Union Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal said that the industry needed to reflect as to why 3G had failed to deliver so far although 2G was a success.
Mr. Sibal said this while launching the country's first 4G services here. He said that the government wished to auction the 4G spectrum by this fiscal. “The real 4G will come when spectrum of 700 MHZ is put for auction,” he said.
Airtel, which had won licences for four circles in 2010, is aiming at rolling out 4G in Bangalore in a month. Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) and Chandigarh (Punjab) would have 4G services within six months, company officials said. The launch has been done with support from Chinese company ZTE.
Reiterating the need for making the benefits of this technology available to the common man, Mr. Sibal said that in the next two years, most of the public data would be made available by the government. “We will come out with a clear roadmap for this by unveiling the telecom policy by May and the IT and electronic policy in April.”
Referring to the new services, he said that these were like putting data on a Formula 1 racing track. “The true revolution will come when devices are affordable and education, health and public services are put on a high-speed track to enable easy access for the ‘aam admi'.”
Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal felt the 4G launch was a major milestone for India and Airtel. He said that he was hopeful that others would follow “the 4G technology rolled out by Airtel” which, he felt, could become “the de facto technology standard. High-speed wireless broadband has the potential to transform India and truly empower people,” Mr Mittal added.
Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapur said that the launch was possible here as the region was ready with its build-up. To a question why a 4G rollout, when 3G was yet to pick up, he said these were different applications and different customs for these services.
Keywords: Bharti Airtel, 4G services
DUH! Like we don't know, why Mr.Saibal doesnt know, why 3G didnt take off? Umpteen number of thousands of Crores in license fees that the government charges for license fees... which the customer will have to cough up...! This is what happens when you sell something so exorbitant. Seeing the failure of 3G in Europe for the above said reason, Mr. Saibal doesn't really seem to be open to learning from others experiences.
I wonder what bsnl is doing with all latest infrastructure in place. They can compete with other private service providers so that service can be provided in a competitive way.
It would be very interesting to see how after failure of much awaited 3 G & after a series of scams , government is ready for 4-G .How funny this is?
First let them fix their 3G problems and ensure proper connectivity at least across the city and ensure the customers get the promised speeds!
Well. Every growth in any sector welcomes the term 'Developed' for India. So lets welcome 4G as well.
Its a welcome step. It would be the target for govt that all current mobile users be migrated to 4G by 2015, so that true objective of e-governance can be achieved.
It would be great if the so called "3G" services would work like 3G services before we move one rung up the technology ladder!
People are not using 3G so much these days. Why 4G?
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