Telecom equipment major Ericsson announced that it will sign India’s first 4G TD-LTE deal with a prominent mobile operator in India next week.
Ericsson will make the announcement on October 11. This will be a significant step for Ericsson and the LTE eco-system in India. The TD-LTE technology is expected to assist India achieve its broadband targets.
Company officials declined to name the telecom service provider. There are a couple of operators who are actively looking to plunge into the 4G bandwagon.
The Mukesh Ambani promoted Infotel Broadband Services has set up a TD LTE division to look at the possibilities of launching broadband services in 2011. Infotel Broadband Services spent Rs 12,848 crore for bagging BWA spectrum for 22 circles.
Aircel that has spent Rs 3,438 crore for getting 8 BWA circles recently conducted TD LTE functionality using multimode devices based on Qualcomm’s MDM9600 chipset in its GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD network provided by Huawei.
Bharti Airtel’s investment for 4 BWA circles was Rs 3,314 crore. The chip major Qualcomm, which invested Rs 4,913 crore for spectrum in 4 circles including Mumbai and Delhi circles, is keen to begin 4G services shortly. But the company is facing regulatory issues.
Tikona Digital, MTNL and Augure are the operators who bagged BWA licences. In 2011, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Tata Communications, Idea Cellular, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Uninor and S Tel did not make serious efforts to buy spectrum.
The government-owned BSNL also has BWA licence to run mobile broadband services in 20 circles.
Besides Qualcomm, telecom equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, ZTE, Alcatel-Lucent are aiming to grab substantial market share in Indian 4G space. Recently, ZTE said that their deal with Bharti Airtel is in the pipeline.
Recently, Qualcomm, in association with Huawei, ZTE, Quanta and BandRich, announced the launch of LTE TDD multi-mode devices based on Qualcomm’s MDM9x00 chipsets.
By Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
