Wimax in india

I recently read about Bangalore becoming the first WiMAX enabled city in India. Exciting news? I guess so. These days you read so many jargons and people get all excited about these jargons even without knowing what it is about.

• Firstly some basics - WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access…..More

• The WiMAX was coined by the WiMAX forum. WiMAX is a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of “last mile wireless broadband access” as an alternative to wired broadband like cable and DSL. WiMAX provides fixed , nomadic, portable and, soon, mobile wireless broadband connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight with a base station. In a typical cell radius deployment of three to ten kilometers, WiMAX Forum Certified™ systems can be expected to deliver capacity of up to 40 Mbps per channel, for fixed and portable access applications….More

In India the last mile connectivity has always been a huge issue. BSNL has a huge advantage because it has/had the highest number of landline connections, so it is easier for them to provide the DSL connection. It is a different matter that they have fallen far behind the projected numbers (DSL). Most of them are made to wait for months to get a DSL connection from BSNL.

More than 70 per cent of Indian households do not have access to fixed wired telephone services (landlines). This basically means these households don’t have the last mile connectivity and providing DSL to such households is a big problem. No sane telco provider will want to dig the road/footpath to provide a DSL connection unless they are already providing DSL connections in that area. Getting a permission from Government is no small task.

In 2000 the footpaths of Bangalore where invaded - Reliance Telecom (when it was owned by Mukesh Ambani) were very busy digging entire Bangalore for laying their cables. I was very excited because it would translate to many more new internet users in India. The big Orange pipes where hanging and sticking out of the footpath all around Bangalore. Not sure where things failed but Reliance never took off. So what happened to those hanging pipes? It never went down the drain. Dogs were “aiming” and peeing inside these orange cables (after all why can’t they be part of the e-revolution?) and cows were scratching their front and rear ends with these cables. To summarize - “Holy Cow! Our cows were also bitten by the e-revolution!”. Good news is that Reliance (part of ADAG) is one of the leading broadband providers today

Is WiMAX important for India? I think WiMAX (and WiFi) is very important for India because of the complicated wirings we have in India. If you just look up at any junction you will see the power cables, telephone cables, TV cables all fighting for space on the poles. When it comes to TV, telephone, internet we all want uninterrupted and reliable connectivity. These I think have been addressed by the following,

• TV - Households are dumping the traditional cable connection and moving to DTH in India

• Telephone - Many households are dumping landlines and moving to mobile.

• Internet - Still with DSL, may move to WiMAX

So who was planning or is planning on providing WiMAX in India?

• In early 2005 Dishnet planned to roll out WiFi hotspots using WiMAX.
• In 2006 Intel planned to test out WiMAX in India
• All major players like VSNL, Bharti, Reliance are providing WiMAX.

ISPs see WiMAX as a big opportunity but the DoT wants to keep ISPs away from providing WiMAX. India will have an estimated 21 million WiMAX users by 2010. WiMAX will take off provided the pricing is attractive. With the Rupee getting stronger I don’t think telcos can assume “Corporates will buy WiMAX irrespective of the price”. It is a matter of time before the Corporate world tightens its belt in view of the rising Rupee and high attrition.

NEW APPLICATIONS USING WIMAX

In practical terms the technology is designed to support up to 45 mobile TV channels in a 10 MHz channel and allow switching with a 2 second lag time. The platform incorporates a robust quality of service toolset that allows the carrier to dynamically control and allocate spectrum based on time of day, content allocation and whether or not the event is live among numerous other choices.

This announcement this week coupled with the recent announcement for a software developer's kit for the iPhone leads me to think that we may be finally entering the era of device-centric mobile broadband wireless---that being a time where users can begin to dictate the uses to which the technology is put and to help drive the adoption and deployment of services with demanding needs for applications. Mobile broadband wireless is maturing.

WiMAX can help bridge the digital divide’

Chennai: One quick way to bridge the digital divide can be a wide implementation of WiMAX, says Mr Muthu Logan, President and CEO of BroVis Wireless Networks. “WiMAX is going to revolutionise the acceptance of broadband and bridging the digital divide. It is a sure bet in our opinion,” he observed during an interaction with Business Line.

