3G won't come to INDIA

Sometimes, it just happens that staying behind the technology of the times allows one to skip intermediate technologies and move on to newer ones—at least, that seems to be the case with India. On the cellular com­munication front, India has not yet moved to 3G from its current 2.5G, and will probably skip it altogether to embrace the emerging 4G. This is seen to be more feasible and 1.5 times more cost-effective, according to Motorola CTO Padmasree Warrior. Though no plans have been announced thus far, we can expect this to happen within the next four years.

The Wireless World Research Forum defines 4G as an Internet technology that com­bines technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX to enable the lowest-cost wireless network pos­sible. This fourth generation mobile commu­nication protocol aims at delivering wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging Ser­vice, video chat, mobile TV, high-definition TV content, and DVB (the Digital Video Broadcast standard), in addition to the usual voice serv­ices on mobile phones.

Meanwhile, 3G doesn't seem to be as dead as it's been made out to be. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G technology that combines 3G and Wi-Fi: it is a high-bandwidth technology that enables CDV mobile users to experience application such as videoconferencing, live TV, and Internet connectivity at theoretical speeds of upto 14Mbps. Practical speeds are found to be upto 3.6 Mbps on compatible handsets, though. Our government is evaluating the process of spectrum allocation for this service, and commercial launch is expected in 2009. This will usher in the era of video phones—read: video chat over your phone Interesting enough?

4G will use a technology called Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), which will use larger band­width (greater than that offered by 3G) to deliver a host of Internet and high-bandwidth applications in addition to delivering higher-quality voice services. UMB will help eliminate the disadvantages of CDMA: it will support dif­ferent and mixed cell sizes (thus allowing more flexibility to operators, who will now be able to create cells according to the number of mobile subscribers) and variable bandwidth sizes that will eliminate the limits of the total band­width available to handsets.