Feature

Unwiring India

Commercial WiMAX and Wi-Fi rollouts are happening at the state level as a national wireless broadband access network is being built. Although this will help broadband penetration, bottlenecks remain. By Akhtar Pasha

Last year (2006) we gave numerous examples as to how organisations are using WiMAX for Wireless Broadband Access (WBA) and how this can speed up the roll-out of broadband services as well as increase the broadband subscriber base. This time we present our readers with some commercial deployments of WiMAX across India, which are being used to create a wireless backhaul and a Wi-Fi mesh to cover a large population with the intention of not only increasing the availability of Internet broadband services but also building value-added services such as providing a lost cost voice communication network using low cost Wi-Fi/WiMAX handsets. Additionally it will give carriers the opportunity to increase their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) through value-added service offerings.

Unwired Bangalore

This project is a government of Karnataka initiative to focus on driving PC penetration in the state. As a first step towards creating a vibrant Bangalore as the ultimate destination for IT, the government proposes to work with key industry leaders to implement a standardised and ubiquitous city-wide physical wireless infrastructure in the city of Bangalore. This would be the first phase of creating an integrated fully seamless wireless digital community at Bangalore.

In the first phase of the project it is envisioned to create a wireless city for providing fast network access to millions of users from the private, corporate and administrative sectors while identifying Bangalore as the innovative and progressive hub of the information age. M N Vidyashankar, secretary to government, Dept of IT, BT and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka says, “Unwired Bangalore is an 18 month project where WiMAX in conjunction with Wi-Fi mesh technology will be implemented to cover 743 sq kms to provide the largest wireless infrastructure in the country today. Being the IT capital we set standards for the rest of the country and the Unwire Bangalore project will be a benchmark for technologies such as WiMAX and Wi-Fi.” He added that Government of Karnataka is only a facilitator without any investment in the Unwired Bangalore project. “The Unwired Bangalore project will be showcased to the business community and industries with a WiMAX demonstration in the first week of July 2007. Then a pilot run will be done sitting inside a bus that will cover 4 to 5 kms around Vidhana Soudha to MG Road in Bangalore.” The vision of Unwired Bangalore is to enable citizens to enjoy broadband in their homes, offices, schools and public areas whether this is for personal, business or public service usage. Instead of being tied to offices, homes or individual hotpots, people will have fast convenient access to information—and each other—from virtually any corner of the city. Users can connect wirelessly and roam seamlessly between networks to access applications and services at any time and from any place.

It is proposed to use Wi-Fi mesh enabled networks combined with WiMAX extended-range backhaul technologies to enable the Digital City vision of being connected anytime and anywhere. The project backhaul plan will be based on the ratified 802.16d WiMAX specification for fixed broadband Internet access. This specification also provides for an interoperable, carrier-class solution for the ‘last mile’. WiMAX provides robust bandwidth, QoS support and low cost. “WiMAX is recommended as an excellent choice for long distance backhaul applications such as linking Wi-Fi enabled mesh networks and hotspots to the Internet,” says Vidyashankar.

Vidyashankar says, “We have shortlisted four consortiums who have bid for this project, which will be an Rs 155 crore project and we have given a recommendation to Karnataka’s Chief Minister. The appointment of national bidder will take place in June 2007.”

The government of Karnataka wants to take WiMAX one step further in commercial deployment. Vidyashankar says, “For the first time, Knowledge Parks are created that will have five integrated townships around Bangalore i..e Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Sathanur, Solur and Nandagudi covering 61 acres. These integrated townships will be wireless enabled using WiMAX. Vidashankar says, “As companies occupy spaces in these townships, the tariffs of WiMAX will be slashed and the technology will then be affordable.”

According to a source, RailTel along with ITI and Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) have bid for this Bangalore project. RailTel had proposed a free basic Internet access for light users and a high speed bandwidth available on-demand (Bandwidth-on-Demand) for serious users who want to download streaming videos or other applications. A proposal to create a WiMAX backhaul for WBA using a STM-1 (Synchronous Transport Module) connection that offers 155 Mbps has apparently been made. An E1 connection in comparison offers only 2 Mbps of speed. SRIT has developed a new application, Dyna-Rate, a telecom operator’s software systems component, which will allow subscribers to decide their Internet bandwidth they want on a real-time and dynamics basis. It does this by provisioning or providing the requested bandwidth based on availability. It can also calculates the actual usage of services and bandwidth at any given time for billing purpose, which means a consumer will be charged only for his actual usage and not on the packages he subscribes to. The billing and operating systems at the service provider end balances subscriber requests through operators’ service portals on an immediate reactive basis. A RailTel source says, “RailTel Corporation has a strong backbone. We are looking at WiMAX/Wi-Fi as an alternative to get additional customers and revenues.”

