The Hindu : Business : India poised for a new telecom innovation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 30, 2005

Business

Business

India poised for a new telecom innovation

The breakthrough technology is expected to solve C-DoT's funding problems

Alcatel tie-up will take care of the rural sector's requirements.

ALL SMILES: Alcatel and C-DoT have entered into an agreement to set up an R&D facility. Seen in the picture are: the President of Alcatel South Asia, Ravi Sharma (extreme left), the Executive Director of C-DoT, Vijay Madan (extreme right), the Union Minister of Communications & IT, Dayanidhi Maran (second from right), and the President, Mobile Communication Group of Alcatel, Etienne Fouques (second from left).

WHILE INDIA had enthusiastically embraced the telecom revolution in the past decade, it seemed to have lost the race for innovation. The country took to landline phones in a big way and then, thanks to a proactive policy regime, cellular phones began gaining ground. Today India has joined the league of developed countries where mobile phones have outstripped landlines.

The same cannot however be said about indigenous telecom research and development. The clock seemed to have stopped over a decade back when the demand for rugged exchanges designed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) began nose-diving. One by one, the 32 companies manufacturing C-DoT exchanges started closing down. Barring the introduction of CorDect technology for which the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, basically improved upon existing technology there have been no major breakthroughs in the telecom R & D sector.

Fresh lease of life

The scenario now is poised to change with Alcatel deciding to collaborate with C-DoT in what is being touted as a breakthrough technology. Called WiMAX, the technology promises to be the next big thing in telecom. If successful, it will also solve C-DoT's funding problems. Recently, the Union Finance Ministry had objected to grants for C-DoT and suggested that the organisation should depend on licensed manufacture of its products. Wi-MAX will give it a fresh lease of life as Alcatel wants to ensure that the technology finds practical applications in the Indian telecom sector.

"Alcatel believes that broadband wireless and particularly WiMax is appropriate technology for India keeping in mind the requirements of the rural sector," said Ravi Sharma, president, Alcatel (South Asia). "Coupled with engineering competence, India becomes a natural choice for setting up such a research centre," he added. The joint venture is planning to employ 1,000 persons and could become one of the large R & D centres in Asia.

WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access at high data rates within a non-line of sight range of 15 kilometres in rural areas and 700 metres in urban areas (as there is concrete to cross) and thus scores over Wi-Fi whose range is limited to 50 metres and which runs into problems when there are multiple users.

"The research in this direction ties in with the Indian Government's policy of sustaining economic development through development of broadband access,'' observes Alcatel's world-wide chief technology officer, Olivier Baujard. He feels that WiMAX will become a major radio access solution that can be integrated in mobile and fixed network architectures.

C-DoT will benefit further with Alcatel tying up with Intel to define, standardise, develop, integrate and market WiMAX products. Not only will it provide broadband it will also offer better quality of service, enhanced security and higher data rates, points out Ron Spithill, Alcatel's Paris based chief marketing officer.

Further vistas for C-DoT

He points out that WiMAX will not stop at broadband access thus promising further vistas for C-DoT and the Indian telecom sector, particularly Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. He quotes researchers who claim WiMAX is considered a migration path to 4G.

Last week, the Alcatel -C-DOT steering committee met for the first time to iron out issues such as legal structure of the company, intellectual property rights (IPR), financing mix, market potential and the sharing of the research and development work.

"India will definitely be in a position to leapfrog and adapt to world trends,'' predicts Baujard. The telecom sector has seen different phases since it began evolving from a wireline phone in the Seventies.

The system centric wave has petered out; the PC centric wave is on a decline. So is the network centric phase. By 2008, the world will see the content centric wave.

The present ratio of 80 per cent voice and 20 per cent data will get reversed and it is in this phase India should be ready with a broadband technology for nomadic users, observes Baujard.

In the near future, WiMAX will reach out to new users who do not have broadband, provide alternative roaming service to fixed broadband users and acquire the early adopters or techno-evangelists.

In the early Eighties, Alcatel had come to India's rescue when it was looking for exchanges that could handle several thousands of lines.

The public sector Indian Telephone Industries began manufacturing the Alcatel exchanges and thus set the tenor for connecting India with almost half of the country's exchanges being of Alcatel pedigree. Digital exchanges later completed the task.

Will the French company now take India away from the path of importing practically every equipment for its telecom revolution?

SANDEEP DIKSHIT

in New Delhi

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