Dispelling a common myth that WiFi/WiMAX is typically used for the last-mile and extended enterprise applications within cities, Mr Logan says that the technology lends itself to rapid adaptation in rural areas.

BroVis, started in California five years ago, has its product development office in Chennai. The company is set to launch its new WiMAX initiative at the 16th Convergence India 2008 in New Delhi.

INDIAN TO BE A PROMISING MARKET FOR WIMAX

Beceem Communications Sees India as a Major WiMAX Market

Beceem believes that there are at least three reasons why WiMAX is a great fit for India: The demand for broadband connectivity from urban homes and small/medium businesses is growing rapidly and this cannot be met effectively by the existing wireline technologies. Wireless will be the dominant delivery mode for broadband services just as wireless now dominates voice services. Thanks to its true broadband performance, early availability and cost advantages, WiMAX is best-positioned to serve this huge Indian market.Several Indian service providers have already acquired suitable spectrum licenses to deploy wireless broadband services and are planning early rollouts in 2006. WiMAX is the first truly broadband technology available to meet Indian market needs.The presence of leading WiMAX technology vendors like Beceem Communications and other system integrators in India, will for the first time, usher significant local high technology value additions, and working with service providers also help fine tune WiMAX deployment in the country. "Significant portions of Beceem Communications' technology is grown in India," said Professor Arogyaswami Paulraj, Stanford University Professor and CTO/Co-founder of Beceem. "Our highly scalable, power-efficient terminal chipset products for mobile WiMAX with cutting-edge signal processing represent a new level of technology innovation to emerge from India. We are very proud of our Indian team headed by Rajat Gupta, a 20-year semiconductor technology veteran."

"India is quickly emerging as a major market for WiMAX," said Vinod Khosla, Co-founder of SUN Microsystems and one of the world's most renown high-tech VCs, as well as is one of Beceem's major investors. "With a population of more than one billion and a growing economy, India is a huge market for broadband and needs rapid deployment of such services, which in turn will further accelerate GDP growth."

Khosla continued, "WiMAX is the right technology for India and Beceem Communications is well-positioned to serve this market and can effectively support Indian WiMAX service providers."

Beceem is pioneering IEEE 802.16e converged fixed/mobile WiMAX technology and the company's chipsets are being used by leading wireless telecom equipment manufacturers to build the world's first commercial mobile WiMAX networks in Asia.

Beceem's leadership position in the WiMAX market is driven by its distinguished technology team led by Professor Paulraj, CTO. Dr. Paulraj is a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, and is very well known as the pioneer of smart antenna wireless technology.

WIMAX IN INDIA

A gap has long existed between India's tech savvy and its access to broadband Internet, which some estimates peg at a mere 0.3% of the population. Now the world's back office is getting wired--by going wireless.

Tata Communications, part of the Indian Tata Group conglomerate, aims to blanket India in WiMax, a super-speedy version of wireless broadband, by March 2009. The plan will cost more than $100 million and span 115 Indian cities. The goal: to provide 20 million broadband connections by 2010, a target set by the Indian government.

"India has a huge latent demand for broadband, but poor infrastructure," says Shankar Prasad, president of Tata Communications' Retail Business Unit. "The road ahead for India is a wireless one."

With its 1.2 billion people, India is filled with opportunity and challenges for tech companies.

Consumers are eager to stay connected, snapping up 8 million mobile phones per month, according to some estimates. But broadband access has lagged far behind, around 3 million. "When people say city A is covered with broadband, it usually means 20% to 30% of the city," notes Prasad.

Broadband in India has typically been delivered via wires, strung on top of buildings or laid underground. It's a model that works in some countries, like the U.S., that have extensive fixed-line phone networks for routing data. But in India, the pricey fiber connections must be built out and frequently fail due to high winds, operators digging up each other's cables or even stray kites, says Prasad.

Enter WiMax. The wireless technology is fast, covers broad areas, penetrates buildings well and can be rolled out rapidly. Tata is further speeding up the process by mounting WiMax equipment on cellular towers owned by its sister company, carrier Tata Teleservices. (Customers access service through antennas installed on their roofs. Tata is also testing an indoor, installation-free version of the equipment.)

Berge Ayvazian, chief strategy officer at the Yankee Group, is bullish on the matchup. Pent-up demand for broadband Internet means thousands of businesses and millions of consumers will sign on, he predicts. Tata's involvement will push it forward, he adds.

