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Mobile
service providers lose money by the sack loads today because they are unable to
provide the customers reliable data connectivity. Customer churn could be the
smaller effect of this, compared to the loss of revenue just because so many
calls just cannot be completed successfully.
There is a severe
shortage of spectrum today. That is in part responsible for the poor QoS to
mobile customers. And while the 2.4 GHz spectrum has been delicensed, the spurt
of applications-which this move was expected to trigger-has just not
happened.
Fixed service
providers, on the other hand, are simply watching their customers being enticed
by the lure of mobility. At the same time, many of them are being accused of
wasting their last-mile connectivity.
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EXPERTS PANEL |
|
Ajay Gupta, assistantvice president and head, products business, Flextronics Software Systems Shrikant Shitole, business development manager, service provider business, Cisco |
What is worst of
all-rest of the world has found a way to address most of these issues. While
the telecom service provider (fixed, mobile, and integrated) in India know all
these magical solutions too well, they are not going to pick up any of them.
This is strange because the industry in India is still growing and with its high
growth rate, it should have no hesitation in picking up magic formulas that can
actually deliver them a bigger share of their customer's wallet.
Though there are
various ways of drawing out larger ARPUs, one way that the customer will
willingly dole out money is if he could avail the benefits of networks that can
converge the fixed and mobile networks.
Convergence at
its Simplest
The current favourite architecture for achiving this convergence is IMS.
While IMS can be implemented over 3G, the buzz at Barcelona was around
implementing IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) over UMA (unlicensed mobile access).
| Layers of Convergence |
|
Convergence Convergence Convergence |
Both these
technologies are being currently tested all over the world, but none of that is
likely to happen in India.
Technology is not
the major issue holding back the rolling out (or even pilot trials) of converged
networks in India. Essentially, IMS is the equivalent of IP for telecom. It will
enable all the IP communications services in their full mobile glory. UMA is now
the 3GPP standard for enabling subscriber access to mobile services over Wi-Fi
and broadband IP networks. The two can enable wireless communications to a
mobile phone to be seamlessly transferred to a micro or a pico cell that will
cater to very few (perhaps just even one) handsets. The 'backhaul' for this
cellsite will be the broadband network at the customer premises and the normal
radio network outside the premises. The last-few meters, in the premises, could
be over WLAN/Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWM (ultra wide band), or any other available
LAN/PAN (personal area network) technology. These last networks are already in
place in many enterprises and homes today, and are being used via PCs, palmtops,
and iPods. Using IMS and UMA, the fixed service providers can attempt to create
stickiness among their customers and the mobile service providers can attempt to
increase their ARPUs.
Regulation
Strangulation
IMS and UMA drew a lot of attention at the Barcelona, 3GSM and many trials
and pilots are already underway with them. BT has already rolled out its BT
Fusion service. Its customers can seamlessly roam between a home network powered
by Bluetooth (with a BT broadband in the backhaul) and the GSM network powered
by base stations outside home. But none of these will even be tested in India.
The mere suggestion
of convergence is disallowed by the regulatory regime. The IP Telephony Act
specifically prohibits the termination of PSTN and private networks/Internet on
the same machine. At the enterprises, even the PBXs for these two resources have
to be maintained separately. In the limited case where BPOs are allowed to
terminate the two on the same PBX, they have to promise and ensure that they
will strongly desist from trying to converge the two networks.
Other Issues
Besides regulations, here are a few other issues coming in the way of fixed
mobile convergence.
A fixed mobile
converged network presumes at the very least a high-speed broadband network. The
number of these lines in the country was a round figure 1 mn this January. With
such a small base, a commercial rollout of FMC is highly unlikely. Poor QoS is
another spoilsport. The mobile network is at the best of times unreliable. At
its worst, its just not there.
The telecom service
providers are going to depend on system integrators to roll out these services,
as they may not have the expertise or patience to do large-scale rollouts of
LANs.
