3G/WiMax : Facing the Future

The ARPUs might be falling for operators, but not the
subscriber base-in both GSM and CDMA services. At least for the last ten months,
an average of 9 mn plus subscribers are added in GSM and 4 mn plus in CDMA
services. As of October 2009, the total GSM subscriber figure stood at 355.2 mn
and as of September 2009, the CDMA subscriber figure stood at 126.32 mn. So the
network infrastructure, including mobile network, also is bound to be
strengthened. Coupled with this, 3G and WiMax services in the near future will
create more demand from network operators for test and measurement solutions, to
meet the standard quality of services.

A Trai report on congestion at the POI says network
efficiency of operators is questionable at present. Moreover, a burgeoning
subscriber base, increasing customer churn due to quality of service issues, and
3G and WiMax services in the near future require service providers to rethink
their spending on infrastructure, and latest technologies and
solutions-including T&M solutions. HS Bhaskar, country manager, Spirent
Communications says, "The fundamental reason why 3G is being rolled out is
because of the need for data on wireless. It means new investments required for
validating data throughput quality. Here, the quality is about how fast and
flawless the network is. This is the time when most service providers need to
add more value to their existing customers by increasing quality."

Quality Paradigm

The common man's perception is that we can not do much about the service
quality-be it voice calls, or triple-play services-because they do not have any
choice about it. Jayanth Ramachandran, head, business development, telecom
account, and regional manager, South India (T&M), Rhode & Schwarz, says, "In our
view the trend is towards providing more and more coverage or reach, but the QoS
is not given that much importance. The subscribers in India also do not have
much choice about the QoS, whereas in developed telecom market, the quality is
of prime concern and their teledensity is also very high."

Switching over to other operators also does not help much, as
network efficiency and quality of service are universal issues in countries like
India. Here, lucrative tariff plans are working as magic to attract customers.
But with Tata DOCOMO's revolution on pay-per-second billing system, and almost
all operators following suit, the magic of lucrative tariff will not hold the
customers for long. They need to accelerate measures for quality of service.

In developed markets, quality alone is enough in retaining
customers. Jayanth Ramachandran says, "There is not much scope for operators in
developed markets and they have to retain their existing customers only through
QoS. In contrast, in India, for a new operator to get a good subscriber base,
the tariffs have to be quite lucrative. These extremely low tariffs are putting
pressures on the bottom-line and they are not investing in capital instruments
required to monitor the QoS. But things are set to change with mobile number
portability coming in."

Spending the right amount to increase the quality of service
is crucial, particularly at a time when MNP is going to become a big threat for
all operators. Cost cutting by corporates and more innovative ways of conducting
business will offer new opportunities for operators, but they have to make the
services more reliable. Companies can also save a lot of travel time if meetings
can be done via videoconferencing. This will certainly increase business
opportunity for T&M players' equipments because of the pressure from users for
high quality service.

GR Manohar Reddy, managing director, Aishwarya Telecom says,
"Testers are already available, which can give information to operators about
the QoS. But the issue in India is that most operators are not utilizing the
available high-tech T&M solutions, as they are focusing on increasing subscriber
base rather than improving QoS."

For operators, wireless data services cost very high to
deliver and it is complex to manage large-scale networks. It also creates major
problems in ensuring that the QoS and quality of experience (QoE) requirements
are met. Though vendors are well-equipped with T&M solutions to address the
challenges posed by next generation technologies and services, operators seem to
be having difficulties in diverting resources to improve the QoS due to falling
ARPUs. As Reddy, puts it, unless the mobile number portability is implemented,
operators will not improve the QoS.

In the US, network operators have huge customer base as in
India, but there, the whole T&M practice is different. Their operators buy T&M
solutions before the network is deployed and periodically test the network
thoroughly. Their spending is approximately $4 bn, whereas in India, their
counterparts spend a mere $120 mn.

Rescue Available

T&M vendors are prepared for the 3G and WiMax services avalanche. They have
testers and solutions to help them improve QoS, especially in the 3G and WiMax
environment. Ramachandran says, "As more and operators join in, networks are
loaded to full capacity. In such situations, conventional instrumentation will
not be sufficient to evaluate the QoS. One needs state-of-art instrumentation to
maintain these."

