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Reliance Industries: Bracing for the Broadband Hungama

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Harmeet
New Update

Infotel Broadband has got its core team in place, finalized partners, and is now rolling out infrastructure to launch broadband services in Mumbai and New Delhi by July, 2013

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2013 would be a significant milestone for Indian telecom as operators are gearing towards launching broadband services in a major way. This year would also be significant, as operators will make a paradigm shift from voice to data and they in turn will have to create surplus capacities for data and not voice.

The operators also now need to shift fast to the data bandwagon, as this will give them an edge vis-a-vis their competitors and help them in gaining market share in broadband services. Infotel Broadband Services (Infotel), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries is also gearing in a big way to move towards data and plans are for launching broadband services by July, 2013.

In order to make this happen, the company is getting its act together. The company's major focus is on recruiting people, finalizing vendors for network and devices, rolling out broadband infrastructure and developing applications which will be useful for consumers.

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For creating a broadband highway, the company is planning to invest $8 bn within 3-5 years. For creating this highway, the company is creating a world-class data infrastructure by deploying 100,000 Rkm of OFC and deploying around 7,000 towers in phase I. Of this, 10% would be FTTx nodes in addition to LTE nodes. Also the company is planning to deploy around 3,500 traffic aggregators each in Delhi and Mumbai based on FTTx technology.

Infotel Broadband has already invested around $2.8 bn in terms of pan-India BWA license, and is the only BWA player with license to operate in all 22 circles. The total investment planned for creating fiber and tower backbone is to the tune of $5 bn for 3-5 years time. Core Partners The company has already finalized its core partners and it is expected that Reliance Industries will finalize its remaining vendors on or before 1st quarter, 2013 thus getting ready for July, 2013 launch.

To make broadband ready network, the company has started laying ducts in DMIC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor), a mega infrastructure project of $90 bn covering an overall length of 1,483 km between the political capital and the business capital of India, ie, Delhi and Mumbai. DMIC covers an overall length of 1,483 km and passes through 6 states-UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, with end terminals at Dadri in the National Capital Region of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai.

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Initially, the rollout is limited to Delhi and Mumbai. HFCL is executing project management for cable which includes trenching, laying ducts, and drawing fibers. HFCL is doing project management for both national long distance and metro area network and the company is deploying 100 G network both on the long distance, metro, and access network. For national long distance, the order has gone to Infinera whereas Alcatel-Lucent has bagged for both metro and access network.

On the network front, Infotel has given contract to Samsung to deploy LTE base stations, including all associated systems and network support services. The deal includes Radio Access Network (RAN) and LTE core infrastructure solutions to be deployed by RIL. Plans are to deploy Smart LTE solution, ie, 3,000 eNodeB in Jamnagar and Mumbai. In the first phase, plans are for shipping 100 eNodeBs by December, 2012.

As part of the deal, Samsung will deploy LTE base stations, including all associated systems and network support services. The deal includes Radio Access Network (RAN) and 3G/LTE core infrastructure solutions to be deployed in RIL. The deployment will mark Samsung's first commercial LTE network rollout in India. Focus is also on swapping 2.3 GHz with 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz.

The company plans to deploy smart LTE solution offering better performance than conventional LTE with about 2 times more capacity at cell edge as well as enhanced coverage. Plans are to deploy Samsung's smart cloud solution, a future-proof solution which applies cloud computing principles to LTE technology for RIL.

Smart cloud solution is part of Samsung's smart LTE solution portfolio and is designed to maximize the utilization of networks through specialized resource allocation technology. With Samsung's smart cloud solution, Radio Units (RUs), which reside in their own local site perform and manage radio transmissions. The Digital Units (DUs), connected to RUs via fiber optic backhaul, manage all communication signals centrally.

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