WiMAX in India- Chapter XYZ: Tata broadband growth muted on WiMAX auction delay

[Alan J Weissberger]

We have written extensively about the potential and promise of WiMAX in India assuming the spectrum auctions are held and winning operators use that spectrum for Mobile WiMAX rather than 3G. The seemingly never ending auction delay has resulted in another casualty- Tata Communications Ltd.

"Without WiMax, growth (in retail broadband Internet services) will be minimal because there is a constraint on the cables in place," Srinivas Addepalli, senior vice president of corporate strategy, told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview.

"Right now, subscriber additions are few - between 15,000-20,000 a month. But the potential if WiMax is released is 10 million subscribers by 2014," Addepalli said.

If the WiMax auctions were held on time, Tata Communications would have had first-mover advantage as it was ready to deploy WiMax while other operators would have taken longer to start WiMax services, said an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage, who declined to be named. "Right now, there is less competition in high-speed retail broadband services," the analyst added.

http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=446578


Opinion: The auctions were scheduled for late 2008, but postponed many times and now expected sometime this year. If the auctions are not held soon, the Indian government's IT Dept will have lost all credibility, IMHO. They are totally out of touch with the damage they've done through bureaucratic bungling of the auctions and failure to execute any reasonable broadband policy for the country.
Please see the following references, especially the comments at the end of each blog post.


References

Study Predicts India to be Largest WiMAX market in Asia Pacific by 2013

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2009/february/Study-Predicts-India-to-be-Largest-WiMAX-market-in-Asia-Pacific-by-2013-0209

Will it Ever Happen? India May Delay 3G Auction, Raise Prices
http://www.wimax360.com/profiles/blog/show?id=610217%3ABlogPost%3A102368&page=1#comment-610217_Comment_104673

Mobile WiMAX Spotlight on India
http://www.wimax360.com/profiles/blogs/mobile-wimax-spotlight-on

Narrowbanding WiMAX in India
http://www.wimax360.com/profiles/blogs/narrowbanding-wimax-in-india

[BPT]

1. In India WiMAX is really in a different shape & has the potential to take lead in data market since there is no 3G network. If WiMAX & 3G deployments happen in parallel, operators with WIMAX can actually lead the data market for next couple of years.
2. Tata Communication with their earlier experience with fixed WiMAX understands next generation BWA business in depth as compared to any other 2G RAN providers as it requires higher backhaul per site ( typically 30+ mbps) , large number of Base Stations (low cell radius typically 250 m in DU ) & all ip core network to guarantee end to end QOS. There understanding of WiMAX is unparalleled since they come from IP background & has RF expertise too ( TTSL-CDMA).
3. WiMAX in india is really catching up with recent release of new RFP’s from BSNL( roughly 8000 BTS) & Reliance Communications .
4. I believe that spectrum allocation may start by mid August & reserve price is now 2000+ (~ 500 M USD)corers( for pan India license (22 circles in India).The amount of money for spectrum is high as compared to any other auction that has happened any where in the world. I clearly see an investment of at least 1+ Billion dollars from at least 2-3 operators which will give required boost to WIMAX community.
5. I got a chance to talk with Mr. Addepalli last week & he believes that Tata Communications who comes from a wireline background (No.1 ISP in India) can start a successful era of next generation of wireless broadband business with WiMAX. He said “We would be competing with tier 1 Telco’s who are adding huge number of subs per month, however we are confident of differentiating our services from traditional voice players with very high speed, end to end QOS & competitive pricing”.

Thanks