Voice over WiFi will offload pressure on telcos, spur new billing models

DoT had amended the licence conditions to enable telcos to allot a single mobile number for both cellular mobile service and internet telephony service

What if you could continue accessing your voice and data services seamlessly in over-crowded public spaces while still remaining within the security and billing plan of your carrier service?

The department of telecommunications (DoT) in June this year amended the licence conditions to allow telcos to provide a single mobile number for both cellular mobile and internet telephony services. This will open the doors for carriers to offer voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) service.

With the power of millions of subscribers comes the need to provide seamless services. As telecom operators find the means to ensure that data and calling services reach their subscribers, voice over WiFi technology can address a lot of concerns around patchy calling services — something that companies like Ruckus Networks is working on through multiple partnerships with telecom and internet companies.

VoWiFi allows mobile subscribers in areas with patchy cellular connectivity to use the nearest available public WiFi network for making calls to any network. A user does not need to install any app to use the services, unlike in the case of VoIP calls using WhatsApp or Skype; instead, he uses the phone’s dialer to dial in the number, and the recipient does not need to be connected to the internet to receive the call.

According to a report by consultancy firm Analysis Mason, around 100 million Indians are willing to spend an additional $2-3 billion per year on devices and cellular mobile broadband services as a result of experiencing faster broadband on public WiFi. The use of public WiFi in India has a long way to go, with just 16 per cent of public data being offloaded to public WiFi networks at present, compared with almost 30 per cent in countries like the US, UK and France.

“Annually, we deploy 60,000 to 80,000 WiFi access points in India while working with some of the leading telecom providers through technology partnerships. Data offloading on WiFi can open up huge opportunities for the telecom and internet ecosystem to provide a superior quality of service to users,” said Pramod Badjate, global engineering SVP, Ruckus Networks, a provider of WiFi technology and equipment.

“Any telco user can walk into one of these public WiFi zones operated by the telco or even the likes of Facebook and Google. If the user is on a VoLTE network, he transfers over to WiFi and continues using services while the WiFi provider in the background checks the user’s credentials and updates his respective telecom service provider,” he adds.

This does not add to the user’s monthly bill, as the WiFi provider bills the telco concerned for the duration during which the subscriber was using its service.

The fact that these WiFi providers do not need the same licensing as telcos also means that there is a huge untapped market for players to enter this space, adds Badjate.

Ruckus has equipped seven cricket stadiums with WiFi network for Reliance Jio in India and installed hotspots at tourist places. It has also initiated the service with almost 6,000 such access points for BSNL.

The company has collaborated with Facebook’s Express WiFi ecosystem among others to provide internet access points. Express WiFi is a solution to help operators and local entrepreneurs offer fast and affordable internet access in public spaces. Ruckus is also working with Google to set up ‘Google Station’ WiFi hotspots, and is working on the Smart Cities programme across the country.

VoWiFi technology isn’t uncontested, however, as the Cellular Operators Association of India has taken a stand that the purpose of assigning unlicensed bands for WiFi was to enable communication among devices for indoor communication or over a short range, not on a citywide basis like cellular providers.