"While operators in India and Brazil are optimistic about potential 3G licensing by the year-end, we believe there is substantial risk to this timeline given the ongoing issues related to spectrum and licensing costs. In addition, the 3G deployments will primarily be driven by voice capacity requirements in the medium term, which limit deployments to large urban areas," global equity research firm Credit Suisse said in its 'India Telecom Tour' report.
It further said as 3G handset prices is likely to limit demand to the high end of the market for at least next few years, there is limited evidence that WCDMA handsets will represent a substantial portion of handset shipments to these markets over the next three to five years.
The issues which remain to be addressed include the potential cost of 3G spectrum (if any) the frequency to be allocated with the most logical solution based on international standards appearing to be 2100 Mhz for GSM and 1900 Mhz for CDMA operators and any limitation on the timing and scope of 3G services, which is most relevant for CDMA operators who have the technical capabilities to deploy EVDO today.