Last November 22nd marked the new era of digital communication in India. Government owned mobile operator BSNL has launched countries first commercial 3G network in Chennai. BSNL chennai circle has been chosen in view of customer diversity, technical expertise etc. Company has invested about 2700 crores on 3G. Next generation in mobile telephone technology 3G promises to offer speeds up to 3.6 Mbps, video calling, mobile TV and a host of other applications.

The Chennai Telephones has installed about 200 nobe Bs that are equivalent to base stations. About 540 node Bs will be installed in the next two months, said A Subramanian, chief general manager, Chennai Telephones."The company has partnered with Huawei to offer the services. The delay happened because we wanted to offer 2G to 3G migration to existing customers without the need to change their mobile numbers," he added.

D. Varadarajan, CGM, BSNL Tamil Nadu Circle, said 3G services would be launched in 38 cities over the next two months. It would be initially launched in Coimbatore and to begin with the Chennai-Coimbatore rail route would be provided seamless 3G connectivity.

BSNL has introduced inaugural offers for both pre-paid and post-paid users for voice and video calls at 30 paise a minute, which is lower than 2G calls. As a promotional offer, 50 free local video calls and 25 MB free data usage will be allowed up to December 31. Incoming video calls will be given to all 2G customers possessing 3G handsets.The SIM card comes at Rs 59 for both post- and pre-paid. Migration from pre-paid 2G to 3G will be done free of cost and without change in number. Post-paid users can choose from four plans starting from Rs 225 to Rs 2,500. BSNL has partnered with data card providers including Micromax and Huawei to offer speed up to 3.6 Mbps.With its one-year introductory offer of tariffs lower than 2G call charges, Chennai Telephones hopes to net 1.5 lakh users over the next couple of months.

Though india lags far behind many countries interms of launch date, i am sure 3G will be  a big success in india considering the low penetration of broadbad to home. High end mobile phones are a big hit in recent time, all of them are coming up with 3G enabled. especially HSDPA which promises 3.6 Mbps downlink speed . Looking forward to 3G and BWA specturm auction.
Pre-bid conference held in delhi on Nov 16th marks an important event in spectrum auction process.  Huge interest has been shown by different operators varied to different segments. Slides of the event for your reference,

Auction Briefing Presentation for Pre-bid Conference_16Nov09 Auction Rules Presentation for Pre-bid Conference_16Nov09
PPP - A famous protocol for reliable customer access, control, and maintenance has another meaning with EC announcements on NGN investment framework. Public Private Participation is a welcome idea for rapid roll out on upcoming technologies. Collaboration is a well known concepts in Telecommunication industry, Operators have to share available infrastructure, Route servers have to share inter continent routes, Internet exchanges have to share traffic. collaboration is the base for Internet and hence telecom network as  a whole. This has an added advantage when it comes to creating a fibre infrastructure, Infinite bandwidth that fibre offer is inevitable in Next Generation Network (NGN) roll out. Voice, Video, and Data tripe play offerings need more bandwidth, Upcoming technologies like LTE, WiMax, LTE advanced, and WiMax advanced base stations need a reliable high bandwidth interconnection. Having a fibre optic infrastructure and latest technology access network is inevitable in NGN.

Europe is well behind in FTTH


Today there are signs that Western Europe is falling behind the rest of the world in FTTH deployment, which worries Europes equipment manufacturers. Idate in a report published earlier this year said the Asian market accounted for 80% of the worlds 28.2 million FTTx subscribers last year. There were a total of 22.5 million fibre subscribers in Asia by the end of June 2008, with Japan leading the way with 13 million. Europe took a 7.4% share of global FTTH/B subscribers and the US 5.2% said Idate.
The government in Singapore asked operators to bid for contracts to provide a passive dark fibre network, and a separate active network which would be open to multiple service providers.Singtel, the national incumbent, was part of a four-party consortium that last year won the national dark fibre contract, thereby giving the consortium access to Singtels ducts.

