New Delhi, June 15 -- Infotel Broadband, the telecom unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), may have to acquire additional spectrum for its soon-to-be launched wireless broadband services, according to a brokerage. The firm plans to roll out TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution) standard-based, high-speed Internet services by the end of this year.
"RIL will have to acquire additional spectrum in the lower spectrum bands or acquire an existing wireless operator with CDMA EV-DO (code division multiple access, evolution-data optimized) or 3G (third-generation) GSM spectrum to provide uninterrupted wireless data services as LTE-TD is not suited for coverage outside dense urban markets," Sameer Naringrekar, an analyst with BNP Paribas Securities (Asia), said in a 14 June note to clients. The acquisition will also enable it to provide better voice services, the report said. CDMA EV-DO and GSM are wireless technology standards.
RIL did not respond to an emailed questionnaire seeking comment.
In June 2010, RIL bought 95% of Infotel Broadband for '4,800 crore. The acquired firm was the only one to win 20MHz of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum across the country in the broadband airwaves auction for '12,847 crore.
"RIL may also benefit by leveraging the tower and national fibre network of an existing telecom operator to shorten the time-to-market for its BWA services. The biggest challenge faced by RIL will be to develop the ecosystem of LTE end-user devices to ensure that prices are affordable to drive widespread adoption. RIL has experience in developing ecosystems of affordable end devices as witnessed during the launch of Reliance Communication (formerly Reliance Infocomm), which was incubated by RIL," the report said, referring to the period prior to the split between the Ambani siblings, Anil and Mukesh.
A number of analysts have confirmed that RIL is looking at entering the market with low-cost pad-like devices that will be able to offer a number of mobile services including streaming of media and entertainment content and commercial transactions.
One Mumbai-based analyst, who declined to be named, said RIL could even offer eight-inch touchscreen tablet devices connected to their BWA network. "They are in talks with some 13 or 14 manufacturers based out of Taiwan. The tablets are expected to cost between '8,000 and '10,000," he said. "The data plans would also be cheap, I assume, maybe around '1,000 per month."
The TD-LTE technology used by Infotel is expected to provide upto 100Mbps download speeds and 50Mbps upload over the airwaves.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from MINT.
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