January 6, 2005: 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 the responsibility from Mr Sethu Raman, who has successfully completed his term of office.

The GSA India Chapter co-ordinates and delivers the views of GSM vendors on the key issues for the industry in India. The Chapter actively participates in the spectrum consultation launched by TRAI in 2004. 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, and Vice President, Ericsson India 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. Activities include information seminars, industry workshops, and briefings for policy-makers, the media and other key industry players. The Global Mobile Dialogue â„¢ India newsletter highlights GSM developments from around the world, focusing on the critical issues for the Indian market.

Mr. P. Balaji is the Vice President, Marketing and Technical Solutions at Ericsson India. He has over 15 years of experience in the IT & Telecom Sector. Prior to joining Ericsson, he was part of the Leadership Team of Lucent Technologies. He has a vast experience of working across multiple techno-commercial operating assignments as well as strategic initiatives taken by Lucent. Before Lucent, he held various senior positions with the Tata Group in their IT & Telecom Venture, as part of Tata Administrative Services.

Mr. Balaji is a post graduate from IIM (Ahmedabad), where he was ranked in the Top 2%. He is an Engineering Graduate of Electronics and Communication from IIT, Roorkee.

Mr. Balaji has been recently appointed as the President of Telecom Equipment Manufacturers.