so i will need time to give feedback..
@rajan mehata
ygpm
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thanks to one and all for the advice
i have bought yday itself (immediately after rajan's valuable advice confirmed my instincts bcoz i was getting the pre tax rate of 21750 with bill from toshiba exclusive showroom..i was told that this rate is only valid for 1 day!)..any how i am going to the shop today evening and get back to you on any possible bulk pricing
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Dear friends
i need your valuable advice regarding a laptop toshiba satelite c650 m5010 (https://www.toshiba-india.com/laptop/satellite-c650D.html#prod).my budget is below 25k and am i not a gamer.
basic web access and ocaasional movie playing are my needs . the model i have choosen is a non os one and costs 21750.
what os i can install(ubuntu or boss or win 7?) ..will the availability of drivers an issue..
i belive that this lappy will be chrome os compatible too .
have you heard about any issues reg this model ..
Thanks in advance
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awesome review kapil +1 to u
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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/09/21/stories/2010092150350700.htm
Nokia has no intention of launching handsets that will work with CDMA-based mobile telephone services in India any time soon. It believes there is not enough market for those devices.
(But at least one CDMA telecom operator is talking to Nokia China for the supply of Nokia branded CDMA-compatible phones into India.)
Telecom operators that are on CDMA would like Nokia to bring in CDMA-compatible handset and (help) create an open market for the devices. The absence of an open market for CDMA devices is forcing players such as Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and MTS (Sistema Shyam Teleservices) to work with manufacturers such as Micromax to bring in devices for their customers.
In a recent chat with Business Line, MTS's Chief Strategy Officer, Mr Cheenu Seshadri, said the three CDMA operators (Tata, Reliance and MTS) were calling upon Nokia to bring in CDMA phones. China is a CDMA country and is a huge market for Nokia.
It is learnt that while Nokia's headquarters favours the idea, the India team opposes it, on the grounds that there the market is not big enough here.
Today, Mr Vipul Sabharwal, Director, Sales, Nokia India, said that there was no difference of opinion between Nokia India and the headquarters in Helsinki. He said that Nokia constantly reviews the market and has found that the market for CDMA devices is today not worth entering into.
Incidentally, Mr Seshadri told Business Line that MTS was in touch with Nokia China to source Nokia branded CDMA phones.
Nokia had CDMA phones until a few years ago. The reason for the mobile phone major reluctance to get back into the market is that CDMA operators, in their zest to rope in customers, offered phones at prices as low as Rs 800. There was no way Nokia could compete with them.
There is a big GSM market in India and Nokia is happy to serve the market, Mr Sabharwal said.
He was in Chennai in connection with the launch of Nokia's dual SIM phones (C1 and C2) here. Asked about the growing competition in the handset market, Mr Sabharwal said that Nokia was a player that provided ‘products plus services', referring to add-ons such as Nokia Music and Nokia Life tools.
“That is where the customer stickiness lies. We will gravitate the market towards products plus services,” he said.
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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/09/04/stories/2010090452040700.htm
The Department of Telecom is formulating a policy to address issues arising out of convergence between telecom, IT and broadcasting sectors. The policy, once drafted, will be sent to the Cabinet for approval.
Though the contours of the policy are not yet clear, Government sources said with mobile operators wanting to offer TV services on handsets and broadcasters wanting to offer broadband, the lines between the sectors are blurring. “The policy is aimed at addressing various issues such as disparity in FDI, technology, access device,” sources said.
The Cabinet Secretariat has asked DoT to specify a time line for finalising the policy. “The DoT has proposed approval of policy for convergence of IT, broadcasting and telecom. However, no target dates have been indicated. It is requested that the DoT may indicate the same,” said a draft note for the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI).
This is the second attempt by the Government to work out laws for convergence. It had earlier floated a Communications Convergence Bill.
Targets
The CCI is in the process of approving targets for the telecom sector for 2010-11. Targets being set include finalising 2G spectrum allocation policy. DoT has informed that it will finalise the policy three months after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India submits its revised recommendations on the issue.
On the issue of addressing security concerns with respect to spyware in telecom networks and cyber warfare, the DoT has set a target of December 2010.
The Government is preparing an elaborate blueprint for undertaking counter cyber warfare on unfriendly countries.
