SOMA Networks Inc announced that it has been chosen by Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Ltd (BSNL), India's state-owned and largest telecommunications company, to deploy an 802.16e-2005 broadband wireless network.

The new wireless broadband infrastructure will provide data and voice services to a service area reaching more than 200 million people across three of India's fastest-growing telecom circles: Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, and Andhra Pradesh.

The Indian government established the "Vision 2010" mandate to make broadband services ubiquitous and turn India into a global information technology force. The future BSNL services are expected to help realize that goal. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for India published a 10 point program for growth including the growth of mobile subscribers to 500 million by 2010 and the intent to take a leading role in the introduction of WiMAX technologies across India.

Tonse Telecom and Maravedis recently released research on WiMAX in the India market, predicting that 21 million subscribers would have 802.16-based WiMAX services by 2014. "Vendors, operators, and system integrators are coming together like never before to work with whatever is available to trigger a bandwidth revolution," said Sridhar Pai, founder of Tonse Telecom. "2008 could well become the 'Year of Wireless Broadband' for India."

With a rapidly growing middle class and highly educated population, India currently has an enormous unmet demand for broadband services. By deploying SOMA Networks' end-to-end Mobile WiMAX solution, BSNL will bring a full range of multimedia services to the areas over the next three years.

By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology

source:wimax.com