CDMA In India – Past, Present And Future

[kesav 127]

All OMH handsets are RUIM handsets but not all RUIM handsets are OMH complaint.

[digitalnirvana 646]

RUIM or no RUIM, I think main issue is that in India all operators target the bulk and prepaid category instead of niche postpaid. While this is good to increase telecom coverage, this leads to very few options in high end handsets, especially for CDMA, as network unlocked CDMA handsets are mostly in the basic price range. In most developed countries (USA - CDMA/GSM, Europe - GSM) the carrier and the handset are bundled together in medium/long term plans. This is what RIM had started doing in 2003 with it's monsoon hungama offer. I do not know why they cannot implement the same thing again - this time across the handset spectrum - instead of just focusing on basic handsets. If operators gets postpaid customer with assured revenue for long term, I think they can provide more value in terms of handset price and voice/data tariffs. Customers would also not mind having network locked sets if the network is good service and value.

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

RUIM or no RUIM, I think main issue is that in India all operators target the bulk and prepaid category instead of niche postpaid. While this is good to increase telecom coverage, this leads to very few options in high end handsets, especially for CDMA, as network unlocked CDMA handsets are mostly in the basic price range. In most developed countries (USA - CDMA/GSM, Europe - GSM) the carrier and the handset are bundled together in medium/long term plans. This is what RIM had started doing in 2003 with it's monsoon hungama offer. I do not know why they cannot implement the same thing again - this time across the handset spectrum - instead of just focusing on basic handsets. If operators gets postpaid customer with assured revenue for long term, I think they can provide more value in terms of handset price and voice/data tariffs. Customers would also not mind having network locked sets if the network is good service and value.

Are bhai USA ppl are not like us...

If RIM gives u 10K handset for upfront payment of 1K + network locked for few years...

I am sure..U will crack the handset the very next moment :rofl_200:

[digitalnirvana 646]

Are bhai USA ppl are not like us...

If RIM gives u 10K handset for upfront payment of 1K + network locked for few years...

I am sure..U will crack the handset the very next moment :rofl_200:

True it happens is USA also, that is why there are so many bad ESN phones. But the average customer would not crack it, atleast in CDMA. Because in CDMA India there is very less operator choice, so where would the customer go with a bad ESN phone?

[aalok 442]

companies are looking at numbers.. the number of connection they sell.. and numbers can only be achieved through prepaid, wherein subscribers are satisfied with 1k or less handsets..

[Karthik R 246]

The ARPU of a postpaid user is in reality, double that of a prepaid one. So telecos wont neglect them, in fact pursue them.

This is proved by - door assistance provided only to postpaid user, faster grievance redressal times and mechanisms in place, option of premium numbers, covered from hikes in tariffs, etc.

[HetalDP 947]

@Kartik take another look

in Prepaid they get Revenue Well in Advance via presale of air time on Voucher and then Consumer use it in next or second month

[HetalDP 947]

@Kesav

WRONG

EVDO will never support Voice on its Channel only 1x will support Voice

Network have nothing to do for Simalteneous Voice + Data as it different Carrier with Different Authentication Method

1x rely on CAVE, EVDO rely on HDR security Both is completely different

But Simataneous Voice + Data is a Feature of Mobile Handset chipset / Qualcomms Lazy efforts made this slow.

RevB Chipset will support it

[HetalDP 947]

Voice + Data Simatanouse is nothing to do with Operator

Just understand Reliance already have Carrier which have 1.25 EVDO Voice and 1.25 mhz EVDO, but these old QSC Modem is Single Threaded and not able to 2 Task at one time. so when they get Busy in Voice they just drop EVDO task and resume it when Voice is done. Just Next Generation Gobi chipset or QSC Chipset will have Multi Threaded Network Operation and will effectively do that

[inception 75]

As you guys keep commenting on this main article, I would like to clarify some issues:

Tata Tele launched Tata Indicom brand in 1995, though TTSL was in CDMA market prior to Reliance. TTSL entered into the mobile market with CDMA, after they sold their stakes in Idea to Aditya Birla Group. That time AT&T was also a shareholder of Idea, later AT&T also left Indian telecom space.

Excellent report. But I doubt active users data. IMO, cdma may have more number of active users than GSM. GSM may not have even 50% ACTIVE USERS.

CDMA technology has certain limitations which makes it highly vulnerable to network exploitation and as on today no remedy available for it. (No discussion please). That keeps even operators in problems. OMH addresses them too quite an extent. But it will take years before OMH become norm.

Regarding active users, there was no specific timeline for counting active users. Say this week Airtel giving free talktime, and more active users on Airtel network.

^^^^^^^^^^

Excellent article!!!!!!! Thanks for the link

I have one more doubt. CDMA is always considered a superior technology as long as data transfers are concerned. I read an article about BSNL 3G that they are going to offer sppeds of 21.7MBPS (http://telecomtalk.info/exclusive-bsnl-to-offer-14-2-mbps-super-speed-on-3g/52475/).

