The years 2012–15 will be the take off period for 3G. Beyond 2015, TD-LTE will have created a strong foothold in India’s 4G market.

The holders of BWA spectrum are Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Aircel, Tikona, Augere, MTNL, BSNL and Bharti Airtel (which is also gradually acquiring Qualcomm’s licences).

In India, the major BWA spectrum holders like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Aircel are still conducting TD-LTE trials and testing equipment.

At the end of March 2012, Aircel was yet to finalize its choice of infrastructure suppliers for the rollout of its TD-LTE network. According to unconfirmed reports, RIL has decided to make Nagpur-Maharastra the hub for its 4G operations.Trials are set to begin for services at the RIL complex in Jamnagar in Q2 2012.

The other state carrier, BSNL, is yet to make an official statement on whether to embrace TD-LTE or not. For BSNL, WiMAX has been largely a failure. The operators’ plans to roll out WiMAX using a franchisee model flopped over procedural, legal and other punitive charges. The operator is currently focused on better rollout and consolidation in the 3G space and does not want to stretch itself in the WiMAX domain. BSNL, as the only company which ended up adopting the WiMAX platform in India, was also confronted with the possibility of isolation from an interoperability and roaming perspective. BSNL’s proposal for the surrender of BWA spectrum means the end of WiMAX in India.

At the end of May 2012, Bharti Airtel had launched TD-LTE commercial networks in Kolkatta and Bengaluru in India. Despite these first 4G launches, Maravedis-Rethink does not expect huge uptake of TD-LTE services before the end of 2013.