Tag: GSM

Telecom sector ‘biggest success story’; Cisco, Alcatel for R&D investment: Economic Survey

NEW DELHI: Hailing the country’s telecom sector as “one of the biggest success stories of market oriented reforms”, the Economic Survey of India, tabled in the Parliament today, has said that by the end of 2012, a total of 650 million telephone connections (including 66 million wired and 584 million wireless connections) are expected to be achieved.

Interestingly, the report informs that a large number of foreign companies like Alcatel, Cisco etc. have also shown interest in setting up their research & development (R&D) centres in India.

A proposal for setting up a Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council and Telecom Testing and Security Certification Centre (TETC) is in the pipeline. With the above initiatives, India is expected to become a manufacturing hub for telecom equipment, the report holds.

It says that broadband connectivity would be made available on demand, without limiting the speed.

“Each village would have at least one broadband enabled kiosk. Broadband connection would be provided to schools, health centres and panchayat offices,” it has envisaged.

It is also been envisaged that internet and broadband subscribers will increase to 40 million and 20 million, respectively, by 2010.

“India is now amongst the fastest growing telecom markets in the world. Supportive government policies coupled with private sector participation have fuelled the unprecedented expansion of this sector,” the report asserted citing data.

Looking back, it has said also that the announcement of the New Telecom Policy, 1999, was a watershed event for telecommunications in India. Other policy milestones include the opening of the long-distance market in 2002, the termination of VSNL’s monopoly over international traffic in the same year, and the resolution of the wireless in local loop issue.

“As a result, telecom tariffs which were among the highest in the world less than four years ago have now dipped to being among the lowest. Tele- density has also increased from 12.7 per cent in March 2006 to 16.8 per cent in December, 2006.

The data given by the Survey shows that the number of CDMA were 0.61 million in 2003 and in 2006 stand at 44.17; similarly, for the same period, the users of GSM sprang from 12.69 mn to 105.43 mn, and the figures for wireless (CDMA and GSM) rose from 13.30 mn to 149.60 mn.

The Survey has put the annual growth rate in 2006 stands at 45 per cent, as compared to 2003, when it was 40 per cent.

The Survey has note that the total number of telephones has increased from 54.63 million on March 31, 2003 to 142.09 million on March 31, 2006 and 189.92 million on December 31, 2006.

“While 43.72 million telephones were added during the 12 months of 2005-06, during the current year, about five million subscribers are being added every month.
“With this growth, the number of telephones is expected to reach 250 million by the end of 2007,” says the report

“The growth of wireless services has been phenomenal, with wireless subscribers growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of above 90 per cent per annum since 2003.

“Today the wireless subscribers are not only much more than the fixed subscribers in the country, but also increasing at a much faster pace.

“The share of wireless phones has increased from 24.3 per cent in March 2003 to 78.77 per cent in December, 2006. Improved affordability of wireless phone has made universal access objective more feasible,” says the report.

“The number of internet subscribers grew at 25 per cent, while broadband subscribers grew from a meagre 0.18 million to 1.32 million, during 2005-06. It is necessary to increase the broadband connectivity for the knowledge-based society to grow quickly and for reaping the consequent economic opportunities.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the important sources to meet the huge funds that are required for rapid network expansion, the report has noted, adding that the FDI policy provides an investor-friendly environment for the growth of the telecom sector.

“The total FDI approved and the actual inflow up to July, 2006 were Rs 389.2 billion and Rs 11,801.46 billion, respectively,” says the report.

It says also that of the more than 235.4 million public call offices (PCOs) functioning in the country, 200,000 are in the rural areas.

“Apart from this, 560,000 village public telephones (VPTs) are also providing access to telecom facilities in the rural areas. The Mobile Grameen Sanchar Sewak Scheme providing telephone at the doorstep of villagers in about 12,000 villages is also in place.

On the issue of manufacture of telecom equipment, the report notes that the Indian telecom industry manufactures a complete range of telecom equipment, using state of the art technologies designed specifically to match the diverse terrain and climate conditions.

Production of telecom equipment has increased from Rs 160.9 billion in 2004-05 to Rs 178.33 billion in 2005-06, it has noted, adding that “Rising demand for a wide range of telecom equipment, particularly in the area of mobile telecommunication, has provided excellent opportunities to domestic and foreign investors in the manufacturing sector.”

