Broadband through 3G by next Diwali?

By Benny Thomas   |   Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 01:52 IST   |    10 Comments
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Broadband through 3G by next Diwali?
Bangalore: Though, the auctioning of airwaves to offer third generation (3G) mobile services may not meet the December 7 deadline, telecom operators are optimistic about the implementation of 3G services in one year. "We expect the Indian consumers to start using wireless broadband through 3G by Diwali next year," said Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint Managing Director of Bharti Airtel. Telecom Minister A Raja on Monday said that the 3G auction, which was originally scheduled for 2007, will take place only by the end of the current financial year. Kohli also said that the entire industry is waiting for the implementation of 3G in the country. Kohli professed the 3G implementation, on the sidelines of making the announcement of Airtel's strategic business alliance with networking giant Cisco to provide products and services to the Indian enterprises. The first product is expected by end of the month. Through this alliance the telecom giant wants to enhance its focus on the business-to-business (B2B) segment. "This alliance is another step towards Airtel's vision to reach out to both large and medium enterprises, which would support the Indian B2B growth story," Kohli said. Some of the services that the telecom company would be provide include managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected branch services and telepresence services. Cisco, who will be providing the technology for the implementation of the services, will be using Airtel's network service to reach out to the customers. "Building on the government's commitment to rapid broadband deployment, we will together create and deliver transformational services for large enterprise and small and medium-sized business customers," said Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalization Officer and Executive Vice President of Cisco Services. With more competition expected in the telecom sector with the onset of tariff wars, share prices of companies like Airtel have taken a beating in the past few days. However, Airtel is confident that it can maintain its market share even when its peers are announcing tariff cuts. "We don't respond to the competitive initiatives by our rivals, but we will pursue our own strategies," Kohli added.

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