Last month, when Qualcomm decided to bid for BWA auctions in India, skeptics raised eyebrows over the decision. Though Qualcomm had history in participating spectrum auctions, India auctions aren’t going to be easy. The same has been outlined in latest ABI Research report by Bhavya Khanna, where author maintains that the Qualcomm’s BWA bid faces several obstacles; before and after successful bidding.
Recently, Mr. Chetan Patil, eminent blogger, reported that WiMAX forum India has opposed the Qualcomm’s entry into BWA space. The WiMAX forum has sighted reason that Qualcomm doesn’t hold enough experience in the domain and India might lose precious time and resource, if spectrum is awarded to Qualcomm. But glitch here is that Notice Inviting Applicants doesn’t put any constrain over use of technology in 2.3 Ghz space, which is reserved for BWA. Till date, most of the bidders in BWA space have expressed interest in favor of WiMAX, except Qualcomm who is in favor of not-so-mature TD-LTE standard. Qualcomm may overcome the technology hurdle, as only constrain to use of technology in BWA space is that, technology should be approved by ITU, TEC or any other international organization. LTE has strong backing of Qualcomm and GSMA, so overcoming technology hurdle doesn’t pose much of a challenge. But then, there are some regulatory hurdles, which aren’t going to be easy to overcome:
- Qualcomm has to find out a local partner, as spectrum will be awarded only to local company. (Qualcomm’s search for Indian partner is underway)
- Qualcomm needs to acquire 26{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} of stack in this local partner. This requires lots of serious commitment from both partner’s perspective.
- And even if Qualcomm wins the spectrum, it needs to full-fill stringent roll-out constrains like 90{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} of urban geographical area should be covered within 5 years of auction along with 50{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} of rural area.
BWA spectrum auctions come with stringent requirements of high rural coverage and as said by ABI researcher, if Qualcomm overcomes first two hurdles, it would be in-charge of world’s largest LTE roll-outs till date. Certainly, it won’t be easy to roll out LTE BTSs in rural India. I should be calling it gimmick!
Finally, let’s assume all these hurdles are overcome, then how Qualcomm is aiming to recover investments? Making a successful data case in non-urban areas is yet to be demonstrated. Many established players like Airtel, Tata etc are in favor of 3G. At the end, where LTE has no existing voice carrying standard, convincing local partner to roll-out LTE services for data usage won’t be easy. Qualcomm, what you need is proven (mature?) standard and demonstrated ability of LTE roll-outs. Just wait & watch!
