Wireline Infrastructure : Regaining Lost Glory

Despite the prodigious growth rate in the telecom sector, wireline services
have not been able to generate a similar reaction in all sectors. The
exponential growth of wireless services is giving a tough competition to this
sector and making its progress more complicated. At present the country has just
over 39 mn estimated wireline subscribers, with the lion's share from this
serviced by BSNL.

While there was a drastic fall in wireline tariff during the last few years,
the growth has stagnated. Consumers are looking forward to new and innovative
wireless technologies such as 3G and WiMax.

However, the increased bandwidth demand can be one of the major driving
factors to proliferate the growth of this sector. At present, there is no better
alternative to optical fiber technologies in this case. Wireless technology
could play the role of a supplement to support specific cases. The demand for
high-quality broadband services is growing immensely in the country. At present
there are various issues forbidding enterprises to adopt full scale wireless
solutions.

Though wireless technologies like 3G/4G, WiMax and Wi-Fi would still have
their own space; wireline is the preferred medium for consistent high
performance and speedy data connection for enterprises.

Market analysis also reflects the moderate increase of wireline services
because of its ability to offer an unmatched bundled portfolio of broadband,
IPTV and video communications. Wireless technologies still have a long way to go
in terms of bandwidth or capability on broadband and IPTV. Further, mobile IPTV
is another emerging area where home-wired IPTV would be far larger than mobile
IPTV.

At present, the country has just over 5 mn broadband connections but it is
still quite far from the government's ambitious target of 20 mn by 2010.

New Aspirations

With the decline in ARPUs and falling margins, service providers are banking
big on services such as IPTV, high speed DSL, Ethernet connections and managed
services to stay ahead of the curve.

Also, DSL, which is an ideal technology for offering broadband services in
India, is expected to allow triple play services on the same copper line in an
effective manner. By providing more value added services, service providers will
be able to increase their margins. In addition, the industry is witnessing an
unbroken increase of user bandwidth. The green technologies are also making
headway, and fiber technologies are entering more and more areas.

Experts panel

Chandan Mendiratta, vice president, service provider, system engineering, Cisco India & SAARC. Michael Kuehner, head, India and Nepal Sub region, Nokia Siemens Networks Prasad Dasika, director, marketing (APAC), Ciena Vijay Yadav, managing director, South Asia, UT Starcom Kiran pande, head of new regional business of India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, ECI Telecom

In terms of new technologies, FTTH technologies based on passive and active
network structures are emerging fast. These technologies provide higher
bandwidth at significant high infrastructure costs. The success of wireline is
largely dependent on flexible connectivity. Depending upon the need,
organizations today look for customized and flexible solutions to safeguard
business objectives.

Thus, it is imperative from the service provider to facilitate communications
infrastructure in such a way that even after few months, if they want to
reduce/move their communication needs, the infrastructure should accordingly
decrease or increase. Moreover, enterprises are also looking for future proof
infrastructure which could ultimately result in a surge in demand of fiber
networks.

Though services such as triple play and IPTV have been there in the wireline
broadband segment, the industry is also banking on new innovations like FTTH,
FTTX and BRAS (broadband aggregation system) as close to the consumer as
possible or till last mile. The trends in the industry from a consumer
perspective are to increasingly add value added services with broadband.

The Road Ahead

The market is getting mature and consumers are looking for more and more
services at low prices. In order to drive the growth of wireline broadband,
there is a need to lay new lines. Though we have over 40 mn lines, most of these
are not capable enough of delivering 2 Mbps speed which is the basic requirement
of services like IPTV.

On the IPTV front, 2009 the focus would be to enable more and more
applications on related platforms. There could be an emergence of a wide range
of technologies like TVMS which will allow users to receive/send SMS while
watching television or receiving education classes on the IPTV platform.

In order to be better placed in near future, technology vendors need to
provide solutions that enable all three forms of communications data, voice and
video.

In recent times, a large portion of the broadband subscriber growth has
happened on copper. However, because of its limited availability, it cannot meet
the requirements of the industry.

The other scenario for wireline expansion is where the operator runs fiber to
the building, and runs copper in the last few hundred meters to the subscribers.
Whatever the condition, reliable connectivity infrastructure represents a vital
component of selecting the services.

Further, in order to maximize the number of customers and services, operators
need to increase their current revenue stream by offering new and innovative
services. And it is also important to ensure that the cost to support new
services is incremental. There are multiple technologies and platforms available
today to effectively support a multi-service environment, which improves RoI by
maximizing revenue potential, and minimizing capex.

At present, majority of carrier operations are manual. To minimize the opex
for carriers, there is a strong need for network automation, especially in areas
of network visibility, capacity demand planning and bandwidth allocation.

Also, service providers can continue to provide an exemplary level of QoS
while trimming overall costs through service-driven, mesh-based architecture. A
service-driven network ensures that the network resource allocation is in line
with the customer's service requirements. An example of this would be service
tiering. Separate SLAs for voice, data and video applications will ensure that
the customer experience does not suffer while at the same time making optimal
use of network resources to support these services.

Within wireless, any mobile technology that provides more bandwidth would
score better compared to a mobile technology which does not offer the same
value.

Above all, the Indian market represents a huge potential for telecom growth.
And to make a strong statement, we need a better business model with a
customized approach. So far, service providers have not been able to identify
the factors that drive the standards in wireline space. But hopefully, with the
emergence of new technologies and increased broadband focus, wireline services
would be able to regain its lost glory.

Jatinder Singh

jatinders@cybermedia.co.in