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What are the current trends in EV-DO and WCDMA globally?
What is happening is that EV-DO is being deployed in the USA, and WCDMA in Europe. Japan and Korea already have EV-DO. There are 38 mn EV-DO subscribers and 74 mn WCDMA, and almost 369 mn total 3G subscribers - so it's happening in a big way. But the biggest thing that is happening is that the cellphone as a device is becoming very important and it's getting the power of the PC, better connectivity; it also has a very healthy ecosystem of application developers. Mobile handsets today stand on three pillars: broadband, broadcast and application. This in itself is becoming a very powerful source of information. Realizing that and making it happen from the regulation, technology and partnership point of view is what is needed today.
 Which are the challenges and issues delaying deployment of this technology, especially in a country like India?
First of all we have to create a regulatory environment, which encourages something like this. Today's regulatory environment is voice-centric, there is no incentive for people to deploy data. Secondly, from the business point of view, there has to be a lot of transparency so that different things can be deployed. As far as people being able to buy it ... I think there is a lot of disposable income. If we are able to create value through technology people will find ways to support it. They are putting PCs in villages, which is very very good, but with the cellphone the impact will be much bigger.
There is a difference of price in WCDMA and EV-DO handsets; how do you plan to equalize this?
Well, it's very difficult to answer. We can start by asking why we need 3G? We need 3G for good data experience and doing advanced functions. So with 3G comes better screen, better plastics and people want a well-machined handset, and all this makes pricing a very complicated issue. The key things that will dominate the prices will be the things we discussed before-the screen, the plastics, etc.
What according to you is the future in terms of technology and handsets?
In my view the cellphone is becoming many different things at one time. It owns at least 50 per cent of the pockets of the population worldwide. Compared to the PC, the ecosystem of the cellphone is much bigger. The question is: what can a cellphone do? We have already seen it as a TV and soon we will see it becoming a PC and a wallet or credit card. It can also act as a connection for rural countries for services such as banking, healthcare, etc. The possibilities are immense and it gives people scope to express their creativity. There is lot of interesting things we can do with a phone depending on the requirements of the countries or communities.
Sonia Sharma
sonias@cybermedia.co.in
Source: Voice&Data
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