The Hindu Business Line : Spectrum demand may usher in new tech

With the demand for GSM spectrum hitting a new high, some of the new applicants for telecom licence are finding innovative ways to break into the Indian mobile segment. One such company called Vavasi Telegence is planning to bring a better version of the recently developed Chinese technology — Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) which will offer high speed wireless connectivity in a spectrum band that is not in use at the moment.

Pan- India access licenCe

Vavasi has applied for a pan-Indian unified telecom access licence and holds proprietary rights over the new technology. The company is conducting trials of this next-generation technology called NG1 in Madhya Pradesh and has already partnered with Bangalore-based Measurements And Controls India Ltd for the manufacturing equipment.

Speaking to Business Line Mr Farid Arifuddin, Managing Director, Vavasi Telegence Pvt Ltd, said that the company plans to build a network that will support 100 million subscribers over the next five years.

Vavasi has also partnered with Mr Sam Pitroda, as an advisor to the project and roped in the founder director of Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), Dr M. V. Pitke, as Technology Advisor. The company has set up a research and development centre to work on various applications and services that can be deployed using the new technology. “We want to make India the hub for this technology, which we are calling as NG1. Our plan is to go beyond India and make inroads into other countries around the world. For this we are in the process of putting in place partnerships, alliances and a manufacturing base,” Mr Arifuddin said. The company has already got a licence to offer services in Mongolia and plans to bid for the 700 Mhz band being auctioned in the US.

Vavasi also plans to strike partnerships for manufacturing handsets suited to NG1, which will be priced between $30- $1500 depending on the features. Since the company is seeking the guard band in the 1800 Mhz for offering next-generation wireless services in India, it may be able to acquire the licence ahead of other 30 new applicants. Vavasi may get a headstart into high bandwidth telecom services ahead of GSM operators such as Airtel and Vodafone since NG1 is touted to be more efficient than existing third generation (3G) technologies.

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