Telecommunications and network equipment and products appear to be insulated from inflationary trends and the general slowdown in the economy. On the contrary, capex is expected to receive a boost with the entry of new telecom operators and expansion in networks of existing operators, and the government's new 3G policy that gives BSNL and MTNL a head start over the other players. And on the enterprise side, vendors are reporting an increase in voice and conferencing activities as corporates cut back on travel. In general, the business to business space appears to be holding up well in the slowdown.

The new 3G policy is likely to result in the deployment of next generation wireless infrastructure and see a possible change in the vendor supply chain that services the wireless infrastructure market. Wimax had been approved as a 3G technology by the ITU in October last year. India had supported this proposal and hence we are likely to see Wimax deployment being permitted in India as part of the 3G license. IP based architecture will result in major changes in the design and roll out of wireless networks and with higher Internet speeds on offer, wireless connectivity to laptops and other devices will improve and provide relief to corporate travelers who today have to struggle with relatively slow Internet access while on the move. All our readers are already beginning to breathe easier!

At some point the government will need to provide a migration path from the existing cellular licenses to 3G licenses. While this discussion may be a little premature, operators rolling out new networks or expanding existing networks may like to look at the 3G network architecture and make their equipment choices in a manner such that the pain of migration to 3G over a period of time is minimized.

On the enterprise side, CIOs and CTOs need to look at IP technologies more closely, especially with the increasing deployment of IP technologies at the carrier level as well. And the government in turn needs to review the entire policy spectrum to make the implementation of IP across enterprises, call centers, and carriers a reality. There are today fairly draconian and outdated policies that place restrictions, for example, on a call center delivering IP services.