India stepping in to 4G

The fourth generation telecom technology (4G) is expected to be rolled-out sometime next year in India.

There are some who say it will be rolled-out as early as January 2012, whereas, Telecom minister Kapil Sibal keeps it for the later half or towards the end of 2012.

4G is a successor to 3G and 2G families and is said to be five times quicker than 3G, delivering speed as high as 100 mbps.

Are our network ready

There are about 18 LTE launches and 208 LTE network build outs so far across the world. In India, except for a few trials, no 4G network has been deployed so far.

After reports came out that Reliance Industries Limited has conducted 4G trials with Qualcomm, Ericsson and Samsung, Bharti Airtel could not help but announce that it too had plans for LTE, despite having invested crores in setting-up 3G networks across the country.

Following suite, Aircel also made LTE trial with Huawei Technologies, which in turn inspired state-owned telco players BSNL and MTNL to make similar announcements. Qualcomm and Huawei have set-up a trial network in Hyderabad.

Are our devices ready

Lack of 4G devices will for sure give the 4G advocates a set-back in 2012. Only a few mobile device vendors, such as Motorola 'Razr', have announced the launch of 4G handsets in India, whereas, ZTE Corp has kept it for the second quarter of 2012.

The device vendors are seeking more time because LTE chip sets are not ready yet.

Not a bubble again

The pressure is huge, especially since 3G did not take off as expected, and neither did WiMAX technology see its mark as touted.

Except for one telecommunication operators, Reliance, no one else has Pan-India BWA licence. The other operators who also hold BWA spectrum include Aircel (8 circles), Tikona Wireless (5 circles), Airtel (4 circles), Qualcomm (4 circles), Augere (1 circle).

Yet another factor that could challenge the uptake of 4G services will be its affordability factor.