According to a proposal being considered by the National Security Council, Indian agencies may be told to enhance capabilities to exploit weaknesses in the information systems of other countries and also collect online intelligence of key military activities.
The proposal includes setting up laboratories in research institutions to simulate cyber attacks with the help of ethical hackers. These laboratories would be used for training intelligence agencies for offensive and defensive cyber warfare techniques. Personnel working in this area may be given legal immunity for carrying out these activities.
Other targets for the current financial year include policy on mobile virtual network operators, permitting Voice over Internet Protocol, setting up a consumer grievance redressal mechanism and migrating from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to IPv6.
Targets for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd have also been spelt out, including adding 22 million GSM connections this year. Cabinet Secretariat has sought specific time lines from the DoT for finalising these initiatives before the plan is submitted for CCI's approval.
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http://www.financialexpress.com/news/what-not-to-expect-from-3g/676891/0
Few people want to read more about 3G in India. It has been such a long undulating path of hope, expectation and despair over the last 4 years that 3G has become something of a mirage for waiting consumers. We can also be reasonably sure that our average mobile consumer does not know what exactly to expect from 3G. Will it really transform his currently aggravating user experience of trying to complete a voice call without any drops or allow him to find a mobile game, which he likes without repeatedly initiating the download and getting billed for it each time? Will he really be able to make those video calls being promoted by nubile celebrities, will that new mobile health application really help him get rid of the years of excess, or will he be able to watch that YouTube clip on his mobile browser?
It’s widely accepted that unless telcos really work on developing an ecosystem around 3G services, just having access to spectrum will not change much in the lives of an average mobile consumer or in the topline of telcos. The key reason for this market structure is the difference between 3G and the earlier generations of communication technologies. When GSM and CDMA technologies were introduced, their value proposition of mobility over a fixed line connection was crystal clear, and as soon as the price points came down, the market hit the tipping point. However, from 2G to 3G, the key difference is the ability of the newer technologies to support higher data speeds, which on its own is a clear use case for only a niche section of the population.
The first beneficiary of the higher data speed will be the mobile broadband market (dongles, embedded devices and modems). CDMA operators have had a real first mover advantage in this market, with their launch of EVDO dongles and they are already adding about 2 million subscribers per annum. This market can grow for EVDO operators, but for 3G (HSPA) operators, the amount of allocated spectrum (5 MHz) very quickly starts becoming a bottleneck. One way for the 3G operators to address this issue is to increase the contention ratio (number of simultaneous users), but then the end user experience starts mimicking its current experience with 2G and the additional $3.64 billion paid for pan-India 3G spectrum starts going down the drain.
The other challenge is the limited growth in PC sales among residential users. Unlike some of the developed markets like the US where telcos are subsidising embedded 3G netbooks, in India the telcos are not going to assume inventory risk. This means the customers should not expect fancy netbooks at Rs 4,000 with the launch of 3G, as the credit risk is very high and there is a constraint on the 3G data cards that can be supported in the limited spectrum. We expect this market to grow to about 17.3 million data cards by 2014.
The other use of better access speed is in enhancing the user experience in browsing and content download. This is where device vendors, content companies and the ecosystem starts becoming very important. Unlike in dongles, where the ecosystem has limited differentiators that it can offer (e.g., mobile TV services bundled with a 3G dongle), in handset-based browsing, the entire user experience and hence revenue upside is dependent on seamless content consumption, hence requiring strong device-service integration.
The reason why 50% of global mobile Internet data over smartphones goes through Apple devices, although they account for only 14.4% of the total smartphone base, is Apple’s control over the end-to-end content consumption value chain. It may not be advisable for Indian telcos to try to replicate the Apple model, but all the ecosystem elements have to be in place to enhance end user experience and drive value out of 3G.
In the current scenario of telcos with stretched balance sheets, mobile device subsidy by telcos can also be ruled out. With the not-so-subtle and repeated hints coming from major telcos about 3G being a premium service, the content and monthly data plans may also be at a premium, at least in the initial year of 3G’s introduction.
If an average user cannot afford a mobile device that supports the actual 3G experience, cannot afford the monthly data plan charges and does not have the flexibility to experiment with content to find what he likes due to premium pricing, then the user base will be limited to a few early adopters and the current bunch of premium users. The average user may then have to wait for that elusive enhanced 3G experience, at least for the coming one year. We expect that the mass market will begin to come into the 3G fold with dropping device and service prices by some time in 2012, and the total 3G user base (excluding dongles) will reach about 77 million users by 2014.
