India will hop and skip to superior tech

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: Indian urban market is as demanding as any other developed nation, which has been proved by the success of some of the applications like CRBT and music downloads. 3G brings in a broadband pipe to the wireless device, thereby enabling launch of bandwidth intensive services such as video streaming and mobile TV. Value-added services such as video on demand would be on segmented customers’ most favoured list when India embraces 3G.

With the government focus on driving broadband penetration and initiatives like e-governance and m-commerce, 3G shall help customers to take advantages of such initiatives. In fact, 3G would further enable the government to achieve the target of 20 million by 2010. As has been proved in the rest of the world, voice and data cards (internet access) are the most sticky mass market 3G applications. There are also a host of other niche applications which have helped 3G. There is enough bandwidth available for multitude of applications to run at 3G gives us the liberty to launch specifically targeted applications and not worry about the mass adaptation of the application. With entertainment being big business in India, 3G with its multimedia applications capabilities does offer a huge potential opportunity. We shall have to see how things evolve in this space.

However, the journey ahead will not be bereft of some challenges. One of the impediments on the technological front is around affordability and availability of terminals, that is, handsets/data cards etc. Generally the terminal technology has followed the infrastructural technology.

Today, you get handsets for less than $20 in India, which is the lowest across the world. A small percentage of handsets in India are 3G compatible. However, 3G will set similar price point thresholds for itself. As per my understanding, a sub-$50 3G compatible handset should work well with the consumers. Handset manufacturers have supported the market by their unique price offerings for India. I expect them to extend the same support for 3G as well.

Another challenge is of educating the consumer about the various applications on offer. India is country of multiple languages and one has to make sure to communicate services in the different languages. In fact, it will be customer experience that will determine the stickiness of content and applications for 3G.