Regulatory Positions in Europe:

ECTA accepts the principle that operators should share investments in joint ventures, but it doesnt trust incumbents to create a competitive environment. If competition and choice for consumers and businesses are guaranteed through this arrangement then regulation could be removed. But we have seen no signs that incumbents are seriously interested in negotiating in good faith with their rivals, except as a means to delay and confuse the process, it says in a statement.

The reality is there are n't that many substantive build these networks. There is a bit of a view in some parts of telecoms that we have an automatic right to participate without any investment. That is not reasonable.Current European regulation is geared to promote infrastructure-based competition by providing a relatively low cost of market entry through wholesale access to former incumbents copper networks. That has allowed fixed alternative operators to acquire customers before investing in partial and full un-bundling. The ECs current draft recognizes that NGAs change the ground rules and will need new regulatory models. Any operator that combined an infrastructure monopoly with service provisioning would likely face long-term regulation. Do not expect European governments building open access networks with substantial public funds as planned in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian government, for example, in April said it will oversee the construction of an A$43 billion nationwide fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network through a company in which it will hold a minimum 51% stake. In Europe there wont be that level of state financing. Most of it will be built with private money, says Feasey.

Certainly, some government funding plans are receiving a mixed response. In the UK, the government reportedly is considering going against the politically sensitive recommendation in the June Digital Britain report to tax phone services in order to part-fund next-generation access networks in rural areas. And in the US, the three largest operators have chosen not to apply for funding from the first round of the broadband stimulus package to roll out services in un-served and under served regions. Whatever approach is taken, Shared investment mode can maintain competition and protect consumer interests. There isn't a trade-off between competition and investment. Minimum number of players is needed. The mobile market is the only one where we have seen significant network investment and where there is what most regulators would regard as acceptable levels of competition. Mobile networks are not perfectly competitive as there are not thousands of service providers. There are three or four.

Collaborations so far in Europe:

Mobile operators, and notably Vodafone, already share passive infrastructure in some European countries. In Sweden, Tele2 and Telenor this year went a step further and agreed to share active mobile infrastructure for LTE networks, reflecting a move to focus on the branding and distribution of services rather than exclusive control of the underlying networks.Its all about branding and really understanding customer needs and distribution, says Lars-Ake Norling, CEO of Telenor Sweden, explaining the decision to share with Tele2 both the RAN and spectrum of their future 4G networks.

Vodafone already has struck a deal for fixed network sharing. Last December Vodafone Germany and Deutsche Telekom announced they would provide each other with wholesale access to VDSL networks to be built in Heilbronn by Vodafone and in Wurzburg by Deutsche Telekom.

The UK has taken a different approach to opening up infrastructure, introducing structural separation of the copper loop. But in many countries structural separation has proven unpalatable.


3G and BWA Wireless spectrum auction base price announced, as usual government has exceeded all predictions, My prediction too. Do read my previous analysis on expected revenue to government Here. As usual reaction from industry is totally against high price. Government is looking at money and not affordability, some strong reaction from Industry icons.
  • Pan-india 3G spectrum base price is 35 Billion INR.
  • 3 nos of 20MHz spectrum total base price is 17.5 Billion
  • 2 nos of 1.25MHz slot of EV-DO spectrum base price is 8.75 Billion
Stated by one of the popular Telecom journal in  India tele.net. COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) expressed concerns about huge difference between base price of 3G spectrum adn BWA. COAI is very much concerned about WiMax operators backdoor entry in to 3G, they further explained that since WiMax and 3G can offer similar type of services and availability operators will choose WiMax and get in to 3G customer base with less spectrum cost. AUSPI (Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India) also expressed concerns over price difference and limiting the number of spectrum to 2 in case of CDMA. They have also criticized about government policy of increasing the competition in auction by reducing the number of participating band. On the other hand ISPAI (Internet Service Providers Association of India) expressed concerns about huge base price and further limitation in roll out obligations.

