3 G services- Why the hoopla?

A lot has been said about the 3 G services. It is claimed that it would usher us in the “next generation of Wireless access”.

Frankly, I have my reservations about the same. First, there has been enough noise about the spectrum allocation. The economic dailies see read all over; charges of favouritism against Reliance are cropping up all over again. It is rare to see the Business dailies agreeing in tnadem over a particular issue. However, a post in Business Standard on 11th may gets reported in Financial Express on 12 th may This again is a big blow to journalistic freedom. The details are out of scope here and I strongly suspect that it is paid for media exposure again- the usual suspects indeed.

Without going in details, it is imperative to understand that there is a strong case for NOT allowing the 3G services. First and foremost is the revenue model. The 3G phones are going to be more expensive. Then, these companies would be hammer and tongs to advertise- the rural plans are going to take a hit all over again. It is clearly elitist to think about the “next generation” wireless broadband; the same was hammered about GPRS. Everyone knows as to how it sucks big time.

There is no substitute for Wireline broadband. A post by Abhinav needs a mention here. He writes about Dishnet and it’s roll out plans.The details are a bit sketchy though. However, it seems that WiFi would still take time to reach the end user premises.

Spectrum, favourtisim and ineffectual regulatory regime. Dont we have enough nonsense in this Telecom world?