Viraj Pradhan, communications sales manager, Asia Pacific,
Tektronix says, "In today's world, where spectrum is scarce and resources have
to be carefully planned and spent, optimization of networks is turning out to be
the key differentiator. Operators around the globe and in India are focusing on
this aspect to reduce opex and capex, while at the same time improving QoE, and
thereby, customer satisfaction." Companies like Tektronix offer a suite of
solutions. Its flagship 'pptimon solution' that enables 3G operators to meet and
exceed the standard required for QoS and QoE. The solution is a 3G monitoring,
troubleshooting and optimization solution, based on its flagship K18 hardware
probe and is scalable depending on the size of the network.

Bhaskar of Spirent Communications says, "It is imperative
that service providers have to assess the quality prior to and during deployment
of their services. Spirent being the leader in data communication test
solutions, we believe that we have entered into the 'high of all times' service
provider industry. Today, Spirent solution qualifies the data network capability
on 3G or WiMax networks." Spirent has top of the line 'layer 2-7' solution,
including Ethernet mobile backhaul and data throughput on different wireless
networks. Apart from this, it also offers terminal device conformance testing,
according to the 3G standards, for operators for their next generation services.

According to industry sources, there are enough T&M solutions
available to make possible the next generation network and services with
improved network efficiency. But network operators are not investing the right
amount for the same. In an attempt to acquire more new subscribers, somewhere
SPs have not been able to concentrate on QoS even in the existing voice
services. Vasudev Tantry of Anritsu Pte India says, "After adding the
subscribers, the next big step comes for the operator to improve QoS to retain
them. The role of T&M vendor is very important for network QoS. Anritsu has got
a wide range of products and solutions for 3G and WiMax services, which help
monitoring and maintaining the QoS for the service providers."

Tantry further adds, "The T&M investments in India by various
service providers is just about 1% of the total network investment! This is way
below the developed market figures of around 4%."

Stay Close

The new avalanche of next generation communication services calls for a more
focused approach to deal with customers, network operators, and equipment
vendors. At any transition period, a 360° approach is essential and
understanding the customer's specific requirements makes the fundamental
principle of any new market strategy. Staying closer to customers is the mantra
during a transition period for most businesses.

Pradhan of Tektronix says, "Tektronix would stay closely
engaged with operators and equipment manufacturers, and enable them to roll out
next generation services with speed, and at the same time ensure that the
services launched are at a good QoE." He further adds, "Our solution set has
intelligence built into it through algorithms that enable it to quickly isolate
the critical problems and identify the root cause of these issues. These
solutions have a degree of automation and expert intelligence that guide the
engineer or manager, and helps him fix critical issues that affect QoE and
customer satisfaction."

For Spirent Communications, staying closer to the customers
means providing technical education to customers to understand and benefit them.
As Bhaskar points out, "Spirent Communications adopts technical education
directly and indirectly and helps stakeholders to understand the network testing
criticality. This can be either or both of our products and services offerings
from Spirent. Our global services team expertise to effectively convey the
benefits."

Opportunities for Vendors

As part of austerity measures nowadays, enterprises have started using data
intensive applications like videoconferencing. 3G and WiMax services will also
offer data-intensive applications, once they are rolled out. So, any news
services will add to T&M vendors business opportunities. Tantrysays, "T&M is a
derivative industry and any new service/new technology is an opportunity for the
T&M players. Going forward, QoS will play a key role when the role of T&M
solutions will definitely grow."

When videoconferencing is offered through impending 3G mobile
services also, it will increase business opportunity for T&M players. Increasing
network complexity with existing multiple networks or technologies and data
intensive applications from one end to another of the customer network
necessitate complex management solutions for service providers. Complex
management solutions are needed for operators due to increasing deployment of
disparate traffic like data and time-sensitive applications like VoIP,
videoconferencing, etc. Undoubtedly, all these developments create demand for
advanced T&M solutions.

So, burgeoning mobile subscribers, MNP implementation in
December 2009, and rolling out next generation services like 3G and WiMax in the
near future demand operators to reduce capex and opex, and to improve the
network quality and delivery of services, though it might mean spending more
than what they are spending on T&M solutions at present to satisfy their
customers and avoid customer churn.

Kannan K

kannan@cybermedia.co.in