DiviNet promises new era of convergence

If the technology developed by Pune-based DiviNet Access Technologies takes off, your life will never be the same again. Srikanth R P has the details on an innovative device that uses your television set and can do everything except settle the spat between you and your better half on who gets to use the device first

At first take, most would find it impossible to believe that such a product could emerge from India. Think about it—a device that has the capability to convert your humble television set into a real convergence device supporting a range of applications and services such as radio, e-mail, chat, interactive education, online gaming and karaoke, besides doubling up as a VCD, MP3 player or webcam. Throw in features like broadband Internet access and video-on-demand services and you have a killer technology in place.

But wait, there’s much more! Missed your favourite TV soap episode? You can simply send an SMS to record the show and watch it when you get home. Need to send an urgent SMS and your cellphone battery’s run down? Just type the message on the TV and send it. Want to buy the outfit that Preity Zinta’s wearing in the movie you’re watching, as a peace offering for
your wife? Just use your fingerprint as your access medium and buy it online through your television set. What’s more, a user can even rewind or fast-forward content as on a normal VCR/VCD or DVD player.

The device that packs in all these features is called the WICE Box and is developed by Pune-based DiviNet Access Technologies, a company formed by three former employees of C-DAC. All one has to do is plug the WICE box into the television set and a menu automatically comes on, prompting the user to select from various TV channels, MP3 music, video-on-demand services, SMS, e-mail or chat. The WICE box is connected to a network called the RAMnet (Remote Access Metropolitan Network) through a distribution module box that is installed in the building housing users. Each distribution module has the capability to service 16 customers. The price of the WICE box is expected to be priced close to Rs 4,000 as the price of a normal digital set top box. The prices of the services would depending on the pricing each service provider wants to charge for his service.

While services like video-on-demand have been announced in the past with great fanfare, only to come crashing down, the difference lies in DiviNet’s approach. As the RAMnet is a metropolitan area net work, services are hosted at a central location and are accessed by users in a particular city. This ensures that the issue of speed that was faced by other broadband service providers is effectively countered. What is a significant achievement is the fact that this is the first time that a multi-service network has been built using completely indigenous technologies.

Says P R Eknath, CTO, DiviNet Technologies, “We are positioning ourselves as carriers. Our network can be compared to a highway on which anyone can ride. Various service providers such as television channels, radio stations and even theatre or video library owners can offer their services on our network. The Indian user will be the ultimate beneficiary as he would get the choice of using multiple service providers.”

The WICE box even has an answer to the proposed conditional access system (CAS) regime, which is supposed to be up and working by July 14. The box has an in-built CAS system, which enables a customer to pay only for the channel he watches. But DiviNet is not happy with only the choice of channels that a customer has and wants to extend the flexibility further.

P R Eknath, CTO and B P Narayan, CEO of Divinet Access Technologies

Explains Eknath, “The current CAS system is not at all flexible as it still means being tied to a channel even if one wants to watch a few serials only. Another common example is during cricket matches that we Indians are crazy about. I should have the choice of subscribing to a channel only for a particular event or a particular match and disconnecting the channel after the event is over. Our system can not only allow this but also record events.” Similar flexibility can also be seen in the case of Internet access. Want a download speed of more than 10 MB per second for only say five minutes? You can do just that and get billed only for those five minutes. The network is a service provider’s dream and one can go on adding new services on the network. The quality of service is also assured as RAMnet creates a Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) for each service that is accessed by the end user. The device even supports multiple languages and provides a user the option of choosing interactive services through the language of his choice. Currently Wice supports around ten scripts including Devanagri and Gurumukhi. This includes all the major Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu except Urdu.

The idea
During late 1999, P R Eknath, the brainchild behind the technology was looking at developing technologies or products that would have a social impact, benefit the common man and also enhance India’s reputation in the global tech space. Eknath, a former C-DAC employee, is also revered in industry circles as he was involved in the development of the PARAM series of supercomputers at C-DAC. Joining him was another C-DAC employee, Sanjay Wandhekar, an expert with more than 10 years of experience in systems and ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) design. The third member and currently the CEO of the company, B P Narayan, is an ex-founder member of C-DAC and is well known for his marketing ideas.

Recollects Eknath, “During late 1999, DSL was being hyped in a big way but we could see the limitations of the technology. Broadband was a term just limited to the Internet and one needed to deploy separate networks for deploying different services. We wanted to create a network that would run any application on-the-fly and treat broadband just as any other application. Accordingly, we started defining a generic network based on about 25 key parameters that took care of issues like quality of service, privacy and security. We started developing prototypes and our generic network was ready to support not only today’s services but also tomorrow’s technologies.” The team’s confidence got a huge boost when DiviNet won an e-biz challenge award instituted by the Dubai Internet City for world-class innovative e-business ideas. DiviNet won this competition beating 1385 entries from 34 countries.

