Testing the Broadband Wave

After a slow start in the year 2007, which was declared as the year of
broadband by the union government, broadband deployment is set to take off in
the country in 2008 with leading service providers actively scouting for
technologies that suit their business models. The anticipated push in deployment
of broadband will offer exciting opportunities for T&M players in India.
Whenever a telecom operator expands its broadband presence, it throws open
chances for T&M companies.

Leading operators are looking at expanding their broadband base. Their main
target will be both enterprises and retail customers who will look for quality
of service. Operators such as HFCL, BSNL, Bharti Airtel, VSNL, Tata Teleservices,
MTNL, Reliance Communications, Sify, Aircel among others, are coughing up funds
to ensure that they are ahead of competition.

BSNL is looking at 1,000 BTS using WiMax technology and expects to cover some
25,000 villages with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. It is also planning to
connect some seventy cities with an additional investment of Rs 2,000 crore.
HFCL invested Rs 1,500 crore for WiMax rollouts. Bharti Airtel is targeting both
the enterprises and retail customers.

VSNL may invest about $500-600 mn for rolling out WiMax services in
thirty-five cities over the next three years. It would launch the service in
Bangalore and then cover other major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad
in the first phase. In the second phase, the company plans to reach out to
customers in about thirty-five cities across the country mainly consisting of
state capitals.

In order to reach out to over 4 mn small and medium enterprises, Reliance
Communications is in the process of deploying broadband and wireless WiMax
networks in the top 10 cities of India. Bangalore and Pune are already equipped
to provide this premier business solution on an anyone-anywhere-any building
basis.

The state-run MTNL is planning to increase the broadband customer base by
about 50,000 by March next year. MTNL has already set up 660 BTS and is planning
another 392 BTS by March 2008.

The nascent Indian market for enterprise broadband services, currently valued
at Rs 6,000 crore, is likely to grow at the rate of 40% per annum. The reasons
why telecom operators are stepping up their investments in broadband ventures
and looking at quality services for their customer are obvious.

Opportunities Galore

WiMax presents new opportunities in terms of the boundless wireless broadband
services that can help operators reduce operational cost and increase ARPU.
However, due to high traffic loading generated by broadband services and
complexity of WiMax RF technology and signaling protocols, there are many new
challenges faced by wireless service providers to plan, install, maintain,
troubleshoot, and optimize WiMax networks and services.

“Broadband deployment in general and triple play services and WiMax
deployment in particular, will offer exciting opportunities for T&M companies.
Agilent provides solutions for test challenges and requirements in each stage of
network lifecycle,” says Gautam Awasthi, general manager, Marketing, Electronic
Measurements Group, Agilent Technologies India.

Arun J Rao, country manager, Adlink Technology, India, has this to say: “We
are actively looking for the commercial launch of 3G services in India. 3G will
offer good opportunities for us. Service providers in a country like India
should not miss the chance to launch 3G services because of spectrum
deficiency.”

''New technologies are exciting as well as challenging for T&M players since service providers look up to us for assistance to address their QoS issues'' Alamuri Sitaramaiah, director, Sales and Marketing, Fluke Networks India

Testing today's complex network infrastructure can be a daunting task. The
use of distributed configurations, wide and dynamic range of network protocols,
and emerging triple play services all produce significant challenges. A company
like Agilent Technologies is also waiting in the wings. Agilent offers a host of
integrated solutions for 3G network testing and optimization.

According to the officials of National Instrument, never before in history
the need for new wireless and communications standards has been so prevalent.
While chip manufacturers are working to pack as much functionality into their
latest chipsets as possible, device manufacturers are scrambling to implement
this new functionality into their latest products, and test these devices. To
combat this accelerated product development cycle, a flexible, software-based
architecture is essential to rapidly prototype, design, and test devices using
current and emerging wireless and communications technologies.

For Fluke Networks India, DSL networks and metro Ethernet networks are
exciting, says Alamuri Sitaramaiah, director, Sales and Marketing, Fluke
Networks India.

“These new technologies are exciting as well as challenging for T&M players
since service providers look up to us for assistance to address their QoS
issues,” says, Sitaramaiah.

According to Viraj Pradhan, Apac communication business sales manager,
Tektronix, the new technologies and services provide a lot of excitement to the
consumer, but at the same time add on to the complexity level for an SP. Next
generation technologies are quite complex in nature and need specialized tools
and expertise to achieve a desired level of quality. For example, 3.5G
technologies like HSDPA promise to deliver a download speed of up to 7.2 Mbps or
higher. But these are theoretical values and can be achieved only in the lab
environment. To achieve download speeds close to the theoretical mark is quite a
challenge and sometimes even a nightmare. This is where the Tektronix experts
step in and enable an operator to optimize the network and provide the
subscriber the ability to achieve higher download speeds. “At the end of the
day, it is all about the quality of experience for a subscriber (via the
download speed) and subsequently, to customer satisfaction and revenues of an
operator,” he adds.

