Centre may announce hardware policy soon
Our
Bureau
The Union Government is in the
process of fine-tuning the new hardware policy which is likely to be announced
within two-three weeks.
A task force appointed for the
hardware policy is in the process of finalising its
guidelines as suggestions have been pouring in.
Clusters
Alongside, the Union IT &
Communications Ministry is working on a policy framework that would encourage
creation of few IT clusters in the country.
Together, these clusters and
semiconductor manufacturing companies, would play a
larger role in sync for the country’s semiconductor ecosystem, according to Mr M. Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Communications,
Government of India.
There is considerable interest for
investments in
Addressing participants at a
meeting hosted by the Indian Semiconductor Association, Mr
Nambiar said that these clusters would be spread
across 40-50 square km and it all depends on how various States respond to such
an initiative. This would be a co-ordinated effort of
the Central and State Governments.
Later speaking to newspersons, Mr Nambiar said that the hardware
manufacturing policy is aimed at bringing about convergence with the
semiconductor policy and its guidelines announced recently.
Companies from Taiwan both
hardware manufacturers and semiconductor companies have approached the
Government expressing interest in setting up manufacturing bases in India and
sought necessary support.
The Government was keen that this
sector received the necessary encouragement and support so that all these
projects could be taken up with public-private participatory model.
“Our analysis of some of the
countries such as
The electronics market is
projected to grow to over $320 billion by 2015 and has the potential to far
outpace the oil import bill. Therefore, this presents a case of rapid
development of the electronics and manufacturing hardware in the country, he
said.
Ms Poornima
Shenoy, ISA President, said that after the recent
policy announcement for semiconductor industry, there has been positive
response as there is potential for manufacturing in
Representatives from the
semiconductor industry also highlighted how companies in
CDMA 3G trials on 1900-band done under DoT
watch
Thomas K Thomas
The trials being
conducted on Tata Teleservices’
network is being undertaken to check whether 3G services in the 1900 Mhz band causes interference to
the services offered by cellular operators using the GSM technology.
While CDMA operators
claim that there is no interference, GSM operators are blocking the allotment
of the 1900 Mhz band on the
ground that their 3G plans using the 2.1 Ghz will be
disturbed. The inspectors from DoT will present their
report to their Government verifying claims made by both sides.
Though the DoT is considering allowing CDMA players to offer 3G services
in the 800 Mhz band, the
cost of offering third generation services in 1900 Mhz
frequency band is much lower, according to CDMA industry experts. On the other
hand, if the claim from the CDMA camp is found to be baseless, it will be major
victory for GSM operators who can then push their 3G services.
However, neutral
technology providers, which offer both CDMA and GSM third generation solutions,
said that though 1900 Mhz band will provide an edge
to CDMA operators, they will still be able to offer 3G services at competitive
rates in other available frequency bands in case DoT
decides to disagree with the CDMA operators’ claims.
Policy
impact
While the trial had begun
in September, the feedback given by the DoT officials
will be used to formulate 3G policy. Most of the spectrum-related discussions
at present within DoT are taking place around the 2.1
Ghz for GSM operators. Even
the discussions with the Defence Ministry for
vacating radio frequency does not mention spectrum for CDMA players.
Telecom arm faces spectrum allocation disparity
New
Delhi, Oct. 14: Sharp differences are believed to have emerged in the
Department of Telecom over Trai’s proposal to change
existing subscriber-linked criteria for allocating additional spectrum, with
communication minister A. Raja in favour while the
Telecom Commission opposing it.
According to sources, Telecom
Commission, headed by telecom secretary, has taken a final view on Trai’s recommendations with regard to spectrum allocation,
number of players in each circle and other issues.
There is unanimity on most of
issues especially on not capping the number of players, but on spectrum
allocation, the minister, sources said, may overrule Telecom Commission which
has rejected the telecom regulator’s recommendation.
Trai had suggested nearly five-fold
increase in subscribers base to become eligible for
additional spectrum.
If the regulator’s proposal is
accepted, none of the existing mobile operators, be it Bharti
Airtel, Vodafone-Essar or
others, would be eligible for additional spectrum.
Cellular Operators Association
of India (COAI), a lobby group of private GSM mobile operators, has already
rejected Trai’s suggestions and termed them as
erroneous and legally untenable.
The Telecom Commission, which
held a series of meeting during the last two weeks and also met cellular
operators twice to take final view on Trai’s
proposals, is likely to send its view to the minister in next two days.
Sources said that the
commission has accepted the proposal that there should not be a cap on number
of operators in a circle.