However, the wait for 3G will be worth it, at least for the 6-8% premium customers in India who will have a greater choice of devices, content, applications and services, and a step change in user experience. To make sure this finally happens, telcos will need a lot more focus on partnerships, product and service innovation, pricing and device service integration than ever before.
—The author is associate director in the New Delhi office of Analysys Mason, a global telecom, media and technology consultancy
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Bharti has always maintained that 3G will not come cheap. What does this mean for the consumer ? In metros such as Delhi and Mumbai, you may have to move your existing high-value customers to 3G networks to ease the spectrum crunch. But, with just 5 MHz or units of third generation airwaves, is this sufficient for moving these additional customers and also proving high-end data services?
When we say 3G will not be cheap, it means that customers here will not get those bundled unlimited plans that you see in the US and some other countries — such plans have completely clogged the networks of those service providers. When compared to unlimited packages that you get in other parts of the world, one may find 3G expensive here in relative terms. Even today, when you look at data, India is not as cheap as other countries, or these services are not as cheap as voice because of the spectrum constraints in India.
3G in India will continue to be around affordability and availability, but operators will opt for the sachet approach. Despite data being priced on the higher side on the current 2G platform, these services continue to sell. The same will happen for 3G, and customers who opt for specific options such as downloads, surfing in small packets will find the pricing very reasonable. What they won’t find is the bucket and thali plans that are common overseas . Again, if you compare our pricing to the thali plans overseas, then 3G in India will be expensive.
The 3G spectrum per say is about three to four time more efficient than 2G spectrum. Loading voice calls of high-end customers on to 3G may not therefore lead to high consumption of these airwaves . Today, technology allows you to segregate voice and data.So you may have a situation, where a high-end customer is on the 2G network for his voice calls and on the 3G for data. Such flexibilities are possible.
Are you worried that you may not get 3G spectrum in time (by September) as promised? If you get these airwaves next month, by when will you launch 3G? You bagged 3G in 13 circles , but will you enter into alliances to offer these services in other areas too?
We are banking on that promise that it will happen by September and I believe that for any reason if it does not, then government will compensate us financially . By the end of the calendar year, one should see 3G services in at least some parts of the country, if the airwaves are handed out in time. We are working on our 3G alliances as our endeavour is to be a pan-Indian player in this space — but for competitive reasons , I cannot reveal details as of now.
India continues to add record number of new cellular users every month, but the revenues for the sector combined continue to be lower than December 2008 levels. Will revenues for the sector continue to remain flat, going forward ? Does Bharti have a stronger balance sheet when compared to other listed competitors because the company refused to match discounts given by other telcos?
We have to consider two factors here. First is activity level in the market, and second, if this translates into revenues. The minutes that are being added to the network due to increased usage and the growth that is happening in rural India indicate that the activity level continues to be high. Even if you discount the number of monthly additions by 50% because of the duplicity of SIMs, India is still the fastest growing telecom market in the world. This proves that activity level is buoyant. But, the issue arises when you translate activity in the market into revenues.
In desperation to get numbers there are a lot of freebies and discounts that are being thrown into the market, which is causing a pain for the entire sector in terms of revenue growth. This can be explained by the fact that there are 14 players in the market, which means there are excess capacities at the moment. But, once consolidation kicks it — it already has — we will see a reprieve on this front.
All incumbents, including Bharti Airtel, did respond to the tariffs that were being offered by some of the new players in Q3 of last year. The discounts were pretty steep at that time, and any dominant brand in the market could not be seen offering a lesser value to their customers no matter how strong their brand was. In that euphoria the prices did came down — so it would be wrong to say that we did not participate. But, we have always been watchful of where elasticity exists and where it doesn’t . We also keep a very keen eye on free and overly discounted minutes in the market.
You said consolidation is already happening, in what sense?
Consolidation begins in the mind, for both customers and operators. The very fact that some of the operators have not rolled out the networks even after getting spectrum, the reality is some of the operators are no longer as aggressive in their rollouts and also that companies have refrained from bidding for 3G airwaves are all signs of consolidation in the minds of companies. World over we have seen that when it comes to choice of technologies and sustenance , when there is a 3G and 2G environment, having only 2G in the long run has not worked.