In my view government intention to gain as much as 250 Billion in revenue is met. This huge difference between competing technologies enable big muscle players to hold all possible spectrum and hence technology monopoly in Indian Telecommunication industry. Internet service providers will have huge problem in terms of keeping their present customer and gaining new customers. Mobile operators will easily meet coverage and roll out obligations by using their available passive and back bone infrastructure where as Internet service providers can not. On the other hand ISP stron hold of IP back bone will leverage more managed services business opportunity. Government should use alternate mechanisms to bridge digital divide, allowing operators to use 700MHz spectrum to meet rural coverage obligations is one such solutions.
I went to a near by prepaid card and mobile peripheral reseller few months back. Out of curiosity asked him a question about which mobile connection sells faster. He said "TATA DOCOMO is the fast mover, all 500 connection cards of his quota soled out in 2 Hrs and waiting for next dispatch, If you want a new connection book in advance with RS 100 payment." And to my question why ? his answer is 1 sec billing. TATA DOCOMO simple USP is "PER SECOND BILLING". To an end customer it saves lot of money, since so long one minute billing from other operators are charging a same amount for 1 sec as well as 59secs of call duration. Those mobile operators billing is technically wrong. Phone usage should be billed based upon ERLANGS. A unit to measure Hrs of traffic used in an hr. It is a statistical measure of offered load. With this every second will have big difference on required link capacity and hence investment. Docomo's strategy of per second billing is in either way does good thing for indian mobile communication industry. Soon all the other operators may have to follow similar frame work. TATA GSM has become number one in terms of user addition Thanks to per second billing. BSNL has started billing as per sec pulse. Recently TRAI's chairman suggested similar norms.
 
We may ask all the operators to consider per-second pulse as a mandatory tariff option along with their other tariff plans, Even there (in per-second tariff plan), they must ensure to bring out clearly all the riders and caveats" Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman J S Sarma told reporters on the sidelines of the International Telecommunication Union conference in Geneva.

Auction of 3G spectrum and BWA is expected to complete by January 2010. Big mobile operators are well planned to kick start implementation as soon as possible. Who ever owns the spectrum, what is in it for the government? Like sea, land, and minerals WIRELESS SPECTRUM is considered to be a key national resource. Every technology can not operate in every possible spectrum, It has limitation in terms of Radio propagation, coverage, expected quality and so on. So allocating a spectrum becomes a critical activity of the government with incremental revenue generating opportunity. Since the number of operator want to participate in this telecommunication business is high, like any other opportunistic business environment, Auction process increments expected revenue.

The Government expects to get over Rs 25,000 crore from 3G spectrum allocation alone. "From the five players, we expect Rs 20,000 crore and another Rs 5,000 crore would come from bidding process. It can even be higher," From BWA auction government is expected to generate minimum of 10000 crore additional revenue.

 Even before spectrum allocation decision, Bharati airtel has announced it's participation in 3G auction. "If everything goes well on time with regard to spectrum auction, by February or March we will have spectrum allocation. By next Diwali (2010), we will have commercial launch of 3G services in India," Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli.

It would be interesting to see how far the fight for spectrum goes. More the intensity more will be the revenue to government. But considering the low price high volume indian telecommunication market. 25k crore is gettable in few years time. Looking forward to spectrum war. Once more put off will definitely bring down the interest on customers. Let see how indian Telecom market react to DATA intensive 3G (W-CDMA, and EVDO) and BWA (Mobile WiMax, LTE, WiMax advanced) technologies. 