Quality at Stake

The primary concerns these days are how to manage technology migration and
improving QoS.

The telecom regulator, TRAI, has tried to ensure that both the Internet and
broadband players met their performance standards for the quarter ended June
2007. According to TRAI, all ISPs have met TRAI's service activation time
benchmark of six hours. Benchmark on time-to-access was not met by Bharti Airtel
and HFCL Infotel. Regarding the benchmark on the probability of accessing the
ISP node, all ISPs have met the benchmark of 80% for the first attempt, 90% for
the second attempt, and 99% for the third attempt. Asianet Satellite
Communications has not met the parameter on ISP node unavailability.

As per the clause 1.9 schedule C, ISPs are required to rectify 90% of faults
resulting into subscriber complaint within 24 hours and 99% of faults within
three days. All operators have met this benchmark.

Quality of services (QoS) has a direct relationship with operators' top line
and bottom line and hence SPs are keen to emphasize on T&M solutions. “Fluke
Networks solutions are easy to deploy, use and manage and thus, provide quick
RoI for the SPs,” says Sitaramaiah.

Operators who offer broadband, which is becoming a craze among the Indian
users, should be very careful about QoS. Broadband regulations came into
existence from January 1, 2007 and QoS parameters reported by broadband
companies for the quarter ended June 2007 is not up to the mark. The main
parameters include service provisioning, faults repair, response time to the
customer for assistance, bandwidth utilization, service availability/uptime for
all users, packet loss for wired broadband access, network latency for wired
broadband access, etc.

Parameters such as broadband speed available from ISP node to user, service
availability for all users, user reference point at POP/ISP gateway node to IGSP/NIXI,
and user reference point at ISP gateway node to international nearest NAP port
abroad were met by all service providers.

But the list of operators who did not meet the QoS expectations of TRAI is
huge. Service providers such as MTNL, VSNL, Airtel, HFCL, Asianet, and Hathway
did not meet the parameter on service provisioning/activation time. MTNL, VSNL,
Airtel, Sify, Asianet, and Hathway did not meet the parameter on faults repair
and restoration time (0% faults repaired by next working day).

Quality of services has been taken up by the telecom regulator in an
effective way. Now, it is the operators turn to improve the performance as the
competition and affordability to test new broadband technologies and T&M
solutions would make the difference in the market. Customers are ready to pay a
certain price provided SPs are ensuring the best quality.

Operator Challenges

The challenge for network operators is to move end-users forward to new
handsets and entice them to use the new services made possible by the operator's
investment in next-generation network equipment. At the same time, operators
need to ensure that their customers maintain access to information from
previous-generation equipment and will not loose connectivity. T&M companies are
here to support the quality of user experience (QoE), from making conformance
measurements to testing all the potential customer scenarios to analyzing
trends.

The entire service provider community is facing challenges posed by an
unprecedented growth in subscription, traffic volumes, and inability to maintain
the QoS. Planned mobile number portability (MNP) will add more challenges to
service providers to retain the customer base. Voice call is becoming cheaper
day-by-day, and operators need to look up to VAS for generating additional
revenues to offset the drop in voice revenue. Service providers are challenged
to reduce costs and increase revenue while simultaneously attracting and
retaining profitable customers, Agilent Technologies' Gautam Awasthi says.

From a management perspective, the primary demand is solutions that can help
to reduce meantime-to-repair, and those that lower operational costs, Fluke
Networks' Alamuri Sitaramaiah, says.

Today, the challenge is to deliver voice, video, and data services to
residential customers, over a single access point: telecommunications companies
are adding IPTV to their portfolios, while cable operators are moving into
telephony. Although they use proven technologies to stake their claims, service
providers and network operators must learn how to handle the complexity of
infrastructures.

Several T&M companies offer measurement solutions to service providers in
both operational support system as well as installation and maintenance domains.
For instance, from an operational support system perspective, Agilent provides
solutions to monitor QoS of networks, QoS of services offered by service
providers themselves, as well as for troubleshooting service problems to reduce
meantime-to-repair.

Considering the recent alliance between VSNL, which has a subscriber base of
500,000 broadband and Internet users, and the US-based Marshall Media to provide
high-definition American infotainment to VSNL's broadband customers, many such
tie-ups are in the pipeline among the leading players. According to the
agreement, Marshall Media will supply VSNL with VoD programming, ranging from
infotainment to comedy shows, including the series Road to the American Dream,
produced by Marshall Media. In the future, Marshall Media also plans to offer
VSNL and its broadband customers live HD broadcasting for various types of
events, via VSNL's INMARSAT satellite communications service. Such alliances and
the related services call for greater quality check, as customers are moving on
to witness newer experiences.

''Broadband deployment and triple play services will offer exciting opportunities for T&M companies'' Gautam Awasthi, GM, Marketing, Electronic Measurements Group, Agilent Technologies India

Complexity is the name of the game when operators look for bundling services.
When the pure broadband services change gears and add additional services such
as IPTV/triple play, customer interface will be strengthened and this can cause
active check on quality of services. For instance, Bharti Airtel recently
renamed its broadband and telephone services business as Telemedia Services in
the light of growing focus on new media solutions and its foray into the IPTV
and DTH business.

