3G Deployments in India
1. All India license of Rs.4040 crores is seen as a very high initial cost for 3G.
2. The roll outs would significantly depend upon vacation of spectrum from Ministry of Defence and other government agencies.
3. Stand alone 3G companies will probably not be as viable in the business. So the nature of business suits the incumbents.
4. That said, many international Telcos are eyeing the 3G as an opportunity to enter India. The exact numbers on this are not certain.
5. The current GSM sites will not be employed for 3G. It will require investments into new infrastructure.
6. The deployment of 3G will not be the full monty. Initially it will be enhanced voice and data services followed by VAS followed by video and other “rich” content.
7. The call-loads presently are bursting and 3G initially will provide the additional spectrum to spread the loads before being used a media of “high value” content
1. As an entrepreneur, this is probably a good time to make products centered around RIAs (Rich Internet Applications). The business case for any Web 2.0 based service is totally dependent on the available data speeds. With the advent of 3G, data speeds are bound to increase, and so will the overall consumer experience. Such products can be sold to telecom operators, or entrepreneurs can also choose to roll out these products as independent service providers.
2. As a consumer, apart from getting better internet speeds, there will be a definite increase in productivity. In India, we still wait for hours at a stretch to download data from the internet for our work. This results in a huge waste of time. However, from a consumer’s perspective, the success or failure of 3G services in India will depend upon the pricing of these services. The cellular revolution succeeded in India, as it was reasonably priced and managed to penetrate to the grass root level. Similar to cellular, if the broadband revolution in India manages to encompass the largest chunk of the population by reasonable pricing and availability, then it will be a success.