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India gets excited about WiMAX Mobile

It's going to look like brilliant news for WiMAX as a serious mobile wireless technology: all the big players are setting up R&D and even manufacturing in India.

The story, as summarised by local reporter Durba Ghosh, lists Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Telsima, Beceem, Wavesat and Motorola as "increasingly looking at India as one of the bases for WiMax software development and also to house their manufacturing facilities in the near future." Ghosh says:

"According to industry estimates, network majors who have manufacturing and R&D facilities have already led a combined investment of close to $2 billion in India towards WiMax."

However, sceptics say that the news is good news for WiMAX - in India.

"It's an archetypal WiMAX market; lots of low capital expenditure on infrastructure, and still mostly, low-income users," said a former Vodafone consultant who has worked with that operator in the territory. "It's not much guide to whether there's a change in fortunes for WiMAX in the developed world, and many will remain sceptical there. But it's probably a sign that India will deploy more mobile WiMAX."