By mid-2008, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, BSNL, will offer CDMA services to mobile users across the country.
The application rendered by BSNL for a full-fledged CDMA mobility license has been approved. Since BSNL is State-owned, it was exempted from shelling out Rs 1,651-crores entry fee, performance bank guarantee fee etc for the CDMA license.
“The initial investment for this project will be approximately $500 million,” said BSNL CMD, Kuldeep Goyal.
BSNL aims to capture the low price market by launching handsets priced at Rs.1000 and below.
It is in talks with Taiwanese and Chinese handset manufacturers for rolling out the sub-Rs 1,000 handset, which will be offered on the GSM platform.
The telco will sell the mobiles under the ‘BSNL phones’ banner.Sources say that the mobiles will be based on single-chip technology. The SIM card will be non-removable and the mobile will remain on the BSNL network only. BSNL is not targeting the top-end market very aggressively. BSNL sees a low-cost handset a key to increase the market share.
It even expects a reasonable return of 12-14%.
Currently, the cheapest handset in India is monophonic and monochromic (black and white). It is on the GSM platform and is priced at Rs 1700. It offers only basic features. The cheapest CDMA handset is available for Rs 1,999.
via [ET]