If these services
are priced at a flat rate, all will be fine. But then there will be no incentive
of cost for taking up these services. If the usage of WAN and LAN networks is to
be priced differentially, especially with seamless call handover between the two
networks, the OSS/BSS applications will have to transcend to the next
generation.
The story with all
the above issues has a chicken and egg analogy with demand and policy. If there
was a demand from the customers, all the other issues could be easily overcome,
and the policies too may accommodate it. But, the demand for converged services
cannot arise till they are looked upon as a crime.
| What is IMS? |
|
IMS It At It IMS |
Tools of the
Trade
Ironically again, the nuts and bolts are in place. Service providers are
already moving towards the network and service convergence. What is needed is
convergence at the applications level. For rolling out convergence based an IP-MPLS
backbone is necessary. That is already strong in the country. Bharti recently
completed the first phase of rolling out a VPN for the Income Tax Department,
based on its MPLS network-the network will eventually connect more than 13,000
nodes. And it is not the only one to have such a vast network. BSNL is also a
strong player in this segment.
The WLAN technology
now seems to have been around for ages. Voice will be just another data
application on this network and the SIs have enough experience in rolling out
LANs. Service providers are already implementing solutions like these with their
in-building solutions in the network shadows. Of course, the converged network
will have the ability to offer much better user experience over LAN, and would
be connected to the service provider via a broadband rather than the adjoining
cell tower.
The availability of
dual mode handsets and network controllers are the missing links for now. The
dual mode handsets will be required for accessing the fixed network over Wi-Fi
or Bluetooth-like technologies, and the network controller for identifying the
handsets and handing over the communications session seamlessly to the fixed
broadband via a WLAN. Early models for both these have already hit the market,
and as with cellular phones, demand will only push down the prices.
VoIP gateways will
be required for the access side when SPs interfacing with the enterprise
networks and the GSM or broadband networks-as the call will have to be
diverted from the TDM to the Wi-Fi at the home or the enterprise. These are
available today.
Applications
servers will be required to offer the ARPU-boosting VAS and billing software
will be required to rake in the moolah.
| What is UMA? |
|
Unlicensed In In |
Who Will Use it?
The early users in India are likely to be the enterprises. They are the ones
who are likely to put a premium on quality of voice and data sessions. They are
also the ones who are likely to have applications that could be most easily
rolled out. For example, downloading emails over mobile devices can takes ages
today. With the service provider connecting to the mobile device through
high-speed broadband, easy access to email through a mobile phone-for
starters-could actually happen. Couple this with the thrust of a few vendors
to make this year the year of wirless email, and you have a killer app for the
converged network even before it is tested out. This ease of use need not be
restricted to office campuses only. A mobile user may actually move to a Wi-Fi
hotspot, even pay a premium perhaps, to overcome network congestion and have a
jitter-free video conference, which might not be possible over a perfectly
working GPRS. Later, the residential market is most likely to be the biggest
driver.
Experience from
operators such as Nextel suggests that these converged services could also boost
the drive towards greater penetration of telecom in the rural India. Experience
shows that in the name of rural connectivity, many service providers connect
only the highways and important places like pilgrim spots. Setting up a base
station for all places may not be feasible. However, FMC will empower even
individual consumers to extend the mobile phone network to their homes. Given
the current state of mobile phone QoS in smaller towns, the fixed/converged
service providers could simultaneously drive up the adoption of mobile services
and broadband service.
Technology Trends
Converged services are already being offered over the cable network in the
US. BT is rolling out an all-IP network. The IMS and UMA have been ratified, and
have been part of successful pilots.
Among all these,
the clear movement is towards IP-based communications. The need for FMC
solutions arises because telecom networks are not necessarily on IP. To migrate
from a GSM network to a Wi-Fi requires the mediation of media gateways. One
technology works on circuit switching, the other on packet switching.
But FMC is not the
end. The end, it is said, is an all-IP network. For this dream of seamless
connectivity over all-IP networks, PSTN will have to die. This would mean
equipment and telecom networking nurtured over years would simply disappear.