Driving into NextGen

Trai's efforts to bring out a consultation paper for issuing the roadmap for
telcos to migrate from the existing to the NGN platform is a welcome step. More
than two years ago, the regulator had floated a consultation paper with the
purpose of raising awareness on NGN among telcos.

Even as the regulator is trying all possible means to get inputs from all the
players in the migration game, India is moving at a relatively slower pace as
many leading operators migrate to the NGN platform world over.

Consequent to Trai recommendations in March 2006, an Expert Committee on Next
Generation Networks (NGN-eCO) was constituted under the aegis of Trai. The
committee deliberated upon the licensing, interconnection and QoS issues related
to NGN and submitted its final report to Trai in August 2007. The expert
committee emphasized the need to deliberate these specific issues separately.
Following which this consultation process has been initiated.

The increasing acceptability of a common IP back bone for all services,
declining average revenue per user, intense competition, new demands for new and
better value added services and applications has prompted many leading operators
to migrate to the NGN platform the world over. NGN is essentially a managed
IP-based - packet-switched network that supports a variety of high-speed data
intensive services including IPTV, HDTV, videoconferencing, VoIP, instant
messaging, email, and other packet-switched communication services.

Trai has notified that operators must be provided with a stable regulatory
and policy framework so that they can take risks associated with NGN
deployments, particularly the high upfront investments required. The regulator
has expressed its concern saying that unless license conditions and regulations
are properly redefined with a light touch regulatory approach, it would be
difficult to encourage smooth migration to NGN. It has asked telcos to specify
if there should be a change in the regulatory and policy framework in the
emergence of NGN. Since NGN platform involves better content and increased value
added services, Trai also wants to know the industry's views on who should
regulate content, and also how the process should be executed.

Currently, it is not mandatory for operators to migrate to NGN. Besides, the
communication ministry has also not specified any time frame for replacing their
existing networks with the NGN platform. Trai has sought the industry's opinion
if this system should continue, or, if a time-frame for migration to NGN should
be specified. It has also sought telcos' views on whether any industry specific
standardization would be necessary to ensure inter interoperability in NGN
environment in view of many optional fields in existing standards.

The consultation paper also touches upon licensing matters like licensing
framework, competition issues, the provision of third party service and
applications, service level agreements, mandatory interconnect exchange,
placement of active elements in the network, a compatible interface by NGN
networks for interconnections with TDM networks, interface approval in NGN, e-
number dialing and re-authentication of identification of the called party.

The Indian NGN market is advancing more steadily and the country is preparing
to provide an enhanced customer experience. According to telecom consulting firm
iLocus' December 2008 report NGN deployment in India has been rapidly growing.
India has so far deployed NGNs that have created a capacity of over 14.9 mn
Class 4 lines and 4.1 mn Class 5 lines. The report also predicts India will
become one of the largest NGN markets in the world in the next few years. By
2012, the NGN capacity deployed in the country is expected to reach 18.9 mn
Class 4 lines and 17.6 mn Class 5 lines.

India is gearing up for newer technologies that can best be supported by NGN,
hence there is no reason to waste time. Considering the bright future of NGN in
India, it is in the industry's best interest to have a long term approach and
participate actively so that the government does not sit on it for too long,
and, meanwhile, India fails to reap the fruits that most operators around the
world are already relishing. But that comes with a word of caution the industry
has to adopt a futuristic approach and avoid last moment glitches like in the
case of 3G spectrum auction, that has left the players clueless.

Heena Jhingan

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in