Working on MAX-NG, will bring VoIP and other broadband services to the aging fixedline infrastructure

Center for Development of Telematics is the technology development center
of the Government of India. It was established in 1984 as an autonomous body
with an objective to build a center of excellence in the area of telecom
technology. It was C-DOT, which ushered in the first telecom revolution in the
country. Rural India heard the sound of the dial tone for the first time, from
the Rural Automatic Exchange (RAX) switches, developed by the team of C-DOT. In
August 2009, C-DOT has completed its glorious twenty-five years.

C-DOT in all these years has been on the technology forefront and
significantly contributed to the Indian telecom network digitization, bridging
the digital divide between the rural and urban, establishing strong telecom
manufacturing infrastructure and employment generations. For the next
two-to-three years, C-DOT is focusing on design and developing systems which are
of strategic importance to the country. PV Acharya, executive director, C-DOT is
also heading the Bengaluru unit, which is engaged in development of various
projects of telecom technology, like broadband satellite, rural wireless, next
generation networks, etc. In a conversation with VOICE&DATA, Acharya shares his
views on the current and future projects, opportunities, and challenges,
broadband initiatives and the future of 3G and MNP in the Indian market.
Excerpts

PV Acharya, executive director, C-DOT

How do you foresee the future of wireless broadband in India? What are
C-DOT's initiatives for a faster rollout of broadband?

Young people-with their urge to network for social groups like Facebook, Twitter
and also for gaming and sharing of music, etc-are the most voracious consumers
of digital services; and for the delivery of such services, we require broadband
pipes. With about 40-50% of population under the age of thirty, India would
therefore have the highest potential for telecom growth in broadband area. Added
to this, is the need to make services in the area of education, health and
e-governance, to reach out to rural India, where 70% of our population lives.
Hence, India represents the greatest opportunity for broadband in general, and
broadband wireless in particular.

As for broadband initiatives of C-DOT, for the immediate future, C-DOT has an
important up-gradation program on its anvil, called MAX-NG, which will bring
VoIP and other broadband services to the aging fixed line infrastructure,
comprising of its MAX / RAX switches. C-DOT is also developing NGN, GPON which
will build broadband pipes to homes, SOHO's and multi-dwelling units.

How do you foresee the future of present telecom manufacturing sector in
India? Do you think India has the potential to be a manufacturing hub in future?

Considering that India is the fastest growing telecom market in the global,
India has the immense potential to become the manufacturing hub in the future.
Yet, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that today, we have one of the poorest
ecosystems, as far as telecom manufacturing is concerned. This is very sad,
especially, when we consider the kind of vibrant infrastructure that C-DOT has
built to manufacture digital switching system. Somehow, after opening of our
telecom sector to MNCs, the only growing sector is that of services, namely the
operators who look for affordable financing for buying their telecom gear; and
when this is not forthcoming from the Indian manufacturing, they tend to procure
the entire requirement from foreign manufacturers. There has to be a fundamental
change and a paradigm shift in the scenario.

What would be C-DOT's focus area in the next two to three years? What are
the projects that C-DOT is currently working on?

The basic objective of C-DOT is to build technology excellence to meet
current and future needs of telecom markets and other projects of national
importance related to telecom. Our focus area for the next two to three years is
to design and develop systems which are of strategic importance to the
country-like a fully-automated centralized lawful interception, monitoring and
analysis system for national security.

We are currently working on the following projects:

• A software intensive project on ASP (application service provider) model
  is being developed. As a first step, C-DOT data clearing house is facilitating
  revenue sharing amongst service providers.
• Network management system-C-DOT NMS has been deployed in various formats
  at various places for monitoring, control and configuration under one single
  software product for equipment from diverse vendors like Alcatel, Ericsson,
  Siemens, etc.
• SG-RAN-We are also working on shared active radio system (SG-RAN) for
  sharing active infrastructure between multiple operators. It saves on power
  and is attractive for rural GSM market.
• GPON-We are also developing totally indigenous high capacity broadband
  optical fiber system called GPON.
• C-DOT is also undertaking futuristic study projects like One Number, which
  will aim to utilize a unique number like social security number, for a mobile
  personal number, cognitive radio, and advanced optical network technology.
  

What major challenges are you facing as you are moving to the next level?

The biggest challenge that we are facing in the Indian telecom market is the
cutthroat competition among the operators. Here competition is very high, so we
have to create a niche segment for ourselves. Operators work for business model
and we find it difficult to compete in this fiercely competitive scenario.
Secondly, today vendors are working on different model and funding patterns.
Recently, ZTE announced that they will provide loan only to those companies who
will purchase ZTE's equipments and products. So, if this kind of funding pattern
becomes prevalent, then who will buy our products? Especially, in today's times
when everybody is facing financial crisis and needs money to survive.

What's happening on 3G front?

It is definitely a great opportunity. With SG-Ran we have made our comeback in
technology space. We are going to examine 3G on 900 MHz. If government will
permit us to do that we will definitely enter the 3G space, but we are not very
hopeful because 900 MHz is now saturated. We don't have any special plans for
standard 3G. In fact, we are studying for 4G technology.

With growing network, security has become a major issue for the telecom
industry. What initiative is C-DOT taking on telecom security front?

C-DOT can play pivotal role for security infrastructure. One of the major
projects that C-DOT currently working on is the telecom security project. It is
a very big project for all countries, because the kind of network we have,
security is of utmost importance. It is front-end for various law enforcement
agencies (LEAs) in the area of Internet monitoring through centralized
monitoring system to enable basically monitoring of lawful activities and
networking of anti-social elements on the pan-India telecommunication networks
across technologies. We are also considering Blackberry issue, but it yet has to
be seen. So far, we don't have any special plans for Blackberry.

Where do you see the Indian telecom industry in the next five years?

India will be the only market which is still growing because rural opportunities
are there. Voice is going to be the king of revenues. But a lot needs to be done
on broadband front. Quality of service and reliability is required on network.
This is a major requisite for broadband. And I think, except India, in all other
countries telecom is going to flattened. Because in India, there are lots of
opportunities still waiting to be explored.

Arpita Prem

arpitap@cybermedia.co.in