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CommsIndia'97: Signaling The Emerging Communications Milieu

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Held at a time when the communications industry is reassessing all that has passed under

the bridge since telecom was privatized in the country, CommsIndia'97 was not without some

explicit leads as to where the industry is heading.

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CommsIndia was a cornucopia of exhibitors,

visitors, conference speakers, delegates, and professionals from over 30 countries. Held

during 9-11 December 1997, the event was inaugurated jointly by Justice PB Sawant,

Chairman, Press Council of India, and AV Gokak, Chairman, Telecom Commission.

The Carnival



Though the show got off on a damp note, with rains lashing the venue during the morning
hours of the first day, it picked up momentum very soon and the mood soon changed to that

of enthusiasm and business purpose. Though, this year, some big industry names were

conspicuous in their absence-Motorola, Nokia, and Tata Lucent being the notable ones.

If there was a flavor during the CommsIndia

this time, it was Mobile Satellite Services, with as many as four major consortiums

brandishing their corporate image in all glory and trying their best to create mindshare

among the predominantly industry crowd. Iridium, which is all set to start its services in

the later part of this year, even went to the extent of exhibiting some of the handsets to

be used. With a few of them looking like gizmos straight out of a science fiction movie.

Globalstar not to be beaten, occupied one of the biggest stalls in the hall. With Satphone

and ICO trying to match them, the battle for the skies has surely begun.

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The ubiquitous, almost to the extent of

being the official, technology of the event was Wireless In Local Loop (WILL). The various

WILL standards present were CDMA-based, floated by Qualcomm, Hyundai, and DSC

Communications; D-AMPS-based, Ericsson and Tellabs; DECT-based, Alcatel, Ericsson,

Italtel, and Shyam Telecom; and PHS-based, Arraycom. Each exhibitor tried explained the

pros and cons of his solution with respect to others.

Equally testing was CommsIndia'97 for the

test and measurement companies. HP, Wandel & Goltermann, AIMIL, Fastech, Tektronix,

Subex, and Wavetek all were displaying their various products in the exhibition.

Transmission companies were present with equal might. Alcatel and Ericsson had crowds

converging to their stalls. Punwire and Shyam Telecom were the notables among the Indian

companies which stood out. The computer telephony segment was represented by Dialogic,

Voxtron, and SISL. Fujitsu and Mitel displayed their semiconductors for various

communication purposes.

The Convention



Spread across three days, the conference dealt with topics like privatization, networking
technologies, spectrum management, satellite technologies, Internet, and wireless. The

speakers included N Vittal, Chairman, Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB); RN

Agarwal, Wireless Advisor, Ministry Of Communications, GoI; Per Hjerppe, Director Internet

Business Group (Asia-Pacific), Digital; Anand Pillai, Country Manager, Bay Networks;

Graham Davey, Director, Government Relationships, Motorola India; and Virat Bhatia,

Director, AT&T India. Held in two tracks hand-in-hand, not all were sufficiently

packed with audience. Two of the topics, which raised dust and storm this time, were

spectrum management and Internet policy and operations.

All in all, CommsIndia'97 was "not

bad". The crowd was not lesser than expected, in spite of an unexpected downpour. And

a fair amount of companies, who were looking to build brand image, went back happy.

Equally, though, there were a number of companies who did not get what they were expecting

from the event-the ones who came with specific and immediate business purposes.

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