"UMTS can future-proof Indian operators’ investment"

With an aim to promoting the global evolu-tion to 3G/UMTS and the commercial
introduction of UMTS networks and services, a body called ‘Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System’, UMTS forum was formed. UMTS represents an
evolution in terms of services and data speeds from today’s ‘second
generation’ mobile networks. During his visit to the EuroIndia 2004, forum’s
chairman Jean-Pierre Bie-naime spoke to Zia Askari of CyberMedia News. Excerpts
from the interview:

Why do you think that UMTS will benefit Indian operators?

Indian mobile market is go-ing through a very exciting ph-ase. Here
operators are looking for expansion as well as conso-lidation, so this is the
ideal time for them to opt for a techno-logy that can help them in taking care
of their invest-ments in the long run.

UMTS builds on investments in GSM–providing a network optimization
opportunity for Indian operators. They can retain legacy 2G core network, IT and
service platforms, can also re-use existing sites and implement site sharing.

UMTS will also give opera-tors additional capacity com-pared with 2G to
support more subscribers (especially in urban centers) as well as greater speeds
and ability to support new multimedia services including video.

Today the operator is more concerned about the ARPU than
anything else. How can technologies like UMTS increase that?

UMTS will allow operators to add additional network cap-acity at a cost up to
eight times lower than providing incre-mental 2G capacity. This will give
operators the opportunity to reduce the proportion of investments in relation to
total turnover.

UMTS may not in itself signi-ficantly increase ARPU in the
short term, but it will provide an opportunity for operators to strengthen their
free cash flows. This technology will gen-erate new revenues in the me-dium/long
term when all actors (clients, operators, service providers, media/content
deve-loper) have assimilated this new technology.

What is the opportunity for India?

3G/UMTS could actually ‘fut-ure-proof’ Indian mobile ope-rators’
existing investments in GSM, leveraging the enormous economies of an open
system. This offers significant future additional capacity in fresh radio
spectrum at lower incre-mental cost, allowing Indian operators to support new
customers and new services at the same time.

UMTS is getting excellent re-sponse in the European mar-kets
and more than 80 opera-tors in 27 European markets have chosen UMTS/WCDMA as
their 3G standard. As India is one of the biggest telecom markets, it can lead
the way for Asian region. About 15 ope-rators in Asia and Europe have already
launched commercial UMTS services and more laun-ches are scheduled before end
2004.

Some major operators curr-ently ‘testing the water’ by
offe-ring trial services/soft launches to consumers or to business customers
with access via lap-top PC and WCDMA data card.

How can India leapfrog into the UMTS arena and what are
the issues with spectrum?

India as a country has pro-ven its mettle in the area of software
development and research. The country can benefit by exporting its R&D plus
software and applications developments skills to the enormous global marketplace
that is enabled by 3G/UMTS.

Global harmonization of mobile communications spe-ctrum
reduces complexity and cost of mobile terminal equi-pment, giving superior eco-nomies
of scale and increased customer satisfaction. India should go for licensing
globally agreed spectrum bands to harmonize India’s mobile future with the
rest of the world.