February 27, 2007
Nat Geo announces global cell phone coverage solution

MUMBAI: US broadcaster National Geographic has launched the National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone.

It has ben designed specifically for the needs of the traveling public. It allows for affordable calls from over 100 countries, with no contracts to sign and free incoming calls in most international markets.

GSM cell phone technology experts at Cellular Abroad in California, collaborated with National Geographic in a licensing partnership to provide this service that works seamlessly across international borders, picking up local cellular networks and providing consumers with the best coverage available.

Unlike other services, the phone number stays the same, no matter where the consumer travels. As an added benefit, the National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone features a dedicated toll-free number to reach Cellular Abroad’s 24/7 customer support service.

Cellular Abroad president Sebastian Harrison says, “Staying in touch while overseas has proved difficult for travellers the majority of overseas travelers have not been able to afford the security and convenience of a cell phone.

“With expensive rates and little or no technical support, international cellular service has excluded the general public. Now, it is at their fingertips.”

National Geographic senior VP licensing John Dumbacher says, “National Geographic is excited to offer the Talk Abroad Travel Phone to all international travellers. Students, vacationers, business travelers and our own explorers and photographers can now stay connected with this affordable travel phone and SIM card, while they seek to understand and experience our world”.

The National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel phone will be available from next month at www.Cellularabroad. com/ travel phone.

February 27, 2007
DVB-H set to be future of mobile TV: report

MUMBAI: The concept of providing television services on a mobile device is generating much enthusiasm among the wireless industry, in turn driving the growth and development of digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) technology. Overwhelming support from the wireless industry is likely to be one of the major drivers for the growth of the technology, as will be the increasing demand for content on the move. In short, DVB-H could well become a global standard similar to Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), creating an altogether new market for television viewership.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, DVB-H Technology-Market and Potential Analysis, reveals that revenues in this market totaled $60 million in 2006 and is likely to reach $2.04 billion in 2010.

“Many participants in the wireless industry support the DVB-H technology as it is an open industry standard, and this non-proprietary feature of the standards is likely to vastly assist its growth in the wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan research analyst Nagarajan Sampathkumar. “Furthermore, DVB-H delivers an improved end-user experience over current video streaming services that utilize cellular networks, while also providing, broadcasters, cellular operators, handset manufacturers and silicon providers with tremendous growth opportunities.”

This apart, the quality of service (QoS) is likely to be better due to the use of a dedicated broadcast network. Additionally, though DVB-H claims speeds of 25 frames per second (fps), trials show practical speeds of 15-16 fps, which seem to be sufficient for existing screen sizes and resolutions. However, in future, these speeds are likely to increase to 20-25 fps for fixed digital TV in Europe.

Despite the promise, one of the biggest challenges to adoption of DVB-H by mobile operators is the issue of business and revenue models. With DVB-H, mobile operators are likely to prefer to continue operating in their area of domain expertise service provisioning, billing, and customer care and therefore, broadcasters would have ownership of the content and the overall visual experience.

“Hence, mobile operators would need to differentiate their offerings and provide value to ensure customer loyalty and remain profitable,” says Sampathkumar. “This also means that mobile operators are likely to serve only as a link to customers and would not be in a position to negotiate for better revenue splits with others in the value chain.”

Service providers would be required to work very closely with content creators, aggregators, and broadcasters, and ensure secure content and support digital rights management in an effort to protect copyrighted content. While revenue issues could be addressed through subscription models, event-based, pay per view, and even interactive services, the most important challenge is likely to be the optimizing of battery life of the handsets, the study concludes.

February 7, 2007
Texas Instruments strengthens India presence; to set up new R&D center

MUMBAI: At a meeting with the press today hosted by Communications & IT minister Dayanidhi Maran, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) outlined how continued support of open technology standards would enable India to reach its goal of 500 million mobile phone subscribers by 2010.

TI Wireless Terminals Business Unit SVP Gilles Delfassy also announced that TI is increasing its wireless design presence in India with a new research and development (R&D) center in Chennai. TI’s history in India began with a research and development center in Bangalore more than 20 years ago, states an official release.