Again, when it comes to customers mind, the very fact of resurgence of traffic with larger operators is an indicator of consolidation in the customer’s minds. Even in a much crowded market, the very fact that 5-6 operators account for almost the entire revenue market share is another sign of consolidation — the customer recognizes the bigger and stronger brand when compared to the smaller players.
But many analysts say the return or resurgence of minutes may not be the best indicator of incumbents striking back. They claim that minutes increase is linked to many packs floating around such as free night calls, reduced tariffs for weekend calls and so on.
To some extent what you are saying has merit. That is why I will always look at the return of minutes in conjunction with sustenance of the rate per minute. If minutes were coming because of packs, freebies then the price per minute would have fallen . But, what has been encouraging over the last couple of quarters is that minutes have come back without the rate per minute going down further — or, the rate per minute’s decline has been minimal.
For a company like Bharti, what are the key challenges going forward? You are adding almost the same number of customers every month, the market has stabilised; there is no price war now. How can you increase revenues and get back to the levels of growth as in say 2008?
Participation in the market and being competitive in the market is a way of life. The leadership team is marked on market parameters and we are fairly aligned to what happens in the market. What we can’t control is the euphoria that sets is which is not determined by economics, discounting of prices and free minutes — we don’t have full control of that. When a company like Bharti moved from zero to 100 million and now from from 100 million to 200 million, most of systems and process that we pick up are designed and experimented by us because we don’t have similar models globally to choose from.
Therefore, we end up designing a lot of redundancies , business continuity plans, systems and process based on our learning and that obviously is challenging for any leadership team. Next challenge is that we want to move from voice centric to lifestyle delivery centric company, this transition is unchartered as there are again not many examples available worldwide. We are building various new vertical streams into the business so that your future dependence on voice reduces.
When you do that, whether it is entertainment, commerce, advertising, health — the knowledge of these domains does not exist internally, and the complexities that arise due to this is something that you have to learn to manage . So, the big challenge going forward is how do develop these complex ecosystems all within one company, how do you track people in these verticals , how do you grow and reward them and how does the knowledge transfer happen.
Is it also a challenge that going forward, you will have to compete with existing partners for the same pie? For example, Nokia Siemens and Ericsson are now developing services — a space that belonged to mobile operators. Apps are now being developed by both telcos as well as handset makers. When you launch mobile money transfers, you may have to compete with Nokia Money.
As the ecosystems begin to develop, I think all stakeholders will complement each other. For example , when we got into music, the traditional music companies feared that we would eat into their revenues. There was also this issue of piracy.
Our entry ensured that we brought in new revenue streams into largely stagnant industry as telcos began to work with the existing players in this space. We grew, but they grew as much and even the exchequer began to gain from the growth. I believe that as telecos migrate to many of the newer revenue streams, one will see similar benefits to the society, ecosystem at large and also for the government.
Customer additions appear to have slowed down. Has growth peaked in India? We have over 55% tele-density and 600 million SIMs — where does the industry go from here?
I can’t forecast the future for simple reasons — in this industry, the reporting standards are not standardised . All companies use their own parameters to report their customer addition. All I can say is that we are probably going through the weakest period in terms of customer addition. But, if you look at the figures for the last three years, then Q2 has always been the weakest in terms of customer adds and therefore there is a seasonality to this.
Many analysts in their outlook say that India say that India will have a billion SIMs. However, what got revealed in Barcelona in the last GS M conference was very interesting , when the CEO of Ericsson predicted that the world will have 50 billion SIMs by 2025. What he was drawing the attention to was the machine to machine (M2M) communications — if such numbers can be true, then Indian will have 6-7 billion SIMs in this period. Then we are far from reaching any sort of saturation.
There are many experimentations and many live applications that are already available in the M2M space — for us, there are many of our enterprise solutions that we offer are not entirely M2M, but are headed in that direction. I can give other examples how even without the intervention of big players, developers are already moving into this space. If you go to buy a lock in a place like Gurgaon, they will offer you a SIM-based lock, where you get an SMS if anybody tries to tamper with it. So, image the potential when big players are enter this space.
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the biggies will fix merger policy...in thr rush for cheap tariffs,the ensuing exodus will
create massive overloads on operators...
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@kesav
what is the link between the 2
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@raccoon
i was expecting comments from you for sure ,with which i fully agree..
herd mentality /unflinched brand loyalty are greater than anything else..
