India Is a Major Market for WiMAX

The state-owned telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has started deployment of WiMAX equipment, Aperto Networks' PacketMax 5000 base stations, and subscriber units across six cities and four rural areas in India.

The six initial cities getting the WiMAX equipment are Kolkata (in West Bengal), Bangalore (in Karnataka), Chennai (in Tamil Nadu), Ahmedabad (in Gujarat), Hyderabad (in Andhra Pradesh), and Pune (in Maharastra). The deployment, which will also cover four rural districts in the State of Haryana, is planned for completion in January.

The WiMAX network will enable BSNL to offer enterprise customers a wide range of value-added, high-bandwidth data communications services, such as MPLS, VPN, leased line, and Internet access, as well as VoIP, telemedicine, e-education, e-governance, and e-commerce in remote areas.
 
"BSNL is a leader in the world telecom landscape, and its drive to deploy WiMAX across India is testament to its leadership. Aperto is delighted to have the opportunity to support BSNL's plan in this strategic deployment," said Mike Pratt, CEO for Aperto Networks.
 
"India is quickly emerging as a major market for WiMAX," said Adlane Fellah, principal analyst, Maravedis Research and co-author of a comprehensive report on WiMAX in India. "With a population of more than one billion and a growing economy, India lacks the wireline broadband infrastructure to support its growing economy. India is a gigantic market for wireless broadband, and the adoption of WiMAX will only accelerate as new spectrum is opened up to support the government's broadband policy. In this context, Aperto has proven its ability to meet the needs of major service providers in India and continues to capture a dominant share of the Indian WiMAX market."
 
"The demand for broadband connectivity is rapidly growing in India and thanks to its performance, time to market, and cost advantages, WiMAX is best positioned to serve this huge Indian market," said Manish Gupta, vice president of marketing and alliances for Aperto Networks. "We are excited about our role in partnering with India's world-class telecommunications companies to effectively address this growing demand, and we are scaling up our capabilities and investments accordingly,” he added. Aperto Networks is ramping up its investments in India, particularly in R&D, hardware and software development, and sales and customer support. The company is also expanding its channel and technology partnerships across the country.
 
According to a report by research firms Maravedis and Tonse, Telecom India will have 13 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012. The demand for wireless broadband gear is going to add up to about $4.5 billion by 2012. Still, these numbers should be taken with requisite caution. The cost of transmission gear remains high, and the customer premise equipment is still expensive by local standards. Given that the fixed wireless frequency of choice in India is 3.3 to 3.4 GHz, India is unlikely to benefit from the economies of scale that would come with WiMAX. Globally, WiMAX signals are likely to be transmitted in the 2.5 to 2.69 GHz band.

Contributed by Uday Lal Pai

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