Reliance CDMA upgrading to 4G/LTE

@jhinkees wrote:

@abcwevr762

Bro only 4 circles were left- Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. On April 6th, 2016, cabinet gave nod to DoT liberalize RCOM spectrum in these circles for the price suggested by TRAI. So they will pay up Rs.1300 crores soon to liberalize it and we know elder brother Mukesh Ambani will pay for it.

The best I can hope for now is I will use 4G sim on J7 if plans are same or just little costly. But Rs.5 daily plan was a gem to get more data along with monthly pack. Used 20GB by paying only 200.

4G sims to be available in my area in May as per Reliance Mobile Store person.

what are current offers in Punjab circle??which sim should I buy to use cheap high speed net?

@jhinkees wrote:

@thrifty_indian wrote:


Yes, technically CDMA is superior. The maximum data speed over CDMA is 3.1 Mbps which was equivalent to HSDPA speeds. Hence, the CDMA companies didn’t have to pay a single paisa for 3G speeds neither did they have to spend a paisa over laying infrastructure for providing broadband. But still they charged the same tariff in India as over 3G network. Making huge profits. Now Reliance has already announced major tariff cuts for it’s 4G data service making them maintaining their shrinking CDMA (customer database) not a profitable proposition. TRAI also has realised it’s mistake to let go the huge auction opportunity they passed over and now they are not keen not doing that again. Soon new auctions for 800 mhz will require the old CDMA players win the auction to continue their CDMA network. Again not a wise decision for them instead they will likely expand their GSM/LTE services on the 800 mhz band.

With EV-Do Rev. B max. achievable speed was 9.8 or 14+ Mbps. They did upgrade network at some places but still there were less takers. You said their tariffs were same as that of 3G and they made huge profits as they didn’t had to pay for spectrum as GSM operators did for 3G. This is totally wrong. Now see why. CDMA operators offered 20-40GB @ Rs. 999 to 1199 which no GSM 3G operator ever gave. RCDMA data offer for CDMA users were 94- 1GB and 246-4GB sibce 2013 and same way Tata offered 4GB at EV-Do Rev. A speed for Rs. 246. At same time 3G operators charged 246 for 1GB. Between 2009-2013 Reliance provided 30GB of data @Rs. 2999 for 6 months. But still they were not in profits as most of the users were with GSM operators. Why in 2007 RCOM took GSM spectrum was only because they were not able to attract users to CDMA due to CDMA’s own limitation which I mentioned before also.

The amount of spectrum held by CDMA operator was just 15% of what other GSM operators were holding in different bands 900/1800 MHz and then there came 2100 MHz for 3G. CDMA operators never get 1900 MHz band to expand. In some circles they just had 2.5 MHz and DoT even after 10 years didn’t gave access to airwaves in many districts to Tata.

GSM operators held and used their spectrum for 20 years for low cost and then auction started while CDMA 20 years are yet to complete. If GSM operators were allowed to complete their period for 20 years then why ask CDMA to pay more. COAI then started crying by saying CDMA operators were profited without going into fact that 95% of users were on GSM in India. So they can’t be blamed over this fact.

As far as huge profits are concerned if that was the case with Anil Ambani’s RCOM, Mukesh Ambani wouldn’t have paid fees for spectrum liberalization which he did recently. RCOM failed to fund expansion of GSM/3G network due to heavy losses. The 800 MHz spectrum valid till 2022 and 2027 in some circles is now actually owned by RJio.

Same way Tata didn’t make profits from CDMA although tower infrastructure required for CDMA was less due to 800 MHz band but when you fail to get users, you can’t run a business. MTS knew that CDMA is failing in India but they participated in 800 MHz auction so as to recover the cost they invested before their license was quashed by SC and they decided to merge with RCOM at right time. MTS spectrum is already liberalized and valid till 2032.

RCOM has taken a good decision by first liberalizing spectrum for remaining period and now bringing 4G using the same band. Although this band can cover more area but higher speeds are not possible on it. With MIMO also you can achieve max. 36 Mbps and not more than that. For true 4G speed 2300 MHz is most suitable but it has coverage problems.

Mukesh Ambani’s RJIO holds 5 MHz of spectrum in 800 MHz band for 10 circles which they won in 2015 auctions and is valid till 2035. Also RCOM bought some spectrum in 2015 like in Haryana, Punjab they got 1.25 MHz which is valid till 2035.

Next time when they need to renew it, RJio will win that and by then RJio will be running RCOM’s operations completely. There will be no hara-kiri as others operator won’t go for 800 MHz ever as they will look for 700 MHz band rather than going for 800/850 MHz.

I don’t know where to start. You messed up the post. First you argue and counter-argue yourself. Last part of your post is totally irrelevant.

1. I didn’t say about overall profit. I was clearly talking about profit from internet data. They did made huge profits over data or they wouldn’t have margin to lower the tariff when in recent years the competition stiffened. The overall loss is because of their shrinking customer base… but a different argument.
2. Your tariff plans are very vague. MTS offered 10GB data for Rs.800 until they had to pull from many states and so almost did Tata photon and Reliance CDMA. The tariff plans you mentioned came in effect in recent years after competitive rates. Most services had the same plan for 3G data too.
3. ISPs like BSNL/Reliance/Aircel did offer 1GB 3G data for similar tariff ranging from Rs.68 to Rs.130
4. You can’t really compare between the customer base of CDMA and GSM because GSM is present Pan-India while CDMA has very limited coverage.
5. Yes, the reason for switching to GSM was the spectrum. Military was never ready to give up 800mhz making choices difficult for players like Reliance to stick to CDMA. Note: Reliance began their telecom service with CDMA, remember the Rs,800 handset which came with ultra cheap plans (Kar lo dunia muthi mein!). Why would they felt the need to switch when they had their CDMA customer base ready? As you said, TRAI didn’t give them extra spectrum to operate and hence CDMA market died a silent death. And that’s the reason for Reliance to surrender the spectrum before the tenure is over. BSNL is following the suit to minimise their loss. You have to know that after winning the spectrums companies do have to file the audit for the spectrum too. You can’t win the spectrum and sit on it not making any use of it. For current CDMA players it makes total sense to liberalise the non profit making spectrum as the CDMA customers are scarce now.