While high-speed Internet access is as the only term one thinks of when we mention ‘broadband’, DiviNet’s network architecture makes high-speed Internet access only one of the broadband services available. This ability of the network to support quality interactive services at an affordable cost is the key difference between other broadband players and DiviNet. The simple reason is that a cable operator can have multiple services delivered using DiviNet’s technology as opposed to only Internet access that most players provided. This opens up new revenue streams for the service operator and hence will ultimately influence the pricing too. As more services grow on the network, the pricing of each service will ultimately come down. Moreover, the choice of flexibility is a key competitive advantage over other players. For example, a user who has say subscribed to a dial up speed can upgrade his connection to a broadband connection for only a few minutes, if he needs to download a huge software application. What’s significant is that the user would be billed only for the few minutes of broadband usage. This is a great advantage over the current methods employed as a user has to be buy a specific bandwidth and does not have the flexibility of changing it midway.

As the company is pushing a city-centric approach, DiviNet plans to enter into strategic tie-ups with local shops, restaurants, cinema houses and utility providers for providing local, city-level services. Local e-commerce can thus be enabled with the help of a biometric scanner embedded within the device.

Cable operators can also take advantage of RAMNet as it allows them to use their existing infrastructure and deliver value-added broadband services over their network. DiviNet also plans to market its technology to ISPs. Currently, most ISPs rely on E1-R2 lines from telcos and have to invest in Remote Access Server (RAS) ports and also incur recurring expenditure towards usage of the line. RAMNet can be connected directly to the ISPs, thus eliminating the need for acquiring the E1-R2 lines from telcos.

As for the SMS part, that’s another potential market—cellular operators. When you send an SMS to record a particular programme on a particular channel to DiviNet, the network routes a command to store the content of the serial to a data centre, which stores the defined content. The user has the facility of storing the desired content on his own virtual space given to him by DiviNet. Similarly, when you send an SMS message, the message is routed to a server that pools in all messages and then sends them at periodic intervals to various operators, who then subsequently send it to the number requested. DiviNet is in talks with a number of cellular operators who have evinced interest in the technology simply because it opens avenues to an untapped source of revenue.

Another pie-in-sky?
With so many broadband initiatives and ideas biting the dust, no one would blame you if have a wry smile on your face as you read this and wonder if this is way too futuristic. And likely to go the same way as other broadband players who promised the sky, but came down to earth in a ball of fire.

But get a load of this: DiviNet has already connected around 150 buildings in Pune, with close to 5,000 homes, and will be launching services like Internet access, Conditional Access System and video-on-demand. In Mumbai, the company has won a contract from the Hiranandani Group to connect around 10,000 houses. Depending on the response, the service will be extended to other places. The company has also entered into an alliance with the Maharashtra United Cable Operators Association consisting of over 20,000 cable operators to help cable operators deliver a host of value-added services using RAMNet. The alliance has already resulted in over 100,000 users registering for DiviNet’s services. DiviNet is bound to gain as it is trying to position itself as a highway—for every user subscribing to a service the company would get carrying charges. And DiviNet is looking outside India too. The company has already set up two technology showcase centres, one at Silicon Valley and another in Dubai.

In India, the government has evinced keen interest in DiviNet’s technology as it not only promotes an Indian company but, more importantly, could result in huge savings in foreign exchange outflow. Says B P Narayan, CEO, DiviNet Access Technologies, “The use of imported set top boxes for implementing CAS will initially result in forex outflow of approximately $840 million in the four metros. The overall cost of implementing this system across the country would result in an outflow of $2.8 billion. The use of RAMNet can substantially reduce this outflow and save the country valuable forex. Also, most technologies used in the country are imported. If RAMNet is used, it can save the country valuable forex outflow to the tune of $12 billion required for providing value-added services to the existing 40 million subscribers.” So far the company’s roadmap has worked out according to plan and Narayan believes that since the technology is unique, DiviNet has a certain advantage.

There’s a strong undercurrent of patriotism too at DiviNet. An enthusiastic Eknath says, “We Indians have helped build successful technology companies the world over, but fail to do the same in India. With this technology, we believe that India has the potential to take a quantum leap in the field of information technology.”

The product has taken the tech market by storm and avid tech surfers are already calling it ‘Tivo from India,’ comparing it to the highly popular video recorder which enjoys a huge market in the US. The good part is that this device does much more and the price of the box will be the same as any digital set top box available in the country. Whichever way you look at it, if DiviNet’s technology does take off, your life will never be the same again.

The DiviNet advantage Services not restricted to Internet alone. Multiple broadband services like digital video transmission for regular channels, video-on-demand services and personal video recorder available on the same network. Built-in conditional access system. Online services like interactive education and interactive gaming. Flexibility of subscribing to high speed bandwidth for short durations.

Network Architecture

NOC: Network Operating Centre AHE: Area Head End DHE: Distribution Head End DM: Distribution Module OFC: Optic Fibre Cable