With just a week away from closing applications for BWA Airwaves Auction, Qualcomm Executives from San Diego are busy wooing Indian Telecom Operators [Reliance Communications and Tata Indicom] to throw their weight behind Qualcomm which is keen on pushing Wireless Broadband using the LTE / 4G technology in India.
India and 4G ? No, we are not kidding, the TRAI has made it clear that BWA Waves / Spectrum is technology Neutral. Until now, Intel with its mighty and lobbying approach made sure that operators go with WiMax based infrastructure to provide Wireless Broadband Services. With the sudden entry of Qualcomm, the battle for broadband has heated up.
We are not sure if the Spectrum of 2.3GHz earmarked for BWA by DoT will be suitable or not for LTE or not.
You are right because I just noticed on DoT website a Q&A of potential Bidders in which one asks,
We were wondering if you could tell us whether a 100% foreign investor could participate as an New Entrant Applicant
in the auction with an undertaking to introduce an Indian shareholder pursuant to the allocation of a spectrum. This
would give us more time to select the right Indian partner if we were to wait until we are a Winning Bidder.
Besides it seems that the only FDI restriction provided by the FIPB is related to the ISP license A terms which
only apply when a Winning Bidder is granted the ISP license A. Also as an ISP license A and assuming that the licensee is not rolling out an international gateway it will not be required any Indian ownership. Is that the way we should read it?