Unwired Pune

Pune was the first city in the country where a commercial meshed Wi-Fi and WiMax deployment under the Unwire Pune project took place. Intel Technology Pvt. Ltd. along with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Microsense are jointly executing this project. In phase 1 the deployment targets providing wireless connectivity—wherein the WiMAX backhaul will connect a W-Fi mesh to cover an area of 20 sq kms. According to Intel Technologies the plan to install 25 WiMAX base stations to cover 400 sq kms of Pune with 600 CPEs (300 will be used as access points and another 300 for the Wi-Fi mesh). The PMC WiMAX deployment is currently underway and 3.3 GHZ spectrum has been used for this project.

National e-Governance program

According to Deepak Bhardwaj, director-Technology Policy & Standards, Corporate Technology Group, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd., “WiMAX provides plenty of opportunities to rollout G2C and G2B services for e-governance projects and the same infrastructure can be used innovative to rollout cheaper wireless voice calls, which otherwise are heavily depended on the copper connectivity for last mile access. WiMAX will be useful to provide phone connectivity in rural India.”

He explains the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, as a part of NeGP (National e-Governance Program) has set up a CSC (Common Service Center), which aims at establishing 100,000 centres through out the country to provide e-government services and other value added services. The CSC scheme seeks to transform rural India through the use of information and communication technologies to deliver a host of government and private services to the people living in rural areas at their doorstep. The services envisaged include e-government services, education, health and telemedicine, financial, entertainment and others. These CSCs would be designed as ICT-enabled Kiosks, manned by trained entrepreneurs, and having PCs along with basic support equipments like a printer, scanner, UPS, and wireless broadband connectivity to the backbone in the range of 2 Mbps. In terms of speed, the government has specified there should be at least two tiers of service—the ‘true’ broadband being capable of providing minimum asymmetric bandwidth of 1.5-2 Mbps and a light version capable of providing 256 Kbps. The entire wireless backhaul will ride on the WiMAX technology and a Wi-Fi mesh will connect to the ICT-enabled Kiosks.

Bhardwaj suggests, “The same WiMAX/Wi-Fi infrastructure can be used to offer a low cost wireless voice network access through low cost phones that supports Wi-Fi/WiMAX technologies. There are plenty of such phones available in Taiwan. Since there is huge cry for the last mile connectivity, WiMAX with Wi-Fi can also help solve the rural communication problem.”

Service providers create a WiMAX backhaul

VSNL has drawn up major plans to enhance the footprint of its Wi-Fi and WiMAX services in India. It has key Wi-Fi installations in airports, star hotels, Barista Coffee outlets and hospitals. Prateek Pashine, vice president-Marketing & Technology, Retail Broadband Business, VSNL says, “We have created 300 Wi-Fi hotspots based on 802.11g in the 2.4 GHz spectrum and there are another 150 hotspots in the pipeline currently. Our plan is to take this figure to over 1,000 hotspots—bringing the Internet that much closer to the travelling and on-the-move population.”

He adds “The cost of laying last mile copper connections is prohibitive and we believe that the delivery of broadband services lies in Wireless Broadband Access (WBA) enabled by WiMAX.” VSNL has some big plans for WiMAX. The company plans to set-up 2,000 base stations to enable WBA to cover 120 cities for corporate customers in India and five cities for retail customers by end 2007. Pashine says, “Presently WiMAX is already available in three cities and it uses the 3.3 GHz spectrum.”

There is also BSNL, which is setting up 10 WiMAX-base stations (as part of a pilot project) at Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hissar, Pinjore, Rohtak and Panipat. Each of these base stations will let it serve up to 3,000 broadband customers. Says S D Saxena, chief financial officer, BSNL, “We are using WiMAX (802.16d) for providing broadband in those areas where we do not have a good copper network. We see WiMAX as a key technology enabler that can help us expand the broadband subscriber base significantly. WiMAX can help us achieve our target in the shortest possible time. We cannot ignore WiMAX.”

Sify has been at the forefront of driving Wi-Fi services in India. P K Saji, vice president-Technology, Sify Ltd, says, “We have been the early adopters for wireless technology as the last mile for corporates since 2001. We have 14,000 customers who are using fixed wireless for last mile connectivity using RF which is pre-WiMAX ready (802.16d). We see WiMAX as a killer backhaul technology to support WBA increasing broadband penetration.” Sify is doing a pilot in Bangalore in the 3.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum. Saji says “Our aim to create a WiMAX backhaul across India to rollout retail WBA in 2009.”

