3G: A Panorama of Solutions

The 3G World Congress, an international exhibition focusing
on all 3G services, held its 10th conference in Hong Kong from November 14-16,
2005. The event attracted over 1,000 delegates from the industry across the
globe. Almost all the leading technology providers made it a point to showcase
their latest technology roadmaps and products in the wireless space.

CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A and HSDPA Solutions

Nortel Networks showcased its innovations across all wireless access
technologies and some of its recent contract wins throughout Asia. Nortel's
delegation to this event was led by Richard Lowe, president, mobility and
converged core networks. "3G is finally here and we believe the success of
3G and beyond will depend on providing full broadband mobility, true multimedia
experience, and layered security. And Nortel will lead the industry beyond
3G," commented Lowe.

Nortel is one of the few players which has focused on
solutions to address various technologies, be it for the CDMA world, or the GSM/UMTS
realm or WLAN. It is also addressing the challenges associated with achieving
the next set of gains in capacity, coverage, and spectral and power
efficiencies.

Nortel's delegation to this event was led by Richard Lowe, president, mobility and converged core networks	Clemens Jargon, vice president & general manager, BU Feature Phone, Infineon Technologies AG

"In the CDMA world, we have already supplied CDMA
1xEV-DO solutions to 12 out of the 21 operators as of July 2005. Further, the
market trials for CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A solution, which will significantly
increase data rates, will begin in 2006," added Lowe. It has also made
significant inroads in the GSM/UMTS space with its High Speed Downlink Packet
Access (HSDPA) technology. It is believed to be the first to have completed an
end-to-end call using its HSDPA technology on a commercial network.

In the wireless LAN space, Nortel has made good progress with
its decentralized network architecture for wider community coverage (Wireless
Mesh Network). It is also working on enabling internetworking between wide-area
cellular networks and WLANs. It completed the seamless handoffs of voice and
data services between a 3G UMTS cellular network and a WLAN with BB Mobile,
Japan. "The future ahead is multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with a
modulation scheme called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). This
is a new air interface technology that combines the MIMO, an antenna processing
technique, with OFDM.

This technology has shown that data transmission speeds
increase by 25 times as compared to today's commercially deployed UMTS
networks and five times faster than HSDPA. Our first application of OFDM-MIMO is
in our WiMax solution and this technology is being considered as an access
technology for the evolution of both CDMA and UMTS networks. The 3GPP2 standards
bodies are discussing the incorporation of OFDM-MIMO in the evolution of 1xEV-DO
and 1xEV-DO Revision A networks," informed Lowe. Nortel with its JV partner
LG is also actively involved in rolling out WiMAX service in Korea and in
numerous trials worldwide.

It was not only Nortel that showcased its CDMA 1xEV-DO
Revision A technology. Motorola and Lucent were some of the others to showcase
this technology. Motorola unveiled its prototype CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A
solution at 3G World Congress and Exhibition 2005. "Motorola's all-IP
CDMA architecture is ready to support Revision A, and our integrated radio
access network solution lets operators leverage their existing investment as
they make the migration to this new technology," said Bruce Stone, senior
vice president, Cellular Networks, Motorola. Its CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A
solution is planned for commercial availability in 2006.

Lucent Technologies' showcased how to deliver Value over IP
through its broad portfolio of end-to-end solutions and applications through its
over-the-air CDMA20001xEV-DO Revision A and HSDPA technologies. It also
showcased its Bell Labs-developed IMS applications such as Active Phone Book, an
advanced personal directory service that goes beyond the standard "buddy
list" by providing a common, unified phonebook supporting an array of
applications and devices that tracks and centralizes contact data including
phone numbers and e-mail addresses and incorporates presence and location data
for subscribers' buddies.

Other Innovations

Interestingly, a lot of companies, Indian as well as global,
have either been doing cutting edge technology development in the 3G space in
India or plan to set shop in India. For example Infinion Technologies is doing a
significant portion of its software development for ultra low cost phones from
Bangalore in India. Clemens Jargon, vice president & general manager, BU
Feature Phone, Infineon Technologies AG, informed, "We have announced the
availability of our latest multimedia mobile phone (MP-EU) reference design
platform here. The MP-EU platform is the industry's most integrated platform
supporting UMTS, EDGE and GSM/GPRS standards. This platform enables the mobile
phone manufacturers to smoothly evolve from 2.5 G to 3G. Current UMTS phones
need around 300-450 components and with Infineon platform, the number is reduced
to below 200. It also enables the manufacturers to speed up introduction of the
next generation phones by up to 30 % from today's 14 months on an
average."

