Motorola Eyeing WiMAX in India - Analyst Blog

Motorola Inc. (MOT), a leading manufacturer of mobile broadband infrastructure system to the wireless service providers, is negotiating with several mobile operators of India to install a nationwide WiMAX network. The government of India has decided to allocate spectrum for the WiMAX network together with 3G technologies. WiMAX has the potential to offer data download sped twice as fast as 3G.

 

Next month, the government of India will auction two slots of 20 MHz spectrums for broadband wireless access. A total of 11 companies are expected to take place in the bidding process. These include leading wireless service providers of India such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Plc. (VOD), Idea Cellular, Tata Communications Ltd. (TCL) and Reliance Communications. WiMAX will offer 30 Mbps data download speed compared to just 14 Mbps available in 3G. Motorola is a key developer of WiMAX network solutions with a cumulative WiMAX CPE shipment of over 650,000.

 

Through WiMAX, broadband service providers will offer an alternative to cable and digital subscriber lines technology. The technology provides a low-cost, open network system with an all-IP mobile Internet solution that enables efficient and scalable network for voice, data, and video transmission. WiMAX has enormous potential to close the digital gap between competitive urban markets and underserved rural markets.

 

Motorola had already started conducting initial trial runs for WIMAX in several location of India. This country has the second largest wireless subscriber after China and is mostly under-penetrated. However, Motorola failed to nurture India perfectly for 2G wireless network infrastructure implementation. The company lost the game to both LM Ericsson AB (ERIC) and Nokia Siemens Network, a 50-50 joint venture between Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI). Even, Chinese giants Hewai Technologies and ZTE are quickly gaining market share in India.

 

In this situation, it is of utmost importance for Motorola to take some extra initiative to get a meaningful foothold in the upcoming high-speed 3Gand 4G markets of India. Both of these will be lucrative opportunities.