India Wireless Broadband - The Story Unfolds

Most overseas vendors and industry forums are finding working in the Indian telecom sector to be no different from the screenplay of a complex Bollywood plot: unexpected twists and turns at every corner but a happy ending always! At least that’s what most industry observers went away thinking after the most dilly-dallied spectrum auctions of the planet finally came to a close this summer. Having said that, perhaps the Indian market is even more complex still, because the surprises never seem to end: a government order against Chinese imports; security screening for equipment/devices; a Defense Ministry ban on the release of 3G spectrum for CDMA operators; an August 31st deadline looming against RIM for opening up their servers; and the list goes on.

Despite the hurdles, no equipment vendor on the planet wants to stay out of this action-packed thriller. From our recent study covering Indian 2G/3G/BWA licensees the excitement is palpable (seeIndia 4G and Cellular Market Analysis and Forecasts, 2010-2015 - 4th Edition). There is a lot of enthusiasm about launch of 3G services and in some cases there could be a New Year surprise launch, or even a Christmas launch of full-fledged services in select circles.

Senior executives at Airtel feel that 3G will certainly be a major driving engine as the firm strategizes around business-verticals such as m-healthcare/m-banking/m-music and m-governance to address the 3G opportunity. This could be drawn from the success Airtel saw with their wholesale music app store in 2G, something nobody expected would so quickly become one of the largest channels to distribute music in the country [exceeding 13 million downloads in 4 months]. Reliance Communication has been ready with a corporate strategy built around rich media 3G services accentuated with its latest announcement of jointly working with Nokia’s Ovi engine. We expect a slew of new announcements from 3G licensees in the weeks ahead as they acquire their alliances in place to launch 3G by year-end 2010 or early 2011. We believe NSN has made a breakthrough by landing 3G infrastructure contracts, and announcements could be a few days away.

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BWA auction ends, Infotel wins big, Qualcomm gains

With the auction of BWA spectrum concluding today after 117 rounds over 16 days, the government is set to gain $8.6 billion.

The auction for spectrum today ensured Rs 106,336 crore to the government, over three times the original estimate, with successful bidders for Broadband Wireless Access committing over Rs 38,617 crore.

Internet Service Provider Infotel emerged as the only pan-India winner for BWA spectrum by committing Rs 12,872.52 crore. Aircel won spectrum in 8 circles.

While in the Delhi circle, Infotel and Qualcomm emerged winners, with Infotel's winning bid at Rs 2,241.02 cr, Mumbai also saw the same winners, with Infotel bidding Rs 2,292.95 cr. Bharti and Infotel emerged winners in Maharashtra, with Bharti's winning bid at Rs 915.64 cr.

Qualcomm has won one, 20 MHz slot of spectrum in the circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. Its winning bid was INR4912.54 Crore or approximately USD1.045bn.

Qualcomm said that it anticipates the Government of India will formally approve results of the BWA Auction shortly. The company will soon announce its Indian partners in compliance with the applicable Indian Foreign Direct Investment regulations and will work with its partners towards demonstrating LTE (TD-LTE) technology with the goal of creating LTE infrastructure and device ecosystem.

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BWA auction revenue reaches $5.43 bn

The Indian government's provisional revenue from the sale of BWA services Friday reached Rs.24,439.92 crore ($5.43 billion) and the pan-India licence price was Rs.9,522.35 crore ($2.11 billion).

India Tuesday concluded 77 rounds of the auction of airwaves for BWA services. This is a simultaneous online auction for two slots in each of the country's 22 service areas.

The auction, which began last week, saw the pan-India BWA licence price going up around 444.13 percent from the Rs.1,750 crore base price fixed by the government.

BWA spectrum auction set to begin in India

After 183 rounds of bidding in 34 days, the 3G spectrum auction raised approximately Rs 67,719 crore (US$15 billion) in commitments from the carriers.

A new auction for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum is expected to begin within days. This new BWA auction will offer 2 blocks of 20MHz in the 2.3GHz band across the same 22 service areas.

As many as 11 operators are in the fray for BWA spectrum. The reserve price for BWA spectrum has been fixed at Rs 1,750 crore and only two slots of 20 MHz each are on the block.

DoT said 11 telecom companies "Aircel Ltd, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar" have qualified for the broadband and wireless access (BWA) auction.

Qualcomm's participation in India's Broadband Wireless Access auction is expected to help the company in accelerating the use of TD-LTE. Unlike WiMAX, TD-LTE does not have a substantial market share for encouraging vendors to develop devices. India's 2.3 GHz spectrum band and rapidly growing demand for high broadband services is well suited for TD-LTE technology.

source:LteWorld

BSNL launches Wimax

State-owned telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has become the first company in India to launch wireless Internet services. See below the video clip from NDTV