savramesh 37 Report post Posted September 16, 2009 Source NEW DELHI: State-owned telco BSNL is reevaluating its plans for launching full-fledged Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based mobile services in all major cities in the country, according to a top executive with the company. Last year, BSNL executives had outlined plans to make a major foray into the CDMA space and had said that the telco would invest between $500 million to $1 billion for expanding its CDMA operations to a pan-India level. BSNL currently has limited CDMA operations in large cities -- its mobile operations are largely concentrated on the popular Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology and it has over 52 million subscribers on this platform. One of the primary factors behind BSNL’s move to reconsider its CDMA plans is that the even the largest operators in the platform - Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Tata Teleserivices -- have now launched GSM services and are now focused on grabbing a substantial per cent of the new customer adds in this space. "The growth in the mobile space is increasingly dominated by GSM platform. BSNL will soon be able to increase its GSM capacity by an additional 93 million lines and the company efforts will therefore be towards regaining market share in this segment," the executive with the telco added. The GSM deal for 93 million lines is also estimated to cost $10 billion, and coupled with the fact that BSNL will have to shell out an over $1 billion for third generation (3G) radio spectrum, the telco also does not have the resources to pursue mobile operations on both technological platforms. But, BSNL’s earlier plan involved competing with the likes of RCOM and the Tatas on their home ground even as the latter moved GSM turf to become dual technology mobile operators. Besides, another key aspect that may force BSNL to abandon its plans to expand its CDMA operations is related to the government’s pressure on all telcos, especially state-owned ones against deploying equipments and networks supplied by Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE. Executives with the PSU say that while telcos had alternatives in Western vendors such as Ericsson, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks in the GSM space, such options did not exist on the CDMA side. "CDMA networks are dominated by Chinese vendors and any move to procure equipment and other related infrastructure on this technological platform from vendors in other countries is likely to make the business case for BSNL unviable," explained an industry executive who is aware of the developments. The home ministry and the intelligence bureau wants Chinese companies to provide equipments in only 8 states - Delhi, Tamil nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Goa Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh - as these states do not share ‘sensitive international boundaries’. In 2007, communications and IT minister A Raja had informed Parliament that BSNL has applied for nationwide, full-fledged CDMA licence while adding that the PSU aimed to ‘provide full mobile services using CDMA technology in addition to the GSM technology under the existing CMTS licence in 21 service areas’. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abkumar 11 Report post Posted September 16, 2009 As per my information, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel & Motorola are also CDMA vendors which can supply CDMA equipment. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supernova 47 Report post Posted September 16, 2009 cdma guys going for gsm and vice versa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
