'3G tech crucial for shaping broadband industry'

The advent of 3G technology will boost the telecom and mobile services and play a crucial role in shaping the Indian broadband industry, business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan said here today.

The advent of 3G technology will help the Indian telecom industry, which is facing intense pricing competition, to provide better mobile offerings as well as shape the fast growing domestic wireless data services market, the firm said at their 2nd annual flagship event GIL 2010: India - The Global Community of Growth, Innovation and Leadership.

The 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum and the advent of WiMAX and LTE-based 4G technologies will play a crucial role in shaping the broadband industry in India.

"The pricing wars in India have put pressure on Average Revenue per User (ARPU)s. This coupled with high churn rates and falling voice tariffs means that a wireless data strategy will be essential for operators going forward," Frost & Sullivan MD -South Asia, Middle East and North Africa- Anand Rangachary said.

3G allows high-speed mobile broadband access to users, enabling them to download full length movies, make video calls and watch live television programmes. India has witnessed the highest growth rate of mobile subscribers, registering 49 percent increase in subscribers' base in 2009-2010.

Introduction of 3G and BWA has opened a huge market for equipment vendors, content providers and smartphone providers. The 3G opportunity increases with the options on handsets, dongles and other devices.

The operators are evaluating partnerships and outsourcing opportunities to rollout their network and services, which provides a tremendous opportunity to the equipment providers.

The value added services market for 3G is expected to be $1,260 million for the period between FY10 and FY16.

Applications like video conferencing, gaming, social networking, presence and instant messaging, mobile TV and convergent communications, which would be consumer-centric services, would show increased traction.

Operators who have data-centric state-of-the-art 3G networks will be best-positioned to capitalise on this emerging growth segment. Another potential area would be mobile marketing and mobile advertising; though not very effective yet, marketers are anticipated to spend increasing amounts of money on marketing.

Last week, the government has allocated 3G broadband spectrum to the private mobile operators who had won the spectrum licenses.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, Tatas, Idea Cellular, Aircel and S Tel were the operators, who had bagged 3G spectrum in the auction in May that fetched the government over Rs 51,000 crore apart from about Rs 16,000 crore from the two telecom PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL.

The government had auctioned three 3G slots throughout the nation, while four slots were offered in five circles.