Fuelled by investments by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, and Augere, TD-LTE subscriber adoption in India will reach 5 million by 2013.

Though at the end of 2011, there were 900 million mobile subscribers, the market is fragmented, with more than 70 3G licensed circles. Considerable expectations were placed on 4G WiMAX, which failed to materialize.

ABI Research said WCDMA and TD-LTE subscriber adoption will eclipse 90 million and 5 million by 2013, respectively.

LTE offers the potential to change the cost equation of delivering mobile data services through increased spectral efficiency - not just in dense, urban communities but also rural towns and villages.

Recently, Infotel Broadband Services (Infotel), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, picked up a 38.5 percent stake in Extramarks Education, a company focused on school education and digital learning.

The investment by Infotel will enable Extramarks pursue its aggressive growth plans in further developing services and wider market penetration. Extramarks\' digital distribution model will provide invaluable services to the student community across age groups including education support and study help at affordable prices.

Bharti Airtel will deploy its TD-LTE network in the 2.3 GHz frequency band allocated by the Indian government for broadband wireless access technologies.

"The Indian mobile subscriber market has demonstrated strong growth in the past decade or so, but when it comes to the adoption of mobile data services, the results are more mixed. Yes, total wireless data subscribers stood at more than 370 million at the end of 2011, but only 17 million had access to WCDMA services; the rest are being served by GPRS/EDGE," said Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting.

There are a number of challenges to kick-starting the Indian mobile broadband market. The large landmass and population are two substantial reasons, but India\'s low average monthly revenue per user ($3-5) also constrains cash flow to fund infrastructure investments.

Despite challenges, Indian operators are executing a number of initiatives.

These initiatives include: offloading their capital and operating expenditure-intensive base station towers to tower management companies; forging relationships with not just Nokia, Samsung, and LG, but also lower cost handset manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Micromax, and G\'Five; repackaging their data plans into more affordable, lower-tier options; introducing not just low-cost tablets, but also 3G data plans; encouraging local apps developers to create local software apps and content.

"While 3G services are only now establishing a toehold in the Indian market, operators such as Aircel, Augure, and Infotel are turning to TD-LTE, a 4G technology of the time division variant, to help address the market potential for mobile data services," said Philip Solis, research director, mobile devices.

Source: Telecom Lead