RCom and RJio also have itnerconnect and spectrum sharing agreement. So RCom LTE would also piggyback on RJio LTE. Effectively RCom+RJio would be offering LTE over Band 5 (850) + Band 3 (1800) + Band 40 (2300). It is also expected that VoLTE would be offered by RCom. Right now only few handsets are available in the market that supports Band 3 + Band 5 + Band 40 + VoLTE.
RCom (ADAG) has taken over MTS. So in cities where MTS is functioning, RCom has 5+5 Mhz spectrum. In those cities, they may still continue with EVDO, at least for some time, using the MTS spectrum. In all other circles CDMA operations are being shut down in a phased manner. Intial shut down would be in circles where RJio does not have much spectrum.
RCom is not surrendering the spectrum. They are going to use the same spectrum for LTE for the benefit of Rjio.
I have been a satisfied user of CDMA for last 13 years. In terms of technology, it beats GSM incl 3G, hands down. But when the operators are no longer willing, there not much we can do.

@thrifty_indian I regret for messing up my post.

These discussion will lead us nowhere. Lets live in present and welcome RCOM 4G and RJio (when they launch). Arguing among ourselves will give us nothing. It’s a white from me.

And Yes the Monsoon Hungama sale from Reliance was a hit in 2004 with handset costing Rs. 500 (LG RD2230). You mentioned Reliance surrendering before tenure but they are not surrendering anything here. All they did is make their spectrum technology neutral. Yah, they lost 900 MHz in some of their GSM circles.

Tata first lost money UK steel plant and now their telecom venture will fell them down. I don’t know why after burning their hands in BATATA, they came back and never take it seriously.

@panchabhut wrote:

RCom and RJio also have itnerconnect and spectrum sharing agreement. So RCom LTE would also piggyback on RJio LTE. Effectively RCom+RJio would be offering LTE over Band 5 (850) + Band 3 (1800) + Band 40 (2300). It is also expected that VoLTE would be offered by RCom. Right now only few handsets are available in the market that supports Band 3 + Band 5 + Band 40 + VoLTE.
RCom (ADAG) has taken over MTS. So in cities where MTS is functioning, RCom has 5+5 Mhz spectrum. In those cities, they may still continue with EVDO, at least for some time, using the MTS spectrum. In all other circles CDMA operations are being shut down in a phased manner. Intial shut down would be in circles where RJio does not have much spectrum.
RCom is not surrendering the spectrum. They are going to use the same spectrum for LTE for the benefit of Rjio.
I have been a satisfied user of CDMA for last 13 years. In terms of technology, it beats GSM incl 3G, hands down. But when the operators are no longer willing, there not much we can do.

Have you any idea as what will happen to balance in the cdma sims when one will upgrade to 4g ?I can’t consume my whole balance in April itself ! Also which handsets suports Band 3 + Band 5 + Band 40 + VoLTE. ?

very few. Redmi Note 3 is one.
Balance is expected to get forfeited as you will need to opt for PORTOUT-PORTIN route.

@getready @thrifty_indian Just checked RCOM website/Recharge Portal and plans for Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab circle has been taken off. So now tell me who was right and who was assuming here. I don’t say anything without complete indications.

@getready Bro sometime your own assumptions makes you not to trust others. I had no intentions to fight with you and if I said something wrong to you, pls take it lightly. Actually you wrote nothing wrong. I wrote everything looking at things panning out in our circles and you according to yours.

Whatever….. those who want to save their number PORT out or in case want to test 4G should take RCOM sim.

@getready
Customer cc has no clue
This is not the end of CDMA/1X and RCOM CDMA isnt upgrading to GSM, its just that 4G LTE is added thats it
Remember Verizon, Sprint in US offers 4G LTE on a CDMA sim

Had a chat cc and they seemed to have only answer.

‘We will let you know whenever we have any details’

I asked because i have a CDMA dongle with the 3001 plan in which you get 1 gb every month.
Although the cc did mention that i will keep getting the same benefits even after the switch.
Although they had no idea whether it would be 3G or 4G.

what about UPW .

@jhinkees
Why involving thrifty bhai here?
If you had that concrete info while posting this thread, would you have made this post?

@jhinkees wrote:

@getready wrote:

Customer cc has no clue
This is not the end of CDMA/1X and RCOM CDMA isnt upgrading to GSM, its just that 4G LTE is added thats it
Remember Verizon, Sprint in US offers 4G LTE on a CDMA sim

Actually that’s what we are hoping for that they do launch LTE but don’t close down EV-Do.

The worst thing is even if they don’t close CDMA and use 1X network which is called 2G of CDMA for voice services, EV-Do which is used only for data will be closed down and for that they will use LTE.

So combination will be 1X for voice so that 4G sim users can fall back to it for calling purposes and 4G/LTE for data until unless they come with VoLTE.

You may know that in EV-Do mode we can only use data not Voice/SMS.

May be a lot happened later like the the port thing and also RCOM removing plans from website. We can say that may be your assumptions got true. If we are concluding something from an indication, thats also an assumption until its happened

But what’s the point of this post? Proving yourself right? You have made lots of contradictory posts in this thread too.
Anyways i have to agree, i was wrong to certain extent or may be as a whole

@getready Chill

Bangladesh failed to score 2 runs off 3 balls. Result: Back home

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