BANGALORE, INDIA: Though the battle seems to have stretched a bit too long, India hasn't yet lost its vigour and enthusiasm to welcome 3G into its folds.

All said, what is driving this country with 400 million mobile user base towards 3G? Lots of speculations have been flying around regarding the benefits, once India is 3G enabled. Especially, on how it will satiate India's hunger for bandwidth and rich applications over mobile.

3G to push VAS, mobile broadband
Abhay Singhal, co-founder and head, global ad sales, mKhoj, says: “It has been proven time and again across multiple countries in the world that mobile Internet and VAS services get a boost when 3G network is enabled. 3G will also drive more rich media services - music on demand, TV on demand etc.”

Adds Debasis Chatterji, CEO, Netxcell Limited: “An enhanced user experience for customers in terms of VAS/data/voice can be facilitated only with 3G, which can also be used as a converged solution for most users across the nation. More customers will be able to use the phone for entertainment other than mere voice.”

India has over 400 million mobile phone users, whereas, its PC owners lag behind at 40 million. Reasons are galore why PC lacked a space among the majority lot. Moreover, 3G will further alien the latter from the mass because with 3G, Internet access will be made easier on handsets. Thus broadband penetration, which currently stands at a mere seven million, is set to rise. 

Chatterji from Mkhoj vows on mobile broadband and says: “PC penetration is very less and so is India's broadband penetration. 3G immediately takes away issues associated with the device required to access Internet and hence will boost the mobile Internet.”

Deepika Choubey, managing analyst, Ovum, also echoes on similar lines and says, “3G will result in the greater uptake of high bandwidth value-added services such as video streaming, mobile music, etc., and it will drive the adoption of mobile broadband.”

3G race gets tougher
Twelve telecos have set their intentions clear for the 3G-WiMAX auction. However, how are these telecos going to differentiate themselves to outwit others in the rat race has to be seen.

According to Deepika, “3G based applications will bring in the differentiation between mobile operators, which is currently missing in the Indian market. With 3G, operators will focus on providing innovative mobile content, which can differentiate their offerings from other competitors.”

Debasis Chatterji says data services are the only way an operator is going to increase revenues; hence 3G comes as a natural choice for them.

“However, VAS revenues are expected to increase with the launch of these services as market will initially react to these services and might be stagnant after a few years ahead,” he adds.

This apart, handset makers are also beefing up the competition and vying for a slot in the Indian telecommunication space. Of late, several 3G enabled handsets, though very highly priced, have come into the fray.

Whether they will get acceptance or not is a matter of time. The Ovum analyst notes that high cost of 3G enabled handsets will be a hindrance for greater adoption of 3G services, and mobile operators will have to tie-up with handset vendors for offering low-cost handsets.

Trends going forward
Going forward, 3G will pave way for newer trends in Indian telecom space.

“The key change will be greater demand for data services by users. We might also see mobile operators acquiring mobile content providers for greater margins,” Deepika avers.  

Singhal from mKhoj says: “There will be an increase in data share in ARPU of telecom users and we also see a rise in investment in companies specializing in creating content for mobile. Moreover, there will be revenue share arrangement between VAS and telecom companies.”

Will public telecos bog private players?
Public telecom players have an edge over their private counterparts because it's been almost one year since BSNL and MTNL became 3G enabled and of late they have even rolled out services in several parts of India. Will this be a set back for the private players?

“The success of 3G in India will depend on the kind of applications made available by operators. So if the private operators can launch applications which are high on the usability factor, they will gain an edge in the market,” opines Deepika.

Moreover, she notes that plans launched by public operators are not very attractively priced, which will prevent rapid adoption. This will leave significant market for the private operators to target.

So the ground is set for the competition and fingers are crossed for December.