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we have been seeing upward tariff revision by rcom .probable the news item below is giving reasons for the same
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6443456.cms?prtpage=1
India's two largest private telcos — Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications (RCOM) — claim that “virtual” consolidation is underway in the country’s crowded telecom market, with new entrants scaling down their rollout plans and shying away from reducing tariffs further. “Although 14-15 telcos continue to exist, consolidation has already begun in the virtual sense,” says Mahesh Prasad, president for wireless services at RCOM.
“In most circles, only about six operators continue to sustain market momentum. The intensity of competition has come down,” says Mr Prasad. Some of the new entrants in the telecom market have not rolled out networks in many geographies despite being granted spectrum. Many new entrants did not bid for 3G and broadband spectrum. All these are tell-tale signs that consolidation has started in the minds of companies, says Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive of the country’s largest telco by both customers and revenues, Bharti Airtel.
“Consolidation has also started in the minds of customers,” says Mr Kapoor. “Even in this crowded market, six operators now account for almost the entire revenue market share, indicating that customers have learnt to recognise bigger, stronger and better brands,” he says, adding that this along with the increase in minutes of usage for larger mobile companies are proof that only certain players are present in the minds of consumers.
Bharti’s average monthly minutes per customer has jumped 3% this quarter to 480 minutes, compared with the figures for the previous three months. Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar have reported 13% and 10% growth, respectively, in minutes of usage during the period.
Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, Norway’s Telenor and Russia’s Sistema set off a savage tariff war last year when they entered the Indian market. This resulted in a fall in profits and revenues of all operators . But the rate of growth posted by these companies slowed substantially in the last quarter . Uninor, STel, Loop, Etisalat DB, Videocon and Sistema together added less than 12% of the 18 million customer additions in June, according to the data released by Trai.
This is in sharp contrast to last year’s numbers when Uninor added a million users within 30 days of its launch . STel managed to clock one million subscribers in 90 days from three small circles. While Videocon added 1.39 million users in May, it could add only a third of that in June. The new entrants together account for less than 3% of India’s 600 million mobile users. KPMG’s telecom head Romal Shetty said new entrants failed to come up with innovative offerings to sustain the initial blitz that accompanied their launch.
“The top six players have an unique advantage , as they have a larger and longer brand recall . The new entrants did bet heavily on mobile number portability to get customers, but this facility has been delayed,” adds Mr Shetty. Even Uninor, the best performer among the new entrants, has been struggling to make a dent in the market, while also fighting an uphill battle to get second-generation spectrum, the airwaves on which all mobile services are currently offered.
Recently, the company announced the resignation of Stein-Erik Vellan as India MD amidst reports that the parent company was not happy with his performance. Uninor has also brought in its head for the Asian region, Sigve Brekke, to add momentum to its Indian operations.
The rollout of the new companies has been slower than expected. All new entrants — with the exception of Sistema — are under probe by both the Central Vigilance Commission as well as the Prime Minister’s Office for delaying the rollout of their operations. While it has been close to three years since these firms bagged licences , Etisalat DB is yet to launch commercial services. Loop Mobile has started services only in Mumbai, while Videocon has launched services only in five of the 22 circles. Even Uninor and STel, the other new entrants, have failed to meet all their rollout obligations.
Analysts say the older established players are pulling ahead. “Bharti and Idea have outpaced industry revenue growth and gained revenue market share. Bharti and Idea’s aggregate gross revenues grew 5.5% and 6.1%, respectively QoQ. This reconfirms the view that Bharti and Idea have recaptured minutes from the competition . Aircel continues to gain revenue market share which increased to 4.9% in Q1FY11 against 3.6% in Q1FY10. RCOM’s AGR grew by 13.1% QoQ,” research analysts at India Bulls Institutional Equities, Piyush Choudhary and Vivekanand Subbaraman, said in a note.
Data released by Trai also reveals that incumbents , with the exception of RCOM and BSNL, have regained their revenue market share, which they had lost to new entrants between July 2009 and January 10 this year. Bharti Airtel’s revenue market share, which stood at 33.7% as of June 2009, dipped to 32.7% in December 2009, but has recovered since to touch 33.3% for the quarter ended June. Vodafone Essar’s share, which had fallen to 20% as of September 2009, has seen it go up to 20.5% in the June quarter.
