WiMax in India

Tata Communications has announced that it will invest $ 500 million for its wireless broadband venture on WiMax platform and has entered into a partnership with U.S based Telsima for equipments.The company will finish the investment by 2010 and is in talks with investors to sell minority stake in retail business.The firm selected Telsima to provide Wimax infrastructure and subscriber equipment solutions to deploy commercial Wimax network, with 3,000 base station sectors already getting deployed, which will enable customers to access video, education, music and business services.Tata Communications is the first service provider to launch broadband services on the Wimax platform on a large scale for retail consumers in India. In the initial phase, Tata Communications’ Wimax network will offer broadband Internet access and content services to enterprises and residential customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.
With a population of 1.2 billion people and just 3.1 million broadband subscribers, India is in desperate need of broadband connectivity. And with the absence of 3G cellular data services in the country, WiMax presents the opportunity to improve broadband penetration.
Tata isn't the only operator with WiMax plans in India. Some have described the market as being poised for a WiMax "big bang" as operators prefer to build out significant portions of their networks before making formal launch announcements. Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNL)recently unveiled plans to spend $750 million on WiMax. Meantime, Reliance Communications Limited another Telsima customer, is also planning to deploy WiMax.