Fixed WiMax Ready, Mobile Miles Away

With the government getting ready to stamp the spectrum policy,
telecom operators have framed strategies to roll out WiMax-this time both
fixed and mobile-services. Main operators who are investing in WiMax
technologies include Bharti Airtel, Idea, Aircel, Reliance, BSNL, VSNL and MTNL,
Sify, among others. And, equipment makers are readying to grab the top slots.

Fixed WiMax based on 802.16d standard is already in vogue in
India. But will WiMax restrict itself to broadband? Can mobile WiMax be a
reality in India? Will WiMax confine to rural or urban areas? Though the
industry is apprehensive about the delay in announcing the spectrum policy,
telecom bigwigs do not want to miss the technology evolution as India is seen as
the pioneer and front-runner in WiMax technology adoption.

Operators' Plans

BSNL, India's top telecom operator by revenue which is re-inforcing its
commitment in India's rural belt, is keen to spend huge funds on WiMax roll
out. BSNL is planning to connect 1,000 towns.

The WiMax roll out plan would be on a non-exclusive revenue
sharing basis with equipment makers. This means that BSNL would be able to
control the cost of network, while equipment makers will also be under pressure
to maximize revenue streams.

Initially, BSNL will offer high-frequency data and later move
towards voice. "We are talking about multiple-play services. At present,
WiMax is not a substitute for mobile, but it is evolutionary. Voice services on
the WiMax platform will automatically find space in our gamut of service,"
says AK Sinha, chairman and MD, BSNL.

BSNL did not disclose investment plans as the company is in the
process of issuing tenders to procure equipment. "This will be a major
tender and let the operators come out with a price," Sinha adds.

Bharti Airtel is one of the first few operators to invest
heavily in WiMax. Its fixed WiMax network is up and running in top sixty cities,
and will be catering mostly to enterprises offering high-end broadband. As for
mobile WiMax, equipments are yet to be made available by equipment makers.
"We will be doing trials as and when we get mobile WiMax equipment,"
says Jagbir Singh, group chief technology officer, Bharti Airtel.

Idea Cellular, one of the leading operators, which is
aggressively expanding following the successful initial public offering, is also
investing in WiMax, primarily focusing on the fixed part.

The other operator, which is actively looking at WiMax is
Reliance. Pilot project is currently on in select cities across the country.
"We are looking at launching any permissible services using WiMax
technologies. We feel that WiMax increases possibilities of elimination of huge
investments on our networks," says a top Reliance official.

Aircel, which became the first in India to launch services on
the WiMax platform, had announced its plan to invest in WiMax infrastructure.
The focus of Aircel is on wireless Internet.

The current solution of Sify, one of the largest fixed wireless
operators in India with close to 14,000 customers on wireless, is based on
802.16d-based WiMax radios, and is actively looking at rolling out to major
cities. Sify feels that allocation of 3.5 GHz would boost deployment and
would be in line with 16.e readiness. "As of now, base station radios
are expensive, hence, it would make sense for all operators to deploy at
high potential areas. For rural, it would be used as a backhaul
technology," says PK Saji, VP, Technology, Sify.

Does Voice Make Sense?

BSNL's Sinha says that voice extension would be natural and automatic. But can
mobile WiMax offer quality voice solutions as compared with other available
options?

According to industry experts, there is a long way to go for
actual implementation of mobile WiMax. "Considering the current market
scenario in India, offering voice solutions on the WiMax platform will take a
long time. On top of that we have lot of other options," says Makarand
Pawar, deputy GM, VAS and New Technologies, Idea Cellular.

A recent Gartner report said strong vendor support exists for
mobile WiMax, but there are equally strong market concerns regarding its true
potential. In the meantime, while cellular technology continues to evolve and
improve, there will be similarities in terms of capabilities. This poses a
strong challenge to mobile WiMax proponents. In urban and developed markets,
with high broadband and cellular reach, the challenge facing mobile WiMax is one
of value creation. However, the most promising prospect lies in delivering
broadband services to unserved or underserved markets. However, challenges in
developing markets revolve around end-user affordability issues. Also, cellular
operators are already able to provide broadband.

"We will be doing trials as and when we get mobile WiMax equipments"		"At present, WiMax is not a substitute for mobile, but it is evolutionary, and voice services on WiMax platform will find space in our gamut of service automatically"		"Voice still remains a major revenue stream for telecom operators"
-Jagbir Singh, group chief technology officer, Bharti Airtel		-AK Sinha, CMD, BSNL		-Ramdev Sharma, CTO/CMO, Huawei India

"WiMax emanates from the data network technology domain.
Voice over IP (VoIP) is one of the many applications of WiMax, unlike the
conventional 2G networks, that support TDM voice. Voice still remains a major
revenue stream for telecom operators. However, as research studies predict, this
trend might reverse in a next few years when voice may just be offered as a
freebie in a multimedia service package to consumers," says Ramdev Sharma,
CTO/CMO, Huawei India.

In India, where telecom infrastructure is not strong enough and
last-mile connections are typically through copper cable, DSL and fibre optic,
installation costs are high. The ability to provide these connections without
wires, therefore, greatly lowers the cost of providing these services.
"This is why WiMax is an attractive alternative for providing last-mile
connection in wireless metropolitan area networks, especially in cellular
backhauls," says Ganesh Guruswamy, country manager and director, Freescale
Semiconductor India.

The Indian telecom sector operates in a volume-driven market.
Target broadband connections have recently been revised to 9 mn subscribers by
2007 and 20 mn by 2010. "Quite likely, the majority of these will be
wireless broadband connections because of inadequate wireline infrastructure in
place," Guruswamy adds.

