On the 12th, RIL marking re-entry into Telecom space presented to Top industry analysts on company’s stand for the re-entry in this space. Here is an excerpt from the same, [My Comments appear in Italics]
RIL acknowledges the fact that BWA spectrum acquisition price extremely competitive by global benchmarks. What is intriguing the management is Increasing array of products with greater demand for speed driving evolution of mobile technology [Hardly any in India, where is the affordability ?]. In RIL’s opinion, 2×5 MHz spectrum holders will remain inherently disadvantaged for data services even if they deploy LTE. For symmetric service like voice, uplink and downlink are equally used, so 2×5 MHz = 10 MHz only for voice services The 20 MHz unpaired, contiguous spectrum (used in TDD) of BWA gives utilizable bandwidth which is more than double of 2 x 5 MHz 3G spectrum. [Somebody shed some light here as I am not a RF Guy.]
Asia-Pac comprises 37% of the global data revenue market of $181 bn in 2008. [Hardly any contribution from India] They project Mobile data traffic rising 60x over the next 6 years. 3G and BWA will be key drivers for rapid growth of advanced data services. Mobile broadband likely to be primary means of broadband access. Increase in India’s per capita income to result in higher broadband penetration [True].
Broadband connection in India expected to grow rapidly in the next 3 years. BWA Spectrum availability to facilitate this growth further. Currently, China has 130mn broadband users, which India can achieve in a 3-4 year time frame. [If you take Average Life of PCs to be 5 years and India sells around 8 million PCs every year Q1 2010 Data Annualized, we will have 40 mn PCs and Mukesh Ambani is talking of 130 mn broadband users 🙂 From current 12 mn broadband subscribers, India will have 10 times the number within the next 4 years ?]
RIL’s Vision – Enable rapid growth in data usage, in both rural and urban markets, propelling India into global data leadership. Create end to end solutions that address the entire data value chain – from rich content/advanced services to compelling end-user experiences. Asset light approach, in collaboration with strategic partners such as leading global technology players, service providers, infrastructure providers, application developers, device manufacturers etc. [Finally, the Son of Polyester Price realizes the importance of developing an eco-system. Its a Good Move, if implemented acceptably]
Decisive competitive edge due to significantly high data speed compared to 2G and 3G networks. None of the private operators have spectrum assets that would match the capacity of Pan India LTE TDD 20 MHz BWA spectrum. [I am sure the other operators had done their homework too and its a really nice to read your 130 mn broadband subscribers fairy tale ,likely scripted from Antilia.]