In Though quite ubiquitous now in comparison with the wireline network, wireless in its 2G avatar is, at best, a narrowband network. It is 3G that kicks in the delivery of wireless broadband. And BWA promises to make it relatively cheaper and likely, much faster.
It is the legacy limitations of the wirelinenetwork that prompted stakeholders and policymakers to turn to wireless networks. As the broadband divide between the haves and have-nots continues, the torchbearers of digital democracy looked at wireless with hope, just as they did one-and-a-half decade ago...
Wireless, in its second generation, had not let the hopefuls down. As is acknowledged now, mobile services gave tele-density a boost to the extent of causing a telecom revolution. There is reason, to hope again, that a third-generation wireless will spawn a broadband revolution of sorts.
What does that mean for enterprises? A lot!
Its all in the network
The efficiency and productivity of todays dynamic enterprises depends critically on the quality and extent of the network and its availability. The network needs to be robust and available at various levelsbetween the data centre and the head office and also between the head office and branch offices. The always-on connectivity with the suppliers and partners is as important as is access for the mobile and remote employees.
While the fibre and copper networks are there in place to take care of connectivity in metros and urban areas to an extent, it is insufficient when it comes to providing access to an increasingly mobile workforce, especially in verticals such as insurance and logistics. Also, in the government segment, especially when it comes to government-to-citizen services, while connectivity till the district HQ level is largely taken care of, there is insufficient connectivity at sub-district and village levels. For e-Governance to be effective,there is an immediate need to bridge this divide and reach out to centres in semi-urban and rural India.
Why is wireline not enough?
The past efforts to achieve wide-scale access objectives through the wireline have failed miserably. In fact, wirelinetelephony has been a shrinking market for past several years now. At the end of December 2010, there were 35.09 million wireline telephony subscribers compared to 36.96 million in March 2010.And there were 37.96 million wireline subscribers in March 2009 and 39.42 million in March 08, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data.
The continued fall in wireline telephony has made it difficult for players to leverage the platform for broadband growth from a near-term perspective. This assumes greater concern in view of the fact that a large majority of wireline broadband subscribers use a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) for access technology over copper-telephony networks.
Further, the potential for growing wireline broadband by using other wireline technologies like the cable modem is also not very strong, as cable modem penetration has historically been very low in India. Unlike in the US and some other countries, in India, cable operators have never been a dominant lot. And anyway, the advent and quick rise of DTH services doesnt bode well for the growth of cable as a robust access network.
That makes the wireline medium look less attractive when it comes to growing the Internet and broadband penetration in the country, at least for the next few years.
No wonder then, broadband targets have been set and reset in the past, but could not be achieved despite all thehype and hoopla.
3G versus BWA
While the consensus to use wireless as a mainstream vehicle for broadband has been around and growing, a recent dilemma has been pertaining to the choice between 3G and BWA technologies.
The current 3G offerings in India talk of peak downlink rates of the order of 21 Mbps, while actual rates would be much lower. On the other hand, BWA options like Long Term Evolution (LTE) would promise rates of 100 Mbps and above.
While 3G can be used for both voice and data, only 5MHz of spectrum is available per operator in India. Moreover, no operator has got a pan-India 3G license, except for the BSNL-MTNL combine.
The good thing, however, is that there is a plethora of 3G-ready devices and the service rollouts are also expected to be completed over the next few quarters.
BWA, on the other hand, has got the advantages of cost as well as spectrum on its side. Moreover, apart from BSNL-MTNL, which gets BWA spectrum by default, there will be another pan-India operator, the Reliance-owned Infotel Broadband.
The big advantage with BWA, certainly, is the width of the spectrum, which at 20MHz, is a jaw-dropping four times the 5MHz 3G spectrum.
A flip side is that BWA-ready devices are not a phenomenon yet. Moreover, BWA is positioned primarily as a data network, though there are no discrete regulatory restrictions of using it for voice as well in future. So even if the network is used both for data and voice, slow availability of smartphones and tablet devices will limit early adoptions to larger form-factor devices like desktops and notebooks. Initially, USB modems are likely to be used for connecting to BWA networks.
The middle path
3G networks all over the country will be around, faster than BWA networks, and that makes 3G a more immediate vehicle for accessing various enterprise applications. 3G has the potential to make wireless broadband an enterprise phenomenon, which could also accelerate a wider-scale adoption of cloud-based services. As such, it will be important for stakeholders and agencies to incorporate 3G in their service delivery plans.
It would be required that planners are operator- and network-agnostic as a matter of policy and planning. Involving both public- and private-sector operators will be further advantageous, especially when it comes to leveraging 3G for delivery of government-to-citizen services.
While 3G can give wireless broadband and its application in the enterprises a jumpstart, BWA technologies would take it to the next level. Together, these networks hold the promise of making wireless broadband happen in India by 2012.
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