nfornit

When operators were willing to spend an arm and leg for 3G spectrum, the government was struggling to fix a base price and when government is ready, operators are thinking to give it a miss. An article in Business Line says that cellular operators are contemplating to skip 3G and instead go for 4G deployment expected in 2011. And if 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) arrives as expected, I think it makes more sense to skip 3G.

Operators’ rationale says that spectrum allocation will be done by August 2010 and services will be initiated in early 2011, which means 3G operators (there are 4 slots up for auction) won’t have enough time to recover their investment since LTE technology will be just around the corner.

The Indian government was expecting to rake in a healthy 250 billion rupees but if operators are not willing to adopt it, government’s projected cash reserves could go for a spin.

To give a gist, 3G and LTE technology offer high data speeds over-the-air. 3G is capable to give up to 14Mbit/s whereas LTE can give up to 100Mbit/s download speeds.

goldygold

wow... My vote is for 4G

sujin

Wts the point guys? I dont find 4G useful as of now. What are we going to do with 100 Mbps speed? If we get 256 kbps we download movies only and even if we get 100 Mbps the same is going to happen again. I feel it doesnt make any sense having so much bandwidth for a single person.

goldygold

@ sujin so you dont want higher bandwidth?

RDBMAC

A Similar Article from ThinkDigit:

The Indian Government has acted in its usual pace -- slow as molasses and delayed the process of bringing 3G in India. So much so, that operators are thinking of skipping over 3G entirely and are already waiting for 4G.

While the auctions for the 3G spectrum will still take place in January as "scheduled" the successful bidders -- only four of the country's twelve mobile operators -- will get the spectrum simultaneously in August 2010. After which the remaining operators' only option will in any case be to wait for 4G, which is expected to mature by 2011.

In this scenario it seems a waste to invest money in a technology which goes out of date within a year. The better approach, most operators feel, is to simply adopt 4G as soon as it comes bringing our country finally up to date with the rest of the world.

Of course this would mean that for once the process must be done in time for 4G's rollout, else the country will be without 3G, and waiting for extended periods of time while the government slowly begins the process of thinking about planning to decide what to do with the 4G spectrum.

Compared to the 3Mbps we will never get over 3G in India, 4G makes false promises of 10Mbps which we are sure to never get. With 4G you will finally be able to watch HD on the go on that 24-inch TV screen you had tucked away in your pocket so long.

For all those patiently waiting for a decent mobile browsing experiences on the go, your wait might get a whole lot longer.

nfornit

4G 10 Mbps wake up guys

it should be 100 Mbps

RDBMAC

i did a copy-paste job from here : http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-an...-out_3855.html

sujin

If I get 2 Mbps or 3 Mbps consistently without variation that's more than enough for me

nfornit

even for me that speed is enough

but exited over 4G launch as this will make my desired speed cheap

goldygold

what you said is True. Definitly it will happen in future but expecting soon...

Gabu

So there will be seperate auction for 4g? Though I agree with operators. We must start with 4G. 3G bus is already missed.

sujin

They will fight with each other for next 5 yrs whether to choose 3G or 4G and in the meanwhile 5G will come

mkmobile

In fact it should happen that the operators skip 3G. These sarkari babus will get some kick-back for their lethargic approach.

nfornit

Height of confidence

they are hoping for better investmevt in 3G auction in january

sujin

Anyway govt will go ahead with the 3G auction for sure. They are expecting to earn some big money through that this financial year.

nfornit

and i am aspecting Empty auction hall

sujin

No way. Wait and watch the competition getting hotter in the auction hall. This spectrum resource is more than worth the price in the long run. They pay oly a small fraction to buy it but after some years they can earn crores and crores of money with the investment they make now.

coolguy010

biggies like airtel and voda will not skip 3G but surely they will lower ther bid.