3G services in India, which were launched with much fanfare two years ago, are yet to find many takers due to the poor quality of performance.
Padma SN, an Airtel user in Bangalore, rues: “I had activated 3G services for my smartphone last year, but the speed is much less than expected. Also, these services consume a lot of battery power and I have to keep charging my phone.”
Experts blame the equipment used by 3G service providers for the inferior performance.
Somaiah MP, ASIC Engineer at Cisco Systems, who develops switches and routers used by 3G service providers, says: “Service providers in India do not use high-quality equipment that can handle peak hour traffic. The main constraint for this is the cost factor as companies are not willing to make investments in an industry where the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is coming down.”
Somaiah further added that since the number of telecom users in India has grown exponentially in the last five years, the service providers find it difficult to handle such high volume of traffic.
The engineer elaborates: “Each individual uses his phone, one laptop in office and one at home to access these services. As a result, the number of end points per user has gone up.”
Dr Sanjay Jain, Head of Department, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, New Horizon College of Engineering, has a different take on the matter.
He says: “Indians are cost-conscious customers and generally do not believe in investing in something if they do not feel the need for it. Most Indians still do not require internet in their phones, and that is why 3G services will take another five to seven years to find wide acceptance in India.”
R.N. Hanchinal, Sub-divisional Engineer, CSC Incharge, BSNL, said: “Yes, we do receive complaints about our 3G services, but they are not many. Sometimes, the user might face difficulties in areas where there is no network coverage. We are trying to solve that by reaching out to more places.”
(After doing her MBA from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, Kakoli worked with Vedanta Aluminium Ltd before studying at IIJNM, Bangalore.)