BSNL kicks off Indian 3G as Asian capex holds steady
Published: 25 February, 2009
It is clear that the main hopes for wireless investment during this year's downturn rest with Asia, in particular the Chinese 3G build-outs, and the industry's swing eastwards was confirmed this week by a new report that sees a rise in equipment spend in the region over the next two years. Although delays in Indian 3G auctions, possibly into next year, have blunted hopes for that country's wireless capex, state-owned BSNL is moving ahead with its 3G deployment, while many carriers are extending GSM.
According to Pyramid Research, operators throughout the Asia-Pacific region are sticking to their capex plans despite the economic crisis, with advanced 3G or even WiMAX and LTE leading the way in wireless, accompanied by the rise of national broadband plans in many areas.
Tae-Hyung Kim, author of the report, said: "Markets such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea are seeing an ever increasing appetite for higher bandwidth applications on mobile networks and increasing mobile broadband adoption rates."
In India, BSNL says it will have 3G running in 12 cities by the end of this week, and recently Communications Minister A Raja carried out the first video call on the network to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The state operator was awarded one block of 2.5MHz of 3G spectrum in all telecom circles, in advance of the auction, and will have to pay the same amount as the winning privately owned bidders, when the sale takes place (still officially to happen next month).
"Considering the need for faster penetration of 3G, and the need for telecom access to rural areas, the government policy will allow telecom infrastructure sharing between commercial telcos as well as infrastructure providers," Raja said and mobile number portability will be introduced in the course of this year too.
BSNL expects to spend Rs2700 crore on installing five million 3G lines this year in urban areas, and says 5% of its 2G base will migrate by year end, generating extra revenue of Rs500-1,000 crore. The operator is working with Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson on handsets, and with Huawei and Micromax for laptop cards.
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