So considering the above article, the maximum speed offered in Rev B is 14.7MBPS. How can evdo Rev B(as of now the most superior in CDMA technology) match up to speeds, at least promised by these 3G operators??????

With Rev B and DO Advanced, with addition of new carrier of 1.25MHz spectrum, downlink can be increased 4.9Mbit/s per carrier. So if 7.5MHz spectrum (permitted maximum in a circle) is given to CDMA players in a circle it can offer upto 6* 4.9= 29.4Mbps!

The Handset Issue:

RUIM based OMH is the future of CDMA handsets. Here in India even with bundled offer with handset, high end handset is too costly in the context of Indian market which is very price-conscious.

Indian market is very different from USA. Even we do not see such good CDMA phones here like China/SK/Japan/USA see. If we get a good mobile from there, it can not be activated easily.

Mobile Internet

A lot of people get taste of internet on mobile, and that's from GPRS/EDGE. Broadband still has not reached most of the people.

CDMA lost this ground due to less handsets supporting 1x/evdo data acceess, those supports is priced higher than GSM phones (supports GPRS/EDGE). Also CDMA players do not have low priced 1x packs for users who access internet from mobile while all GSM players has attractive and affordable GPRS packs.

Though 3G from GSM players will never be as per with EVDO in terms of stablity, coverage & etc people will go for 3G. It is because

they can use same sim in dongle, mobiles & others. Unlocked data cards are easily available.

CDMA players do not sell RUIM for using users' own data card, also availability of unlocked EVDO data cards is very less compared to GSM 3G data cards.

EVDO data plans has to be lowered down. As pvt cdma players selling locked data cards, it is easy for them to offer RevA and RevB data services at a different price while RevA has to be priced around Rs 700-900 for unlimited 1 month. See BSNL is offering Rs 750/UL for EVDO and Rs 250/UL for 1x. MTS, Tata, Reliance has 1x UL plans at around Rs 800 for unlimited per month - that is 3 times more than BSNL 1x tariff.

CDMA is losing the market coz of operators policy, less hardware and pricing.

[Punjabi 10]

Very true... i still am not able to understand that why are CDMA players not opening up? they choose to play in this closed field where everything they want to sell is operator locked!! GSM in India grew at crazy speeds because of its flexibility... CDMA players need to understand this...

[kesav 127]

@Hetal

Let me treat your posts 33 & 34 in unison and clarify the following points.

First, voice and data simultaneous has 2 aspects.

(1) voice+data simultaneous during video calls

(2) voice+data simultaneous in the case of making voice call and simultaneously browsing internet

If voice and data are carried in 2 different carriers like 1X and EVDO, case (2) may be achieved by high end multi-core processing chips but certainly case (1) cannot be achieved.

For video calls, 'Mic' bits must be merged with 'camera' bits like VoIP and has to be carried on the data channel which in this case is EVDO. But at the same time video call bits ('Mic'+'Camera') should not be merged with other internet bits since internet and video calls are tariffed & routed separately.So you've to create 2 data streams within a carrier. This is where VORA chips in.

But VORA solves both case(1) and case (2) since anyway it has created a layer within the data channel, now simultaneous voice and internet can be achieved on a single core processor itself since scanning 1X channel is no more required.

"EVDO will never support Voice on its Channel only 1x will support Voice" is not true. Till EVDO Rev. 0, voice cannot be carried in EVDO channel mainly due to low uplink speed but EVDO Rev. A (with VORA patch) can carry layered voice and thus support video calls.

EVDO Rev B can also carry layered voice on its channel and can support video calls.

In nutshell, no chip on the world can help achieve video calls unless the n/w has the capability to carry merged data on its n/w.

EVDO can carry voice from the revision EVDO Rev. A(VORA).

Let us be very clear of this point.

If video calls is purely an issue with chips/handsets, why no CDMA operator in India is highlighting & promoting video calls in EVDO.

Come on my dear friend, operator never cares about handset capability they'll always advertise the maximum n/w capability as it's clearly visible in 3G advertisements promoting max speed of 21.1 Mbps.

I've not come across even single handset supporting more than 14.4 Mbps on HSDPA n/w but operators will always say 21.1 Mbps because handset capability is not their domain and it's purely customer issue.

Edited January 8, 2011 by kesav

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

The ARPU of a postpaid user is in reality, double that of a prepaid one. So telecos wont neglect them, in fact pursue them.

This is proved by - door assistance provided only to postpaid user, faster grievance redressal times and mechanisms in place, option of premium numbers, covered from hikes in tariffs, etc.

Cant be generalized I think

I use a prepaid connection having ARPU more than many of the postpaid user I know

In my opinion Pospaid user are mostly those ppl who dont want headache of recharging,

regarding door to door assistance postpaid user are also charged more than the prepaid customer

[faizca 5]

@Hetal

Let me treat your posts 33 & 34 in unison and clarify the following points.

First, voice and data simultaneous has 2 aspects.

