BSNL makes 3G a reality by next June (India)According to a top company official, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) expects to squash its third generation (3G) mobile service by next june, using the technology of Sweden’s Ericsson. “We hope to receive the equipment from Ericsson from December. It will take some six months to roll out the services. We will earmark around 10 million lines for the initial launch,” according to the official. He was referring to the tender for 45 million lines worth $1.75 billion floated two years ago, where Ericsson was given 60 percent of the order - and out of that, 10 million have now been earmarked for the 3G service. Advantage of 3G service is that it allows much faster communications and also a wide range of applications such as high-speed net access, video calls, fast music and video downloads, interactive gaming and global positioning over internet.
The official said BSNL also proposed to open another mega tender for 90 million lines worth some $9 billion by the end of this month. Of this, 50 percent of the lines would be set aside for 3G telephony. “But we will have a mid-term assessment of the roll-out since we are still not sure about the potential of 3G in the country. It is an expensive service and we have to understand how much demand there will be,” he said.
Communications Minister A. Raja on Aug 1 announced the much-awaited guidelines for the auction of spectrum, or airwaves, to launch third-generation (3G) mobile phone services in the country. State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) that provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, and BSNL, which caters to the rest of the country, need not bid for spectrum allocation, but have to pay the highest price, he further added.
However according to BSNL officials, the perception that the state-run companies will get a head start of three-four months over private players due to the government norms was misplaced. “The procedures we have to follow for buying technology or equipment are time-consuming because we are a state-run company. So whatever time we have in hand will be taken away by that,” a BSNL official further said. “Besides, we have to pay the same amount for spectrum which the private player will be required to. So, it is not as though we have been given the licence and the airwaves on a platter,” he added. Considering the statistics of BSNL, June this year, it had 41.96 million wireless subscribers and 30.866 million wireline subscribers all across the country, excluding the two major metros of Mumbai and Delhi. For the current fiscal, BSNL has lay down a capital expenditure of Rs. 160bln.
