Tata Docomo is celebrating by announcing that Photon comes with an upgraded data speed of up to 9.8Mbps on the Photon Max Wi-Fi Data Card. For Americans, Comcast offering 150Mbps speed — not on datacard — is not a big news.
It’s highly unlikely that majority of Indians will experience 150Mbps broadband Internet speed in the near future. Even if Reliance Jio Infocomm announces its 4G network, the speed will be limited to select Indian cities or towns. This is primarily because India does not have a strong nationwide fiber network.
Also read: Wi-Fi deployments reach 4.2 million hotspots in 2013: ABI Research
The new telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad would want telecom operators to create a broadband highway. But the highway will not have enough quality and speed unless telecom operators decide to invest in their mobile networks. Bharat Broadband, a government project, never took off. Will it? The new minister and regulators and the system will decide.
Also read: Airtel promises 40Mb speed to broadband users in Hyderabad
This sentiment reflects when the Indian industry association Assocham submitted its recommendation to the new telecom minister. Assocham wants government to cut or streamline taxes, among other things. It never tried to urge telecom operators to invest in networks or improve quality of services in untapped markets.
If Idea Cellular is investing Rs 3,500 crore ($590 million) in its telecom infrastructure in the next 12 months, things are going wrong for India’s broadband market.
Also read: MTNL plans Wi-Fi at 8Mbps speed beyond home location
Time Warner Cable, which has a broadband network in the U.S., recently said its Capex (capital spending) rose 3.3 percent to $3,198 million in 2013 from $3,198 million in 2012. Time Warner Cable does not even offer telecom voice services like Idea Cellular does. The Capex of Time Warner is not exclusively for broadband. Idea Cellular is not spending substantially though it is serving a huge subscriber base of 137 million in the country.
Also read: Time Warner Cable 2013 Capex up 3.3% to $3,198 million
Tata Docomo today said the network augmentation will result in “faster speeds” on the Photon Max Wi-Fi device for its customers in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. Subsequently, this will be extended to 8 other metro cities. This means, majority of Indians will not get 9.8Mbps speed. Time Warner Cable’s starting package offers 3Mbps speed for $39.
Tata Photon has upgraded its network with the Rev. B Phase II technology providing data speeds of up to 9.8Mbps on its Photon Max Wi-Fi Data Card, up from the 6.2Mbps presently available. All existing customers will automatically be able to access the higher speeds on their network as the network upgrade will be compatible with their existing Photon Max Wi-Fi devices.
Gurinder Singh Sandhu, head Marketing – Mobility Tata Teleservices, said: “Tata Docomo continues to lead its efforts to offer better and faster data connectivity for its customers.”
The company is admitting that the demand for high speed data connectivity is rapidly rising. But there are no takers among telecom operators.
IHS Technology estimates that global shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled devices into the consumer and enterprise markets will rise to 3.5 billion units in 2018 from 2.2 billion in 2013.
Baburajan K
