Telecom Lead Asia: BlackBerry 10 may disappoint 4G users of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries (after its launch) as its new smartphones do not support TD-LTE.
However, BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 are set to become the lifeline of 4G operators in America, Europe and the Middle East as it support LTE/4G.
Besides Airtel, TD-LTE technologies, which are gaining strong traction in China due to China Mobile’s deployment, will be used by Indian telecom operators such as Tikona, Aircel, and Reliance Industries’ broadband venture to launch fourth generation mobile broadband services in 2013.
BlackBerry officials in India confirmed that “BB10 does not support TD-LTE.”
Lack of cost effective handsets available on TD-LTE platform already affected take off of 4G in India. Airtel has a tie up with Huawei to sell TD-LTE smartphones. Reliance Industries is considering a similar association with Samsung.
However, BlackBerry Z10 hopes to become the best seller in India thanks to its strong features for both retail and enterprise customers. The launch is slated before April.
Thorsten Heins, president & CEO of BlackBerry, on Wednesday said that the smartphone major is gaining better result for BlackBerry Z10 in both Canada and the U.K.
“In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. It was more than 50 percent better than any other launch day in our history in Canada,” said Heins. “In the U.K., we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”
Recently, Heins also said it wants to solidify its future as mobile computing leader. BlackBerry’s aim is to reclaim its spot as an innovator in world where smartphones will have the processing power to replace tablets and laptops.
BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 will be in demand as 4G connections will account for 45 percent of mobile data traffic by 2017.
4G / LTE connections accounted for 14 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2012, according to a Cisco report.
By 2017, 4G traffic will grow 40-fold, a 109 percent CAGR. This kind of need for bandwidth will create demand for high end smartphones.
Jagbir Singh, director – Networks, Bharti Airtel, recently said that India has a huge challenge to support the data growth generated by ever increasing devices of customers. India is witnessing a good growth in the field of TD-LTE and Wi-Fi.