The telco commanded a similar share of sales in the same period last year. Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have also recorded significant jump in their revenue market share over the past 12 months. For instance , Idea’s market share jumped to 13% in June ’10, when compared to 12.5% a year ago, while for the Tatas, the company now commands 8.4% of the total sales in the sector when compared to 7% for the quarter ended June ’09.
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http://www.financialexpress.com/printer/news/672910/
With the government set to allocate 3G spectrum next month, telecom companies are set to order related equipment. The country's fifth-largest telecom operator Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is in advanced stages of negotiations with China's top two vendors, Huawei and ZTE, to place orders for 1 million data cards. These data cards—dongles in technical parlance—provide high-speed internet connectivity when attached to laptops and desktops. The data cards would be used on the GSM platform as TTSL already has high-speed USB modem Photon which works on its CDMA network.
Sources said a TTSL team has already visited both companies in China. The finalisation of the vendor between Huawei and ZTE would depend on the final price offered by the respective company. In the retail market, such data cards are available for Rs 1,500-2,500, but companies get to source them at much lower rates while placing bulk orders.
Earlier this week, TTSL was the first to award a contract to Nokia Siemens for supplying LTE-ready flexi-multiradio base stations and other equipment to support the 3G rollout.
When contacted, a TTSL spokesperson declined to comment. TTSL, along with group company Tata Teleservices Maharashtra won spectrum in nine circles in the 3G auctions, paying Rs 5,864.29 crore.
The government recently provided a breather to the telecom industry by putting in place norms for importing 3G equipment, especially from China. This came after the operators, especially TTSL took up the matter with the government as imports were stuck for the past eight months, delaying network expansion plans.
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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/08/25/stories/2010082551460900.htm
We moved from 32 cities to 65 within nine months and by December that number will change.
Reliance Communications has selected Chinese equipment vendors Huawei and ZTE, to upgrade its mobile network for third generation (3G) services. The two vendors are already supplying GSM network gear to RCom.
Speaking to Business Line, Mr Mahesh Prasad, President, Marketing-Wireless Business, Reliance Communications, said, “We are almost on the verge of closing our 3G network plans. We have selected Huawei and ZTE to upgrade our networks. We had already factored in 3G upgrade last year since our network is only one-year old.
“When we deployed 2G network, we anticipated 3G to happen so lot of ground work has already happened.” This is the second 3G equipment deal after Tata Teleservices announced an agreement with Nokia Siemens.
3G investments
Mr Prasad said the investments for 3G are still being worked out. RCom had earlier announced a capital expenditure of Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal for network roll out. RCom won 3G spectrum in 13 circles for Rs 8,585 crore. He said the price for spectrum was higher than expected and the impact on pricing of services is yet to be seen.
On the possibility of bundling 3G devices along with the connection, he said the company will look at the possibility if it made sense to consumers. “We certainly have the competency and we know how to deal with handsets ecosystems. We are comfortable with handset procuring, branding and bundling, so we will certainly look at it if it makes sense for our customers,” he said.
CDMA
On the CDMA front, RCom is looking to expand its EVDO-based 3G services. “We moved from 32 cities to 65 within nine months and by December that number will change. We have always looked at data and VAS as a huge potential market,” Mr Prasad said. RCom has launched EVDO-based data services on handsets also apart from USB dongles.
Asked if RCom was eyeing the number one spot in the Indian mobile segment, Mr Prasad said, “Being a subscriber market leader is good. Achieving second spot, by a company which is lot younger than most incumbent is commendable. But rules have changed; subscriber growth alone is not enough. Now, we are looking at improving quality of users, improving portfolio of services and improving revenues.”
RCom currently has 111 million subscribers and is at the second spot, behind Bharti Airtel.
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Good points rajan mehta ,+1 to you.
wish some 1 from reliance comm sees your point of view.
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@vinayak
very usefull info reg myservices.relianceada.com
1 to you
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even 3g sevices cannot be launched by anyone unless they
are MNP complaint
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Telecom//articleshow/6296537.cms
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http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/08/Technology-India-Sure-Bet-WiMAX/
When Reliance Industries paid $1 billion for control of Indian broadband company Infotel hours after it became the only company to win a slice of 4G spectrum covering the entire country, shock waves ran through the industry – and not just because of the improbability of the deal. Reliance announced it was going with LTE in a country many believed would be dominated by WiMAX.