“Mobile phone growth in India is nothing short of a phenomenon, and the wireless industry waits for India’s next move because of the impact it will have on the future of mobile phones,” says Delfassy. “Today, there is a huge opportunity to connect the unconnected as the majority of India’s population does not have access to communications services. TI has been committed to India for over 20 years, and I’m pleased to say that we are escalating our existing wireless design presence in recognition of the importance of India to the global wireless market.”

Choosing efficient, cost-effective mobile technology will be critical to meet India’s burgeoning wireless growth, as will be the ability to stay at the forefront of innovation. Two open technologies that offer great promise for India are GSM and DVB-H. “Open standards such as GSM and DVB-H technologies for mobile phones will provide the market with greater choice, better value and more opportunities for innovation. Based on our 17 years experience as a leader in the wireless industry, working to make our customers successful, we believe the best way to enable growth is through open standards,” Delfassy adds.

According to market research corporation iSuppli, GSM is the predominant technology in India. This year, the GSM growth rate in India is outpacing all other competing technologies. With a natural 3G migration path to GPRS/EDGE/UMTS, GSM offers an inherent advantage in driving this growth, points out the release.

“GSM has proven to be a great fit for India because it offers choice in terms of products and services available. GSM not only offers entry-level phones for those who have never owned a mobile phone, it also provides mid- range feature phones and smartphones for the growing middle class. GSM stimulates innovation and open competition and ensures that consumers have easy access to a broad choice of operators, seamless roaming and billing across networks and the most cost-efficient handsets on the market,” says Delfassy.

Delfassy noted that TI is committed to driving down handset costs with its “LoCosto” family of single-chip mobile phone solutions, which will accelerate wireless penetration in emerging high-volume markets like India. Low-cost handsets based on TI’s “LoCosto” platform are expected on the market in India later this year.

Delfassy also addressed live broadcast TV on the mobile phone, a technology which is stirring interest in India, and the importance of open industry standards such as DVB-H to drive adoption of mobile DTV. DVB-H technology is an open industry standard that has become the predominant technology used to deploy mobile TV services around the world. More than 100 companies are developing or deploying services, components and devices based on DVB-H, and more than 300 million users have access to DVB-H.

“Like GSM technology, DVB-H has a competitive environment, which fosters lower costs and spurs innovation. It’s no longer difficult to imagine watching a cricket game or a ‘Bollywood’ movie anywhere, anytime, right on your mobile phone — that vision is now a reality,” he says.

Closing his remarks, Delfassy reiterated TI’s commitment to India and continued support of open standards.

“TI has long believed India offers huge potential — as a market, as an innovator, and as a global provider of mobile phone technology and services. It is this belief that led us to build a development center in Bangalore over 20 years ago and to expand our presence with a new research and development center in Chennai. TI remains committed to providing products and services that open up the possibilities for mobile technology in India and that help operators and manufacturers here be successful. And we are determined to do all we can to help India realize its vision of 500 million mobile phone users within the next four years,” Delfassy concluded.

Providing views on the benefits of GSM technology, India’s Cellular Operators Association drector general T.V. Ramachandran, said, “GSM continues to be the predominant driver of mobile growth, both internationally as well as in India. This standard is growing from strength to strength having recently crossed 2 billion subscribers worldwide. GSM’s global predominance is due to its several advantages which include open standards, interoperability, economies of scale, seamless global roaming, widespread prepaid solutions, rich and versatile value-added services. This standard is committed to bringing the benefits of connectivity to the common man and also fulfilling their aspirations for feature rich services that are available on the GSM platform. The single-chip solution by Texas Instruments is another important innovation that will further improve the affordability of the service and drive access.”

TI is one of the leading manufacturers of wireless semiconductors, and provides a breadth of silicon and software and over 15 years of wireless systems expertise that spans handsets and base stations for all communications standards, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, A-GPS, mobile TV and Ultra Wideband.

July 12, 2006
LG commences India’s first optical drive plant at Pune

MUMBAI: LG Electronics India has commenced operations of its Greenfield facility for ODD products at Ranjangaon, Pune.

LG has begun manufacturing DVD Writers thus becoming the first company to manufacture the same in India. The DVD writer plant in Ranjangaon is the second largest DVD Writer plant in Asia. The facility presently has a capacity of producing 600,000 units of DVD players per month .

