Its just a race. Both are fast, but who will reach the masses faster?? 

So all the big guns world wide have decided that its time to take a stand. What is the future of 3G? And the ever lasting battle between WiMAX and HSDPA is making the choice for providers even more difficult.

Having said that its a surprise to know that in India, 3G itself has a bleak future. The government is undecided on whether there should be spectum. The defence does not wish to relinquish spectrum. I mean how much of the air waves are they going to hog and for what? The government has already started the allocation though and operators have already tested their equipment. All they need now is the policy in place and India will witness a 3G bang.

But WiMax is facing no such difficulty. In fact according to a release: 

“Telecommunications in India is moving to Next Generation Networks that would provide affordable broadband connections with several features. Wi-Max, would be an integral part of this transformation that would provide high bandwidth within long ranges from hot spots to cover the entire country by 2010.”

So, WiMax is really picking up speed and looks to a preference over 3G. Not necessarily a good option but the odds at rolling it out are higher. In fact there were about WiMax rollout by You Telecom, Sify, Reliance among others!!

 ”There is no doubt that WiMAX is the way forward, in case India needs to reach out to all of its population within the stipulated time frame, it needs to act now,”said Dr. Mo Shakouri, VP & Chair Marketing Working Group, WiMAX Forum. According to Dr. Shakouri the way Internet was converging into communications and also making radical shift in socio-economic relations, the deployment of WiMAX would make a huge impact on the Indian economy. Already there are over 400 operators globally for WiMAX technology.”

CDMA has been a great option for Wireless Broadband and looks like a sureshot option. But given the fact there are technicalities involved and spectrum issues faced, it may take longer. CDMA is tried and tested, and WiMax is not as flawless as CDMA. But the fact that WiMax is already rolled out, gives it an edge.

Whats your take?

by: pepster