Nearly two months later, the state of 4G deployments in India has become murkier, not clearer. Unconfirmed reports surfaced that Reliance was leaning toward WiMAX, not LTE, and had even begun trials because technology was mature enough for immediate deployment.
But several companies working directly with Indian operators to land deals for their wireless broadband deployments told Wireless Week on condition of anonymity that several key carriers, including Reliance, were leaning toward LTE, refuting earlier reports about the company's flirtation with WiMAX.
Operators are keeping their thoughts on the subject under wraps, and depending on who you ask, the country is either leaning entirely toward WiMAX, LTE or a combination of both.
Current Analysis researcher Peter Jarich says it's impossible to tell which way Indian operators will swing without insider knowledge, but he says that the decision of Reliance Industries, the only private company with pan-India BWA spectrum, will be hugely influential for other operators.
"If Reliance moves in one direction, there may be an incentive for other operators to follow," he says.
Reliance did not reply to requests for comment on the issue but there are few reasons its motivation for picking one technology over another would be substantially different from other carriers.
Just like every other Indian company with BWA spectrum, Reliance must choose between the head-start advantage of WiMAX and the immense global scale LTE will have in the years ahead.
"Reliance could go with LTE for the sheer fact that it comes down to scale for devices and roaming," Jarich says. "There's this expectation of scale, which means cost benefits and more [variety] in devices. I think that's what is really pushing people toward LTE."
Altair Semiconductor co-founder Eran Eshed, who has participated in talks with Indian BWA spectrum holders about their 4G deployment plans, says the recent momentum of TD-LTE has shaken their conviction about WiMAX.
"Some are trying to figure out how the world changed in a few months," Eshed says. "They were in the comfort zone with WiMAX, assuming that TD-LTE was far behind."
Eshed is currently in India, brokering meetings between OEMs and Indian operators with 4G spectrum. Though he declined to have the pending decisions of specific companies published on the record, Eshed says he is "confident" that Tier 1 operators in India will go with LTE.
Like Jarich, Eshed believes the scale advantage of LTE will trump the time-to-market advantage of WiMAX. "You don't make a 10-year decision based on a six-month tactical advantage," he says. "These are huge strategic decisions that have major implications beyond CPE [customer premise equipment] costs."
WiMAX has seen its influence weaken significantly in recent months despite new deployments and the launch of Sprint's first 4G handset, the HTC Evo.
Alvarion, a key player in the development of the standard and a long-time pure-play WiMAX equipment vendor, recently said it was adding TD-LTE to its portfolio. Russian operator Yota decided to build out the rest of its 4G network with TD-LTE instead of WiMAX. Clearwire announced it was testing LTE and Cisco decided to stop making WiMAX base stations.
"In three years, when devices are generally in volume parity, my prediction is we won't have too many more greenfield WiMAX customers," says Fred Gabbard, vice president of product management for Motorola Networks. "LTE is going to drive volume that WiMAX can't compete with."
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The difficulties of choosing between the head start offered by WiMAX and the growing global support for the LTE ecosystem has resulted in a proliferation of theories about potential 4G deployment scenarios in India, but most of these theories have major logistical problems.
One popular theory espoused by analysts and industry players alike is that India may adopt WiMAX as an interim measure to LTE. On the face of it, it sounds simple: Deploy WiMAX now and switch to TD-LTE at a later date.
The two technologies are so similar that some infrastructure companies say the switch is as easy as a software upgrade. But Eshed and others believe transitioning from WiMAX to TD-LTE is far from trivial, despite the similarities between the two technologies.
Motorola estimates that up to 80 percent of the hardware in a WiMAX network can be reused for a transition to LTE. That's all well and good, but there's a catch: Switching from one technology to another renders all of the legacy devices running on the network ineffective.
"The issue is not whether I can do a software upgrade from WiMAX to LTE, but that I break all the devices underneath that footprint the night I switch over," Gabbard says. "Until we have devices that can do both LTE and WiMAX, there's no way to not disrupt the customer base."
Gabbard, who is working with Indian companies as they weigh the pros and cons of WiMAX and LTE, says the near-term importance of a quick deployment with WiMAX and the long-term implications of the scale of LTE presents a conundrum for the Indian market. "They're really struggling because they're weighing the headache of a migration against an early start," he says.
