Future of Mobile Telephony in India

Two conferences were held in Bangalore recently-CII's COMTEL 2008 on telecom

and the second annual Mobility and Wireless World conference organized by MAIT.

While the MAIT conference took as its starting point Telecom Regulatory

Authority's (TRAI) recent recommendations on broadband growth, COMTEL focused at

breaking barriers and bridging the divide. Both conferences brought out a few

interesting points on technologies in mobile telephony. Here's an overview.

Action on broadband



The government's target of increasing the number of Internet connections in

the country to 40 million by 2010 (of which half would be broadband connections)

was perceived as too modest a target. If India is to be a member of what is

being called the 'transaction economy,' then must more attention needs to be

paid to harness the largely copper connectivity fueling the nation's 40 million

landline telephones. TRAI has made a strong plea to unleash the potential of

these landlines to carry Internet traffic by 'unbundling' the local loop. This

would mean creating mini clusters from the last mile loops to distribute smaller

but stronger networks based on WLL, carrying with them, higher data capabilities

and ranges.

Internet over Cable TV Networks



The unused bandwidth in the TV cable connections offered by 60,000 cable

operators countrywide was also a resource waiting to be harnessed. It was

technically feasible to use the current 'download-only' links of direct-to-home

(DTH) satellite TV infrastructure to carry Internet traffic after adding an

alternative uplink path.

WiMAX for rural areas



While optical fibre was still the best bet for long haul wired Net access,

WiMAX was emerging as the hidden power to bridge the rural divide. The

government's recent decision to open the 2.5 GHz band for wireless broadband and

2.1 GHz band for 3G mobile is being seen as a catalyst for high-speed Internet

services. With regard to DTH, WiMAX would not be a participant, but coaxial

cables and the more common fibre optic cables are slated as the next obvious

choice for carrying higher Internet speeds to the domestic user.

Developments in Rural Telecom



National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda told COMTEL conference

that rural telecom connectivity was central to the commission's roadmap for

distance learning and virtual classrooms. Having known the baggage of legacy

systems, India was seen to have an incredible opportunity for global leadership

in wireless broadband.

3G vs WiMAX



By 2009, laptop sales are expected to exceed desktops for the first time-a

key inflexion point as significant as the overtaking of landlines by mobile

phones in 2004. For their connectivity, would these laptops use 3G technologies

like High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) provided by cellular players or will they

harness WiMAX plugins fuelled by new broadband providers?



The champions of WiMAX tout superior speeds (16 Mbps) against HSPA's 4 Mbps. But
going by past experience, victory doesn't always go to the swiftest system but

to one that is best marketed. The HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access),

currently supports downlink speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2, and 14.4 Mbps and though it

provides improved downlink performance with Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC),

it lacks a few vital features that CDMA networks currently hold-variable

spreading factor and real-time power control. This in turn translates to power

modulations depending on congestion and range, which is expected to be a

deciding factor for Indian rural markets.

The providers of India's 250 million cellular connections are not about to

roll over and leave the field open for yet to emerge WiMAX operators. As the

Indian govt finally gets its 3G and broadband act together, the field is still

wide open. But only a foolish punter would declare a winner at this point. For

all you know, it might be a win-win situation for all.

Vishnu Anand