If you could do anything, anywhere, what would you do?

(wireless telecommunications infrastructure) + Extensive business development and project management experience in Real Estate, Mortgage Banking, Wireless Telecommunications and Trucking. + Passions: Travel, Culture, History, Technology. =

India Telecom Infrastructure Sector News: from India Telecom News Weekly

Bharti Enterprises Bids for Stake in Modi Telstra India Telecom News - Delhi-based Bharti Enterprises has made a bid for a stake in the Calcutta mobile operator Modi Telstra. The bi…(more)

Central Government Makes and Offer for One Million Shares of VSNL India Telecom News - The central government is making an offer for the sale of one million shares of VSNL of Rs 10 each at Rs 750 p…(more)

Huges Escort Communications Receives DoT Support India Telecom News - DoT has supported the equity restructuring exercise of Hughes Escorts Communications (HEC), which would lead t…(more)

About a month ago I read- Kind of Gave me "India-Fever!" I wish I had some advice... I'm doing exactly what I Love... The Sky's the Limit! Best Wishes- Dx

Dx, I travel to India a lot also.  The economy is growing there as well.  However, I would be very cautious about entering into any business deals there.  Not only is there a lot of corruption, but somehow the Indian Government is a partener in every transaction.  Mutual funds might be a good way to diversify away some of the risk.  But I would be cautious of starting an individual business in India. My favorite cities are in the south--Bangalore and Hyderabad.  There are a lot of IT companies and a growing middle class.

Could it be any more corrupt than Louisiana? It is so overt there, it is almost humorous. Other than a few friends from there, I do not know much about India. Like you say, I have heard Bangalore in pretty special. Cuba requires that they are a "partner" in your business there, too.  Don't ask me how I know that. The more I read about Croatia, the more I like it. I think investment in one of the countries due to enter the EU in the next few years is very interesting. At least so far, the new countries that have entered have seen great gains in real estate values. Take care. JP

Cool. Thanks Dx. I have known several RF Engineers as friends from India over the years. Very nice people to work with on a project. There remains a real shortage of RF Engineers in the US. India is a primary area from where we recruit them. I envy you. Not only do you have a passion, you get to do it full time. JP

Dx is right.  Read The World is Flat and What Got You Here Won't Get You There.  Both should help in the right decision , JP.  Excellent books.

Hi JP,

Play guitar. Obstacles: Being good enough, being recognized, having band members that appreciate my style.

Getting attention from women all day long. Obstacles: getting old.

Wish I could say that I require more than this.

Dave

I am happiest when I am under incredible pressure to get things done and NOW. I love working in pro sports. lots of fun most the guys are fanstastic, I am old enough to be their father. I hate the marketing adn sponsorships side of the business though. Too many people think they know whats up adn act like they have powers  but in reality at idiots. Stadiums operation would be cool.  If money were no object I am most happy doing charity work and raising money for worthy causse. 

Hey Paul, Pot shots welcome, I'm just brainstorming here. On Rapid Response Telecom Infrastructure Recovery: I am rather familiar with this area. In fact, I was involved in the design and construction of the new 911 dispatch center for Williamson County (Just North of Austin), and was mildly involved in Katrina recovery. Katrina was interesting, by the way. The wireless carriers, Verizon and CIngular etc, Are very proud of how fast they had their networks back up and running. They have DRT's (Disaster Recovery Teams) which are made up of techs and engineers from all over the country. When something like Katrina happens, they load up a few trucks with generators, antennas and COWs (Cell On Wheels, essentially a mobile cell site which can be deployed in a few hours), and haul ass for the area. They learned a few things from Katrina and are continuing to "harden" their networks in coastal areas based on knowledge gained from Katrina. I was running a neighboring region for a tower company at the time, and we did not lose a single tower. A few ended up having to be replaced due to structural stress, but none fell down. A few other companies were not so lucky, but I was amazed how few actually came down. Most of the ones that did fail were caused by large heavy objects, like barges, floating into them. A few foundations failed on sites because the ground literally liquified under them, causing them to float up and then fall over. To anyone worried about a tower near their house falling on them in a hurricane of tornado, I can assure you that your house will be dust in the wind long before the tower comes down. Ice storms are another story. A couple inches of ice and high winds will bring a tower down in quick fashion. I'm not sure how I could turn emergency wireless response skills to global travel. I know of a few fixed wireless companies that specialize in that for oil rigs, diamond mines etc. However, it is a sideline for them only and is rather dangerous work when it does come up. It is very lucrative work, when it does come up. On Wifi, yep, you nailed that one. The new thing is WiMax which looks to have traction. For the tech positions working in deployment etc, I have absolutely no passion for it. It is boring, tedious work. Now, if a company needed someone to travel around selling the technology to overseas companies and governments, that is another story. We, being the USA, are so far behind the other countries in this area that it is shameful. We have lost our edge in telecommunications. The Europeans and Asians are at least a decade ahead of us. Where Motorola use to be the global leader, companies like Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung have been crushing them for years with better, cheaper, more dynamic products and services. WiMax has hope to become a global technology. Let's hope so, because everyone from Intel, Motorola, MicroSoft, Cisco, Sprint, Lucent and a few other ginormous US companies are investing billions into it. The first deployments for Sprint/Nextel are up and running and look to be delivering as promised. I don't know if it is enough to save them from the admittedly clusterf&^k of a merger. Putting Sprint and Nextel together is like trying to get peace in the middle east, only there is hope for the middle east. Neither of their networks will ever play nice with the other, ever. Eventually, all their switches and cell sites will have to be redeployed, along with putting new handsets in every single customer's hand. Their only hope is to sell off the Nextel network to the government for homeland security use, which might actually happen. Fixed point is interesting. I specifically have interest in wireless backhaul services and have seriously considered starting my own company to provide those services. With WiMax, the carriers may be able to do it within their own networks, but everyone is pretty sure that every tower out there is going to need a very fat pipe to it, if we are going to see the type of data and video services which are being developed. When I started in the wireless industry, the most T-1's needed at a site were 2 or 3. Today, urban sites often require 15 or more already and that number is expected to increases dramatically over the next decade. Optimally, there would be fiber optic connected to every tower. However, Fiber Optic is still very expensive and time consuming to deploy. Private fixed wireless networks linking towers together, and then back to a switch, are very viable now. Check out a company called FiberTower if you are interested. They have the most traction out the gate, but there is still plenty of room in the market. Again, just my opinions. JP