Tata rolls out "world's largest" commercial WiMAX network in India

It seems as if Tata Communications is out to one-up BSNL -- or at least claim its share of the limelight, anyway. More specifically, the outfit has teamed up with Telsima in order to roll out the "world's largest commercial WiMAX network" in India. Over 5,000 enterprise / retail customers are already connected in ten cities, and there are plans in place to secure nearly a quarter million customers in retail alone during fiscal year 2009. Furthermore, we're hearing that the services should be stretched to 110 cities for enterprise users and 15 cities for the retail segment by the year's end, but users in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata are the only ones celebrating at the moment. Not a bad way to grab a bit more market share from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, eh?

[Aguiluz @ Mar 4th 2008 4:14PM]

Is it free? Well, if it is, I hope they expand to Canada. Scarborough, Ontario that is.

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 4:18PM]

Is Scarborough the Little India of Ontario?

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 4:25PM]

tata is india only you bufoon. They can't stretch wi-max from delhi to ontario.

[deep @ Mar 4th 2008 4:30PM]

Dork

[finnith @ Mar 4th 2008 9:20PM]

Scarborough is dominated by us Indians. I live in Mississauga, though.

[sully @ Mar 4th 2008 4:24PM]

US wireless networks are estatic to find another area to fall behind in.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 4:26PM]

pretty nice. I'm indian and I go there often. Have any of you noticed that we ameicans are the only ones with no wimax on this planet

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 4:33PM]

really? didn't know that Tajikistan had wimax

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 4:36PM]

well, I'm exaggerating. Most countries that actually use internet have wimax except for us americans

[r3loaded @ Mar 4th 2008 4:39PM]

Commercial WiMAX? The only other commercial WiMAX scheme I've seen is a couple of square miles in Milton Keynes, UK (essentially a trial) and Sprint's Xohm trial in Chicago.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 5:06PM]

Dude, I'm in Chicago and the trial has been postponed for a very long time. I'm sick of my sprint service

[heffeque @ Mar 4th 2008 5:10PM]

In Spain some places use WiMAX to give internet coverage to poorly communicated villages.

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 5:13PM]

in Soviet Russia, village poorly communicate *you*

[Tooth @ Mar 4th 2008 10:25PM]

Since 2 yrs Mauritius hava a commercial WIMAX network with around 10 thousands clients!!

[dizilbdog @ Mar 4th 2008 4:30PM]

Spring Get On Your Ass and Get WIMAX Going Please!!!! I'm Waiting...

[NG @ Mar 4th 2008 4:37PM]

How come a "near" 3rd world country gets WiMax before a fully developed country like US, UK?

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 4:39PM]

because sprint doesn't know how to get it's lazy up and help america

[r3loaded @ Mar 4th 2008 4:42PM]

Because when that country has 1 billion people rather than 60 million or 300 million, it makes commercial sense:

1. Roll out high-speed WiMAX network across large-population country.
2. ???
3. Profit!

I apologize for the bad joke :)

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 5:06PM]

India has a larger population you buffoon

[Abuzar @ Mar 4th 2008 5:41PM]

That's what he is saying idiot. Read it again, he said it makes sense to have WiMax in a country with a large population.

[Microswirl @ Mar 4th 2008 5:51PM]

@CUBSWILLWIN

You sure love calling people buffoons, dontchya?

[doobster @ Mar 4th 2008 5:55PM]

"How come a "near" 3rd world country " ??!! mate, u must be really ignorant to call India that.. anyhow, wtg tata...!!

[doobster @ Mar 4th 2008 5:56PM]

"How come a "near" 3rd world country " ??!! mate, u must be really ignorant to call India that.. anyhow, wtg tata...!!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 6:33PM]

Yea I misread it really.

@ NG

You kinda are ignorant for calling it a near third world country. I just wen't there in December and the country is improving fast as hell. Probably by december next year, it'd have a lot more. Skyscrapers, hotels and things like that. People there are frickin smart too, I'm Indian so I know. All the codes for cracking windows and stuff like that all really start there. I mean, my cousin made a virus for OSX in 10 min that rendered his web cafe's computer useless

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 6:34PM]

buffoon is a cool word :)

[paul34 @ Mar 4th 2008 6:44PM]

Nope, not a 3rd world country. It is a developing nation. Might want to learn a bit more about the world, because, you know, there ARE other countries outside the United States.

[Abuzar @ Mar 4th 2008 6:53PM]

Developing country= 3rd world country.

Actually in the name of political correctness they have made ALL countries developed. Now they are Less Developed Countries(LDC, and India is considered one), or More Developed Countries(MDC).

[NG @ Mar 4th 2008 7:22PM]

Looks like i step on a tail on my way in

1st, my bad with the "3rd world country" word, i ain't races or anything

2nd, @CUBSWILLWIN if you find me someone in the US make hand embroidery for 20 cents and hour, i will pay 50

[Gadgetguy @ Mar 4th 2008 5:34PM]

@NG
'INDIA IS A NEAR 3RD WORLD COUNTRY' THATS BULLSHIT. LETS SEE IN THE NEXT 5O YEARS WHEN INDIA WILL SURPASS AMERICAS ECONOMY

[Nathan @ Mar 4th 2008 5:48PM]

CAPS CAPS CAPS ANGRY!

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 5:51PM]

yeah! you just wait till a half century from now! that'll show ya!

[phanbouy @ Mar 4th 2008 7:08PM]

hey i just noticed you used a capital O instead of a zero to make 50 look bigger

EYE C VAT EWE DID THAR

[virgoRV @ Mar 5th 2008 12:22PM]

phanbouy,

You just proved yourself

[Maestro @ Mar 4th 2008 7:27PM]

I'd say that by the looks of that tower they are really compensating for something.

