Reliance goes with Samsung on sourcing WiMax Equipment

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), after having won spectrum for providing broadband wireless access (BWA) services in the 22 telecom circles through its subsidiary Infotel Broadband, will now use WiMax technology rather than long term evolution (LTE) BWA technology. RIL entered into an agreement to acquire a substantial stake in Infotel Broadband Services (P) Ltd, owned by the son of Mahendra Nahata, managing director of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL). They had invested about Rs 4,800 crore by way of subscription to fresh equity capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. Post this investment, RIL owns 95% of the equity and Infotel Broadband which is now a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. From what we have heard from a trusted source,” Infotel has now finalized the technology and is in an advanced stage of negotiations with Samsung for sourcing WiMax equipment." The Korean giant is a player both in network equipment as well as WiMax handsets business. The source further said, "Reliance Infotel has been conducting WiMax trials for the last couple of months." Samsung has already provided equipment to 56 mobile operators in 34 countries including Clearwire in US, UQ Communications in Japan and YTL Communications in Malaysia. Infotel deciding to go with WiMax will act as a saviour for the technology, which has received several setbacks in the recent past. Earlier, players such as Yota in Russia and Sprint in USA have announced plans to go forward with LTE thus leaving Wi Max stranded. It will also deal a body blow to short term LTE prospects in India. Samsung also makes a range of electronic equipment such as USB dongles, embedded devices and mobile phones. It has developed several devices with combinations of WiMax, GSM, CDMA and WiFi for connectivity. Since RIL has chosen Samsung, it is clear that deployment will be on the mobile WiMax platform and not fixed WiMax standard. However, despite most operators keeping the option of using both technologies open, it is still unclear as to whether Reliance Infotel will keep the doors open for LTE in the future or not.