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3G mobile services, to be launched in India on August 22, is set to have serious competition. The reason is simple: if you are looking for high quality video streaming of movies and want to play multiplayer on-line games, it's not 3G services alone you need to look at.
All you will have to do is to pay around Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 for a mobile internet device with a screen like your PDA and get speeds, which are three times faster than what was promised by 3G mobile operators.
It would be cheaper. The service, which is expected to begin next year, would be available at tariffs at least 20-30 per cent lower than what 3G players will offer for using data.
And while voice calls with fixed line networks and other mobile networks are not allowed, there is nothing that stops you from making an internet phone call to another subscriber across the globe by logging on to any internet telephony site (like Skype).
All this will be real soon, with the government announcing the auctioning of spectrum for broadband wireless access, which is also known as Wimax. The new technology allows customers to be on line seamlessly while moving from one place to another. You could get your data either on a laptop or on a smaller screen in a MID, according to your preferences.
Even GSM players admit that Wimax-based mobile internet devices can take on the might of 3G mobile services, which also offer high-speed internet across the country.
GSM players say that it will be cheaper only because of an undue advantage: they are being given more spectrum and that also at one-eighth the price of 3G. BWA operators will get 20 MHz compared to 5MHz for 3G and the cost will be half of what is paid for 5 MHz of 3G spectrum.
Already, companies such as Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and HFCL Infotel, are looking at picking up BWA licences to provide high-speed Wimax services by leveraging their existing infrastructure. But why should you jump onto the Wimax bandwagon, considering that you cannot make voice calls as easily on a 3G service?
C S Rao, managing director, emerging market, Wimax program office of Intel, has an answer: "Wimax will offer three times the speed of a 3G mobile service, the capex per subscriber can be put at one third the cost and the devices will cost half of that of a 3G phone with similar features. The devices will also have better battery life"
Operators are impressed. Asked whether Tata Teleservices will bring in Wimax services, A G Rao, chief technology officer, corporate, says ""It's too premature to say anything now, but of course we will look at all opportunities.
HFCL Infotel says that the service will be useful for consumers looking for applications that need high-speed internet connectivity.
Says G D Singh, chief operating officer of HFCL Infotel in Punjab: "Those who want vanilla internet surfing and sending mails will not go for the service. However, consumers who like applications like video streaming or applications with high bandwidth requirement will have to go for Wimax".
