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Considering the market dynamics of the telecom industry in India, what matters most to a CIO or a CTO of any company is access to information from anywhere and everywhere. WiMax today is the hottest and most talked about technology because of its benefits such as cost effectiveness, time saving, and the ability to transfer data from one place to another.

To discuss the issues and concerns of the WiMax technology, CIOs and CTOs from enterprises across verticals came together at the event organized at Pune and Mumbai by Bharti Airtel, India's leading cellular services provider, in association with VOICE&DATA.

The first event took place in Pune, where the main discussion was on key developments in the WiMax industry and the challenges faced by CTOs/CIOs. The discussion panel comprised expert panelists from different sectors-CN Puranik, Shirish Patwardhan, Sriram TV, Basant Rajan, Sandeep Agarwaal, Balachandra Naam Joshi, and Srikant Aphale.

For every CTO/CIO, the main concerns are connectivity and bandwidth. In the near future, it is presumed that WiMax will be one of the best technologies. It is predicted that there will be nearly 13 mn users of the WiMax technology by 2012. One hurdle, though, in the effective and widespread use of this technology is the availability of radio spectrum.

The Pune and Mumbai events saw a presentation by Vijay Srinivasan, chief operating officer, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel, who gave examples on how Bharti Airtel helped customers roll out wireless technologies. "Pune is one of the first cities to focus on WiMax and Wi-Fi," said Srinivasan.

Srinivasan added: "Though the services were started in Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmedabad, the focus was on Pune due to various reasons. The geography of Pune is relatively simple and hence makes RF design simple, helping to focus on customers' needs and launching all the services needed by different verticals. Since there is a drive from the government to go for the Pune Unwire Project, there was a synergy in terms of driving wireless requirements."

Today, wireless is becoming extremely important, and secured wireless application is available to customers. Srinivasan's presentation focused on the key growth drivers of wireless, which is becoming one of the key technologies for connectivity solutions for enterprises. India being a geographically diversified country, with many customers having operations in remote locations, is another reason for the increasing popularity of wireless applications.

Different industries-banking, insurance, even manufacturing-are expanding across the country and for them connectivity is the main concern since they need to connect to rural areas, their employees, and mostly to the field force of their company.

In today's scenario, priorities for CTOs/CIOs, while they select any wireless technology, are security and guarantee of zero defect network availability and the support of end applications as required by them. As WiMax is an emerging technology, not many enterprises are willing to deploy it.

It came out clearly during the seminar that enterprises are willing to look at this technology as an option and take it to the next stage. However, the technology has to give them the 'comfort feeling' before they give the "go ahead".

Srinivasan, who spoke at the event, urged stakeholders to take WiMax to the next level by conducting extensive trials and support of applications.

"After the successful pilot project in Pune, we hope Mumbai will also fall into the category of key WiMax cities," said Srinivasan.

Pune Shows the Way
After the presentation by Srinivasan, panelists expressed their opinions and recommendations. On the issue of key challenges in using satellite broadband and expectations from WiMax solution, CN Puranik, GM, Information Systems, Sandvik Asia, said, "The expectations of users are unlimited. Providing connectivity in rural areas is a big challenge."

Responding to the issue, Sriram TV, VP, Technology and NPD, Bharti Airtel, said, "Today, we are in the connectivity mode. Our expectations are very high. Emerging wireless technologies are very promising, and are gaining momentum across the globe. We are in the process of upgrading networks. We can do better and we are trying to raise the bar."

	"Today, large enterprise users prefer wireless technology. Infrastructure sharing has helped Bharti to expand the coverage, and has helped wireless to become accessible to one and all"
	Vijay Srinivasan, COO, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel

On the question of quality, Srikant Aphale, group manager, TIMS, Zensar Technologies, said, "Most customers are not from India. They are foreigners, so quality matters. The drive is pretty hard and that's why we feel that we are driving for the moon."

On the issue of major challenges faced, Sandeep Aggarwal, head, IT, Neilsoft Technologies, said, "The most important challenge is to maintain transparency. Another big challenge we are facing is that of videoconferencing, and we don't know whether WiMax will take care of these issues or not."