While the baseband processor and protocols come from Infineon
global, the software comes from India. India's Jataayu Software, a leading
mobile infrastructure software vendor, was demonstrating it multimedia messaging
services capabilities. "Jataayu's focus has been on the handsets space.
We provide browsers, MMS, instant messaging, SyncML data synchronization, WAP
gateways etc. Today there are over 25 mn handsets using Jataayu products and
this number is expected to triple in the next 12-18 months. We believe HTML
browser technology will become important and our browser will be launched in
March-April 2006," said Raj Kesarimall, director, Jataayu Software.

TensorComm was another company, which was demonstrating its
pioneering technology. TensorComm announced the availability of the next
generation of its interference cancellation technology that will apply to
CDMA2000 (1X and 1xEV-DO) and WCDMA (including HSDPA) networks. The enhancement
is specifically optimized to address a fully loaded code space, a condition
often seen in EV-DO systems and at base stations on 2.5G and 3G networks.
Further, it is also completely compatible with 1X, WCDMA and HSDPA networks,
where the code space is not always fully utilized.

According to John Thomas, CEO and founder, TensorComm,
"Our patented Interference Cancellation Technology (ICTâ„¢) delivers a
cost-effective, easily deployable CDMA and WCDMA component that fits in a mobile
device without requiring form factor changes or radio frequency (RF) redesign.
The previous version of ICT successfully completed operator commercial network
field trials and yielded an average gain of 1.97 dB. It is well recognized that
a 1.25 dB gain will provide an operator with a 40 % increase in capacity,
coverage and data throughput. With these latest improvements, average gains are
now expected in the 2.5-4.0dB range. Field evaluations on both EV-DO and HSDPA
networks will be conducted in the first quarter of 2006."

Starent Networks, a leader in next-generation mobile
infrastructure solutions, was demonstrating it Intelligent Mobile Gateway in
CDMA2000 and UMTS networks. Amit Tiwari, vice president, solutions development,
Starent Networks Corporation, explained, "Starent Networks has made
significant progress in establishing itself as a major packet core
infrastructure provider by deploying its solutions in many of the world's
mobile operator networks.

Deployments include the world's largest 3G network with
KDDI, Verizon Wireless' nationwide 1xEV-DO deployment and providing equipment
to Virgin Mobile US. The company's customer list includes: China Unicom, KDDI,
Movilnet, Rural Cellular Corp. and over 20 others. Starent equipment has
successfully connected more than 7 bn customer calls."

Axcesstel Inc., a leader in the design and development of
fixed wireless voice and broadband data products, announced the availability of
two new fixed wireless phone product lines. "We have announced the
availability of the L800 and L1900 Fixed Wireless Desktop Phones for first time
home phone users and the P830 and P1930 Fixed Wireless Desktop Phones for
subscribers demanding greater voice calling and multi-media functionality. The
innovative new phones operate on 800 and 1900 MHz band CDMA2000 1X networks.

The L450 and P480 are two additional models in the new
product lines that operate on 450 MHz band CDMA2000 1X networks. The P480 is
available now, while the L450 is anticipated to be available in Q1 2006,"
commented Lixin Cheng, president, Axesstel Wireless. He also informed the
company is planning to open an office in India and is contemplating
manufacturing phones in India. Tata Teleservices is one its major customers.
Axesstel recently bagged a multi-million dollar purchase order for multiple CDMA-based
wireless phones from Tata Teleservices. Shipments to Tata Teleservices are
anticipated to begin in December and continue into 2006.

Polaris Wireless, a company focused on wireless location
technology, unveiled new location technology for Wireless E911 and
location-based services. "The Polaris WLS product can be deployed as a
stand-alone solution or as a hybrid technology augmenting existing handset- or
network-based deployments," informed Thomas Wrappe, senior vice president
marketing & general manager Asia, Polaris Wireless. He continued, "We
have announced commercial availability of the Polaris Wireless Location
Signatures (Polaris WLS) product. With the Polaris WLS product, a wireless
subscriber can use an existing handset to place emergency calls anywhere in the
deploying network operator's coverage area. The subscriber's location will
be accurately determined, helping emergency personnel to respond quickly and
many more."

These are only a few of the technologies that were announced
during the first day. There were over 150 companies exhibiting their products
and more than 150 speakers. The 3G Congress opening ceremony was inaugurated by
Mike Rowse JP, Director General of Investment Promotion Invest HK, along with
several other leading names.

Ch. Srinivas Rao
in Hong Kong