Samtech Infotech has setup more than 100 mid to large wireless networks and Wi-Fi hotspots which service approximately 50,000 people on an aggregate basis. Alok Gupta, managing director, Samtech Infonet., says “Today we are providing fixed WiMAX (802.16 d) as a backhaul and in many cases as an access medium as well (to enterprise and SMEs) besides creating Wi-Fi LANs. However in near future we are readying ourselves to provide personal mobile WiMAX access through handheld and mobile broadband devices using 802.16e standards.” He adds “We are at the same stage as mobile telephony was many years back. We need to hurry [WiMAX projects] or India will miss the bus.

Spectrum shortages

“802.11g is the widely used Wi-Fi technology today operating in the de-licensed spectrum of 2.4 GHz and as it is backwardly compactable with 802.11b and uses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology that improves its throughput speed, offering 54 Mbps speed which is far higher than 802.11b (11 Mbps max) and 802.11a (54 Mbps but operates in 5 GHz spectrum, which is not cleared by government of India),” says A N Murugappan, Spectrum Manager, Technology Policy & Standards, Corporate Technology Group, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd Murugappan stresses the need for harmonising 5 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi to permit the use of mid band also (5.47 to 5.725 GHz). De-licensing it for outdoor use in the above bands will help Wi-FI proliferate outdoors in mesh applications. Presently indoor use has been de-licensed in the 5.15 to 5.35 and 5.725 to 5.850 GHz bands. The outdoor use of 50 MHz between 5.825 and 5.875 GHz was recently de-licensed.

WiMAX, shorthand for Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access, is an IEEE 802.16 technology supports both fixed-nomadic WiMAX WBA (802.11d) as well as portal WiMAX WBA (802.16e). WiMAX currently operates in the frequency band 3.3-3.4 GHz. Pashine of VSNL says, “The industry will benefit significantly if WiMAX can be harmonised and allowed in the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum.”

WiMAX is currently proprietary technology

The cost of deploying WiMAX presently outweigh its benefits. All WiMAX equipment today is based on proprietary technology and cost of the deploying it is significant. The point to be noted here is that all technology adoption goes through the hype cycle and gets adopted when the technology matures and costs get pushed downwards. The same will happen in the case of WiMAX. Prem Pradeep, CEO, Bharati Airtel Ltd says, “WiMAX as a technology is not mature but it has very high business potential in the long term if it becomes commercially viable. WiMAX standards should be improved to increase adoption and the proprietary tag should go because WiMAX-based CPE are still expensive being traded at Rs 10,000 as of date leaving customers with no choice.”

Low PC/Notebook penetration

The desktop/notebook penetration in India is still low. According to latest IDC India figures 5.8 million PCs shipped in CY 2006 compared to China’s 22 million. Analysts say that India has one of the lowest PC penetration rates in the world at 18 per 1,000. China is better placed with 61 per 1,000; Brazil has 142 per 1,000 and Russia 155 per 1,000. The dismal broadband subscriber figures can be attributed to the PC penetration, Bhardwaj agrees, “One of the major roadblocks in increasing broadband penetration is the low PC or notebook penetration.” The government needs to sit back and think effectively on how prices of Internet access devices can be brought down and hence create buyers for wireless broadband.”

Though Sify had created 100 hotspots in Bangalore in 2003 there has been a cold response as there is poor PC penetration in India. Gupta says, “There are plenty of examples. Take the case of Wi-Fi—it is limited to corporate usage, educational campuses, airports and hotels. The limiting factors have been availability of Wi-Fi ready portable devices. However today, laptops sales are growing much faster than the desktops and many PDAs and Handsets are Wi-Fi ready. Consumers do not want to remain tied to a place for their computing and want access anywhere. We are very soon launching repurposed content for portable users especially in the area of entertainment and personal productivity.

Portable WiMAX is the future

The 802.16e standard targets the mobile market by adding portability and the ability for mobile clients with 802.16e adapters to connect directly to a WiMAX network. Pradeep says, “The real value of WiMAX will come from portable WiMAX (802.16e) as it will take retail wireless broadband access to the mass market.” Gupta adds, “Personal Mobile Broadband (802.16e) is the future and this will be something like what happened with mobile voice. We all remember before GSM and CDMA players entered the fray BSNL and MTNL had only landline based voice and look at the growth of mobility in India. Same is the situation today for Internet connectivity, almost 90 percent is copper based (ADSL) and in my view mobile WiMAX will bring in a similar revolution for broadband in India.”

Saji suggests that just like the cellular networks, where network are shared, WiMAX infrastructure should be actively shared among service provider rather than doing it individually. It will help in faster rollout of WiMAX services as well as the cost.