Hot new wireless technologies

Forget dial-up modems and DSL - you'll soon have WiMax and EVDO

Write a requiem for digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband services, even though they've yet to become commonplace in India.

Don't rue the coming decline of DSL either - it's relatively cumbersome and offers last mile connectivity through a wire to your service provider.

A new phone is about to hit town "� and it will offer internet speeds that are 10 to 20 times faster than your general packet radio switching (GPRS) compatible phones. You'll able to see cricket matches live on the new phone, or television channels just the way you see them on your TV screens. The phone will be the key to unlocking a revolutionary world of wireless broadband.

Two technologies are vying for attention here "�Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, better known as WiMax (which replaces the last mile of copper lines in a DSL connection with wireless) and Qualcomm's Evolution Data Only (EVDO).

Both offer higher internet speeds, more flexibility for customers and cheaper and quicker ways to expand the reach of broadband for service providers than what the wired world can ever offer.

WiMax is a broadband solution. It offers what telecom jargon describes as "interportability," that is, subscribers can move without being connected by a wire to a service provider. WiMax, like WiFi, was developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In January 2003 its standards were approved by the IEEE.

WiMax (earlier known as the 802.16 standard) offers a wireless alternative to the last mile copper line needed in a DSL connection for delivering broadband services. Unlike WiFi, where radio waves can cover up to 30 metres without being connected with a wire (you can move only within your home or in the immediate vicinity of a hot spot), WiMax services are accessible for over 30 miles, in theory.

But cities have tall buildings and so the range is confined to eight kilometres. That's more than adequate for most subscriber requirements.

Let's also be clear what WiFi can't do. It won't be able to provide broadband services if you're travelling in a car at high speeds "� that's reserved for EVDO. WiFi lets you stay wirelessly connected within your home or within a hotspot area to broadband services or the internet.

EVDO is Code Division Multiple Access' (CDMA) 3G offering (the global system for mobile, the competing mobile technology, has WCDMA as a 3G offering). It is meant primarily for mobile applications, that is, for people who move around.

WiMax is challenging the domination of DSL. EVDO is pitted against GPRS and Edge, both of which are GSM's answer for subscribers on the move who want high speed data access. EVDO will be pitted against WCDMA.

Both EVDO and WiMax are challenging the domination of DSL and cable in last mile broadband access to homes and offices.

More crucially, both technologies are poised to hit India. The Bharti group, Reliance Infocomm and internet service provider and broadband operator Sify are planning to start trial runs of WiMax by the end of this year and hope to offer WiMax services next year.

Says Jai Menon, director, information technology, at the Bharti group: "We will leverage our existing mobile infrastructure and create a seamless experience for customers "� they will be able to move with laptops seamlessly from a WiMax to a GPRS network or an Edge network without losing connectivity."

Reliance Infocomm, which demonstrated the wonders of EVDO phones at an exhibition in New Delhi, is expected to launch EVDO in the next few months. Confirms Amit Khanna, the company's spokesperson: "It will dramatically change the data and video experience that we provide through R World from the customer's perspective."

Vince Mazzola, the Mumbai-based president and CEO of Lucent Technologies India, the New Jersey-based telecom equipment and networks multinational, told Ice World last week that at least two other Indian companies were readying to launch EVDO. One of them, whose identity he declines to disclose, will offer only data services (without voice services) at a 450 mega hertz spectrum to corporate clients.

But let's be clear - these are not competing technologies, they're complementary technolgies, as Mazzola says. So WiMax will co-exist with WiFi and 3G.

WiMax service providers will provide pizza-sized antennae to homes and business establishments. They will beam signals from a base station to thousands of homes that have the antennae within an 8-km radius.

The telecom industry thinks that wireless broadband offers several attractions for both subscribers and service providers. Though India has some 40 million cable TV-linked homes, last mile access to homes is controlled by the incumbent telecom service provider (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd). To access these homes, new entrants have to lay wires. That's expensive, though not if WiMax technology is used.

The per line cost of deploying WiMax is half ( Rs 10,000) the cost of deploying DSL. The costs could be even lower for telecom companies that already have towers and infrastructure in place in cities for mobile phone operations. Service providers can also deploy WiMax far quicker than laying DSL lines. So they have far shorter gestation periods for their investments.

Just how big will the WiMax market be? Experts say that India has about 1.6 million personal computers and 10 per cent of this market could opt for broadband services in the next 4-5 years. Some of the 4.5 million people who dial up internet services could switch to broadband wireless services too.

Then, rural India is not wired. A Confederation of Indian Industries committee on broadband services has suggested that 100,000 kiosks be set up in rural India, covering 48 per cent of the rural population, by 2010. Technologies like WiMax perhaps offer the only way of achieving that target.

Argues Anjan Ghosh, a director at Intel which has internationally been spearheading the WiMax move: "WiMax is extremely suitable to changing rural India as it offers a cost effective way of offering the benefits of broadband services."

WiMax could be an attractive service for companies too. Cigarette company ITC operates e-choupals (through which farmers obtain internet connections). It had to invest over Rs 1 lakh to put up VSAT infrastructure.

Says V R Babu, chief information officer at ITC: "We don't have any alternative. Telephone exchanges don't work nor do we have 24-hour electricity. WiMax might provide the answer."

Clearly too, technologies like WiMax could be a serious threat to the future of VSAT service providers.

At the global level, Pyramid Research, the US telecom consultancy, forecasts that over 4 million customers will be accessing broadband wireless services globally by 2008 and that service providers could earn revenues of over $ 2.1 billion.

However, the size of the WiMax market will also depend on the cost of subscribing to WiMax services. Sify may charge around Rs 440 a month for WiMax services (speed: 144 kbps) at the entry level, more or less the same as what DSL companies charge.