[Vishnu Vadlamudi @ Mar 4th 2008 7:55PM]

India is definitely far from being a third world country. As far as I know, it's considered a second world country(a developing country). some of the biggest companies are Indian. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Corp. became the world's richest man when his stocks soared and this was after the cpany was split among the two brothers. His brother is in the top twenty. Then there's Lakshmi Mittal and many others.

[Josef @ Mar 4th 2008 9:23PM]

Tata? That's bodacious.

[Karma @ Mar 4th 2008 10:00PM]

@NG you sure made a mistake calling India a "near" 3rd world country. Your mistake was adding the word "near". India is a 3rd world country. Period. I am an Indian national who has lived in the US and Europe, and now live in India. Just skyscrapers and wimax don't a developed country make (both of which are few and far between in India, btw). The vast majority of Indians still don't have basic roads, electricity, and drinking water. As for corruption, human rights abuses, pollution...that's a whole different story. @cubswillwin, @doobster, @gadgetguy, @Vishnu Vadlamudi ...stop being in denial!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 4th 2008 10:31PM]

guess your right. It's improving though

[Panathas17 @ Mar 4th 2008 11:44PM]

Is it's so big, can we connect from anywhere in the world?

[Panathas17 @ Mar 4th 2008 11:45PM]

If*** it's...

[Madhu G @ Mar 5th 2008 2:11AM]

Hi All,

I need to opt for this connection, pls give the tariff for the resedential purpose , i stay Bangalore Citi,

how best i can buy this connection, am intrested to go for BSNl , if this is good than that i opt for that ,reply soon.

Thanks

[euclid @ Mar 5th 2008 2:13AM]

Welcome to engadget. Idiot.

[Jagannath A @ Mar 5th 2008 2:22AM]

I'm fking sad of all this marketing drama...

mofos first gimme atleast 1 mbps unlimited for Rs.1000 a month

[Vishnu Vadlamudi @ Mar 5th 2008 4:41AM]

Well I do agree with you there Euclid. I can't disagree on the fact that a huge percentage of the population don't have good access to water, sanitation, education and etc. In my view, the corruption in India is by far the number one cause to the lack of development of the country. In India, corruption can be seen at every level.. but I would have to say that the Tatas and Birlas have brought through their entrepreneurship have created many jobs, helped develop infrastructure and helped to relieve India from reliance on foreign companies. Like I said, India is a developing country. Over the past 10 years, the quality of life has improved for millions of people and continues to do so at a rapid pace now. When you talk about beggars on the road and all the poor people in India. What do you have to say about all the homeless beggars on the streets of New York. Have you ever been to Harlem?? Oh, and what about the health care system which few can afford or the crime rate and the huge trillions of dollars in national debt?? I wouldn't think of walking alone at the night in an area like Harlem! Every country has it's share of problems and the US nowhere near being the ideal country!!

[Daniel Orestes @ Mar 24th 2008 1:05PM]

a bit OT.....

I am a NYC resident, and our homeless problem is a tiny fraction of what I saw in New Delhi and Gurgaun India when I was there. Although you do occasionally see homeless people, there are no shanty towns, and to see a beggar on the train might happen only once every few weeks. As for harlem, it is hardly the worst problem area, perhaps you've introduced a little bit of media and cultural bias into your opinion of harlem. Although not my cup of tea (I've always been a 'downtown guy') harlem is not a bad place to live these days, Bill Clinton calls it home. The largest homeless population in the US resides on the 5 block radius of LA know as "skid row" Even here, the issue is a tiny fraction of what I personally saw in India.

just my 2 cents.

-D

[techthumper @ Mar 5th 2008 5:09AM]

Well, I dont know about being third world, but to put things in perspective, India has been independent for roughly 61 years, compared to USA (1776 i think, not sure so dont crucify me), well roughly over 200 years!!! Same for nearly every country you'd wanna compare it to. Agree being developed is not all about gadgets and jets. But its more about the way people look at their own country. I have'nt seen an Indian outside India moan about their country, but Americans will go on about the war, and Brits go on about how Nu labour sucks and the EU is a waste!! Truley these are problems of a developed country.

There are a lot of problems in India, and well that makes what has been achieved even more extraordinary, besides making the most commercial sense!!

just my two cents!!

[Puneet @ Mar 5th 2008 6:33AM]

hope that we'll be able to get speeds higher than 2mbps ...iv been on 2mbps here in mumbai for sooo long god :/

[Sanath @ Mar 5th 2008 8:25AM]

I think Unwired in Australia is still the biggest Commercial WIMAX deployement. They use Navini Network's solutions.

[WiMAXguy @ Mar 5th 2008 12:15PM]

- I am not sure if India is 3rd world country, but people are.
- This news mostly would be a bogus, Tata's might be doing a trial. Telsima is known to give such exaggerated news.
- And the biggest WiMAX networked planned in the world is Xhom by Sprint. This is true mobile WiMAX Network and no such networks till today in any other parts of the world. Most of the WiMAX deployments are fixed, similar to ClearWire Networks in US.
Unfortunately Sprint is not doing well after merger with Nextel, so the Xhom is in trouble.

[contempt @ Mar 6th 2008 3:35PM]

Not sure where you're getting your data that other markets have WiMax rolled out. In addition to India, the only other countries to have it rolled out (at last check a couple of months ago) is Pakistan and Iran. Not necessarily in great company.