Several key developments in this month bring to the fore that India will be the next plane on which the technology battles of 802.16e and TD-LTE will be played. While Intel has a headstart with the 802.16e flag ahead in the race with its deployment-ready eco-system including devices and BS infrastructure, what is up the sleeve of Qualcomm? The latter has brought in Tulip - the tech-neutral ISP and Global (which owns tower firm GTL) as partners and will seek a cellular partner for sure down the road. Qualcomm's objective is to demonstrate TD-LTE as a functional mobile technology which provides a forward path to 3G / EVDO players.

On another front, NSN's acquisition of Motorola Networks Division brings in an interesting twist to the tale of 'technology camps' and how life can change for a tech company! When Nokia exited the WiMAX camp little did it realize that someday it would be brought back into the camp. With Motorola being a top vendor in 802.16x technology there is suddenly a reason that NSN may have an offering in the Indian BWA space. This actually might be good news to both - finally Motorola could get to sell its real solutions to Indian market something it never managed to do on its own! Thus, NSN joins the 'dual-tech camp' - Huawei, Samsung and perhaps ZTE that can offer both options to Indian BWA licensees. They will be the only ones who will tell the operators: choice is yours; network is ours!

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Updates on operators

• Videocon
  • Videocon has ordered 10 million excess capacity for IN(Intelligent Network) & SMSC
  • Their IN network is managed by Aricent Technologies and their equipment vendor for IN is Comverse
  • Their SMSC is supplied by Ascision.
    
• Uninor
  • Uninor has launched GSM operations in 5 circles namely:
    Metro:
    • Mumbai
    • Kolkata
    Circle-A:
    • Maharashtra
    • Gujarat
    Circle-B:
    • W.B. & A&N
• Aircel
  • Aircel has launched GSM operations in 2 circles namely:
    Circle-B
    • Haryana
    • MP

Updates on Devices

• Mobile Handsets:
  Huawei, Oscar Electronics , MVL Telecom, Philips India has launched new handsets in the Indian market.
• Basestations:
  • On the Network side:
    Telecommunications vendors are hoping to offer a smooth transition for the operators to offer dual mode LTE/WiMAX for their customers both at the network level and subscriber-end. Basestation vendors are trying to provide equipments which can support both LTE & WiMAX technologies.It's been researched that there is a lot of re-useable hardware in a WiMAX base station that can be used for manufacturing an LTE base stations too.Since both WiMAX & LTE use OFDM technology , a dual mode basestation supporting both WiMAX & LTE can be developed.
  • At the End user/Subscriber end:
    WiMAX CPE's,dongles is made compatible with LTE ,thus making it to operate in dual mode-LTE/WiMAX.
    One of the WiMAX vendors, Alvarion is venturing to provide these kind of dual mode devices for the Indian market.
    

Deployments of 3G and WiMAX networks will generate a profitable user base over the next 5 year period, before noticeable LTE deployments begin to make an impact in India, according to the latest research by Maravedis and Tonse Telecom. more

LightSquared, unveiled its plans to launch a wholesale-only, 4G-LTE network across the U.S. complemented by satellite -only, terrestrial-only, or integrated satellite-terrestrial services to their end users. more

Google phones accounted for 27 percent of U.S. smartphone sales, nudging past the 23 percent share held by Apple.  more

RIM runs into trouble in India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Lebanon and Algeria. more

Nokia, Samsung, LG Lead Rising Q2 Handset Sales

Handset shipments reached 308 million units, up 13 percent from 273 million units a year earlier. Driving this forward motion, said the firm, were high-end 3G touch phones in developed markets and lower-end 2G handsets in emerging ones. more