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| 4G threatens to spoil govt's 3G party |
| Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Aug 24, 2009, 01:27 IST |
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US’ Motorola likely to approach the DoT for trial spectrum
As India dithers over a policy on 3G mobile telephony, US’ Motorola wants to test the next level (4G) that could pour cold water on the government’s plan to raise Rs 35,000 crore from selling radio frequency for the existing version.
Motorola, which has tested the new next-generation technology, called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), is set to start trial services of 4G, which can offer 70 megabyte per second (mbps) download speed on a mobile phone, by the end of this year.
The company is likely to approach the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for trial spectrum, Subhendu Mohanty, a senior executive with Networks Mobility Business, Motorola India, said.
This development may, however, prompt operators planning to launch 3G telephony to wait and watch, thus spoiling the government’s plan to mop a whopping Rs 35,000 crore from the auction of 3G spectrum.
Asked whether Motorola was talking to operators, Mohanty said: “We would like to have trial with the players but the technology can also be tested on our own systems.”
In fact, DoT is also understood to have prepared a concept paper on the 4G and the issue may be discussed at length in the days to come. Besides Motorola, other telecom vendors are also in the process of trials, industry sources said.
Motorola had become the first telecom vendor to complete up to 70 Mbps, he said, adding that the LTE technology could be offered in 2.1-2.3 MHz spectrum band and DoT was looking at the availability of this frequency.
On how superior and different the LTE would be from the 3G technology, Mohanty said the applications were growing very fast and, with the data and video download explosion, the performance of 3G technology would reduce and LTE would fill the gap.
When contacted, DoT officials declined to give any idea on when this (LTE or 4G) could be considered for commercial deployment, saying one needed to look into the availability of spectrum and also the viability of the services in Indian conditions.
According to sources, some of the operators may wait for this technology to become commercially available rather than investing in the 3G technology.
An empowered group of ministers has already been set up to frame policy on two most crucial aspects of 3G services — finalising the reserve price for auction of spectrum and number of slots to be auctioned in the first phase.
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