Unstrung says India’s Department of Telecommunications has delayed the 3G license auction by two weeks to January 30 (pdf), following a request by a number of potential bidders for further time to prepare for the critical process.
The delay will put the majority of India’s 3G hopefuls that bit further behind state-owned carriers Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) , which has already launched its 3G service, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) , which was handed its 3G spectrum early.
Two days after the 3G auction finishes, the DoT will then auction the BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum that will be deployed by WiMax service providers.
According to the latest statistics from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) , India’s wireless carriers added 10.35 million new lines during November 2008, taking the total number of mobile lines activated to 336.1 million.
Bharti Airtel (wikipedia) is the country’s largest mobile operator with 82.9 million subscribers. Reliance Communications (wikipedia) is the second largest with 59.6 million, just ahead of Vodafone Essar (wikipedia) with 58.8 million.
With its 1.2 billion people, India is filled with opportunity and challenges for wireless companies.
At the end of November, India had 38.05 million fixed line connections (down 170,000 from a month earlier), giving the country a total of 374.13 million telephone connections. The total number of broadband lines (which includes any connection that runs at 256 kbit/s or faster) is now nearly 5.3 million, according to Unstrung.
BSNL will soon invite bids for WiMax equipment to cover urban areas in Punjab and Kerala. According to Unstrung, the project may be valued between $200 million and $500 million. This is the second tender issued by BSNL, which plans to spend $750 million on mobile WiMax to reach one sixth of India’s 1 billion-plus population.
As the largest of the country’s two state-owned operators, BSNL is guaranteed to get a broadband wireless license for 20 MHz of spectrum at 2.5 GHz in each of India’s circles, except for Mumbai and Delhi (right), where fellow state-owned operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) will be awarded 2.5 GHz licenses, explains Unstrung. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is India’s largest telecommunication company with 24% market share as on March 31, 2008.
Meanwhile, Tata Communications, formerly known as VSNL, aims to blanket India in WiMax by March 2009. The plan will cost more than $100 million and span 115 Indian cities. Tata (VSNL), is India’s largest telecommunication company, in international long distance, enterprise data and internet services.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country, which has a population of more than 1.1 billion, had 272.88 million telephone connections at the end of 2007, of which 233.63 million were mobile and 39.25 million were fixed line. TRAI has set a target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010, up from the current 5 million.
The WiMAX Forum says the early availability, cost advantages, government support and the upcoming 2.3/2.5 GHz auctions will make the Indian WiMAX market, including devices, worth $13 billion in 2012. This market projection takes into account 27.5 million WiMAX users, or 19 million WiMAX subscribers in 2012.
Meanwhile, this week China’s State Council, its highest government body, gave the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) the go-ahead to award 3G licenses.
China Mobile is set to get a license to operate a network based on China’s home-developed 3G standard, TD-SCDMA. China Telecommunications will be awarded a CDMA 2000 license, while China Unicom will get a WCDMA license.
The three carriers are expected to spend $41 billion on their 3G rollouts during the next two years, including $29 billion in 2009 alone. China Telecom and China Netcom are in the fixed-line business, while China Mobile and China Unicom are in the mobile sector.
China is by far the largest wireless market with 627.3 million mobile-phone users at the end of October, according to government data. India is the second largest wireless market in the world, passing the 258 million total wireless subscribers in the United States in spring, 2008. The United States now has 263 million mobile-phone users, according to the CTIA and is now in third place.
The U.S. was the largest broadband market by services revenues in 2008, ahead of Japan and Germany, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. According the report, the U.S. generated more than $32 billion in broadband revenues in 2008, a long way ahead of second-place Japan, which generated $23 billion in broadband revenues.
Related Dailywireless stories on India and China include; Big 3G & WiMAX Wins, China Makes Big 3G Move, Nokia Backs China’s TD-SCDMA and 2013: 1B HSPA Users, 100M WiMAXers
