There is considerable scope for the development of telecommunications to benefit countries such as India and China. Ericsson is of the opinion that the provision of 3G services can also be accompanied by other services such as mobile TV and high-speed data services without too much investment.
Ericsson's view of Cingular's deployment of the 850 MHz band for the development of 3G services is that this is a very clear indication of the popularity of Wideband Code Division Multiple Accessor WCDMA in markets that have good scope for expansion. Cingular feels that this band is best suited to providing connectivity for rural population because this frequency can accomplish its objective with significantly fewer base stations.
Hope for the future?
As a result, the 850 MHz band can play an important part in providing telecom links among communities that are financially weak. Millions of people in India live in the villages and often lack the most basic of health care and other essential services. The Indian government has pledged to work towards improved coverage for rural communities to the extent of aiming for as much as 75% coverage in these areas by the end of 2006.
Running neck and neck?
India and China are both pushing for the development of economically priced 3G handsets. It was expected that there would be about 40 new manufacturers producing such handsets in China by 2005. The deployment of WCDMA may make it possible to set up terminals for fixed line-cellular services in rural areas.
This will mean that users will be able to make calls as well as access the Internet at speeds of 384 kbps. The use of High Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA technology could increase this speed to 1 Mbps.
Scaling new heights with HSDPA
The use of HSDPA can do a great deal to increase efficiency by expanding capacity and increasing the speeds at which data are transferred. This technology will enable operators to attend to the requirements of different communities and charge them a nominal amount to recover the investment. In fact, HSDPA offers potential for developments that would not be possible with GSM.
Hard facts
India enjoyed one of the highest rates of growth with the number of cellular subscribers in the country expanding at 105% between 1995 and 2001. This was a higher rate of growth than that of the world as a whole and even of China, which recorded a growth rate of 85% in terms of cellular subscribers.
However, statistics show that India's teledensity is far lower than it should be and that the country has been outpaced by others such as Libya and Namibia, which have fared much better. China and Indonesia are also way ahead of India in this regard, a fact that does not show India up too well, considering that both these countries were level with India at teledensity levels of 0.6 in 1990.
The only other comparisons that can be made with countries that have had a worse performance are those of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Considering that India is a democratic country with a fair proportion of technically qualified people, it appears that infrastructure factors could be behind India's poor showing in this regard.
On the other hand, you can hardly ignore the fact that China now has approximately 145 million cellular subscribers. When you consider that the country has 179 million main lines, that is saying quite a lot, don't you think?
It's also been suggested the proliferation of cellular phones in India presents a threat to companies offering fixed line services in India. You could say it would make more sense for wireless services to surpass fixed line services in a country like India. India's fixed line network can hardly compare with that of the United States.
Critical differences
The Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram suggested that it would be a mistake for India to follow the example set by China. China chose to compel international telecom companies to partner with Chinese companies. The idea was to encourage the development of manufacturing facilities within the country.
This approach, he felt, would only slow down the growth of the country's telecom industry. He emphasized that India was depending heavily on BPOs and the service model. He therefore claimed that India would not benefit from following China's example.
He also stated that China welcomed foreign investment and equipment suppliers, but China Telecom held the monopoly for operating companies. Subsequently, that monopoly gave way, with China Telecom being allocated 21 provinces, while Netcom was granted 10 provinces.
China introduced mobile phone services in 1992, two years before India, although this was the same year that India applied for telecom licenses. While China has two government owned mobile operators, India has eight. These include two public sector undertakings. While China is still closed to foreign investment in the telecom sector, the FDI cap in India is 49%. However, while India now has 42 million mobile phone subscribers, China has more than 300 million, despite the absence of FDI.
Room for improvement
Mr.Chidambaram's conclusion was that although there had been spectacular growth in the number of telephone lines, it would take nothing less than major foreign investment to maintain the pace of growth and accomplish network coverage of 70%. While it is certainly true that India needs investment in the telecom sector, it is doubtful whether this would give villages and other remote areas access to telecom links.
Glow Networks (www.glownetworks.com) has had a considerable impact on developments in network engineering. The company was founded by Dr. Jay Srinivasan and has specialized in this field. Glow Networks, which is headquartered in Richardson, Texas, has a presence in India and has done work assisting telecom vendors deploy networks in the Far East.
Glow Networks has had a great deal of experience in engineering and deploying networks for major telecom equipment vendors. By partnering with some of the major telecom equipment vendors, Glow Networks has helped deploy wireless networks in India and parts of Asia. The company specializes in providing end-to-end networking solutions and has assisted its customers in many parts of the world including North America and the Far East.