"WiMax radio technology offers broadband access to end
users and clearly depends on the operator's business case on the basis of
which he would use this access to provide either data, voice, or both,"
says Prashant Agnihotri, head of radio networks product management, India Sub
Region, Nokia Siemens Networks.

As WiMax will basically provide VoIP unlike prevalent 2G mobile
networks, dual mode handsets are one of the essential prerequisites in addition
to smooth hand-off and roaming between networks. "The industry eco-system
is growing faster to address this critical issue of roaming, hand-off and
affordability. It is pertinent to mention here that currently VoIP is allowed
only for making PC-to-PC calls," Huawei's Sharma adds.

"New market entrants can cost-effectively establish
competitive wireless mobility using higher spectrum to compete with operators
that deploy service in the 2G and 3G spectrums. Also, the capacity of WiMAX to
offer VoIP ensures that new entrants can offer a complete range of voice and
data services for business and residential customers," Guruswamy says.

A Sethuraman, chief marketing officer, Alcatel-Lucent, South
Asia says, "Due to global traction, dual-mode WiMax Rev.e end user devices
are being seriously considered, and we can be hopeful that in 2008 we would have
dual-mode WiMax CPE from leading CPE vendors."

Prickly Issues

Broadband operators could face spectrum-related issues. If restrictions in
deployment are eased, the cost of WiMax customer premises equipment (CPEs), that
would account for around 50-60% of an operator's capex, will decrease
consecutively. The cost of WiMax CPEs is likely to remain on the higher side for
another two to three years. As such, operators would find it difficult to roll
out WiMax on a mass scale.

As a solution for broadband enterprise connectivity, current
deployments are hardly beyond the limits of urban markets. This is vindicated by
a report from Lehman Brothers that WiMax is still looked up as the last mile
wireless solution for broadband connectivity. However, as the progress of WiMax
predicts, its business case is contemplated to be universally attractive
compared to other technologies.

"WiMax is an attractive alternative for providing last-mile connection in wireless metropolitan area networks"		"Due to global traction, dual-mode WiMax Rev.e end user devices are being seriously considered"
-Ganesh Guruswamy, country manager and director, Freescale Semiconductor		-A Sethuraman, chief marketing officer, Alcatel-Lucent, South Asia

WiMax Rev.e technology is best fit for both rural and urban
scenarios. In the urban scenario, the challenge is to provide large bandwidth
and high-end muti-media applications to end-users, with mobility being the
crucial feature WiMax Rev.e is inherently designed to deliver the same with
precision. In the rural scenario, the challenge is to provide basic telecom
(inclusive of voice and broadband) connectivity to unconnected at low costs.

"As of now, base station radios are expensive, hence it would make sense for all operators to deploy at high potential areas"		"For rural areas the choice of WCDMA/HSPA (3G) or WiMax will depend on the operator's business case"
-PK Saji, vice president, Technology, Sify		-Prashant Agnihotri, head, Radio Networks Product Management, India Sub region, Nokia Siemens Networks

WiMax is a promising technology and is being forecast to become
the fourth generation mobile technology. According to Sharma, "A
diversified ecosystem, a sound business model and interoperability are the
hallmark of WiMax which would require a supporting regulatory regime to provide
necessary spectrum, the oxygen for wireless network and devices."

"The success of any technology in rural areas will depend
on the cost of CPE. We strongly believe that WiMax deployment will start
from urban areas and will gradually enter rural areas. "For rural
areas the choice of WCDMA/HSPA (3G) or WiMax will depend on the
operator's business case," Agnihotri said.

Surging Hopes

Though the industry is extremely bullish about the scope, uncertified
devices in a network can result in unpredictable system behavior, including
impacts to capacity or performance. Devices may not roam on other networks, or
partner's devices may not work on the operator's network. There is no
guarantee that all features will work as they have not been verified by an
independent entity.

According to a research done in June 2006 by Maravedis and Tonse
Telecom, the number of WiMax users in India will be 13 mn by 2012. "There
is huge potential for broadband wireless Internet and VoIP services in India
because there are still more than 600,000 villages with no basic communication
services," says Sridhar T Pai, co-author of the research.

In India, where monthly broadband ARPU is estimated at $8-10,
and computer penetration is still at around 4%, BWA/WiMax adoption will depend
on very low cost end-to-end pricing for connectivity including the computer
platform and CPE, the Maravedis and Tonse Telecom research says.

It also says that approximately 60% of WiMax subscribers will be
mobile customers globally. While fixed WiMax will continue to be driven by large
corporations and, to a lesser extent, by SME customers, WiMax is perfectly
positioned to solve the last-mile problem in developing countries.

Maravedis and Tonse believe that with the upcoming spectrum
opening, the certification of new equipment and low cost CPEs, the annual 3.3
and 3.5 GHz equipment opportunity will increase from $4 mn in 2005 to $256 mn in
2012.

"We believe that the success of WiMax will strongly depend
on two factors. First factor is the adaptation of standard WiMax band (the
3.3-3.8 GHz European WiMax band). It will be the strongest global WiMax band
which most countries are likely to adopt. The same band is likely to be adopted
in India as well. Secondly, it is important for WiMax to support mobility. On
top of this, the cost of CPEs and availability of dual mode CPEs will play an
important role in WiMax uptake," says Agnihotri.

However, the WiMax Forum is in the process of certifying WiMax
Rev.e products globally for the first time. It is expected that latest by Q3
2007, the Forum would certify Rev.e products and would be available for
deployments in India at the same time.

WiMax will need significant investment in resources and time to
become genuinely useful for mobile applications. Fixed WiMax is an interesting
technology for fixed broadband access and backhaul, but mobile WiMax is still
not optimized for a mobile environment. A long way to go!

Baburajan K


baburajank@cybermedia.co.in