3G in India – A Marketing Gimmick or a Game Changing Technology

3G Technology made a lot of waves in India after the government managed to reap a huge windfall  in auctioning off the airwaves required for using the 3G Technology.India’s big telecom providers like Airtel,Tata Docomo etc. bid savagely  for this precious resource.In the end it remains questionable whether the government really gained from the Rs 100,000 crores it got.Critics say that to recuperate this massive expenditure,companies will provide 3G services at very expensive rates making communication in India  an overall loser.However it remains to be seen as leading providers Airtel and Tata DocoMo start providing 3G services in 2010 itself.Note Docomo is one of the 3-4 Japanese telecom giants which has implemented  3G Technology a few years ago which proved to be a big success.While Japan has had a good 3G experience,other countries did not have it so good.In UK it pretty much turned out to be a cropper.It remains to be seen whether in India it can be a success or not.

What is 3G Technology

3G Technology is in fact a collection of technologies like CDMA,W-CDMA,TD-SCDMA and  HSPA+.All these technolgies have to be compliant with a specificiation known as IMT-2000 specification.While there is a lot of other technical stuff to describle 3G,in simple layman’s term 3G technologies provide faster data speeds than the normal 2G technoligies being used in India right now.

Is 3G a Marketing Gimmick

3G can be looked upon as a Marketing Gimmick by Telecom providers to boost their subscriber numbers in an increasingly commoditzed field where there is very little to discriminate between an Aircel and a Uninor connection.Note 3G is not providing any game changing application or feature,it just offers you more data speed.So its like moving from a dial-up connection in your computer to a fast broadband connection.This enables you to access more applications like video on demand,video chat etc.Its not like a iPhone which allowed a fundamental new feature like the Touch capability.In a lot of countries like UK is has proved to be a damp squib with 3G not really creating any excitement for telecom users.

Can it be a Game Changing Technology in India

The success of 3G Technology is very specific to a region and the players who are providing the services.In India  3G has the potential to be a Game Changer provided  that it is executed well by the companies.The most important of which will be the tariffs because India is a very price sensitive country with 80% of the population living under $2/day.However if done well it can prove to a great value adder to India.The reason is India is severely under-penetrated in PCs and Internet technology compared to other countries at similar development levels like China.However mobiles are quite ubiquitous and mobiles could become the defacto Internet consumption devices in comparison to PCs and laptops in the rest of the world.Note Smartphones are no longer a niche super expensive device with small Indian players like Micromax,Spice coming out with cheap Android smartphones which can leverage 3G speed .In India’s hypercompetitive telecom market,3G provides a great importunity for both telecom companies and consumers to revolutionize the consumption  of Internet.