'Growing data traffic a challenge for Indian telcos'

There is a significant potential for data usage industry in India as penetration is lower at 11-12 percent compared to other Asian countries, industry officials said Tuesday.

Countries like South Korea and Japan have data usage penetration levels at upto 50 percent, said Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India.

"The urban areas of India are highly penetrated but rural areas are just 39 percent penetrated," Mathews added, while speaking at a seminar on the theme Heterogeneous Networks In Mobile Revolution held at Amity University Campus on Tuesday.

Jagbir Singh, Director-Networks, Bharti Airtel, India & South Asia said, "In US, one can have unlimited voice without any charge. AT&T in US has six carriers of 3G with 30Mhz of

2G and 60Mhz of 4G whereas India has only one carrier of 3G with an average of 8Mhz of 2G."

"India has a huge challenge to support the data growth generated by ever increasing devices of customers and Hetnet seems to be the answer at present.

India is witnessing a good growth in the field of TDLT (to destinations light-tree) 4G and Wi-fi, he added.