|
| Sunday, February 25, 2007 |
| The State of Wimax in India |
|
Their have been numerous reports about broadband over WiMax. BSNL still has it in its test labs for over 6 months now. Sify announced Mobility solutions over WiMax and when I called their office they told it may not be available for next few months in Bangalore and was meant for corporates.
In my research, I find that WiMax is still in very nascent stage and not many telcos who have the reach have considered the proposal seriously, except BSNL. Reliance has no broadband plans for consumers in the near future as IAMAI projects broadband subscribers are likely to be mere 20 Million by end of 2010. Reliance gets into serious business only when the service is affordable by masses so that it can operate on economies of scale.
WiMax is a disruptive technology to offer last mile wireless connectivity at higher bandwidths. It is so essential in a country like India where literally their is no city and municipal planning on how fibres and copper pipes are laid. C-Dot and Alcatel have a initiated a joint research program to commercialize Wimax deployment in India, with a focus on reaching rural India. Prof Arogyaswami Paulraj, CTO & co-founder, Beceem Communications says that this is just the beginning and India can easily have 1,000 startups catering to WiMax technology.
According to Dr. Paulraj ideal band for rural and fixed network 700 MHz is ok for voice. For converged operations, mobile band is best ie 2.3–2.5 GHz. In the urban environment, it is either mobile or fixed so it is 2.3–2.5 GHz.
Cost and IP of WiMax:
WiMax is at a lower cost in terms of core network as it is a Unix server and all interfaces are open, and IP is as per GSM. Cost of baseband is 30% and cost of CPE is also lower.Even on the IP (intellectual property) part, the WiMax cost structure is much lower than CDMA (which is weighted in favor of Qualcomm) and is almost similar to GSM.
Dr. Paulraj said,
In 1992, Europe was going ahead in wireless and in order to promote wireless, the US government gave free spectrum to companies innovating wireless technologies. So, the Indian government has to take a lead and create initiatives for the private sector to enter. India can create 1,000 companies in the WiMax space right from network management, connectivity, application and billing. And this speed will bring new things as mobile broadband is a revolution that one can't imagine. So it will take at least few more years for WiMax to be commercially viable for consumers, until then break your head with Airtel and BSNL. |
Published on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 3:25 PM  |
|
|
|
| Monday, February 19, 2007 |
| Government frees 5.8 GHz for Wimax |
|
 With severe crunch for Internet bandwidth in India, the DoT has delicensed 50 MHz of WiMax spectrum in the range of 5.8 GHz.
WiMax a disruptive technology for wireless IP communications operates in three frequencies 5.8 GHz, 3.5GHz and 2.5GHz. Of these, the 5.8GHz is a license exempt brand and hence the DoTs move to delicense it to enable ISPs in India to deploy broadband over WiMax platform.
A lot of ISPs are likely to offer services in this frequency as it is now free. However, if a large number of ISPs switch, then this frequency can get choked, as only a total of 50 Mhz (from 5.825 to 5.875 Ghz) has been delicensed. This can result in poor quality of service.Labels: Wimax, Wimax Broadband |
| Published on Monday, February 19, 2007 at 10:38 AM |
|
|
|
| Friday, February 02, 2007 |
| Growth prospects spur Bharti Airtel, RComm |
|
Bharti Airtel jumped 5% to Rs 770. The stock hit a high of Rs 773, which is a life high for the scrip. As many as 3.6 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE.
Reliance Communications (RCL) was up 4% to Rs 493. The stock hit a high of Rs 495.40 which is also a life high for the scrip. As many as 18.7 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE.
Both these scrips have been on a roll. Bharti has surged from its recent low of Rs 613.10 on 10 January 2007. RCL bounced back from its low of Rs 407.25 on 10 January 2007.
Bharti has already overtaken software major, Infosys, to become the third largest company in India in terms of market-cap. Its current market-cap is Rs 145595.90 crore. Reliance Communications (RCL) is the seventh largest company in terms of market-cap ( Rs 99204.96 crore).
Subscriptions for mobile services are growing at a fast clip in India. The telecom industry grew 4.5% sequentially, with wireless net addition of 6.4 million in December 2006, taking the overall wireless subscriber base to 14.9 crore. The growth was driven by highest ever net adds by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Hutch.
Both Bharti and RCL reported robust Q3 December 2006 results. Bharti Airtel’s consolidated net profit as per US GAAP, jumped 122.8% to Rs 1215.13 crore (Rs 545.30 crore), beating market expectations. Consolidated revenue rose 62.3% to Rs 4913 crore (Rs 3025.60 crore).
RCL’s consolidated net profit jumped 198 % in Q3 December 2006 quarter to Rs 924.42 crore, on 26% growth in consolidated revenue to Rs 3755.30 crore.
Both the companies are separating their wireless towers business into separate companies.
|
| Published on Friday, February 02, 2007 at 3:08 PM |
|
|
|
|
| Previous Post |
|
| Archives |
|
|
| Blogroll |
|
|
|
| Search this Site |
|
|
|