Much awaited 3G and BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) wireless spectrum auction time lines are announced by Telecommunication ministry of India. Revised information memorandum will get released in few days from now on. It will be interesting to see, who will win the rights to operate in what spectrum. A high level GOM (Group of Ministers) team is controlling the whole process. Indian government is expecting a huge sum from telecom payers. Spectrum action will mark the beginning of an era of information exchange. Bridging the communication gap is the main agenda behind this. Both 3G and BWA aiming at increased throughput and hence more value added services (VAS). More number of internet enabled terminals, internet enabled government functions, internet enabled future rely on this auction.
Major fight is expected between big players from mobile operators like reliance, Airtel, TATA, Vodafone, and idea. It is very evident that Government is so keen to grab as much as money they can. 3G market have been a big failure in western countries largely because of the way internet penetration by means of cable and other means. Indian telecom story is entirely different from other countries. When mobile communication market kicked off in india way back late 90's, the whole world was not in a optimist look about Indian telecom market. But the present situation is so different that, late comer india is expected to by pass US very soon. Indian telecom growth story in voice market (2G) will help to achieve greater heights with 3G as well.
BWA action is the only option for many of the categoryA ISPs in India. Except Airtel, MTNL, and BSNL, All the other internet service providers have challenges in implementing the last mile internet access. Cable theft, environmental condition, too large distance to cover are some of the problems. Wirelss seems to be the only way out. New bound challenge, Mobile internet against traditional internet access is another big thread. Mobile WiMax promises to bridge the difference, but investment is huge. Available spectrum is another big challenge. ISPs are left out with 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz. Out of available 5 player options, Companies like Sify, Net4India, Tulip, TATA VSNL, Airtel, Reliance, Shyam, you telecom and etc have to fight for the 4 spots.
BSNL, and MTNL are enjoying the clear advantage as a early winners in both 3G and BWA auction. We keep hearing that nothing seems to be going well for BSNL and MTNL, there are speculations that Bharati and Reliance may catchup so easily with their implementation capability. Lets see how this 3G and BWA auction comes out.
WiMax - Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access, had many road blocks worldwide. On its part ISRO makes its stand clear with chairman's statement. Mobile WiMax deployments is delayed due to repeated delays in BWA spectrum auction. It is decided to auction 3 blocks of 2.5GHz and 2 blocks of 2.3GHz in view of BWA growth. State owned operators like BSNL and MTNL were given permission to start deployment. Remaining private operators gonna fight for 4 Blocks across india. ISRO statement places a big bottle neck that no more spectrum will be available from globally used 2.5GHz band for BWA i.e Mobile WiMax.
G Madhavan Nair has told the nine-member empowered group of ministers (EGoM) -- headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee -- that the department of space (DoS) could not spare any further airwaves for WiMax services. The EGoM was constituted to settle all outstanding issues associated with the auction of third-generation (3G) airwaves. The DoS has already parted with 40 MHz of airwaves for WiMax services in the 2.5 GHz band, and Mr Nair said that interference from the WiMax services offered in this band in the future could "severely affect the very sensitive satellite services in the adjacent band". The EGoM will take a final call on the reserve price for 3G and WiMax spectrums, as well as decide on the number of players to be allowed to offer these high-end services in every circle. Mr Nair has said that after parting with 40 MHz of airwaves in the 2.5 GHz band, the DoS is left with only 150 MHz of airwaves in this band, the bare minimum requirement for satellite services. He also added that this band was of strategic importance to India as it was largely used for meeting strategic communication needs by defence, Indian railways and Safety of Life Services. "Hence, the operation of WiMax system in the proposed (2.5 GHz band) should be restricted within these band portions in such a way that it will not be interred into mobile satellite service," Mr Nair's communication added. In another note to the EGoM, the DoS said: "The rights for frequency band 2.5-2.69 GHz have been registered with Isro after prolonged negotiations with other countries and registered with International Telecommunication Union. International registration of this frequency band for Indian satellites requires for a long coordination process that is extremely difficult." Link to actual news
This means after totally 6 players will do BWA implementations in india. In every place 5 operators will will provide service. 4 operators will be decided from major players like Reliance, Airtel, Tata communications, Sify, Youtelecom, Shyam, vodafone and much more. It would be interesting to see who can utilize the best of Shanon's theorem and give larger coverage with better bit rate. DOT should find other available spectrum for other players. 
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NEW YORK, August 25, 2009 ¾ Delivering on its promise to give consumers a variety of choices, Sony today announced the third member of its new Reader family - the Reader Daily Edition™, a highly-anticipated wireless model with 3G connectivity.  The Daily Edition caps its new line of Reader products, joining the Reader Pocket Edition™ and the Reader Touch Edition™ which were announced earlier this month. The Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition are available immediately, and the Reader Daily Edition will be available this December in time for the holidays at SonyStyle stores and SonyStyle.com.

