WiMAX services in india can offer data and voice calls

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed that winners in the upcoming licence auctions for broadband wireless access (BWA) - read mobile WiMAX - will be able to offer voice as well as data services.

But the dispensation comes at a price. Instead of calculating the BWA licence reserve price at 25 per cent of the 3G licence reserve price on a per MHz basis, the DoT has proposed, following recommendations made by the Telecom Commission, that BWA licence winners pay at least 50 per cent of the base 3G licence cost.

While the addition of voice is no doubt a boost to WiMAX prospects, supporters of the technology will no doubt baulk at the premium price tag. The WiMAX Forum had already stated before the latest DoT announcement that it was working with the Indian government to try and reduce the BWA reserve prices that were calculated at 25 per cent of the 3G price.

By contrast, the cellular camp believes the DoT hasn't gone far enough in its latest proposal. "The WiMAX lobby had argued that reserve price should be lower to enable them to make broadband services affordable. If they are allowed to offer voice services also they should be treated at par with existing mobile operators bidding for 3G spectrum," a GSM industry representative is quoted in local press report.

Earlier this month DoT announced that 40MHz in the 2.3GHz band and 40MHz in the 2.5GHz band would be made available for BWA. In the 2.5GHz band, 20MHz has already been set aside for state operators BSNL and MTNL. The remaining 60MHz is to be auctioned to three more operators who are allowed 20MHz each.

Prospective 3G operators will be allowed to bid for one pair of 5MHz channels only: 5MHz in the 1920-1980MHz frequency band and 5MHz at 2110-2170MHz.

Bharti Airtel plans to rollout IPTV, DTH services at same time

Bharti Airtel is looking at simultaneous rollout of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and direct-to-home (DTH) services following the Cabinet approval on downlinking norms for IPTV Expected to be launched with in two months time. the two services will have differential priced, with DTH targeted at the mass market and IPTV for broadband (high-speed internet) users.

“We are now putting our launch (for IPTV) together. Right now, we are examining different options internally. Both the launches could be simultaneous or we could have them in phases. What is certain is that IPTV will be first launched in Delhi while DTH will be rolled out on a much larger scale,” Bharti Airtel president for Telemedia services Atul Bindal told ET.

Telemedia is Airtel’s business division that provides broadband and fixedline services to over 2.5 million customers in 95 cities. “Over the next few weeks, we will firm up our plans. IPTV will be an integral part of Airtel’s media business because DTH allows us to go wide and IPTV allows us to go deep in 6-8 top cities,” he said. On the pricing, Mr Bindal said: “IPTV sits on top of broadband. It gives me an opportunity to cross-sell and deepen my relationship with existing customers using local loop or broadband or both. My pricing for IPTV will be triple play (voice, data and video). For DTH, we’ll explore single play, double play as well as triple play and introduce it in around 5,000 towns and villages.”

DTH services are currently being offered by TataSky, Dish TV, Sun Direct and Reliance Communications’ Big TV. Asked about profitability, as none of the DTH players is currently making money, Mr Bindal said: “We don’t believe new businesses are a drag, if chosen correctly.

We are uniquely positioned to leverage the existing technological knowhow and are exploring ways and means for cross-leveraging our relationship with Airtel customers.”

Globally, IPTV is considered a niche segment as broadband access is not uniform. Industry estimates suggest that India will have around a million IPTV users by 2011 and for DTH, the number would be over 23 million.

Reliance ADAG launched DTH BIGTV Today 19th august

Much A Waiting Reliance BIG TV announced the launch of their DTH services today.

The group is planning to invest Rs 2,050 crore over the next two years. They will be offering a larger variety of channels but their set-top boxes may be more expensive to support their technology.

Reliance BIG DTH services wil cost Rs 1,490 per annum. The starter pack is priced at Rs 100, and the regional packages will cost Rs 30 per month. The packages range from Rs 100 to Rs 175.

Videocon to launch DTH services by October 2008 (D2H)

Videocon Group will launch its direct-to-home (DTH) service by October-end and plans to invest Rs 10 billion in the venture over two years.

Bharat Business Channel Ltd , the company which will launch the DTH service, has signed up with SingTel for six Ku-band transponders. The DTH venture is being headed by Anil Khera who was earlier in charge of Videocon's Sansui and Kelvinator brands.

