Telecom Lead India: Recently, GSMA
director general Anne Bouverot has urged Indian government to facilitate timely
release of additional spectrum for 4G services. The mobile broadband move is
supported by Indian mobile operators such as Airtel, Idea Cellular, Tata
Teleservices and Telenor.
However,
these operators did not specify on the timing of the release of mobile
broadband spectrum. Bharti Airtel recently said they would like to buy 700 MHz
spectrum through the proposed this year in order to launch 4G services.
“India
is taking great strides towards the uptake of data and already has the third
largest Internet subscriber base in the world with more than 100 million users,
and the second largest Facebook subscriber base in the world with 43 million
users,” said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel.
“Various
studies have shown that a 10 percent increase in mobile penetration could lead
to 1 per cent increase in GDP, and a 10 percent increase in mobile broadband
penetration could deliver a 1.4 per cent increase in GDP. Along with 2G and 3G,
when 4G is deployed, India will be at the forefront of cutting-edge mobile broadband
provision globally,” Kapoor added.
“In
the decade and half since the launch of mobile services, the spin-offs for
India and its people have been tremendous. GDP growth rates have increased,
thanks in large measure to the empowering effects of mobile telephony. India is
now poised on the cusp of another tectonic shift but this can only happen if
more harmonized spectrum is released, ensuring high-speed broadband
connectivity is available at reasonable rates, which will allow India to bridge
the telephony divide and join the ranks of the growing mobile broadband
ecosystem,” said Himanshu Kapania, managing director, Idea Cellular.
“Mobile
broadband, which is emerging as one of the strong growth areas in the Indian
telecommunications sector, can contribute significantly to the social agenda of
bridging the digital divide,” said Srinath Narasimhan, managing director of
Tata Teleservices.
“As
newer technologies and faster data speeds become available, affordable
next-generation devices in various form factors – supporting an ever-growing
list of lifestyle-impacting applications, services and solutions – will be key to
this growth. We will continue to work closely with device and solution players
worldwide, and with the GSMA, to create the right and enabling ecosystem
to successfully take the data story forward,” Narasimhan added.
“We
have experienced the rapid growth of mobile communications in India and its
vast socio-economic impact. Our perspective is that further mobile broadband
proliferation can be achieved most rapidly and affordably through data services
on 2G, in combination with 3G and LTE. Continued investment, however, depends
on a stable and predictable regulatory environment as well as the availability
of spectrum,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO, Telenor Group.
According
to GSMA, India will become the second largest mobile broadband market
globally within the next four years with 367 million mobile broadband
connections by 2016.
India
will overtake the US, which will account for 337 million mobile broadband
connections by 2016, but will still be second to China, which will have reached
639 million mobile broadband connections in the same period.