Yet the power of EVDO, Qualcomm's version of 3G, is alluring. With download speeds of over 3 mbps, it is directed primarily at business users.

EVDO can be used for video conferencing, quick downloads of large files and presentations and high-speed games "� and these can even be accessed in a moving car.

Reliance Infocomm believes that EVDO will catch on. That's based on the fact that the data it offers through R World on its mobile phones attracts 35 million hits a day. And telecom industry men reckon that the company has to make an incremental investment of 3 per cent to 4 cent to upgrade its existing infrastructure to offer EVDO.

For all the attractions of WiMax and EVDO, the cost of compatible handsets could prove to be a deterrent, at least initially. EVDO phones cost Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000. The bill for an EVDO PC card, which you can use in laptops, is a stiff Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000. Prices, however, are expected to fall with more and more service prviders globally launching EVDO services.

Question marks still hang over the commercial viability of the new technologies. WiMax has not been commercially deployed anywhere in the world as yet. The first WiMax service will be launched globally sometime towards the end of next year.

To be sure, several broadband wireless technologies already provide last mile access. But these are proprietory technologies and service providers find that the upfront cost of equipment is too high.

Sify, for instance, uses equipment from US company Axcenmera for last mile wireless connectivity for its broadband services. But that, Sify admits, is an expensive route to take and DSL is still cheaper.

Says Sify's chief technology officer Rustom Irani: "All of them are proprietory technologies and therefore the cost of installing equipment on the customer's premise is expensive, ranging from $ 400 to $ 600. So customers cannot afford the service. Worse, service providers are locked to one specific vendor as the service is not interoperable. So economies of scale are not achieved."

Secondly, these technologies require line of site (the antennae should face each other without any building or obstruction in between), unlike WiMax (signals can bounce back from a building).

But WiMax won't face such problems. The international Wimax Forum (set up to develop and popularise the technology) has financially strong backers like Intel, Fujitsu and Nokia and has pushed through open standards and specifications for manufacturing equipment.

That will help bring down prices. The first standardised equipment is expected to roll out by the end of this year. As a result, Sify executives think that the cost of equipment installed on customer premises (the antenna, PC card) should drop to $100-120 once manufacturers build equipment based on these standards.

That is close to what subscribers of DSL services pay for equipment on their premises "� around Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500.

Companies like Intel are already developing integrated chipsets (the antenna receiver and the WiMax card will be built into the PC). So WiMax-ready Pcs are expected to be launched by 2005.

Apart from the flexibility it offers users (you will no longer need an antenna on top of your house "� the antenna will be built into the PC), prices are expected to drop further. Parallels are being drawn to the amazing success of WiFi "� WiFi card prices have dropped by over $ 100 a few months ago to $ 14 today.

But commercial deployment of WiMax could face many other challenges "� the prices of equipment might not drop dramatically, for one. Warns Sify's Irani: "Customer equipment prices have to go down dramatically for WiMax to succeed. If it does not, it will have no future".

Secondly, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) might allow other telecom companies to use the incumbent's last mile copper wires.

Says a senior executive at a leading ISP: "If the government allows others to use Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's last mile copper wire on a revenue share basis, I don't see anyone investing in WiMax. It will be cheaper to reach those 40 million customers first with wired broadband."

Thirdly, spectrum is an issue too. The government has delicensed only spectrum for WiFi at homes. It's not clear how much spectrum will be available for WiMax operators and at what cost.

Says a source at the Bharti group: "The government is putting together a policy on spectrum allocation that is crucial for WiMax to succeed."

Even EVDO faces spectrum problems. According to industry sources, telecom service providers like Reliance Infocomm will require additional spectrum of up to 5 mega hertz before it can offer EVDO speeds.

Says an industry analyst: "Only when extra spectrum is available can over 300 customers simultaneously use EVDO services without any compromise on high speeds. Otherwise it is useless."

Many, however, question whether such high speeds are required when subscribers are travelling. Says Menon: "Companies are asking whether it makes sense to invest in deploying 3G at all "� do customers actually require such high speeds when travelling?"

Menon cites the example of a pizza (which represents the city), with the chicken toppings representing major WiMax hot spots. Subscribers moving from one chicken topping to another could do so by using GPRS or EDGE which provide slightly lower speeds than 3G versions like EVDO, but are adequate enough for any work you have while travelling in a car.

Still, the new technologies could fundamentally alter broadband market in India. While DSL, cable and dial ups rule the roost at the moment, wireless connectivity could make broadband a a mass-market phenomenon.

What the new technology means

Want to use your laptop anywhere at home? No problem. You can sit on your terrace or walk down to the neighbourhood park and remain hooked to your broadband service.

Shifting houses within your neighbourhood? You won't have to ask your service provider for a new wireless connection, something you'd have to do if you have a DSL connection. Simply plug in to broadband services, as long as it is within the service provider's range.

If you're an executive who zips across from one meeting to the next and needs high speed internet access while travelling, you have lots of options. Throw away your general packet radio system (GPRS) compatible mobile phones and your CDMA 2000 1X phones. The new phones and technologies will offer the ability to video conference, download large files and presentations in double quick time.

A glossary

WiFi offers customers wireless access to the internet within homes or at hotspots like coffee shops or airport lounges. It has a range of around 30 metres from the access point or wireless receiver.

WiMax offers a wireless alternative to using copper and cable for the last mile connection for broadband. WiMax has a range of 8 km but this can go up to 30 km.

802.20 has the potential to challenge 3G services and would enable mobile service companies to offer high speed data at very little cost.

EVDO, Qualcomm's 3G offering for mobile phone users on the move, offers data speeds of up to 2 MBPS.

EVDV, another Qualcomm product, will offer data speeds of 4 MBPS and above.