On the issue of auctioning of
additional spectrum, the commission did not find the proposal viable,
considering the affordability and low tele-density.
Some of the recommendations
which have also been accepted include bringing down the combined subscriber
base criteria from 67 per cent to 40 per cent in the merged entity in case of
merger and acquisitions, sources said. (PTI)
Can WiMax take on 3G?
Banikinkar
Pattanayak
Posted online:
Today, you could catch leading telcos’ top-notch
officials chewing nails. Fingers are crossed as Radio-communication Assembly of
the 191-member International Telecommunications Union (ITU)—the global industry
body that approves the use of various technologies in telecom—is debating on WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).
Stakes are high as WiMax, that promises high-speed next-generation internet services
could shake up the wireless tech industry. If approved by the ITU, it could
cause a split in the middle of the industry by taking on the 3G mobile segment.
The Assembly will now meet to decide on WiMax’s
inclusion in the 3G (third generation) family. Decision is important for
proponents as well as detractors in
However, if the technology gets the ITU approval, it could see a clash with
other 3G technologies. “Compared to 3G, WiMax reduces
cost by a tenth and ensures speed that is three times faster than 3G,” says Mallikarjun Rao, director
(wireless) at Nortel. “In most cases, operators wishing to offer both mobile
communication services and internet access will find 3G/HSPA to be the most
cost-effective option,” counters Tom Phillips, chief government and regulatory
affairs officer, GSMA, an association of over 700 GSM mobile phone operators
across 218 countries. “WiMax is still a lab
technology while there are nearly 400 3G operator networks deployed in 135
countries with millions of subscribers,” adds Parag Kar, senior director (government affairs), Qualcomm
While WiMax boasts of a data transfer capacity of
10 megabits per second (Mbps), many of today’s 3G networks, which have been
upgraded with HSPA software, offer typically a range from 500 kilobits per
second to 3 Mbps.
The moot question is—does it make sense for Indian operators to deploy WiMax? And the response varies from silence to ‘no
comments’, from ‘let’s wait and watch’ to ‘we are serious about it’.
However, WiMax’s proponents are bullish as ever. A
Nortel executive says 10-12 million of the 20 million broadband connections
expected by 2010 will be covered through WiMax.
Confidence over a technology, which has witnessed only two successful trials
Source:
The Financial Express
Screening of Applications
DoT may seek help from other
ministries
With over 35 companies’ license applications waiting
to be screened, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is
open to seek help from other ministries to track down the actual promoters of
these companies along with shareholding pattern and source of funding.
“The processing of these applications will start
very soon. Once it starts and during the scrutinisation,
it is felt that the actual ownership, shareholding patterns and source of
funding are prima facie doubtful and beyond our normal investigation, we will
certainly take help of other ministries,” official sources said.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had
written to the DoT that some of the applicants may be
acting as proxies for existing operators to circumvent the norms.
Although officials did not specify which ministry (ies) could be of help in this regard, they said it was the
ministry of corporate affairs, which checks into the ownership and funding
issues after being referred by another ministry.
The FIPB wing of the ministry of finance can check
the veracity of only those applications, which have a foreign equity component.
The queue of licenses is headed by Switzerland-based
ByCell, which has applied for licenses in five
circles in January 2006, followed by Spice for 20 circles (August 2006), after
which come Swan Telecom, Cheetah and HFCL. Both Swan and Cheetah have been
linked to Reliance Communications, AT&T and host of real estate companies.
There is an internal committee of the DoT looking into the applications, which would adopt a
two-stage screening process.
Initial indications from the preliminary meetings
of the committee say that spectrum might not come along with the licenses for
these new applicants and the DoT may continue with
the current first-come-first serve policy, where existing players would stand
to get radio waves first to start operations. — PTI
|
Sharp difference are believed to have emerged in
the DoT over TRAI’s
proposal to change existing subscriber-linked criteria for allocating
additional spectrum, with communication minister A Raja in favour while the telecom commission opposing it. According to sources, telecom commission, headed
by telecom secretary, has taken a final view on TRAI’s
recommendations with regard to spectrum allocation, number of players in each
circle and other issues. TRAI had suggested nearly five-fold increase in subscribers base to become eligible for additional
spectrum. If the regulator’s proposal is accepted, none of
the existing mobile operators, be it Airtel,
Vodafone-Essar or others, would be eligible for
additional spectrum. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
has already rejected TRAI’s suggestions and termed
them as erroneous and legally untenable. |