The facility will also have an additional product range to the existing line up. LG Electronics has already begun manufacturing of GSM mobile phones early last year making it the first mobile phone manufacturing company in India. The Pune plant in addition to its current manufacturing facility at Greater Noida will enable the company to expand its consumer reach.

The plant aims to reach up to 1500 manpower base and an investment of Rs. 300 crores till 2010 for ODD plant . With this unit LG India has become the export hub for LG DVD writers catering predominantly to the European markets. The company aims to touch an export turnover of USD 450 million by 2008.

The Ranjangaon plant already caters to manufacturing of refrigerators, colour television sets, microwave ovens and GSM handsets.

LG India MD KR Kim said, “It gives us great pleasure and encouragement to be the only company in India to have a first of its type ODD plant. The Greenfield facility manufactures premium end models of the product which are primarily for exports. The disk drives manufactured in Ranjangaon will cater mainly to the European markets.”

LG adds that the encouraging optimism that the Indian consumer durables market has to offer to LG has driven it to invest Rs. 9 billion for the manufacturing facilities at the Pune plant, out of which Rs 3 billion would be invested in DVD writers. The firm hopes that the move will give it an edge over other players in terms of production and subsequent market share.

June 12, 2006
Cell users worldwide prefer GSM: study

MUMBAI: The subscriber results from Informa Telecoms and Media’s World Cellular Information Service for 1Q 2006, 3G Americas reports that cell phone users across the globe choose GSM 10 to one over any other wireless mobile technology.

According to the study, the customer base for the GSM family of technologies which include, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA — grew by nearly 120 million additional subscribers in 1Q 2006 alone, compared to the total net growth of CDMA of about 12 million customers.

Today, the 1.85 billion users of the GSM family of technologies make up more than 81 per cent of the wireless mobile market worldwide, with total subscribers of CDMA at less than 300 million and a 13 per cent market share. There were 57 million customers using UMTS services at the close of 1Q 2006.

The results also indicate that from Q1 ’05 to Q1 ’06, the GSM family of technologies showed continued growth throughout the Western Hemisphere, adding nearly 95 million new customers — 3.5 times as many as CDMA – and approaching a quarter of a billion customers in this region alone.

CDMA’s customer base in the region grew to a total of 169 million in the same time period with 27 million new customers and market share declining to 34.6 per cent, along with CDMA to 11.6 per cent. By contrast, the growing market share for GSM reached 47.8 per cent. Latin America and the Caribbean once again nearly doubled their GSM customer base in these 12 months, growing from 77 million customers in March 2005 to 150 million by March 2006.

In this region, more than 19 million GSM users were added, versus 2 million for CDMA. GSM now has nearly 150 million customers in Latin America and the Caribbean and over a 58 per cent share of market, indicating that it is the no.1 technology for wireless mobile services.

In the US and Canada, GSM operators reported exceptional growth, with 4.8 million new customers added in the 1Q 2006 for a customer base of 84 million.

3G Americas president Chris Pearson said, “The majority of wireless customers are selecting GSM service for the value and variety of products and services that are supported by a global eco-system of manufacturers, encouraged by open technology standards versus proprietary standards.”

“In addition, carriers throughout the Americas and worldwide continue to choose EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA as leading next generation technologies for wireless data services for many compelling reasons, such as spectral efficiency, global roaming, economies of scale, handset availability, as well as the potential for increased revenues from 3G services,” he added.

According to a release, the growth of GSM is evident in the number of carriers upgrading or changing their technology platforms in the industry for a variety of strategic business reasons. These include veteran CDMA operators such as Telstra in Australia, and KT Freetel and SK Telecom in Korea who are deploying UMTS/HSPDA. Chinook Wireless (Montana) made a similar announcement to deploy GSM/EDGE to ‘enable their subscribers to benefit from higher performing network service with increased coverage, higher voice quality and advanced digital data services like multimedia messaging and Internet browsing.’ To date, at least 11 operators have announced CDMA to GSM migrations or dual technology deployments.

Globally, the GSM family of technologies continues its rapid evolution to 3G high-speed wireless data. EDGE is commercially offered by 133 operators across 80 countries, including 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are 81 additional EDGE networks planned or in deployment. Currently, there are 105 UMTS networks in service across 50 countries, with 59 more planned or in deployment. HSDPA, which is an enhanced version of UMTS for high speed mobile broadband, was launched first in the world by Cingular Wireless in 16 markets in December 2005.