"We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of their digital reading experience," said Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division. "Today, we take another large stride to deliver on that promise.  We now have the most affordable devices on the market, the greatest access to free and affordable eBooks through The eBook Store from Sony and our affiliated ecosystem, and now round out our Reader offering with a wireless device that lets consumer purchase and download content on the go."

A Family of Three Readers

The Reader Pocket Edition sports a five-inch electronic paper display packaged in a stylish chassis and is available in a variety of colors, including navy blue, rose and silver. It is available for the ground-breaking price of $199, making it the most affordable dedicated reading device on the market.

            The Reader Touch Edition features a responsive, menu-driven six-inch touch screen panel that enables quick, intuitive navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen. It comes in red, black or silver and retails for about $299.

            The Reader Daily Edition gives consumers wireless access via AT&T's 3G mobile broadband network to Sony's eBook store from just about anywhere in the U.S.  Book lovers will be able to browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers and magazines when and where they want. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB.

The seven-inch wide, touch screen display provides for intuitive navigation and comfortable layout of content, including newspapers and magazines, whether you're reading in portrait or landscape orientation. In portrait mode, about 30-35 lines of text are visible, making the experience very similar to that of a printed paperback book. A high contrast ratio with 16 levels of grayscale ensures that text and images are crisp and easy to read. The Daily Edition also boasts an attractive aluminum body with an integrated cover for durability. It has enough internal memory to hold more than one thousand standard eBooks and expansion slots for memory cards to hold even more. It will sell for about $399.

All three models feature Sony's award-winning industrial design and an E Ink® Vizplex™ electronic paper display that emulates the look of ink on paper. Sony's eBook Library software 3.0, which now includes support for many Apple® Macintosh® computers as well as PCs, makes it easy to transfer and read any Adobe® PDF (with reflow capability), EPUB, Microsoft® Word®, BBeB® files, or other text file formats on the Reader.

Access to Even More Content at the eBook Store by Sony

In addition to announcing a new family of Readers, Sony has also made several changes and improvements to its eBook Store to provide better access to an even greater variety of ebooks. Earlier this summer Sony announced the availability of more than one million free public domain books from Google, and the company made new releases and New York Times bestseller titles available for $9.99. Today also marks the launch of Sony's Library Finder application. Sony, working with OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global digital distributor of eBooks and to libraries, will now offer visitors to the eBook Store by Sony easy access to their local library's collection of eBooks.  Thousands of libraries in the OverDrive network offer eBooks optimized for the Sony Reader, and visitors can now find these libraries by typing their zip code into the Library Finder. Through the selected library's download website, visitors can check out eBooks with a valid library card, download them to a PC and transfer to their Reader. At the end of the library's lending period, eBooks simply expire, so there are never any late fees. The Reader Pocket and Touch Editions, as well as available accessories such as AC adaptors, cases and covers with reading lights, are available now at SonyStyle.com and SonyStyle stores. Book lovers interested in trying out a Reader in person will also be able to find them for sale at Best Buy, BJs, Borders, Sam's Club, Staples, Target, Toys"R"Us, Wal-Mart and other authorized retailers nationwide.

