| According
to market research corporation iSuppli, GSM is the predominant technology in India.
This year, the GSM growth rate in India is outpacing all other competing technologies.
With a natural 3G migration path to GPRS/EDGE/UMTS, GSM offers an inherent advantage
in driving this growth, points out the release. "GSM
has proven to be a great fit for India because it offers choice in terms of products
and services available. GSM not only offers entry-level phones for those who have
never owned a mobile phone, it also provides mid- range feature phones and smartphones
for the growing middle class. GSM stimulates innovation and open competition and
ensures that consumers have easy access to a broad choice of operators, seamless
roaming and billing across networks and the most cost-efficient handsets on the
market," says Delfassy. Delfassy
noted that TI is committed to driving down handset costs with its "LoCosto"
family of single-chip mobile phone solutions, which will accelerate wireless penetration
in emerging high-volume markets like India. Low-cost handsets based on TI's "LoCosto"
platform are expected on the market in India later this year. Delfassy
also addressed live broadcast TV on the mobile phone, a technology which is stirring
interest in India, and the importance of open industry standards such as DVB-H
to drive adoption of mobile DTV. DVB-H technology is an open industry standard
that has become the predominant technology used to deploy mobile TV services around
the world. More than 100 companies are developing or deploying services, components
and devices based on DVB-H, and more than 300 million users have access to DVB-H. "Like
GSM technology, DVB-H has a competitive environment, which fosters lower costs
and spurs innovation. It's no longer difficult to imagine watching a cricket game
or a 'Bollywood' movie anywhere, anytime, right on your mobile phone -- that vision
is now a reality," he says. Closing
his remarks, Delfassy reiterated TI's commitment to India and continued support
of open standards. "TI
has long believed India offers huge potential -- as a market, as an innovator,
and as a global provider of mobile phone technology and services. It is this belief
that led us to build a development center in Bangalore over 20 years ago and to
expand our presence with a new research and development center in Chennai. TI
remains committed to providing products and services that open up the possibilities
for mobile technology in India and that help operators and manufacturers here
be successful. And we are determined to do all we can to help India realize its
vision of 500 million mobile phone users within the next four years," Delfassy
concluded. Providing
views on the benefits of GSM technology, India's Cellular Operators Association
drector general T.V. Ramachandran, said, "GSM continues to be the predominant
driver of mobile growth, both internationally as well as in India. This standard
is growing from strength to strength having recently crossed 2 billion subscribers
worldwide. GSM's global predominance is due to its several advantages which include
open standards, interoperability, economies of scale, seamless global roaming,
widespread prepaid solutions, rich and versatile value-added services. This standard
is committed to bringing the benefits of connectivity to the common man and also
fulfilling their aspirations for feature rich services that are available on the
GSM platform. The single-chip solution by Texas Instruments is another important
innovation that will further improve the affordability of the service and drive
access." TI
is one of the leading manufacturers of wireless semiconductors, and provides a
breadth of silicon and software and over 15 years of wireless systems expertise
that spans handsets and base stations for all communications standards, wireless
LAN, Bluetooth, A-GPS, mobile TV and Ultra Wideband. | 
