Motorola eyes big Wi-MAX deals in India; to bid for BSNL proj

US-based telecom equipment maker Motorola is eyeing big Wi-MAX contracts in India and is planning to bid for state-run BSNL's urban Wi-MAX project.

"We are very much focused on Wi-MAX...we had bid for BSNL's rural Wi-MAX project and our bid is in the technical evaluation stage and after this proof concept would start," Subhendu Mohanty, Motorola India Country Head, Home & Network Mobility Business, said.

Wi-MAX is a standard-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL.

The rural project of BSNL includes offering broadband connection through the Wi-MAX network in 40,000 odd primary and secondary schools by 2008. Additionally, BSNL will set up 50,000 Wi-MAX kiosks.

The second tender valued at Rs 2,000 crore will see BSNL's plans for urban areas and will include roll out of Wi-MAX services in 70 cities across the country in 2008. Motorola is planning to bid for this as well.

These are opportunities in the range of 100-150 mn dollars, Mohanty said. The US-major is currently engaged in the trial run of Bharti's Wi-MAX project.

Motorola, which faces stiff competition from rivals like Nokia Siemens Network, Ericsson, was last year disqualified by BSNL from participating in its 3G network on technical ground. Although Wi-MAX contracts are much lesser in size, they can supplement a network vender's revenue.

Source : EconomicTimes

TATA, Reliance, NOKIA & Motorola - All Ride High On WiMAX

WiMax is planning to ride high on the Indian Market. After TATA & Reliance, it’s Motorola’s turn to endorse WiMAX. Pundits believe that given the geographical features of India, WiMAX provides a much cheaper alternative for providing internet access to every nook and cranny of the country, as compared to the wired connections. More so, the fact, that mobile networks and data cards can also be configured to access te internet using the WiMAX networks, opens up a whole new world of opportunities. It seems watching movies over the internet, absolutely smooth sound and video streaming, video conferencing on the go are no more just ideas of desire.

 

If one thinks on it more intently, one can visualize how easy it could be for the public sector telecom company BSNL to oust all competition from the private sectors in the Internet market. The most important reason behind companies not setting up WiMAX infrastructure is the huge costs involved and also slim chances of being able to recover the costs in a hurry. This is where a goverment funded organization do the trick! If BSNL manages to WiMAXify (I hope Oxford takes up this word too, one day :-P) a whole metropolitan city, say some place as important as Mumbai, it’s going to a a huge slap on the face of other operators. Of course, with TRAI trying to be as unbiased as it is, it might prove to be quite an issue. Yet, what do you say? Do you think there might be some solid basis to my logic?

 

Recently, Anil Ambani’s Globalcom had acquired a 90% share in eWave World in his efforts of providing WiMAX connections in the country and abroad. Nokia also expects data traffic to increase by a significant 75% in 2008 with future devices offering better and better services. Now it’s Motorola backing WiMAX as the next broadband technology. Experts in the field say that the rate of data transfer in WiMAX has the potential of 100 megabits per second (using Long Term Evolution technology). However, after reading about an Australian WiMAX provider scrapping the technology, you might feel apprehensive. One just needs to approach the newest technology with some caution and since devices need special hardware to be able to access WiMAX, unless it comes fitted on devices by defualt, it might get a little tough for India to catch up. Today, India lags quite a few years behind in terms of technology. If we plan to take the roads that others have taken, we shall always trail. It’s high time we took a giant leap!