September 2009 Archives

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.