3G: No pan-India telecom player in the fray

BANGALORE, INDIA: The much awaited third generation telecom technology (3G) is finally in, with the curtains falling on the 3G on Wednesday.

The auction, which went on for a record 34-days, fetched Rs.67,718.95 crore ($15 billion) for the Indian government.

Kanwalinder Singh, president, Qualcomm India and South Asia, said: "We congratulate the Indian Government on successful completion of 3G auctions, a milestone that places India in a select league of nations with market determined spectrum pricing. We look forward to collaborate with Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata, Idea, Aircel, and STel to bring voice and mobile broadband experience to Indian consumers."

However, market intelligence firm, IDC India feels that the high-decibel, 34-day e-auction process for 3G spectrum for India’s $25 billion mobile services industry has not thrown up even a single pan-India player. This phenomenon needs to be watched in the medium term.

Airtel, who won 13 circles out of the 22 circles, similar to Aircel, pointed out that owing to spectrum shortage and auction policy uncertainty, it couldn't bid as desired. 

Kapil Dev Singh, strategic business advisor, IDC India, says: "With the imminent advent of 3G services the India telecoms industry is going to enter a new phase. This phase is expected to witness introduction of innovative services and heightened collaboration between telecoms players, application developers, IT infrastructure providers, content providers and consumer products companies."

"This will pave the path towards the emergence of 'Consumer 2.0' characterised by seamless provision of content across platforms and client devices. However, the issue of quality of service must be taken up sooner than later," Dev Singh adds.

According to Sanjit Chatterjee, director, global marketing and strategy, REVE Systems, a Singapore-based mobile VoIP solutions provider, the finalization of 3G bids will lead to the rise of video calling on phone, VoIP usage, use of 3G for mobile data (by connecting, via wire or Wi Fi, phone to laptop; thereby eliminating the need for a separate USB data card), music downloads, music streaming, Internet radio etc.

What so ever, consumers and service providers are optimistic and are set to welcome this new technology into its threshold.

"Qualcomm is pleased with the opportunity to address the entire Indian wireless market with its innovations in 3G and beyond, and is committed to making 3G a mass market experience for all Indian consumers," adds Kanwalinder Singh.