Indian 3G and WiMAX could be pushed out to 2010
Published: 23 February, 2009
The roll-out of Indian 3G and WiMAX may be delayed still further, even into 2010, despite the addition of record numbers of new 2G subscribers in recent months, and a rising demand for mobile internet services.
Auctions of 3G and WiMAX spectrum were originally scheduled for January but have been postponed on successive occasions, mainly because of fights between the government and the regulator over reserve prices. Some operators have also pleaded for more time to raise money to bid for licenses. Although telecoms minister A Raja said last week that auctions could still take place by the end of March, most observers now believe this is unlikely and the date could even be pushed back to 2010, with serious negative effects for India's social and economic plans.
Nupur Singh Andley, senior research analyst at Springboard Research, told ZDNet Asia:
"It is doubtful that the private players will roll out 3G services within the next eight months. In fact, we may see the roll out of 3G and WiMAX only in 2010." State owned BSNL and MTNL have been given early access to spectrum for both technologies and should start to deploy networks soon.
The Finance Ministry wants to double the reserve prices of the licenses, from $407m for a national 3G license and $204m for a national WiMAX franchise, but this might be more viable for operators once the recession starts to ease.
The regulator, TRAI, said India's mobile user base rose to 362.3m at the end of January, and that 15.41m new subscribers were added during the month, a big leap from 10.81m additions in December. Bharti Airtel was the main beneficiary, adding 2.73m customers to boost its base to 88.38m. Reliance added 4.95m users to reach 61.34m, having launched GSM late last year to accompany its CDMA operations. Vodafone Essar increased its customer list by 2.4m to 63.34m and BSNL added 1.3m to achieve 47.58m.
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