"We have taken six Ku-band transponders on SingTel's ST-1 satellite. We are investing Rs 10 billion over two years and are launching the DTH service by October-end," Khera tells Indiantelevision.com.

Videocon will operate its DTH service under the D2H brand. The company will use MPEG-4 compression technology and plans to kick off the service with 200 channels.

Videocon will manufacture the set-top boxes (STBs) at its Aurangabad factory. It will use Irdeto's encryption technology.

The uplinking will be at Greater Noida, adds Khera.

Bharati Airtel launched DTH services in Gurgaon, haryana.

Bharati Airtel launched DTH services in Gurgaon for employees.

The DTH service — to be branded Airtel, which is also the mobile phone service brand — will be started by Bharti Telemedia Services Ltd, a group company, and run by Bharti Airtel Ltd, the mobile phone firm.All set: Atul Bindal, president of Bharti Airtel, says the rates would be similar to those of existing operators and higher than cable TV rates

“We are in a high state of preparedness to launch our DTH services. A trial launch has been done among the employees and the feedback is very good. We are putting in the last minute changes to reach the last town, and to have a footprint like the (Airtel) prepaid recharge value chain,” said Atul Bindal, president of Bharti Airtel. “We want to leverage on every bit of that (Airtel brand).”

Bharti Airtel has 923,472 outlets across India as in end-June through which it sells prepaid, postpaid, and value-added service offerings.On pricing, Bindal said the rates would be similar to those of existing DTH operators and higher than cable TV rates. DTH firms such as Tata Sky Ltd, an 80:20 joint venture between the Tata Group and Star Group; Dish TV Ltd, an Essel Group company; and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Chennai-headquartered Sun TV Network Ltd and Malaysia’s South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd, charge between Rs30 and Rs300 (exclusive of taxes) a month for the service.

“We entered the consumers’ home with voice, then it was data and broadband, now we want to give them a ‘one knock at the door experience’ with one bill and one service provider,” he said. “Airtel will be the only telco that can do and make a difference as we have the underlying technology in terms of billing and convergence. This will not be possible for a standalone DTH player.”

“Eventually the game plan for Bharti is to get into all the potential ‘telecom real estate’ and be a full scale telecom service provider. And DTH service launch by the company is one step in that direction. Arpus (average revenue per user) in DTH is much higher than the telecom,” said Alok Shende, principal consultant, Acceindia Consulting. “Bharti is readying to offer multiple services (to the consumers) after the DTH launch. It just allows a lot of creative bundling strategy to happen.”

The Airtel DTH service will use the so-called MPEG4 format for the first time in India with advanced security encryption systems, Bindal added

Reliance BIG TV commercial operations on August 15 and also a IPL partner

Direct-to-Home (DTH) war is about to hot up with Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group (BIGTV), Bharti Airtel (airtel Digital DTH) and Videocon Group(D2H) all set to join the indian DTH market.

Reliance Communications, India's second largest mobile services provider, said it would launch nationwide commercial operations of its DTH service from August 15, under the name BIG Digital TV DTH (BIG TV).

A Reliance official said the company would market its DTH service aggressively with the aim of becoming the No.1 DTH player within the first year of operation.

The tariff rates would be competitive and subscribers would have greater freedom of choosing from a wider variety of channels than what is presently being offered by current players, the official said.

The company is believed to have completed its trial runs in over 2000 towns and cities among customers of other Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group companies and has reportedly received overwhelming response.

"The feedback was extremely positive. We will launch the DTH service with the aim of becoming No.1 in the market. We have already ordered 5 million Set Top Boxes from vendors in Korea and Taiwan," the official said, adding that the Set Top Boxes would come with a digital video recording facility.

Agrees Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV India Ltd. "The (MPEG-4) technology might be advantageous from the operator's angle. Compressed data files transmitted through satellite using MPEG-4, a high definition platform, will have better quality."

Though the service providers would have to bear the same cost of bandwidth irrespective of the technology used and MPEG-4 technology would make picture quality better, yet, "the price of the set-top boxes will be higher" for the customers," Kapoor said.

ALL of you Ready to get to see the BIG Tv soon.

For more information like
Were to get or buy a BIG tv please visit http://www.bigtv.co.in/bigtv/big/index.html