/vnd/media/agency_attachments/bGjnvN2ncYDdhj74yP9p.png)
Think big, think fast, and think ahead is what late Dhirubhai Ambani used to
say. It seems Reliance Infocomm is just trying to move on those lines. On 1 May
2003, the company launched its much-awaited mobile service and within eight
months, Reliance Infocomm became the number one mobile service provider in the
country with a base of 5.57 million subscribers. Bharti Cellular is currently
number two with a subscriber base of 5.50 million. Even in terms of reach, the
Reliance IndiaMobile services are now available in over 1,100 cities, a great
achievement considering that the service is just eight months old.
Having tested its success on the mobile front, the company is now planning to
unveil the second phase of the project that will usher an enterprise netway
revolution and help in providing never heard off speeds of 100 Mbps in the
country. The project had been delayed as the company was struggling with
Reliance IndiaMobile. But with things stabilizing on the mobile front, it seems
that plans are now afoot to start broadband services by the end of this quarter.
The company has created a large digital infrastructure covering 1,100 cities and
has laid around 90,000 Rkm optical fiber cable. Plans are to lay another 100,000–200,000
Rkm for the last mile. Efforts are also on to add around 20,000 Rkm every
quarter.
|
/vnd/media/post_attachments/2ed95e5a076f85520dd587975c93a79dc73b735cd0ad41c1dcac725bfa4d7a45.gif)
Though, India has achieved a respectable position of seven in terms of tele-density,
on the broadband front, the figure stands at 0.02 per 100 people. It seems,
Reliance is now working on changing the overall landscape of broadband in the
country. This task was supposed to have been accomplished by incumbent operators
like MTNL and BSNL who already have a lot of copper in place. To start with, the
company is looking at providing broadband for enterprises. Home users will still
have to wait.
Huge Infrastructure
Broadband for enterprise is well underway as presently it is undergoing
trial run in Reliance Infocomm and other group companies. Presently these are
working flawlessly and the response is positive, says Prakash Bajpai, president,
Reliance Infocomm.
In the first phase, the company is looking at 52 cities as large part of
business buildings in these cities have been connected by optical fiber cable
based on Gigabit Ethernet technology. All this will help in providing bandwidth
hungry applications to corporates.
In a year’s time, close to 200,000 buildings will be broadband connected at
the current pace of laying fiber to building complexes. BSNL already has a
presence in a large number of these buildings, while private players are present
in some. But in many buildings, the last mile fiber is not yet there. So,
expectations are that the company will try to reach a million customers in few
months or in a year’s time frame depending upon acceptability of broadband
services by corporate customers.
On the bandwidth front, the company has tied-up with 100 large carriers and
has commercial relationship with 43 international operators. With the completion
of the Flag acquisition, Reliance Infocomm has huge international capacity. But
the big question here is how will it route the capacities given that Flag’s
landing rights in India are still with VSNL.
The entire operations will be taken care from the central NOC (network
operating center), but the company plans to have 12 regional NOCs that will take
care of specific requirements of different regions. These NOCs will be helpful
in providing technical support to enterprise customers.
Technology Medley
On the technology front, the company is opting for different technologies
like Gigabit Ethernet, LMDS, DSL, and cable TV, but Infocomm’s major thrust is
on Ethernet. The company has tied up with al the leading vendors like Lucent,
Nortel, Motorola, Alcatel, UTStarcom, Juniper, and Cisco.
DSL as a technology is too much dependent on copper. Reliance Infocomm, being
a new player does not have a legacy network based on copper cable. So, the
company’s broadband focus is more on Ethernet. On the other hand, cable TV is
a good option but presently, operators are modifying the network and using more
optical fiber cable. With cable TV falling more in the unorganized sector, the
company is waiting for mergers and acquisitions to happen before it woos
residential customers. Prakash Bajpai feels that both DSL and cable TV are
relevant, but they are hardly going to make an impact so the company is opting
for Ethernet as it is the most efficient technology on the optical medium.
On Ethernet, speeds of 100 Mbps are possible, as compared to the 11 Mbps
speed on DSL. In the conventional system, one can experience problem in video
conferencing kind of applications but gigabit Ethernet helps in providing
unconstraint bandwidth and one can even surf the Internet at blazing speeds.
Services in Plenty
In terms of bandwidth speed there is no limitation as one can provide
bandwidth speeds right from kbps to Mbps, and also in terms of Gbps.
|
/vnd/media/post_attachments/ca38379fa13e479a2a782d37970511e05f9a4d9b26d0f8384e6dddac017a2136.gif)
With the launch of enterprise solutions, the company is planning to provide a
complete suite of voice and data services like E1 lines, Virtual VPN, MPLS based
VPN, closed user group (CUG) functionality, hosting services, co-location, and
international data centers. Reliance Infocomm is also planning to run
collaborative services like audio conferencing, video conferencing, and web
conferencing. All this will help in changing the overall working of an
individual as he will jump from traditional e-mail communication to audio and
video conferencing, which is a powerful tool for communicating globally and
provides more interactivity.
Connectivity solutions will not only provide high speeds but also help in
providing secure and resilient connectivity, thereby, increasing efficiency. All
the services will be backed up with excellent service level agreements (SLAs),
which will help in smooth functioning of the company. The company plans to have
network uptime of 99.5 percent says Bajpai.
In order to help corporates utilize complete bandwidth, Reliance Infocomm is
planning to design an effective network for corporates. For this, the company is
not planning to join hands with integrators, but will use internal resources.
The company feels that integrators cannot do MPLS and Gigabit networks as they
do not have the capability. And since their focus is on WAN and not on LAN
connectivity, it can give Reliance an edge vis-a-vis service providers. The
company is also working on creating standard solutions which can be utilized
depending on the requirement of the corporate customers.
Cost-cutter
A great believer in bringing costs to the rock bottom, Reliance Infocomm has
leapfrogged and has set up a state-of-the-art technology on the voice front. The
company plans to replicate the voice model and is planning to leapfrog even on
the data front. Since technology is very powerful it helps in bringing the costs
down because of the scale that we operate says Prakash Bajpai. The pricing is
definitely lower than what has been invested in fixed line so far.
According to Bajpai, enterprises can think of a reduction of 30—40 percent
in the communication costs and also help in creating state of the art network,
improving efficiency and productivity and also controlling costs for both voice
as well as data network.
Convergence, Finally?
In order to utilize the full capacity of the network, Reliance Infocomm is
planning to launch consumer convergence solution by providing high speed
Ethernet links to 80 million homes. The company is looking to provide
connectivity to such large base of users in FY 2004—05. This revolution will
help in providing every home with a range of television channels, high-speed
telephony, audio conferencing, video conferencing, audio on demand, and video on
demand. On this front, the company is working along with Microsoft and is also
testing other technologies so that it can also lay its hand on a very big
entertainment market.