GSA India Chapter Announces Mr. P. Balaji as New Chairman

GSA today announced Mr. P. Balaji, Vice President-Marketing and Technical Solutions, Ericsson India, as Chairman of the GSA India Chapter from January 2005. Mr. Balaji takes over from Mr. Sethu Raman, who has successfully completed his term.

The GSA India Chapter co-ordinates and delivers the views of GSM vendors on the key issues for the industry in India. GSA is pressing for future mobile services growth in India to be accommodated through the earliest allocation of new spectrum in the internationally-agreed 2.1 GHz band to facilitate introduction of 3G/IMT-2000 services. This would enable mobile operators to evolve to IMT-2000 compliant WCDMA systems.

The number of GSM subscribers in India accelerated to 35.96 million by end-November 2004, representing a market share of over 79% in India. GSM is the technology platform serving over 1.2 billion customers world-wide and is the global mobile technology of choice.

International roaming for worldwide mobility, call security, advanced services and global economies of scale are amongst many unrivalled features of GSM, which help to ensure India’s role in the global economy. GSM is the ideal platform for delivering high-speed third generation (3G) multimedia services enabled by EDGE/WCDMA, the technology path favoured by over 600 GSM operators worldwide.

Alan Hadden, President, GSA, said “GSM is delivering huge benefits in voice communications for India. Policy actions now, especially regarding 3G spectrum allocations, must align with the decisions of the international community to ensure India is able to fully participate and benefit from the global shift to 3G/WCDMA.”

Mr. Balaji, Chairman of GSA India Chapter, added: “Our priority is for a vibrant, growing and sustainable mobile communications industry for the Indian players. GSA India Chapter harnesses the global experiences of the leading mobile equipment manufacturers to support market development in India by assisting network operators, investors, policy-makers and others, to ensure full understanding of the business drivers, technology and key enablers, for the best communications services and experience for mobile users.”

The GSA India Chapter is a co-operative vendor-led effort with the active participation of Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens to support the development of GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA enabled services in India.


Profile/photo of Mr Balaji at www.gsacom.com/news/gsa_169.php4

Contact Information

Alan Hadden

President, GSA

GSA

Contact via E-mail