2010: A Year of 3G?

In 2009, Union minister for communication and IT A. Raja launched BSNL's 3G services pan India, from Chennai by making the first video call to TN chief minister M. Karunanidhi. The PSU was awarded one block of 2*5 MHz 3G spectrum in all telecom circles in the country without participating in the auction, at a price equal to the winning bids in the respective circles, in the auctions that were to be held before March 31st 2009.

After a significant delay, the auction of high-speed third-generation wireless frequencies is expected to be completed by March 2010. A new chapter will begin for the Indian Telecom Industry if the Auction goes through in 2010 and operators commercially roll out 3G. It is anticipated that 2G to 3G migration of users in the first year of launch will increase the ARPU by Rs 200 per month per migrating subscriber.

BSNL has already launched their 3G services in over 300 cities with a subscriber base of over 0.7 million. BSNL's 3G services are very competitively prices as can be seen from their tariff card below.

Mobile Phone becomes the Indian Identity Card

Identity authentication at banks, gas connection centres or while providing rural jobs will just be an SMS away. The Nandan Nilekani's project will provide a unique identification (UID) number, not a card and the authentication will be made by using mobile phones.

Once the numbers are issued the authentication will be done Online. The authorities will send the UID number to the designated points through mobile phone message.

Also, the fingerprint of the person can be sent to the central database and the authentication can be received within minutes verifying the identity of the person.

This will not require much personal details to be divulged. It will help provide portability to our farmers, labourers. When they move from state to state, this UID will help them get employment without hassles. Banks, mobile service providers, LPG gas connection counters and many more partner organisations can use this UID to verify their customer. With the growing mobile phone network, this will become an easy process for authorities to verify people.

Nandan Nilkeni's team is likely roll out the first batch of UIDs in 2010. They plan to issue at least 600 million UIDs over the next 5 years.

2010 and Beyond

With the manufacturing sector showing a robust performance, experts estimate Asia's third-largest economy India's GDP growth to be more than to 6% for the year to 2009 – 2010, and more than 7% in 2010 – 2011.

The Telecommunications Industry contributes more than 2% to India's GDP. The industry generated revenues worth approximately US$ 30 billion in 2009-10. According to a study conducted by Nokia, the communications sector is expected to emerge as the single largest component of the country's GDP with 15.4 per cent by 2014.

By Hemant Joshi, Telecom Practice Lead, Deloitte India

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