• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr P. Balaji, Ericsson V-P (Marketing and Strategy).

L.N. Revathy

Coimbatore, Feb.8 Telecom operators and equipment vendors appear optimistic about taking the telecom revolution to a new and different scale, particularly after the announcement of the 3G policy by the Government. But will the economic slowdown decelerate 3G auction and the investments that will have to be made in the rollout of 3G services?

Business Line sounded out the Vice-President (Marketing and Strategy), Ericsson India, Mr P. Balaji. Excerpts from the interview:

What will be the cost of deployment of 3G services?

3G comes with inherent benefits of economies of scale, time to market and multiplicity of handsets. We foresee that by 2012, 60 to 80 million mobile subscribers (in India) will be 3G-enabled and 30 per cent of all future handsets will have 3G capabilities.

Around 80 per cent of the investment has already been made (even while rolling out 2G services) and this has been towards setting up the infrastructure such as towers and shelters. The service providers will have to bear only the incremental cost of electronics and marketing of the services.

Infrastructure cost will be minimal. Investment will have to be made in marketing, pricing and auctions for deployment of 3G in India.

Do you see such services penetrating rural India?

3G is emerging as the accepted technology platform across geographies. The broadband market is in the first phase of growth and in order to sustain the growth, it is important to access the rural market.

Roll out of 3G services will help bridge the urban-rural digital divide and facilitate socio-economic development of the masses. Telemedicine, e-education and e-governance can be offered through 3G in rural pockets and this is bound to improve the quality of life of the people.

We undertook a two-month project “Gramjyoti” to showcase the benefits of mobile broadband in rural India two years ago.

Over 70 per cent of global mobile subscriptions use GSM. We used the next generation mobile technology called Wideband Code Division Multiple Access/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) to demonstrate the benefit of mobile broadband to local stakeholders.

Thousands of people within the Gramjyoti project area, covering 18 villages and 15 towns, were able to use broadband applications.

Ericsson worked in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, Hand in Hand (a local NGO), Edurite, One97, CNN and Cartoon Network to deliver a range of services, including telemedicine, e-education and e-governance.

What are the technologies that are being evaluated — 3G, WiMAX or LTE?

We believe the Government should leave it to the market forces and not dictate technology choices. In my opinion, 3G will score in the Indian telecom market because it offers greater economies of scale, faster time to market and multiplicity of handsets; 3G has already been deployed on 120 networks worldwide, has over 300 million subscribers.

India is set to become one of the early adopters of new wireless technologies, and the next logical step is in adoption of 3G/HSPA.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) as a technology is an evolution of 3G. While 3G would be rolled out for ubiquitous coverage and wherever very high data speed is required, LTE is the technology to provide the same.

Verizon and AT&T have already committed to LTE in the US. China Telecom, Docomo, Vodafone and many other global operators have done the same.

In effect, HSPA wins on scale and time to market against competing technologies, while LTE will win on performance and scale.

Do you think this is the right time to offer such services? If yes, how would you substantiate this? If no, then what is the point in offering them?

The advantages of offering 3G services are numerous. The single biggest advantage is the dramatic improvement it would bring in the socio-economic environment in India.

Bridging urban-rural digital divide and enabling the rural Indian to avail of facilities such as telemedicine, e-education and e-governance will substantially improve their quality of life.

With China announcing auctions and issuing licences for 3G, it is the right time for India to piggyback on the volumes that are present.

With over 15 million 3G handsets, and 30 per cent of all future handsets sale expected to be 3G enabled, India is set to roll out 3G to provide an effective communication environment.

Will users be enthused by such offerings when the meltdown is burning holes in the pocket?

BSNL and MTNL are launching 3G services. Once auctions take place, the competition is bound to make these services affordable. Consumers will get ubiquitous broadband coverage that will help increase their efficiency. Hence, we see great potential for 3G in India.

More Stories on : Interview | Telecommunications

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line