BSNL's Last Shot To Save CDMA

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Government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) is in the process to appoint a consultant to decide on the course of action to make best possible use of its CDMA network.

"We are in the process of identifying a consultant which would help us in exploring all possible options to leverage our CDMA network," Chairman and Managing Director or BSNL, RK Upadhyaya told Light Reading India on the sidelines of a press conference. However, he categorically said that BSNL was not planning on discontinuing its CDMA services.

There are total of just 107.8 CDMA subscribers at the end of December 2011 in the country, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). BSNL has total of 4.8 million CDMA subscribers so it does not make sense for the company to have the network running. BSNL can easily shift the subscribers on to its GSM services. In contrast, BSNL has 93 million GSM subscribers.

CDMA has been losing subscribers for some time in India now. BSNL is not the only one to be thinking of options to make some use of its CDMA network. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) has decided not to upgrade its CDMA network. Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. is the only pure-play CDMA service provider in the country. Tata Teleservices Ltd. is another player which is thinking of options to sustain its CDMA business. (See End of the Road for CDMA?, How to Get BSNL Back on Track and BSNL's Fresh Approach For Growth.)

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India

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BSNL's Last Shot To Save CDMA

Vishnu Goel

Friday July 06, 2012 07:36:35 AM

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This challenge has been covered by Light Reading earlier too.Usually there is a balance tradeoff between Coverage,Speed and Secured Data considerations.Commercially however one of the smart thing BSNL could do is to negotiate existing CDMA network to newer EVDO technology (with vendors) and make over to someother user Group.It is perhaps possible,only if long haul strategic relationship exists between BSNL and Network Infrastructure Vendors.A quid-pro-quo for Vendor can be Additional GSM orders for vacated network. Vishnu Goel T&M +919810101238 

BSNL's Last Shot To Save CDMA

rdbmac

Friday July 06, 2012 04:52:21 AM

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CDMA technology is currently most used for data consumption. All CDMA players Reliance, Tata and MTS are pushing EVDO based mobile broadband. BSNL who are planning to exit WiMAX must utilize CDMA 800MHz spectrum for EVDO. Currently BSNL EVDO coverage is quite poor compared to private players, and I suggest that BSNL either go for EVDO Rev B phase II (14.7Mbps downlink) or think about LTE-FDD on 800MHz spectrum. NTT Docomo is piloting some trials on 1.4MHz LTE channels.

The blogs and comments are the opinions only of the writers and do not reflect the views of Light Reading India. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.

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BSNL's Last Shot To Save CDMA

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