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Alcatel-Lucent is in talks to provide equipment for both 4G platforms in India, and is negotiating with "most of the people who have won the spectrum" in 2.3GHz, recently awarded in India's broadband wireless auction.

Reports from Reuters and India's Economic Times quote Munish Seth, Alcatel-Lucent's new country head for India, indicating the potential customers include Reliance Industries, the only privately held firm to win 2.3GHz spectrum on a national basis (via its acquisition of ISP Infotel). He also mentioned another ISP, Tikona Digital Networks, which has licenses in several telecom circles or operating regions.

The negotiations could lead to orders in early 2011, the reports indicate, though this will depend on the Indian authorities clarifying rules on security checks for telecoms suppliers, which have been holding up deals for 2G expansion, 3G and BWA.

The big debate in India has been whether the 2.3GHz TDD spectrum would be built out with WiMAX, as expected until earlier this year when Qualcomm decided to bid for licenses, in order to promote the newer TDD alternative, TD-LTE. Qualcomm won spectrum in several circles. While the state-owned telcos, BSNL and MTNL, which had early access to BWA frequencies, are already rolling out WiMAX, other players have been less clear about their choices.

Reliance talked about LTE when it first acquired Infotel but is now trialling WiMAX and looks almost certain to use that standard at least for its first phase of deployment. Like operators elsewhere, it may keep its options open for LTE coexistence at a later stage, when TD-LTE becomes commercially viable. Other winners like Ikona and Augere will capitalize on the earlier availability of WiMAX.

This could boost the profile of WiMAX within ALU's portfolio once again. Unlike Nokia Siemens, the company has never pulled away from the older standard and remains one of its top five suppliers, but it has put far greater emphasis recently on LTE, targeting its traditional cellco user base and FDD bands. However, it will be keen to leverage its expertise in WiMAX to compete for the huge Indian market and wrongfoot Huawei and ZTE, both of which are strongly positioned in the subcontinent and in WiMAX (but bear the brunt of the government's sensitivities about security issues).

ALU's president of 4G wireless networks told Wireless Week in a recent interview that he had recently met with seven "key customers" in India to discuss their 4G plans.

Meanwhile, the technology choice for Qualcomm and its two local partners - Global Holding and Tulip Telecom - is clearcut, but the firm still has to cross one hurdle. It needs to get government approval for its investments in three firms that will use the joint venture's networks to offer services. These are three units of Wireless Broadband Services, focused on Haryana, Delhi and Kerala, the key areas where the Qualcomm JV has licenses.

Although the Department of Telecom allowed foreign companies to bid for spectrum, they can only own 74% of the bidding company (Qualcomm sold 13% apiece to Tulip and GHC) - and can only offer services through locally registered firms. Any foreign company that owns more than 49% in a venture must get separate approval from India's foreign investment promotion board.

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