3G stake holders in India

I thought the following information from my previous post deserved more attention. I just loved the talk from Mr. N. Chandrasekhar (BSNL, Karnataka). At times you wonder why BSNL is not doing much better today in spite of having very experienced & committed people.

The stakeholders of 3G in India (and possibly in any country are),

• Customer – wants reduction in tariff & better experience on the mobile.
• Network operator – wants increase in tariff! They see revenues going down & customer expectations going up. Currently network/mobile operators in India are a little worried about the number portability as they could see customers moving out in view of customer service issues. They are unsure if their revenues, ARPU, customer base will increase because of 3G. They truly hope so.
• Device manufacture – When India moved from 1G (analog) to 2G (digital) they saw an infection point. Now they expect 3G to bring another infection point. Handset folks want to increase rates of 3G handsets but operators want them to be reduced as it will increase the 3G user base. You can get a 3G mobile handset at Rs 4000-5000 today.
• Content developer – Many companies are now planning on developing content for this 3G user base (video streaming, local content etc). They are looking forward to the IP based network. Content developer are not sure what the revenue share will be with network operators (we know who will win this war)
• Govt – the big daddy of all, they would like to get at least Rs 45,000 crore from 3G spectrum auctioning. Govt is keen on 3G because every new 3G connection has twice the effect of a new 2G connection. When tele density crosses 20% it will help the GDP. Govt is keen on narrowing the Digital Divide by which tele-medicine & remote education will take off.