3G in India...

-Contributed by Ankit

After a long wait, the government finally announced the guidelines for the 3G spectrums. As expected, government owned MTNL and BSNL were granted licenses, giving them a head start of several months over their competitors. Government also had a surprise announcement for CDMA operators, who would also be granted 3G licenses along with their GSM counterparts.

The actual roll out of 3G services is still a good six months away as winning a license is just the first step. The next step involves the infrastructure planning and implementation. BSNL, who has already tied up with vendors such as Ericsson, Alcatel Lucent and Huawei is ready to roll out the 3G services within the next six months whereas MTNL will be able to provide the 3G service in New Delhi in next three to four months.

After the government announcement, there was an air of disappointment amongst the Mobile Operators due to the exorbitant pricing. The reserve price for auction of the spectrum in cities like Mumbai and Delhi and Category A telecom circles is Rs 160 crore (Rs 1600 million); in cities like Chennai and Kolkata and Category B circles Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million); and in all other cities Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million).Mobile operators who were looking upto 3G services to increase their dipping ARPU will be disappointed because, higher bids would only result in lower margins. But then, pricing has always been an issue with 3G services in other countries as well. In Europe, spectrum auctions ran into billions of euros!!

Whatever, the price one would have to pay, 3G has definitely got everyone excited. The launch of the 3G iPhone also comes at a perfect time, when India is finally getting ready for its tryst with 3G. Its just the matter of time, before the nation gets hooked on to streaming videos and 384 kbps downloads speeds, that too, on the move!