'Standardization helps in creation of level-playing field between stakeholders’

By Krishna Mukherjee

ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies and works for interoperability between devices, vendors, service providers. In India, it intends to increase the visibility of European standardization and to promote EU/EFTA-India cooperation on standards and related policies.

Voice&Data caught up with ETSI CTO Adrian Scrase to know more about its pact with TSDSI and how standardization will help in the advancement of emerging technologies.

 Voice&Data: What type of role ETSI is going to play in India and how it is going to help the Indian ICT market?

Adrian Scrase: The motive is to generate confidence for investment and to reduce cost; these are the two prime reasons why we entered into standardization.

Many years ago, standards were considered on a national basis, such as Indian standards, German standards, etc., and moving forward, it generated a national market and in particular with mobile communication, national markets are very helpful.

But for products that can be used worldwide, you need to have standards that all other countries should adhere to. So, the point of our presence in India is to try to find ways where India can work with Europe and develop common standards together with other regions of the world.

So, we are trying to speed up the process of developing standards by working with other nations, getting a commonality of views so that the standards we arrive at eventually result in quick placement of any equipment in any market with greater adaptation.

In case of India, price is very important because it’s not a high-income country so if we want to have an approach towards network deployment then it has to be affordable.  Then only we can have a much more compelling case of having common standards.

India has just created its very first telecoms standards through Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) and we assisted in that creation by providing our guidance to the founders of TSDSI in the hope we can work hand in hand to develop the standards.

ETSI has a cooperation agreement with TSDSI and so we already have an established relationship which allows free access to each others’ committees and we can share our views.

 Voice&Data: How are you seeing the adoption of 4G in India and the advent of 5G and the importance of standards when it comes to 4G and 5G?

Adrian Scrase: We are developing building blocks, which we think will be the key for 5G. We talk about network functions virtualization, mobile edge computing is a very good example and so, those building blocks have started building within the ETSI environment where we looked at use cases and development environment, standardized those technological building blocks in which 5G will be eventually be based.

Through TSDSI, we have committees in India so that the Indian industry can contribute to the building blocks through the TSDSI route.  So, TSDSI is our partner and through the committee concept they can contribute to our work and capture the requirements.

India is deploying 4G now but there’s nothing wrong with that. Each country has its own specific reasons to deploy a new technology and you have to choose the right time to do that. If you deploy it too early it could be a failure too.

The Indian market is different, the dynamics are different from other countries with a majority of population in rural areas and in developed nations, the majority of population is in big cities so it’s very easy to cover from radio point of view.

So, we have these features which would be taken into account. I think the operators in India are clever enough to know when is the right time to deploy a new technology. Of course, we have spectrum which is a story in itself and a contentious item on the Indian agenda. The government has been a bit slow to reshape and reform the radio airwaves.

Voice&Data: What type of relationship do you share with the cellular operators in India?

Adrian Scrase: Yes, we have a cooperation agreement with the cellular operators association in India and we have a close relationship with them, we use them as our operators’ guidance.

COAI was strongly supportive of the creation of TSDSI and that’s the important thing. In this particular business, standards are important, if you want to have interoperable products; products that you can take from one country to another, then you need to have robust standards and Indian operators strongly support the standards.

We also have a number of vendors who are members of ETSI and are based in India and work with us. We have a close contact with manufacturing industry based in India and there is potential to have much more manufacturing take place in the country, their standardization will help as it provides a level-playing field for everybody, including the start-up companies in India who can be creative to produce a certain part of the network.

 Voice&Data: What type of discussions are taking place with India with respect to 3GPP?

Adrian Scrase: Most of our discussions are taking place around 3GPP, the big change is that India has now become a partner in 3GPP so TSDSI is the partner now.

Prior to that, the project had partners from Europe, Korea, Japan, China and the United States and adding India to that partnership is a significant step.

As you must be aware operators and vendors who are based here have a direct access to 3GPP and they can express their views in an international environment and now as India is playing its direct role in influencing standards through the TSDSI route.

Undoubtedly, 3GPP will also help in Government’s Digital India initiative because 3GPP will build the standards on which Digital India will be built, some of the standards – not all though.

In case of the mobile industry, India is making its requirements very well-known in 3GPP and these will be taken into account in 3GPP standards that are much driven by Indian requirements. We have Indian people participating in the working groups and their increased participation will ensure that Indian needs are taken care of.

Voice&Data: How do you see the mobile telecommunication market in India?

Adrian Scrase: If you look at the lot of work that has taken place now, particularly in mobile telecommunication, there’s a strong push to reduce the operational cost of networks, particularly, the focus is on low energy consumption which is again important for India, where a lot of the network is powered by diesel generators. So, there’s really a need to find ways to reduce the energy consumption of networks.

To be fair from a European point of view, that demand is more on cost because electricity costs a lot of money. In India, it’s more a matter of availability.

It’s the same solution, we all try to reduce the energy consumption but may be for slightly different reasons. A compelling reason why India would be interested in working with Europe on that specific subject is that -- ETSI has set some standards on KPIs for networks so we can actually compare how much energy one network consumes to another and accordingly, we can create benchmarks for ourselves.