For any service provider, successfully installing, optimizing, and
troubleshooting the WiMax network is critical to the growth of their customer
base and revenue. Having the right test and measurement tools in place to do
this is essential, says Awasthi.

Viraj Pradhan of Tektronix says that CTOs want to deliver reduced Opex
through quick troubleshooting, root cause analysis and effective problem
resolution. They also would like to deliver reduced Capex through centralizing
operations, allowing efficient planning and utilization, rapid deployment of new
network elements giving faster return on investment, utilization of hidden
assets through a centralized view of all assets, sharing and building expertise
across technicians, operators and network planners, and optimize network
performances and increase QoS perceived by users while still focusing on reduced
Opex and Capex.

Agilent's strengths in the triple play world are its unique ability to
generate realistic test scenarios that support installation and operation of
complex networks, network equipment and services; and the trouble-shooting tools
that help isolate and resolve problems in the field quickly, easily, and
reliably. If tested by Agilent's real-world test solutions, it works for real.
Agilent is said to be providing end-to-end performance monitoring and testing of
fixed, mobile, and converged networks. Agilent works closely with equipment
manufacturers, network companies, service provides, and carriers. Its products
like the Agilent N2X, Network Tester, and Triple Play Analyzer simplify triple
play complexity.

To stay competitive, telecommunication operators are incorporating new
technologies and services as they are developed, and today, they are developed
very, very fast. Operators face a plethora of challenges in the form of carriers
not having tested the services on large user communities or in combination with
other services. Growing complexity of technologies, high deployment costs, low
thresholds of customer tolerance, and market uncertainties add to the
challenges.

New Offerings

Emerging wireless and cellular technologies bring complexity to managing
services never before experienced by operators. Agilent provides end-to-end
network, service, and customer assurance from network deployment through service
growth and maturity. With Agilent tools, SPs can gain accurate understanding of
subscriber's experience, and quickly fix problems to restore service and
generate revenues.

Sitaramaiah, says: “Solutions for Metro Ethernet service provisioning
qualification are our new offerings. Fluke Networks offers Portable Network
Analyzers for analyzing DSL networks as well as Metro Ethernet networks. In
addition, Fluke Networks also offers Netflow/IPFIX­­-based WAN bandwidth
analysis tools.”

Adlink Technology, which has been offering T&M products and technologies
since 1995, to offer at a competitive cost, is looking at the Indian market for
the operators' readiness for 3G rollouts.

By using National Instruments' software-defined modular instruments, its
customers can maximize your equipment investment by creating a test system that
is both reusable and adaptable to changes in the test device. National
Instruments offers a suite of modular instruments, including digital I/O,
precision DC, audio analyzers, and switches, so one can build a comprehensive
communications device test system with the virtual instrumentation approach.

Tektronix provides network operators and also equipment manufacturers a
comprehensive and unparalleled suite of network diagnostics and management
solutions for fixed, mobile, IP and converged multi-service networks. These
solutions support architectures and applications like fixed mobile convergence,
IMS, broadband wireless access, WiMax, 2G/2.5G/3G, VoIP, and triple play
including IPTV.

The E6474A Agilent Wireless Network Optimization Platform provides true cross
technology scalability and allows early verification of network deployments for
2G, 2.5G, and 3G wireless networks. Its optimization platform enables wireless
service providers to proactively address challenges with wireless voice and data
networks by quickly and accurately identifying problems. This makes
troubleshooting complex networks faster and more efficient than before.

Agilent Distributed Network Analyzer (DNA) allows network professionals to
quickly maintain and optimize voice, data, video, and mobile services over next
generation networks (NGN), decreasing operational cost by testing any
technology, over any interface, from anywhere by anyone. Agilent's scaleable DNA
hardware platform provides the foundation of advanced protocol analysis. It
takes advantage of extensive diagnostic capabilities for troubleshooting and
optimizing voice, video, data networks, as well as 2G, 2.5G, and 3G mobile
networks.

In critical conditions, Agilent's “Power of 3” is vital to any operational
support system strategy. Agilent assureME tools simplify, accelerate, and
enhance everything from operations to marketing, with alarms in three minutes,
root cause diagnosis in three clicks, and three-dimensional insight across
customers, services, and networks.

Indian service providers are keen to test new technologies in order to
improve their bottom line and top line. Considering the past history of Indian
operators, they never tried to test a newly launched product globally. Many of
these products/technologies come to the Indian soil after considerable testing
done in overseas markets. But broadband and the related services are emerging,
and Indian operators may not wait till they get the result of the international
customers' experience. It's time for SPs to test waters and leapfrog, as many
T&M companies design and test solutions that span the entire technology
lifecycle-R&D, design verification and pre-conformance, conformance,
manufacturing through network deployment, and service assurance.

Baburajan K

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in