Indian operators could also choose to deploy WiMAX in key markets and then overlay it with LTE, as Yota planned to do before Russian regulators put a kibosh on the plan. Clearwire has also hinted it may pursue such a strategy depending on how its tests in Phoenix, Ariz., pan out.
An overlay deployment could work in India if more BWA spectrum opened up, but current spectrum allocations aren't generous enough to make such a strategy viable, says Kunal Bajaj, Analysys Mason's director for the Indian market. "In BWA we don't have 20 MHz of spectrum, so unless they are willing to run two 10 MHz networks separately, it's not practical," he says.
From a logistical standpoint, deploying one technology and sticking with it could prove the easiest way forward. Bajaj believes that if the ecosystem can meet certain deadlines and price points, it will be the best choice for Indian operators, specifically Reliance.
The variety of LTE that could be used in India's unpaired BWA spectrum band, TD-LTE, is somewhat behind its more common FDD brethren, which is itself behind WiMAX. The lag might not be as severe as it sounds, however. A commercial TD-LTE network deployed by Motorola has been operating since spring at the Shanghai Expo, chipsets for the technology are already available and some of the industry's biggest infrastructure players are touting their TD-LTE solutions.
Ken Wirth, president of LTE/4G solutions for Alcatel-Lucent, says Indian operators have substantial reservations about the lag time between WiMAX and LTE. Wirth, who recently met with seven "key customers" in India, says he had to dispel a number of rumors about LTE in India.
"There was a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt cast about the lead WiMAX has over LTE," he says. "The preconceived notion was that LTE was two to three years away from commercial. I told them we're commercial now in preparation for Verizon's launch, and that platform does FDD as well as TDD... A couple customers were thinking of going with WiMAX and now they're reconsidering."
Wirth says the time-division variety of LTE that will be used in India is between three and six months from commercial viability. Alcatel-Lucent is working with four OEMs to develop devices for the TD-LTE standard and will have another four coming on board by the end of this year, he says.
By the end of his discussions with Indian operators, Wirth felt more optimistic about TD-LTE's chances in India. "I was really surprised at the receptivity of the Indian carriers once they understood the facts around the specific deliverables from our LTE program," he says.
As it stands now, Qualcomm is the only company with BWA spectrum with concrete plans to deploy TD-LTE. Reliance has been silent on the subject since voicing its support for the technology in June. Reliance's decision could have an influence on some of the other BWA spectrum winners, although state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL are sure bets for WiMAX, Bajaj says.
The Ripple Effect of India's Choice
India is not just any market. It presents a massive growth opportunity to not only infrastructure vendors, OEMs and operators, but to the technology standards as well.
India's population is almost as large as China's despite the disparity between the countries' land mass. The most recent estimates from the World Bank put India's population at 1.14 billion and China's population at 1.32 billion. India has just 635.5 million mobile subscribers and the country's government has a comparatively friendly attitude toward foreign companies, presenting a prime opportunity for investment and growth.
India is to the wireless industry what veal is to top chefs, and its decision either way on LTE or WiMAX could have a major influence on the future of each technology, especially the single-band variety of LTE.
TD-LTE's major backer is China Mobile. Despite the carrier's enthusiastic support for the technology – significant because China Mobile is the largest operator in the world based on subscribers, with 554 million of them – it's essentially ham-strung by the Chinese government when it comes to its 4G deployment plans. It's not something the industry likes to admit, but nobody really knows when China Mobile will be able to move ahead with its 4G plans.
The ambiguity over the timing of China Mobile's mobile broadband deployments makes India the most likely country to have a game-changing effect for the time division variety of LTE. Still, deployment plans in India aren't much clearer than the timing of 4G in China. Mobile broadband deployments in India could have a major effect on the near-term success of TD-LTE.
Of course, India isn't the only market likely to deploy TD-LTE. Key operators in countries such as Germany, Denmark and Russia all own unpaired spectrum they could use to deploy LTE, though their plans are far from concrete. The size and scale of the Indian market is second only to China, however, making its importance to the future of both WiMAX and LTE undeniable
Uninor, Videocon And Stel May Be Terminated Soon.....dot Preapring Show Cause Notice
in Indian Telecom / General News
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nothing can happen to uninor becoz of telenor being a norway govt
organisation