Recently in wireless Category

14th December government owned Telecom service provider launched first of its kind commercial mobile WiMax services in Ajmer, Rajasthan.  The services were officially launched on Sunday by Minister of State for Telecom, Sachin Pilot. It is works in phase with government of India aim to close in the digital divide between rural and urban India. In the initial launch phase, the company will cover 1,000 Block Headquarters under the services which in turn will be connected to 11,500 Common Service Centres in respective blocks. The next phase will connect 50,000 Common Service Centres. These Centres act as touch point for facilitation of utility services & e-governance such as payment of bills, issue of birth certificates, land records, vehicle registration to name a few. Village Panchayats will also come underconnectivity as well as connectivity for ATMs, Railway Reservation Centres. The broadband connectivity will also allow video conferencing services to be used for tele-medicine and tele-education.

Broadband service provider leader BSNL already offering connectivity to urban markets in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. These markets are covered using BSNL and SOMA networks tie-up. BSNL has been allowed to use its spot in 2.5GHz spectrum band for Mobile WiMax application. It also has spectrum in 3.3GHz band. BSNL is reportedly having multiple parnership with OEMs like Huwaei, Soma networks, Gemini communications limited. It has floated few tenders to target different markets withing india rural, urban and semi urban.

More such launches are expected from other providers a well. Most of them waiting for the spectrum auction to get over.
HAPPY WiMax!

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.

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.