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Wi-Fi gets a shot in the arm

As service providers move to expand wireless coverage, Wi-Fi is seen as an option and this would result in it being available in locations other than airports and hotels. By Heena Jhingan

India has been dreaming of setting up city-wide Wi-Fi networks since 2008, when the Bombay Municipal Corporation forwarded an over ambitious plan of using Wi-Fi. The Rs. 50 crore project was intended to design an intranet, which people could use to communicate with one another. The municipality wanted the network up and running within six months. Bangalore, Nagpur and Pune are some other cities vying for Wi-Fi enabled city status.

Girish Mehta, CMO Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel, commented, “Huge investment is required to completely unwire a city. In the past, efforts were made, that too only in select commercial or residential pockets.” He added that inhibiting factors included low customer patronage and high usage charges.

A Reliance spokesperson said, “For any network rollout there is a certain viability check that needs to be done. India has been going through a phase of technology conflict on the success potential of wireless technology for data access. No rollouts can happen without tech alignment. There has to be a balance between the avenue structure and revenues. Now that the auction for 3G is over, operators will be in a better position to design their strategies”

"Wi-Fi is the most cost-effective access technology for providing wireless broadband." Udit Mehrotra Managing Director, Spectranet

Udit Mehrotra, Managing Director, Spectranet did not expect a transition to the wire-free world any time soon. He believed that, though wireless broadband would be a major growth driver for data services, we would continue to see an increase in fiber-based wired networks, which would be required for backhauling. He added, “With the roll-out of various wireless data technologies, Wi-Fi will play a critical role of being the most cost-effective access technology, both for providing wireless broadband across residential and commercial areas and also for off-loading of data traffic from 3G and BWA networks.”

Until recently, mobile operators viewed spectrum and Wi-Fi as an extension of their fixed broadband business or as complementary hotspot business access points but not as a viable extension of their mobile business.

That's starting to change and we see Wi-Fi spreading beyond traditional access areas like airports and hotels.

Mehrotra said, “There is an increasing need for Wi-Fi coverage across offices, hospitals, malls and residential areas. Wi-Fi will be one of the key technologies used to deliver high speed connectivity, not just at homes and offices but also in campuses, commercial complexes, malls, open markets, food joints and hospitals.”

"Tier-one mobile operators are taking a closer look at the advantages of Wi-Fi as part of their mobile strategy." Anand Patil VP – Systems Engineering, Cisco Systems India

“The introduction of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform and the transition from a mobile voice business model to a data model has led to more tier-one mobile operators taking a closer look at the advantage of Wi-Fi as part of their mobile strategy,” said Anand Patil, Vice President, Systems Engineering, Cisco Systems India.

He said that offloading data to hotspots was an economically attractive alternative as many carriers already operated a substantial number of hotspots.

Mobile operators would like to provide a user experience on Wi-Fi networks that was similar to the one on 3G networks. This would entail making Wi-Fi as easy to use as the cellular medium and providing it with cryptographically equivalent mutual authentication, and link-layer security.

Bharti Airtel has announced its intentions of setting up 1,000 hotspots across the country. At present, these are located only in the Delhi NCR region, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. The operator has various packages for prepaid and post paid users. Tata Communications currently offers connectivity at over 500 hotspots in India.

To be a part of the data growth story, Aircel has partnered with Spectranet for Wi-Fi services. Spectranet already has about 1,000 hotspots in six metros and seeks to develop the largest commercial Wi-Fi network covering over 30,000 hotspots within the next three years. Aircel Wi-Fi will be a chargeable service, which until last month was running free trials for its services.

"In the past, efforts were made only in select commercial or residential pockets." Girish Mehta CMO Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel

“There is a great amount of work happening to make Wi-Fi truly 'public', which means moving out of traditional access locations. Operators are in the process of tying up with retail commercial establishments as well as the education sector to make Wi-Fi access available at most places that a citizen visits. The other key area of work is to make access easy-to-use and, at the same time, affordable by bundling existing telco plans with Wi-Fi access and also over the counter retail purchase,” said Mehta.

Mehrotra said, “Wi-Fi is now being used for providing home broadband services; it can be referred to as Wireless DSL network for residential areas.” It is expected to expand at a rapid pace now that the auction for 3G is completed.

“While 3G offers full mobility for both voice and data on-the-move, the fact remains that 70% of broadband/data usage happens inside buildings. Given the high entry fee paid for the 3G spectrum and the network build-out, it is expected to cater to the premium market segment. The scarce spectrum and network resources will also require 3G to off-load its data to a more cost-effective technology. The world over, Wi-Fi has been used as the main traffic off-loading technology and it also offers higher speed broadband services,” said Mehrotra.

heena.jhingan@expressindia.com