Market research firms Maravedis and Tonse predict WiMAX Subscribers in India will Exceed 13 Million by 2013. Tata Communications (TCL) has signed up 50,000 subscribers for its fixed WiMAX service in the 3.3 GHz band. Tata, with a WiMAX capex outlay of $500 million for three years ending FY12, has put in place around 1,400 base stations across 140 cities. This makes Tata the largest WiMax network in the world, according to Tata COO Prateek Pashine.
Other Indian network operators- Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Sify and Reliance Communications – also own spectrum in this band. Soma Networks, a US-based provider of mobile WiMAX products, plans to launch compact WiMAX-enabled devices in India within six months and will co-market the product along with telecom service provider state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
BSNL WiMAX is expanding throughout India’s fastest-growing telecom circles: Gujarat, Maharashstra and Goa, and Andhra Pradesh.
Bharti Airtel formed a joint venture with Alcatel-Lucent to manage Bharti’s pan-India broadband and telephone services and help its transition to next generation networks. Alcatel-Lucent will hold a 74% stake in the joint venture with Bharti holding the remaining 26% stake.
The WiMAX industry in India has been looking forward to offering services in the 2.2-to-2.3 Ghz band. That auction has been much delayed. It’s now expected later this year (if you believe the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).
Consumer subscriptions in the developing Asian countries is likely to grow at a compound rate of 132% through 2013, with the total subscriber base reaching almost 27 mn in Asia, says the study. Both India and China will be critical markets for success of WiMAX in the continent.
- Korea Telecom is planning to roll out voice-over-WiBro this year. KT’s Wave 2 network is expected to start commercial operation in July while SK Telecom is targeting September. KT, which controls more than 90 percent of the fixed-line telephony market and about 44 percent of the broadband sector, had gathered about 206,000 customers for WiBro by the middle of 2008, while SK Telecom, the dominant cellular carrier, has a comparatively miniscule 2,000 WiBro subscribers. WiBro (now Mobile WiMAX) has been growing fast in South Korea. The country helped to define the Mobile standard and vendors like Samsung are based in South Korea.
- Japan’s UQ Communications has been achieving up to 16Mbps on the downlink and up to 3.9Mbps on the uplink since free trials of the service began in February 2009, reports Wireless Watch Japan. The Japanese Mobile WiMAX license holder is running a 4 month trial period, prior to a formal network launch expected in July. The trials are taking place in Tokyo (all 23 wards), Yokohama and Kawasaki using some 600 Samsung base stations, which are compliant to WiMAX Forum Wave-2 Phase-2 specifications.
The WiMAX industry is watching two upcoming auctions closely, according to WiMAX Forum president Ron Resnek. The big ones are India’s 2.5 GHz auction and the UK’s 2.5 GHz auction.
India, 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. India’s mobile operators added more than 10 million new subs during December 2008, taking the total number of wireless connections in the country to 346.89 million for 2008.
India added 113.26 million new mobile lines during 2008. But the country’s fixed line base shrunk: fixed line connections in India fell by 150,000 during December 2008, finishing the year at 37.9 million. But the total fixed broadband connections grew by 170,000 to 5.45 million in 2008.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has set a target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010, up from the current 5 million.
India is again revising the timetable for the global auction of third- and fourth-generation (3G and 4G) wireless spectrum, under the Department of Telecom. Citing requests from potential bidders for more time (mostly cellular operators), India will conduct the auction for 3G spectrum in 20 of its 22 service areas and has said firms could bid for four slots in most of these areas.
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.
Related Dailywireless articles include; Hong Kong 2.5 GHz Auction Winners, Tranzeo: Go for Indonesia WiMAX, China Expands the Largest Mobile Market, WiMax: East Meets West, India’s 3g/4G Auctions: Late January, Voice Added to WiBro, Japan Sub-channels WiMAX, Japan’s WiMAX Gets Going, WiMAX Global War in Japan, Japan Launching WiMAX Rival, European Commission: 3G/WiMAX Together on 2.6 GHz, European 2.5 GHz Auctions & the Global Market, KDDI & Willcom to WiMAX Japan, VSNL WiMaxes Bangalore, Battle for Britain, European 2.5 GHz Auctions & the Global Market, WiMax: East Meets West, Mobile WiMAX: Fast and Cheap or Out of Control?BT’s European WiMAX Plan, WiMAX Roundup, Australia Unwired, India 2nd Largest Mobile Market, Intel: $500M for M-Taiwan and Urban WiMAX in the UK.
