The Indian telecom industry hopes that post the successful auctions for 3G spectrum, 4G will make a revolutinizing impact...

Amidst concerns and fears on whether or not 3G spectrum will be given to the private cellular operators in India, the country witnessed a successful auction procedure, heralding a new war on the data services front. Global analysts are watching the Indian market closely, to find if India will react in the same way to 3G launch as the other countries did. Will 3G be a non-starter in India? It is premature to say.

However, 3G has arrived in India and is set to shape the future of Indian telecom industry. To seek answers to these questions, Bharat Exhibitions organized 3G India 2010, inviting both telecom operators and technology providers on a common platform to discuss innovative ways to engage with customers while exploring new revenue generation avenues.

The sixth edition of '3G India 2010' offered an apt forum to understand what service will provide the most value to the user and also the technical and policy issues that need to be considered to ensure the success of the 3G strategies in India. The deliberations addressed how money will be made out of delivering 3G services and how revenues generated should be shared between the various parties involved.

Shashi Dharan, managing director, Bharat Exhibitions, the organizer of the show said, “This conference offers a best platform for the Indian telecom industry to evaluate current 3G launch proposition and achieve optimum future revenue with winning service, content, technology and marketing strategies.”

In her inaugural address, Vijayalakhsmi Gupta, member (finance), Department of Telecom said, “BWA and 3G have potential to transform the character of Internet/ broadband scenario in the country. On one hand, BWA will overcome the key hindrance of problem of 'Right of Way' in India, on the other hand 3G has the potential to make the mobile phone, a ubiquitous device for accessing faster Internet.

She said, “3G Technology will drive the next round of sustainable growth for the Indian market through convergence of entertainment, infotainment and voice communications into one single device. The key drivers for the growth of 3G in India will be innovative content, improved customer services and increased affordability of handsets. These drivers will help ensure growth of 3G not just in urban areas but in rural areas as well.”

The exponential growth witnessed in Indian telecom sector is the finest example of synergy of conducive government policies and the competitive zeal of the telecom industry, which have placed Indian telecom sector on the world map. Against the backdrop of common man benefiting with one of the lowest telecom tariffs in the world, we have already crossed the milestone of 600 mn connections in the month of February 2010 itself. Continuing the trend, Indian telecom industry has now achieved total subscriber base over 688 mn as well as overall teledensity of 58%.

Kanika Atri, head of marketing at Nokia Siemens Networks India said, “The advent of 3G will usher a new era of telecom revolution in India. Nokia Siemens Networks is the leading enabler of 3G services. We have been chosen by 182 customers for 3G and serve more than half the number of 3G subscribers globally. . This proven expertise of ours is at the disposal of telecom operators to rapidly deploy 3G and offer unique services to customers. Our smart networks can be leveraged by operators to differentiate their offerings and create a truly personalized mobile experience. Nokia Siemens Networks' holistic approach to cater to the Indian market combines strong local presence and knowhow. We believe that 3G will make wireless broadband ubiquitous and positively contribute towards socioeconomic development of the country.”

Also present on the occasion was Jai Maroo, Director, Shemaroo Entertainment. Maroo said, “Video content will definitely be an important driver on 3G. Video services will contribute to ARPU as well as drive data and bandwidth consumption. A robust video content supply chain and understanding of how to sell video content is a must for every operator to increase VAS ARPUs.”

Commenting on the post—3G era in Indian telecom industry Vijayalakhsmi Gupta said, “After 3G rollout, while video-on-demand and other live streaming services may gain prominence amongst the high ARPU customers, enhanced bandwidth may also lead to increased usage of existing mobile VAS services. Currently, the VAS market is worth `110-120 bn, which translates into approximately 10% of wireless industry revenues. The share of VAS in wireless revenue is likely to increase to 12-13% by 2011. This growth would be driven by increased operator focus on VAS due to continuous fall in voice tariffs, increased penetration of feature rich handsets, availability of vernacular content, and increased user adoption of VAS applications. Further, the market is likely to witness different VAS being offered, which were earlier not possible over the current 2G/2.5G Network.”

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has already begun consultations with the various stakeholders for 4G and the industry hopes 4G will make headway in India by 2013.

Team V&D
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