As per wimax forum press release, WiMAX Service Providers now offer networks covering 430 million people, or POPS, globally and are on a path to nearly double to 800 million people by end of 2010. In addition, global WiMAX network deployments are approaching 460 in more than 135 countries for fixed, portable, and mobile networks. The WiMAX Forum also met key milestones with the first Mobile WiMAX™ 3.5GHz products receiving the WiMAX Forum Certified™ seal of approval. 

"WiMAX coverage is here now and is the catalyst in the global marketplace to deliver 4G broadband Internet access to countries that don't want to wait," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "These new deployment numbers reveal the mobile Internet WiMAX ecosystem has achieved strong growth and will continue to satisfy the market demand to deliver high-speed broadband services in 2009. Certified products in the 3.5 GHz band will now give more operators access to the equipment and devices needed to deliver mobile broadband services." 
With more than 430 million POPS already covered by WiMAX services, and new spectrum licenses anticipated to be allocated in countries such as Brazil and India, WiMAX Forum expects to see accelerated growth of WiMAX's global footprint in 2009. And, the ecosystem can expect to see continued subscriber growth as consumers and enterprises recognize the availability of WiMAX as a high-speed low-cost alternative to other Internet technologies. 
During a teleconference today, Intel highlighted the WiMAX Forum findings, as well as additional global WiMAX news and momentum. 

"After several years in development, 2008 was the year that WiMAX became a global reality," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president, Intel. "In both emerging markets and mature countries, companies and governments are deploying 4G WiMAX networks to help bridge the digital divide and bring affordable, super-fast mobile broadband to their citizens. As countries look to accelerate broadband in 2009 to address economic recovery, WiMAX is ready - it's the right technology at the right time. There is no need to wait - WiMAX is a reality today." 

WiMAX Forum Certifies First 3.5 GHz Products 
Signaling continued WiMAX momentum, the WiMAX Forum today announced that Samsung and ZTE Corporation received the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval for products for the 3.5 GHz spectrum band. This milestone also marks the first of many certified products to come out of the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) lab in Korea, one of six global WiMAX Forum Designated Certifcation Laboratories (WFDCL). 

Samsung's 3.5GHz base station, the U-RAS Flexible, is a new addition to Samsung's WiMAX Forum Certified products in 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz bands. This base station is now being deployed for Lithuania's first WiMAX commercial service. U-RAS Flexible is separated into two parts, including the digital unit and remote radio head. The optic interface between digital unit and remote radio head minimizes cable loss. Its powerful RF output effectively covers macro network areas. It adopts Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology and is ready for Beamforming, ensuring consistent quality service for years to come. 

ZTE's 9100+R9100 base stations also achieved certification. These add a new frequency band to ZTE's resume, which already includes WiMAX Forum Certified products in the 2.6 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands. ZTE B9100+R9100 are distributed base station systems developed on MicroTCA hardware platform equipped with features such as easy upgrade path, compact design, and low total cost of ownership (TCO). It supports advanced MIMO technology, which enhances the signal transmission quality of single base station. ZTE's most recent products were certified at the Taiwan WFDCL Bureau Veritas ADT. 

More than 50 Mobile WiMAX Certified products achieved certification in 2008. Currently, more than 35 WiMAX Forum member companies manufacture WiMAX base stations, 30 companies provide PC Cards, USB modems, MIDs, and other personal devices, 25 companies produce chipsets and reference designs, and six of the top seven global device manufacturers develop WiMAX products. The WiMAX Forum estimates that by 2011 there will be more than 1,000 Mobile WiMAX Forum Certified™ products found throughout the world.

Source article, http://wimaxforum.org/node/644 

Recent Comments

  • desitelecom: Glad to hear the update from you. Thanks to TRAI read more
  • Saravanakumar: TRAI has further clarified that "It will mandate Mobile operators read more
  • desitelecom: Very true. Here i haven't consider the full ROI model. read more
  • https://me.yahoo.com/a/bDdoG75_v9stzCb0ra_AV4Z1qroNJWQK#de21d: 3 Years is a too short period. Spectrum cost is read more

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