WiMAX Opportunities in India – Time we stop going gaga over 3G?
While 3G auction in India takes it’s own sweet time, WiMAX is setting a strong foothold (a report suggests that WiMAX subscribers in India will outnumber 3G subscribers).
As per Infonetics report, India is the most ripe market for WiMAX with VoIP playing a key role in adoption. Few interesting insights from the report:
- India is the largest single-country WiMAX opportunity in the world, with most of the major operators actively pursuing WiMAX (BSNL, Tata, Bharti Airtel, etc); deployments are well-underway with acceleration in adoption experienced in many telecoms circles
- Russia is the ‘perfect storm’ for WiMAX: challenging geography, dispersed population, pent up demand for broadband and voice services, and a population able to pay for services; there are currently more than 10 WiMAX networks in operation or deployment in Russia
- Brazil is potentially one of the world’s most dynamic WiMAX markets, with a very mobile-oriented populace; The number of WiMAX subscribers is forecast to skyrocket from 184,000 in 2008 to almost 8 million in 2013
- Most countries in Central and Eastern Europe have WiMAX deployments underway and more than 20 operators offer VoIP over WiMAX service, a major driver of adoption
- There are over 80 networks now active in over 35 African countries, with demand for broadband and voice services driving deployment, despite challenges in terms of funding and low-ARPU business models
- Though the current market is very modest, if China’s 3G technology TD-SCDMA fails to ignite the market, a softening of the regulatory attitude to WiMAX could follow, leading to much more extensive WiMAX market growth
- In Japan, mobile WiMAX adoption is growing, with a battle brewing between operator UQ’s mobile WiMAX network (in partnership with KDDi) and NTT DoCoMo’s LTE rollout [link]
WiMAX Network Equipment Revenue in India
The major hurdle for WiMAX/BWA penetration in India is lack of PC penetration, but even then it has a higher probability of success, as opposed to 3G, which has turned out to be an utopian dream.
What’s your take on India’s WiMAX story?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Shame! This article is just a copy from this article in GigaOm that appeared a day earlier: http://gigaom.com/2009/07/31/led-by-india-wimax-growing-fast/
@G
Shame that you cant read the report – the article is taken from the report (which Gigaom has done too).
Stop your crap, if you can’t read properly.
WiMAX clearly has huge potential here in India.. have been researching the issue myself for the past few days and came across a few interesting analyses on the WiMAX opportunities and challenges in India (though its a little dated).. would also be interesting to see how it fares against technolgoies such as LTE.. in the end, I suppose it will be about economies of scale..
http://www.slideshare.net/newworldready/wireless-infrastructure-in-india
Anyone here going for the Wimax conference in Delhi on August 21?