One of the pioneers in the field of internet services in India, the Tata Group owned Tata Communications continues to enhance its offerings to its customers by continuously adopting to new technologies and solutions. The company was among the few players to offer dial-up based internet services in the country when internet services were introduced in the country and in its pursuit to offer advanced internet services to a larger segment of the population, the company is now banking on WiMAX.

The company justifies its claim to bank on WiMAX technology with the help of the diagram as shown:

Company VP Planning (BRBU), Prateek Pashine says in an interaction with TelecomTiger, "The scale of unmet demand coupled with the emphasis on connectivity for education and the increasing ability to purchase Internet services will ensure that WiMAX broadband networks will thrive in this market. Improved spectrum options, low cost end user devices and market friendly tariffs can make WiMAX a success in India."

Tata Communications has entered into a technological collaboration with Telsima Corp for WiMAX solutions and the company has already launched its WiMAX-based wireless broadband services for its enterprise customers in about 30 cities and for consumers in Bangalore, Faridabad and Ghaziabad with an aim to extend its reach to 115 cities for enterprise offerings and 15 cities for retail consumers.

With the policy framework for WiMAX to be announced soon, Mr. Pashine points out to certain issues which may prove bottleneck to the growth of wireless internet services in the country. For instance the company wants the new framework to permit end-users with an option to choose CPE and also do away with the current practice of issuing license per base station. The company also feels that the procedural hassles of importing 3.3 GHz prevent WiMAX CPEs from being imported freely and easily.

Additionally the company says that the present license fees levied on per CPE basis does not follows the revenue sharing model as being followed for other telecom services and this results in an annual fee which is almost equal to two months of ARPU.

Mr. Pashine sums up by saying that WiMAX promises to play the central role amongst wireless technologies in converting this country into an INTERNET SUPERHIGHWAY economy.