Garuda Vs Dolphin. Review on Garuda Mobile Operator

I find many people who don’t know the difference between Garuda and Dolphin. How can there be different charges for similar mobile service is the question doing the rounds? There are a couple of queries to this effect by Smartgirl and Soniya on MS.

Let me try to explain. But this is going to be a bit technical a session. First, I am going to drop a bombshell. Are you all ready for this? Okay here it comes… Take it… Garuda is strictly not a cellular service. It is a landline service (though effectively can be used as a limited mobile service). Don’t believe me? Wait, hear me out.

India’s teledensity at 2-3% is one of the lowest in the world. The reason touted is that connecting rural and interior areas through wires is very expensive. Infact connecting people through wireline is more expensive than wireless. Don’t rack your brains, there are figures to prove that. That was the reason for the poor response when the basic telephone sector was opened up in 1994. Hence basic telephone operators have been requesting the government to give them right to connect also through wireless.

The mobile service licence for various circles when the sector was opened up for private players in 1995 were issued based on competitive bidding. As many companies bid ridiculously high amounts (like HFCL), the services were also provided at high charges. At that time only two operators were allowed to operate in one circle. Subsequently on a revenue sharing regime, the charges have been steadily coming down.

Then came National Telecom Policy 1999 (called NTP 99) with the basic objective of increasing India’s teledensity. It allowed basic operators wireless access using CDMA technology or better known as WLL or WiLL (Wireless in Local Loop). The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, who frames the law relating to telecom in India) consultation paper on the topic reads as follows: “Cost effective last mile connectivity i.e. connection between Exchange and Customer’s Premises Equipment (CPE) is a critical and often the most difficult part of the Telecom Network roll out. This provides customer accessibility and, therefore, the growth of telecommunication network is affected significantly by the cost and quality of last mile connectivity as well as the ease and speed with which it can be provided. In India local loop has thus far been provided mostly by laying underground cables or by construction of overhead alignment. The laying of underground cable especially in congested areas is both cumbersome and time consuming. This has, therefore, come in the way of quick roll out of Telecom Networks and contributed to delay in achievement of the teledensity targets. This problem has been taken note of in NTP, 1999, and in order to obviate the necessity of laying underground copper cables in congested areas, the Basic Service License issued by Department of Telecommunications (DOT) stipulates Wireless In Local Loop (WLL) as the preferred method for providing Basic Service.”

NTP 99 also proposed multiple cellular operators in each circle to increase competition. MTNL (in Mumbai and Delhi) and BSNL (in all other circles) were given rights to operate as the third operator. The Government also bid for fourth cellular operator in all circles last year. And Dolphin is the cellular services of MTNL.

Then the Government called applicants for basic telephone services with a fixed licence fee (no bidding) but with unlimited number of operators for every circle. Hence the charges of fixed service providers are lower though the costs apart from the licence fee are higher.

There are numerous wireless technologies for providing wireless access. One of them is GSM (Global System of Mobile Communication) and another is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). There are newer technologies coming up like Bluetooth, etc. The existing mobile operators use GSM technology. The basic service operators have been given the right to use CDMA.

However, cellular operators opposed the usage of CDMA by basic operators. First they took the matter to TDSAT and then to Supreme Court, but did not get a favourable ruling from both.

To carve out a difference between cellular and basic services, Government has imposed a lot of restrictions on basic service operators. Otherwise all the cellular service providers having paid licence fee and invested in GSM technology would go out of business for the Government’s fault of not anticipating a newer technology. But the counter for that is newer technologies is a natural phenomena and people offering services under old technologies has to go out of business unless they upgrade.

The restrictions imposed by Government on CDMA are that it can be provided only within a SDCA (short distance charging area). That is why Garuda is available in Mumbai and Thane only but not in Navi Mumbai or beyond Borivali. WLL also cannot offer additional features like, CLIP, roaming, SMS, net access, etc. Its not because CDMA does not support it. Infact CDMA is a better technology than GSM. But since the government wants to maintain a distinction between cellular and basic, these restrictions are applied. However, the basic operators have approached Supreme Court for letting them also offer such services like SMS, CLIP, net access, etc (except roaming) and it is expected that they will be allowed to offer these additional services as well.

The only drawback of CDMA service is the cost of the handset. The handsets will be heavier and costlier. Under GSM, voice is transmitted as such, however under CDMA, the voice is converted into digital codes and transmitted and decoded at the handset. Hence the better quality of voice in CDMA and since it also has a decoder in the handset, the costlier handset. That is where the Korean players like Samsung and LG enters the price sensitive Indian market with CDMA handsets.

There are handsets in the US and Europe which support both GSM and CDMA. These handsets are expected to come to India shortly. So one can have both cellular and basic connections and when travelling use the cellular service with the roaming facility and otherwise use the basic connection by interchanging the SIM cards.

MTNL wanted to offer the service before the private players entered the market as it was an attractive service for somebody wanting just a basic mobile service without roaming. Hence they accepted bookings even before the infrastructure was set up. And they could not meet the deadlines promised to the people. However they have definitely succeeded in getting atleast a big portion of the market before private players also start offering the same.

Garuda is the basic telephone service of MTNL under their basic telephone licence using CDMA technology and Dolphin is their cellular service under their cellular licence using GSM technology.

If all of you have read this far and understood what I have conveyed within the character limitations of 8000, you have very high degree of concentration and comprehension. Please feel free to m2m me for any further info on this.