Now, five months later, HSDPA is commercial on 22 networks and 73 additional operators have networks planned, in deployment, or in trial. Rogers Wireless of Canada will deploy HSDPA before year end 2006; T-Mobile USA has announced plans to do the same when spectrum resources are acquired. It is expected that nearly all UMTS operators will deploy HSDPA, essentially a software upgrade to UMTS, resulting in a significant increase in data capacity and offering operators a much-reduced network cost for data services.

Additionally, through its level of scale, GSM serves emerging markets, providing a sub $30 GSM cost handset to the market and reducing typical capital expenditure for deploying a GSM network to a quarter of that required for CDMA, according to the GSM Association.

This data is based on figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, which provides business intelligence and strategic services to the global telecoms and media markets.

May 25, 2006
Nokia wins GSM expansion deal with Sichuan Unicom in China

MUMBAI: Nokia has won a GSM network expansion deal with Sichuan Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom.

Under the agreement, Nokia will deploy its GSM radio and core networks, including the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch, in four cities in the Sichuan Province.

Deliveries have started and the network expansion will be fully operational by August 2006, informs an official release.

The is Nokia’s first agreement with Sichuan Unicom and is a milestone for Nokia, entering the GSM market in Sichuan and West China.

The deal also highlights Nokia’s position in mobile softswitch systems deployment in the China area. The Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch is a circuit core network architecture fully compatible with GSM/Edge and WCDMA 3G.

“We are extremely delighted with our progress in the GSM business and deepening cooperation with mobile operators in China. The mobile market and the number of subscribers in China are growing fast and steadily. With our global experience and strong end-to-end localization commitment, we support mobile operators in bringing state-of-the-art mobile services to their customers,” said China Area Networks Nokia vice president Yuan Wei.

May 19, 2006
3G adoption to broadband economy: CII

NEW DELHI: A new study projects that India will have 21.3 million 3G users (11 per cent of total mobile lines) by 2010.

Within two years, India will take over Japan to become the third largest mobile market in the world after China and the US, the study, `Enabling India’s Broadband Economy-The 3G Way’, says.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has carried out the survey in association with the US-based research firm The Yankee Group.

The report tends to highlight migration from 2G to 3G is inevitable, which makes it imperative for India to get prepared at the earliest to boost its economy.

This, in turn, is also likely to help the country’s economy achieve double-digit growth, which at present is approximately 7-8 per cent.

“3G services will usher in greater range of handsets, services and applications that will positively impact the growth of India’s broadband market,” The Yankee Group programme manager (wireless /mobile), Asia-Pacific Farid Yunus said while unveiling the report.

Yunus added: “India’s mobile market is growing at an impressive rate and will only be bettered with improved coverage in rural areas and mobile penetration. Regulatory bodies and policy makers will have to address contentious issues like spectrum, which are critical for growth.”

If both CDMA and GSM operators launch 3G in 2006, the report states, 0.2 per cent of total mobile users or 0.3 per cent of the total urban mobile users in the next six months.

Interestingly, the CII-Yankee study lauds the government-controlled BSNL’s decision to show interest in 3G in its latest GSM tender. Pointing out that it’s a key development, the report says most Indian operators will launch 3G services in quick succession.

“Based on international experience and early adopter profiles, 3G ARPU (average revenue per user) should be roughly three times (of) 2G ARPUs in the first year. This will gradually decline as lower spending late adopters migrate to 3G,” the study points out.

The report provides valuable insights into rural coverage, mobile penetration, handsets, services and applications, alternate technologies, regulations and policies and related issues. The present study is an attempt to leverage and use ICT tools for sustained economic growth of India.

Keeping in view that there are only one million broadband customers in India at present, against a target of 3 million by December 2005, there is a need to exploit the 3G technologies to better broadband penetration, particularly in the congested urban areas, the report emphasizes.

Industry representatives present during the unveiling of the report agreed that key factors needing attention include 3G license and handset costs, quality of service, content and the rate of technology advancements, which is presently higher than the rate of deployments.

April 12, 2006