'Fixed WiMax is a flop show - Zohar Zisapel, chairman, RAD Data Communications

How can the spirit of entrepreneurship drive the telecom market globally and contribute innovations for markets like India?

I have always believed that entrepreneurs can make all the difference in the world. All the markets in the world have grown with the inception of a successful 'idea'. For a communications market like telecom, entrepreneurs are more significant.With the world becoming so globalized-telecom equipment being manufactured in one part of the world is being used in another so the spirit to innovate, take risks assumes more importance than ever. Beyond doubt, India is a huge market. The good point for venture capitalists in telecom here is that they already have a big market to experiment and succeed. It is comparatively advantageous to start in your local market than in any other country.

Which technology, according to you, will be most significant in the future?

Wireless and video will be the biggest trends in the coming time. When I say video, I mean it in every form: be it conferencing or data intensive applications on our mobile phones.

For the upcoming technologies like 3G, TD-LTE, if the Indian SPs/vendors get meaningful support from the Government of India, which allows an open market to develop, we will also see the onset of another exciting era in telecom in the country.

For the RAD group, what will be the business strategy-innovating for new technologies or expanding more geographically?

Well, I will say that we have got out footprints in almost all of the major markets and economies of the world. Our strategy will be to penetrate the existing markets. We want to have robust and scalable products suiting different markets and masses.

Could you elaborate on how the company would leverage from an under-served broadband segment of India?

Looking at the current scenario, broadband is one market which offers huge opportunities for us. We are ready with robust and endurable products for the Indian market. Also, we are planning to work with state owned companies like BSNL to private ones like Bharti, to leverage on this opportunity and are exploring more with Indian SPs. We are extremely focused and aggressive in the Indian industry with our network access and telecom solutions that can scale up the volumes of the large customer bases here.

Are any drastic changes in the telecom industry expected to take place in the coming decade?

The telecom industry, as I see it, has done exceptionally well in India and abroad. There is still more to come. The entrepreneurs and the operators have to be exteremelly focused to identify the need of the subscribers and serve it well. The coming decade is going to be very exciting for India where we will see data intensive demands in a rise.

Like Ceragon manufacturers, are other companies of RAD open for diversification of business?

Once Ceragon was not very successful in its its high bitrate products so we focused it into cellular backhaul market. And from that time Ceragon has not looked back. My point is that RAD isn't very rigid in its business approach. Once we find that a company is not doing well, we are ready to diversify its business attention depending the business and geographical needs, etc. Flexibility in the right sense has been advocated by us. It has helped a lot in the entrepreneurship skills and of course the indiviual business cases of the company.

What are your views regarding fixed WiMax?

Fixed WiMax will be a flop show. When we talk about fixed WiMax, it was built basically on the mobile market only. Wi-Fi also is one of the crucial technologies that can provide the last mile connectivity and can do the part of work that fixed WiMax can do. So fixed WiMax is kind of sandwiched between Wi-Fi and mobile WiMax.

What is your take on the Indian market? Do you think the government can play a vital role in promoting equipment, 3G services despite security hassles?

The government can always provide a helping hand to the operators, vendors, manufacturers, etc. I agree that there are security challenges in the country which we are perceiving from telecom equipment to 3G services, but the advantage that can be leveraged once the newer technologies are in place are huge. The risks can be very well controlled. So, for the bigger and better advantage, the GoI must contemplate providing a better suport to the industry.

India is already great in the communications market. I believe that information and incubation has to be more driven and once that happens there will be hallmark achievements that can happen in the country. Apart from broadband, IP and Ethernet technologies will also have huge demand in the Indian domain.

Archana Singh & Ibrahim Ahmad
archanasi@cybermedia.co.in