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Cellular operators gung-ho on 3G

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CIOL Bureau
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MUMBAI: Bharat Sanchar Ltd (BSNL) is in the process of rolling out 3G by next year, announced Kuldeep Goyal, CGM, BSNL (Maharashtra) in his keynote address at the fourth CEO Conclave organized by Voice & Data.





"With over 3 million mobile users in India, 3G will pave the way for future growth of telephony in India," opined Goyal.





Cellular operators are in the process of rolling out 3G services by next year in India, with the government set to make key decisions on the telecom policy in a few months time.





Internationally, 3G rollout by cellular operators in Europe and South Asia has had varied success. European operators burnt their fingers by pumping in over $100 billion in license fees alone, thereby resulting in delayed rollout and lower uptake of services by the users.





In Asia, especially in Japan and South Korea, value added services on 3G like gaming and television shows have been extremely popular.





In the Indian context, licensing and spectrum bandwidth are the biggest hurdles that need to be resolved before 3G services can be launched.





Many speakers at the conclave were of the view that government needs to be more realistic in terms of allocation of spectrum to private operators vis-à-vis public sector players like BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL).





According to Madhav Joshi, chief legal officer, Tata Teleservices, the government should charge a base fee for operators and adopt a revenue share model, rather than charging a license fee.





"India is a cost-sensitive market and Indian consumers were very savvy," said Ganesh Guruswamy, director & country manager, Freescale Semiconductor, hence 3G handset prices need to come down for the technology to be a success.





3G technology will be driven by innovative value added services, "Messaging and entertainment will be the drivers for 3G," said Goyal. "Average revenue per user (ARPU) of cellular operators can be increased by marrying broadband and mobility," affirmed Amar Mandhyan, general manager (Technical), Ericsson.





The speakers also deliberated on what will be the 'killer app' for 3G, while video services, like video ring tones, video calling and video clips were the hot favorites, multiplayer gaming, m-commerce and mobisodes (mobile episodes) also found support.





Delphine Reffet, business program manager, SGBU, HP, gave a demonstration of 'participation TV', wherein 3G users in the UK, were invited to send their comments by video on BBC.





Voice & Data organized the conclave to deliberate on the challenges in streamlining 3G technology.

























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