ET IN CAMPUS “3G – An idea whose time has come” on May 24th 2011

Oxygen, The Operations Club of TKM Institute of Management, Kollam in association with Economic Times conducted an interactive session on ‘3G – An idea whose time has come’ on May 24th at the seminar hall of the institute.
Addressing the MBA participants, the chief guest of the day, Mr. Nommy Paul, Manager, Network Services from Idea Cellular Ltd. pointed out the features and advantages that 3G, one of the much talked about ‘ideas’ of today, has to offer. He spoke about the transformation from 1G that permits only voice calls to 3G that features faster Ethernet, video calling and the like Ideas are generated when minds of people are connected together. 3G enables people to share their minds and get connected in a faster way. Speaking at the session, he cited various real life situations like jasmine revolution and how the modern network technology have an impact on the social issues happening in the world. He quoted various other examples like how GPS evolved as a result of space war and gave an insight about how slow hunches becomes an idea.
The opportunity for 3G in India is immense as indicated by an exhaustive market study conducted by Idea. Through the study it is revealed that Indian mobile users are behind US counterparts in terms of time spent on mobiles and data usage. India is at par with US on applications and services accessed on mobile except for weather, internet radio and shopping. These weak sessions are the untapped areas that may provide huge opportunities for upcoming entrepreneurs and managers. One should utilize these opportunities for our country to become a better living place on the planet.
Nommy described what 3G is as a technology and the various terminologies in cellular telephony such as frequency, spectrum, bandwidth, coverage, 3GPP, throughput, etc. The interactive discussion enabled the students to get an insight into technologies like EDGE m, EVDO, Push to Talk, WCDMA, GSM and HSPA .
The services offered in 3G are grouped into four viz. Conversational class (voice and video), Streaming class (streaming video), Interactive class (web browsing), and Background class (mail downloading). Having launced their 3G services in Kollam city a few days ago, he also briefed how the telecom giant Idea differ from other competitors in the 3G services. 3G network helps one to be better connected with the world and thus enables one’s ‘slow hunches’ to become a ‘Big Idea’.
The presentation was followed by interaction with the participants. The function was presided over by the Dean, Prof. P Nizzar. Also present were Dr. S Kevin, Director, Prof A M Salim, Emeritus Professor, Mrs. Gayathri Jnaneswar, Co-ordinator, Oxygen Club, and other faculty members and staff.