(1) voice+data simultaneous during video calls

(2) voice+data simultaneous in the case of making voice call and simultaneously browsing internet

If voice and data are carried in 2 different carriers like 1X and EVDO, case (2) may be achieved by high end multi-core processing chips but certainly case (1) cannot be achieved.

For video calls, 'Mic' bits must be merged with 'camera' bits like VoIP and has to be carried on the data channel which in this case is EVDO. But at the same time video call bits ('Mic'+'Camera') should not be merged with other internet bits since internet and video calls are tariffed & routed separately.So you've to create 2 data streams within a carrier. This is where VORA chips in.

But VORA solves both case(1) and case (2) since anyway it has created a layer within the data channel, now simultaneous voice and internet can be achieved on a single core processor itself since scanning 1X channel is no more required.

"EVDO will never support Voice on its Channel only 1x will support Voice" is not true. Till EVDO Rev. 0, voice cannot be carried in EVDO channel mainly due to low uplink speed but EVDO Rev. A (with VORA patch) can carry layered voice and thus support video calls.

EVDO Rev B can also carry layered voice on its channel and can support video calls.

In nutshell, no chip on the world can help achieve video calls unless the n/w has the capability to carry merged data on its n/w.

EVDO can carry voice from the revision EVDO Rev. A(VORA).

Let us be very clear of this point.

If video calls is purely an issue with chips/handsets, why no CDMA operator in India is highlighting & promoting video calls in EVDO.

Come on my dear friend, operator never cares about handset capability they'll always advertise the maximum n/w capability as it's clearly visible in 3G advertisements promoting max speed of 21.1 Mbps.

I've not come across even single handset supporting more than 14.4 Mbps on HSDPA n/w but operators will always say 21.1 Mbps because handset capability is not their domain and it's purely customer issue.

thanks for such valuable info...

[godfather_hari 1]

Dear All,

Let us review this topic again. Nowadays when we go thru our forum, we can see lot of network issues. Signal prob etc. When we complain to CC also there is no much response. When ever we go to Web world or docomo showroom they prefer to sell GSM products rather than CDMA. No good cdma handsets av bl in showroom itself. When i enquirer my friends working in RCom and Tata, they them self accept the companies are targeting to GSM .

only.

So what will be the future of CDMA in India?

Regards,

Hari

[garry1313 7]

@Hari

Companies are focussing more on GSM becoz,

1.Its sells more than CDMA becoz of the handset issues.

2.Penetration of Mobile users in Rural Market is low comparatively urban. A daily wager would not mind changing his number everyday or twice a week if he gets more talk time of the money invested. Since options are more in GSM, therefore choice would be definitely GSM.

[inception 75]

3. Dual tech players - Tata, Reliance invested a lot for 3G, and 3G did not take off properly till date. So on GSM their investments are more than CDMA and they are pushing GSM. Only hope with CDMA in India lies with MTS, and SC verdict cancelled their licenses too!

[sgiitk 32]

I have both a Reliance CDMA and a Bhai Saheb Nahin Lagega GSM. Both phones are htc (Dinc2 courtesy Hetal, and Wildfire S - earlier Samsung Galaxy I5510). The only place where GSM scores is when you are in obscure places like the smaller Andaman Islands. Else CDMA/Reliance is king. I wish there are more CDMA phones, esp. OMH type. I think the CDMA resistance is more hype.

[prakashkadam 1]

I see only too problems with CDMA players are that 1. Lack of good handsets compared to GSM, and 2. Lack of comparable data plans.

the second point is solely depends on CDMA players, why the hell they are not aggressive on this front?

[inception 75]

^^

problem is CDMA players come up with a strategy to have a customer being his/her 2nd mobile connection, as a result they offer low cost handsets, say CDMA handset+lifetime validity+FRC @Rs 700 in total. As a result most CDMA users do not need data plans as these handsets are not data capable. So operators do not bring good data packs for some users who are using data enabled CDMA handsets.

Now why cdma players are not aggressive ?

3. Dual tech players - Tata, Reliance invested a lot for 3G, and 3G did not take off properly till date. So on GSM their investments are more than CDMA and they are pushing GSM. Only hope with CDMA in India lies with MTS, and SC verdict cancelled their licenses too!

[prakashkadam 1]

With penetration of affordable tablets, more people will be going towards data consumption and CDMA players don't have any strategy to take benefit of it. Hope they see some business sense into it.

[Venkatagiri 53]

Companies are focussing more on GSM becoz,

Its sells more than CDMA becoz of the handset issues.

Also

GSM handsets get better resale value than CDMA

[me_saket 73]

sprint and verizon has canceled EVDO rev C

so no future in india going beyong EVDO rev b

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/21/qualcomm_releases_new_gobi_universal_mobile_chips_with_lte_support.html

[srk006 21]

^^^ Isn't that an old story? EVDO Rev C (UMB) was scrapped in 2008 according to wiki.

[me_saket 73]

yes it's old story,

but we need to consider this with CDMA in india.

Also LTE comes as new chip standard with backward compatibility.