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 = cheap?

[Xenna]

I don't know how they do it but I've been to many poor countries where lots of people seemed to be using cell phones. Maybe it's because the GSM market is very competitive that the services can be so cheap.

In Europe it is rare for a 14 year old kid not to have a GSM. I understand that the situation in the US is quite different.

BTW: the Forbes article that is linked doesn't even contain teh word 'phone'!

Re:GSM = cheap?

[dackroyd]

Could be something to do with the fact that they can share the mobile phone.

The Economist has run a couple of stories on how development agencies can give micro-loans (~$100) to poor people in Africa and India, to allow them to buy a phone. That person then charges other people in their village a small fee to use the phone.

Result: massive improvement in quality of life for villagers as they can phone up to get day-to-day market prices to get the best prices for the foor they produce, can get medical assistance over the phone, can organise work etc.

Once a phone is shared between 30 people, the cost for each of them really does come down quite a bit....

Why go CDMA when G3 is being rolled out?

[nounderscores]

In australia G3 phones with graphical full colour web surfing, video conferencing and PDA features are being rolled out. Why go with plain vanilla CDMA?

Why not fly if you're having trouble walking? It uses different muscles.

Re:GSM = working

[leonbrooks]

Many Indians - so I am told by my oft-resident expert - use mobile 'phones because it is reasonable to expect them to work, which is more than can usually be said for the landlines.

Re:Poor premise about mobile phone

[stoops]

You guys in the US should revolt. It is disgusting that both caller and receiver should have to pay for a conversation

actually, the caller doesn't even have to pay when calling a cell, as long as its a local call (unless he's calling from a cell himself).

there's a simple reason why only charging the caller in north america won't work: cell phones use the same area codes as land lines. thus, there would be no way for the caller to tell whether he's making a free call to a land line or a paid call to a cell phone. to get around this problem, all cell phones would have to be issued new area codes. and that would be pretty chaotic.

From a subscriber's point of view

[raj2569]

I am a subscriber of Reliance phone and my expierience in one word is confusion . I am yet to receive my first bill and have no idea how much it is going to be. I had a BSNL mobile and has not decided to ditch it yet. I have also not given my Relience number to any one. All incoming calls are to my GSM mobile, which incidently is also free.

Regarding interconnectivity, I did not had any problem calling any one after they have started billing. The call clarity is excellent. I have no problems with the range also. I recently had a trip to Goa via road. (Trivandrum -> Mangalore -> Goa -> Bangalore -> Madurai -> Trivandrum) and except in forests and other deserted places Relience has range, But BSNL was even better, and I would say Relience is a close second.

The Video and Audio are working as advertised. I have a low end monochrome phone so cannot comment on the quality, but I guess it should be ok. They have a menu option called R-World and it has video audio and lots of other services.

They also have a dialup internet service where phone is connected to computer via usb cable and connects to net at 115,200 bps. The cable costs around Rs. 2000. In the demo I saw they used a dialer in XP and connects to an unknown number. The sales guy put his own number in the phone no field. Other than that it is all standard. (TCP/IP and PAP) I am hoping to get it working on Linux once I get hold of it. And things gets even better when I get a Sharp Zaurus and I am online any where in India :)

They do not have roming. They have some thing called TSS (Temp subscription service) Where I have t o dial *444 (etc...) from a new location and I get a new number. It is also told that i will be reachable in my old number also. But have not tested this. The customer call center is help full and reachable.

raj

PS: did not check for spellings, pl overlook the errors :(