by: Mudassar Jehangir

Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Mr. A Raja on Wednesday announced that Wimax and 3G technology would be rolled out in the month of December 2008 from State of Andhra and later on extended to rest of India.

Inaugurating the ASSOCHAM organized Exhibition-Conference on `Transforming Narrowband India to Broadband India with Internet Airborne” here today, Mr. A. Raja said that if required he would engage in dialogue process with the Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram.

Launching the WiMAX Embedded Notebook of SPRINT Xohm, the Minister said that Wimax is a technology which would suit India the best to spread its broadband access.

According to the Minister, the broadband access impact between 2010 and 2020 would offer significant benefits to the country and generate about 2 million direct employment and 50 million indirect employment and yield benefits in access of US$ 70 billion in productivity improvement.

Coming back on the issue of roll out of Wimax technology and 3G technology, the Minister clarified that State owned BSNL has prepared all necessary background and the government would start rolling it out from the state of Andhra first. Thereafter from the year 2009, the Wimax technology and 3G technology would be rolled out from rest of India and it is because of this background, the year 2009 would be declared as Wireless Broadband Year as recommended by ASSOCHAM.

Welcoming the announcement for roll out of Wimax and 3G technology by December 2008, the ASSOCHAM Communications Convergence Committee Chairman, Mr. C S Rao including its Secretary General, Mr. D S Rawat, Mr. Ali Tabassi, CTO, SPRINT Xohm, Mr. Ron Resnick, President, Wimax Forum and Dr. Philip Marshall, V.P., Yankee Group collectively called for auctioning of Spectrum by end of current calendar as promised by the government.

by: Mudassar jehangir

Local mobile phone market has further gone deep into crisis. Mobile phone dealers have stopped selling phones due unstable market conditions. A Local wholeseller while talking to Apnatime told "we are not getting phones from the distributors because they are unable to get the same from the company due to ever increasing prices and 100% LC margin.

During last couple of months we have been doing direct import of our own to some extent but that has been stopped even due to shaky Dollar. In the coming few days mobile phone prices will increase by 10 to 15 % and buyers will find a very basic phone for Rs. 3,800 to Rs. 4,000.

Distributors have assured us that things will get better in next couple of days; we are waiting for the good time. Until then, the market is kind of closed for us".   

by: Mudassar Jehangir

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile carrier, said on September 27, 2008 that its investment focus remained on the more attractive valuations in emerging markets, despite the higher risks involved.

China Mobile was not looking at North America or Europe, where valuations were too high, but rather in Asia and Africa where there were more opportunities, Chief Executive Wang Jianzhou, told a meeting of the World Economic Forum.

China Mobile bought Pakistan's Paktel Ltd for $400 million last year and has spent an additional $1.2 billion to expand its network, but has not yet begun to see returns on that investment, Wang said. "We have a lot of risks, we have a lot of troubles," Wang said, referring to his company's investment in Paktel.

Wang said daily power shortages in major cities and high taxes kept the cost structure high in Pakistan, while revenue has not yet begun to reflect the investment.  "The ARPU for us is $12/month, but in our Pakistani company it is only $3/month," said Wang, explaining the difference in average revenue per user, a key industry benchmark.

But in spite of the hurdles of emerging markets, Wang said China Mobile was not a financial investor and did not need to see a positive return in the short term. "We are not a financial company, we are not private equity, we are a telecom operating company," he said. "We think the market situation in markets like Pakistan is very similar to those several years ago in China," said Wang.