In order to give a big push to the Indian Wireless industry, then IT & Communications minister, Dayanidhi Maran had tried hard to negotiate between CDMA operators [Reliance and Tata Indicom] and the technology provider – Qualcomm in July-2006. Exactly 3 years later, as Indian operators and customers began to increasingly embrace GSM technology, Qualcomm has bowed down to the dynamics of Indian market and has announced Open Market Handset
What is Open market Handset – OMH ?
With Open Market Handset, user can decide to choose the CDMA operator and switch to any of them without any hassle. You can use the same Mobile handset across RCom CDMA, Tata Indicom or MTS India.
Dr Sandeep Sibal VP at Qualcomm India said,
Consumer research has shown that the lack of variety in devices remains one of the reasons for consumers’ dislike for CMDA mobiles and hence it has been an inhibitor for the industry. But with the OMH initiative, the consumer will have a larger range of handsets and better choice in buying devices.
I have shouted at the top of my voice on this very blog to Open the handsets but it took 3 long years for Qualcomm to do it.