Delays and Problems for India's New CDMA Network

securitas writes "The NY Times and Bloomberg are reporting that Qualcomm is touting an expected 6 million Indian subscribers using CDMA by year end. But the facts seem to fly in the face of that with Reliance experiencing technical problems and delays with the launch of India's first CDMA network, covered on Slashdot late last year. Part of the problem is that the GSM operators won't allow Reliance's traffic on their networks, not to mention a court challenge and no approval by regulators. Is this just a hopeful diversion from the loss of the Iraq contract, where MCI chose GSM? How does a country where the per capita annual income is $390-$420 (depending on whose number you use) expect people other than the elite to afford mobile phone service, even if the handsets and service charges are heavily subsidized? Forbes discussed the problem of affordable mobile phone service in Africa where incomes are similar. Is this another wireless/fibre optic bubble akin to the one we saw a few years ago?"

Comments

GSM Propaganda

[Detritus]

Reliance isn't having problems with its technology, it is having political, business and regulatory problems with the rollout of their service. The incumbent service providers are trying to use all means at their disposal to prevent Reliance from gaining a foothold in the mobile communications market. Telecommunications companies are typically run by lawyers and accountants, not engineers.

Re:Poor premise about mobile phone

[afidel]

Hehe, but the stupid europeans haven't got unlimited use plans. I have unlimited local and long distance on my cell for only $50/month. Basically the only time I would ever pay more than that is if I took the phone with me on vacation and then roaming is like $.15/minute or so. When I was on dialup my internet usage was several thousand minutes a month, that would have cost me a fortune in europe.