"Four to five Indian companies will eventually deploy wireless broadband, most using some form of WiMax," says Ayvazian. "But within India, this is the broadest network, and Tata is moving the fastest."

It's a big bet for the Tata unit, formerly known as VSNL, which plans to pour $500 million to 600 million into the project by 2010. It is looking to WiMax to differentiate itself from rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.

Tata is also banking on the initiative to give it greater appeal among regular customers. Starting in December in information technology capital Bangalore, it has introduced small WiMax networks in 25 cities for business customers (mostly banks and tech firms). Next, it will extend near-universal coverage to 15 to 20 cities to lure consumers.

"Tata's strength has been global voice and enterprise solutions," says Prasad. "We want to become a very strong player in the consumer market too."

Access will cost about $25 a month, which Prasad says is on par with wireline service. He expects users to log on with desktops and laptops, but says the technology may be upgraded to a more mobile form in a year or two.

The ultimate beneficiary is India, says Tata and its partner, Telsima, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based WiMax vendor. "WiMax will allow India to maintain economic growth so it's not left behind in the global race," says Alok Sharma, Telsima's chief executive.

The two say the project will be the world's largest commercial WiMax network. "There are lots of announcements about signing contracts or shipping base stations, but nothing has been deployed on this scale, with such a massive population," says Wolfgang Mack, Telsima's chief marketing officer.

Ayvazian says the network is one of the world's largest, noting that operators and equipment providers including Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ) are rolling out massive WiMax networks in Pakistan and eyeing China, Japan and Brazil.

Being first to market with a robust WiMax network could put an Indian stamp on the technology, says Sharma. He compares it to the support Europe and the U.S. have given to the cellular technologies GSM and CDMA. "India will take the lead in establishing WiMax as an Indian standard and a disruptive technology," he says.

Problems besetting Sprint Nextel (nyse: S - news - people ), WiMax's main champion in the U.S., mean Americans will have to wait to see a similar network. Says Ayvazian, "I'm not sure the U.S. will get anything significant out of [the Tata project] other than seeing how to rapidly deploy it in multiple cities."

WIMAX IN CHENNAI

WiMAX Network in Chennai, India

India’s telecommunications and electrical infrastructures, two arguably key elements necessary for technological advancements, leave something to be desired. By some estimates, for example, annual investment of $20 billion is needed to bring the country’s electrical grid up to snuff to meet yearly demand increases of about seven percent.

But, the country is pushing ahead into the twenty-first century despite the obstacles. Red Herring reported in its Oct. 30 edition that Aircel Business Solutions has committed as much as $100 million to build a WiMAX network in the southern city of Chennai. (That’s where the company is based, by the way.)

Here’s a map of India (courtesy of CIA World Factbook) with Chennai circled.

If this network is successful and, as planned, it gets rolled out in other areas, WiMAX could eventually make quite an impact on India’s roughly 1.095 billion citizens (2006 estimate according to CIA World Factbook), especially considering that 14 percent of the country’s 600,000 villages lack even a single phone. DSL broadband requires a phone, but WiMAX does not.

“We are convinced about the commercial viability and acceptance of WiMAX across varied user profiles and geographies,” the Red Herring report quoted Aircel Senior Vice President Ram Shinde as saying.

According to Red Herring, there are about 1.6 million broadband subscribers in India, most of whom use cable or DSL.

“The government target is 10 million subscribers by 2010, which could be tough since people have been reluctant to subscribe,” Red Herring says. “WiMAX, though, could tip the scales, with both urban and rural areas getting online.”

Tonse Telecom and Maravadis, Red Herring said, estimates that there will be 13 million Indian WiMAX subscribers by 2012.

Meanwhile, Intel is also interested in building wireless infrastructure in India—specifically, in rural areas. Red Herring reports that the company “is partnering with local carriers such as Airtel and Reliance on pilot projects in several regions. It hopes schools and libraries in rural or remote areas can be cheaply connected to broadband using WiMAX.”

That could be tricky, though, since fully WiMAX-compatible handsets won’t be available in the country until early 2008, Red Herring says. The battle continues.

What do you think—is WiMAX a winner or loser in India?