China-headquartered Huawei Technologies is planning to offer its 4G solutions to support broadband operators in India by December 2011. The company is in talks with Indian operators such asMukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for rolling out Long-Term Evolution (4G) solutions.
A 4G system provides IP-based mobile broadband solutions to laptops, computers, wireless modems, smartphones and other mobile devices. Huawei is working on LTE solutions since 2005.
Mr Ying Weimen, President of GSM, UMT and LTE network at Huawei, said: “We are bullish on our entry in India which will be by December 2011. We expect full fledged roll out of LTE network by 2012.”
Huawei's foray into LTE broadband solutions and 4G technologies indicate its shift toward new verticals in the fast growing telecom sector in the country.
4G dongles
Meanwhile, the company is planning to introduce chipsets for 4G dongles by this year-end in India and will later move on to offer chipsets for terminals, smartphones and tablets. It plans to manufacture one lakh such 4G-enabled devices – primarily dongles – by the end of this year.
Mr Weimen added that Huawei is looking forward to an increase in penetration of mobile broadband and wireless access including the demand for tablets (which require larger bandwidths) for gaining a foothold in the LTE segment.
“The 3G spectrum available in India is very small and does not allow much scope for the operators to provide high speed downloads. As a result, there is bound to be an early shift to 4G networks,” he said.
New Geographies
Along with India, the company is also planning to enter the North America and South African markets with its LTE offerings. The company plans to compete with US-based Qualcom, in the field of wireless networking solutions.
Huawei had clocked revenues of $28 billion (Rs 1,26,000 crore) in 2010. The company follows the calendar year for accounting purposes.
Huawei's first commercial deployment of LTE technology outside China took place in 2009 when it was selected as a vendor by the Norwegian telecom operator TeliaSoneria and later to Vodafone Germany.