Reliance Industries, India's industrial conglomerate that snatched up startup ISP Infotel Broadband Services after it won the lone nationwide BWA license for $2.74 billion, now plans to deploy WiMAX in the 2.3 GHz band instead of TD-LTE technology.
Following the conclusion of the auction in June, Reliance indicated it would use TD-LTE technology, just as Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) had declared to use TD-LTE in the markets it won licenses.
It appears that TD-LTE isn't as mature as once thought, especially for the Indian market, which needs cheaper equipment to compete for the mass market. Reliance cannot afford to wait until that happens to tap into the highly underserved Indian market. According to a report in Rethink Wireless, which cites unnamed company sources, Reliance has begun to trial WiMAX, including a testing kit from Alvarion and and Samsung.
Other winners of last month's auction were Aircel, which won eight circles, Bharti Airtel, which one four, Tikona in five and Augere in one circle. Tikona and Augere are committed to WiMAX while the two companies have not yet made a decision.
For more:
- see this Rethink Wireless article
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