The CDMA opportunity in India

Arpita Prem

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Comparing the CDMA and GSM technology, Vsevolod Rozanov, President and CEO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices says, “Now that GSM and CDMA have leveled up on the open handsets parameters, the consumer driven market will shift its focus on comparing its service quality and other features. CDMA is a far superior and faster technology as compared to GSM, which consumers have already started experiencing”.

According to Perry LaForge of CDG, “The CDMA opportunity in India looks even more promising with the entry of new brands, expansion of existing players and addition of new operators like Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Virgin Mobile and BSNL.”

He added further, “India is an ideal market both for upgrades for the existing CDMA subscribers base as well as for new subscribers acquisition. The CDMA-OMH will give consumers both choice and flexibility.”

One of the major reason for GSM dominating the India market has been that so far, on CDMA, every time the subscribers wanted to change or upgrade their handset, they had to change their number. And in the Indian market, where mobile number has almost become second identity, there was a lot of resistance to this.

Commenting on this move of CDG, SC Khanna, Secretary General, Auspi, says, “The OMH initiative is a welcome move. Since Indian CDMA market is one the biggest market in the world, this initiative will move faster and also increase the competition in CDMA handsets market.”

According to Rozanov of Sistema Shyam Teleservices, “We are confident that CDG's move to launch its open market handsets initiative will receive a very positive response from the consumers. The timing has been perfect as the number of subscribers are growing on a daily basis.”

Although the market today is dominated by GSM, the tele-density in the country still remains at just 33%. Two-third of the market still remains untapped. So, there is lot of opportunity still existing for the CDMA operators to grab these untapped area and strengthen its footprint. But GSM players are enjoying market share and more aggressive in India.