Every thing is not gloomy. Recession does affect the feel-good factor, however, some developments spice up the hackneyed senses. The national mood got elated when the state owned telecom operator in BSNL rolled out the 3G services in the country. Digital Edge keeps on highlighting the efficacy of 3G infrastructure when a host of services on such networks would create a direct impact on the ‘socio-economic-psycho’ make up of the nation. Just think of a scene when a man hundreds of miles away from his home, talks to his family members watching each other speaking on a real time basis. The tyranny of ‘distance’ is all set to be buried deep into people’s consciousness, forever.
Not only that, enterprise level of data, voice, and video can be streamed on such 3G networks. India has got an important national tool that can change almost every aspect of people’s lives (including the way they execute their business chores). An array of heavy-duty enterprise applications can easily be run on 3G networks. Even as the various private operators still wait to getting the spectrum through auction processes, the state-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) acted preemptively, and launched next generation 3G mobile services in the country.
“BSNL will be covering 700 cities in the phase-I of its 3G rollout with a proposed investments of Rs 2, 700 crore”, said IT Minister, A Raja, at the soft-launch of 3G by BSNL in Chennai circle.Very soon, such services would be available in Lucknow, Agra, Dehradun, Ambala, Jammu, Shimla, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Patna, Durgapur, Haldia, Ranchi, and Bhubaneswar among others.
“There will be seamless offering of VAS like video on-demand, movie on-demand, home surveillance through high speed internet connection up to 7.2mbps. Goyal said 3G services customers would have three monthly subscription options of Rs 350, Rs 650 and Rs 1, 350. Customers would also get the 3G services through a bundle offer”, said Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL.
However, most of the private telecom operators have their 3G-enabled networks in place, and the market is full of 3G compliant handsets. “The 3G ecosystem is already in good shape. It’s a matter of time when these private players get the green signal from the government”, says an industry watcher.
China’s Huawei empowers
The Indian readiness for rolling out 3G networks in the country has seen increased business activities of China’s top two telecom equipment vendors, Huawei Telecommunications and ZTE Corporation. Both the companies are having their respective business in the country. Huawei Telecommunications, keeping its quality maintained, has worked hard in getting accepted by the Indian market in general, and the government establishment in particular. The BSNL’s 3G roll out has largely been done on equipments provided by Huawei Telecommunications. Earlier Huawei Telecommunications supplied STM-64 (10Gbps) SDH optical networking products to BSNL for such purposes. The BSNL-Huawei synergy is giving a fresh air of confidence to the ‘Indo-Sino’ relations which are becoming cozier by each passing day. This cordial relationship is indeed necessary for the well being of the entire South East Asian region. This signifies a new aura of trust and mutual acceptability of each other. Digital Edge feels confident that Huawei Telecommunications would no longer be an uncomfortable entity for the Indian security agencies (Huawei used to be seen with suspicion as it was supposed to be a safe harbour for doing espionage against the Indian interests).
However, the other Chinese telecom major, ZTE Corporation, is doing its best to convince many Indian telecom operators of its own efficacy of supplying with top rung 3G equipments. Quite recently, ZTE Corporation has secured a commercial contract to roll out all of Outremer Telecom’s (OMT) new GSM/UMTS networks in the company’s overseas territories in the French regions of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. In accordance with the general conditions of the contract, ZTE would be supplying a range of equipment, including: R4 Network Core equipment, 2G/3G radio stations, prepayment and SMS platforms and centralised multi-equipment supervision. So, the 3G game is all set to electrify the telecom market in India. Lets watch this!
A Raja expressed confidence that the group of ministers (GoM) will soon clear the decks for 3G auction to private players, enabling the telecom ministry to conducts the auction by March 31.Speaking about the nation-wide launch of mobile number portability (MNP) services will be extended first in metros followed by other cities within the end 2009. “The set target of 700 million telephone connections by 2010 can be comfortably achieved at the current pace”, said Raja. He also announced that BSNL will be launching ‘India golden 50’ plan envisaging all India calling at a flat rate of 50 paise per minute. |