Shirish Patwardhan, CTO, KPIT Cummins Infosystems, said: "Working from home is a concern for us. We work with a customer who could be anywhere in the world. It is very difficult to work in that domain where we are doing simulation because of the latencies that we are observing."

Drawing attention toward the security aspect, Balachandra Naam Joshi, senior manager, Unwired Environment, Sybase India, said, "CIOs/CTOs are much concerned about the security aspect."

On security measures, Basant Rajan, CTO, Symantec Software, said: "There is a bunch of issues that come up with wireless access. Education is the simplest solution to all these issues. Securing the network when your endpoint is insecure is completely pointless."

Mumbai too Joins the Fray
Mumbai too boasted of a strong panel from across the industry verticals who drew the attention on whether operators are giving seamless connectivity.

Given the scenario of competition and maximum productivity, the panel discussion began with the issues of connectivity and reach.

Bihag Lalaji, CIO, Ambuja Cement, said that the cost per unit is low for cement; therefore, any technology that is adopted has to be cost effective. He also said that cement plants are located in remote areas, so connectivity is very important for reaching out to these places.

Connectivity is a concern for any CIO today, so it is very important that any technology that is emerging is adopted without any technical hazards. "We have just begun the implementation of IT in our new setup at the Navi Mumbai SEZ project. Therefore, any technology that is emerging will be used because we dream to make it a digital city," said Sudesh Agarwal, vice president, IT, NMSEZ. However, Agarwal did not wish to comment on any technology being implemented for their upcoming project.

Tarun Pandey, CTO, ING Investment Management India, is of the view that there are two perspectives in wireless: one is the corporate and the other is the end user.

Viren Popli, senior vice president and head, Mobile Entertainment, said: "WiMax has a huge potential in the emerging Indian telecom market."

Moving forward with the discussion, Shirish Gariba, CTO, Elbee, said, "I think we are looking at service rather than technology. The technology should enable the work for which it is designed. We are trying to enable all the field force with a device, capturing all the information from anywhere and everywhere and delivering it to the end consumer. So, connectivity is a matter of concern."

When it comes to security, a lot of companies become sceptical on deploying new technologies. Zameer Syed, vice president, IT, HDFC Bank, said, "Security is a major concern for any industry. When it comes to mobile banking, things like funds transfer, balance check, security, etc become vital; therefore, the user is apprehensive to use mobile as a medium." "The most important thing for us is to have confidence from the user, and to go ahead and implement the technology," he added.

According to Anwar Bagdadi, senior vice president and CTO, CFC India, "Technology is not a snapshot, it is evolving. Technology, per se, does not solve your problems, it depends on how you structure and architect it. The new framework provides you the scalability and quickness to go to the next stage and this is where the advantage lies. If you are able to surpass these challenges, then you also have the ability to take it forward."

Arun Gupta, customer care associate and CTO, Shoppers' Stop said: "The most killer application for wireless is voice in the case of consumer-oriented companies, but for enterprises it is always data."

Prasanth Mohanachandran, executive director, OgilivyOne Worldwide, said, "Wireless access is connectivity beyond the 10-30 cities that are mentioned. The plan is to bridge the gap between the two. We should make the user aware of this technology. WiMax is definitely a low-cost solution."

To a query from the audience, Arvind Pandey, head, BSG, Airtel Enterprise Services, said: "The bigger driver for WiMax is spectrum. In Mumbai we were only getting 4.7 Mhz of spectrum while in Pune we got around 12 Mhz; therefore, we choose Pune for testing the WiMax technology." He added that once the issues of this business model are resolved, other cities can be identified and the model can be implemented simultaneously.

It is obvious that technologies are emerging and are in the stage of evolution. Operators should be close to customers and address their issues. For all the operators across the country, the challenge is to deliver quality. Price may not be an issue when enterprises select the best technology; therefore, the best of the telecom practices are implemented in any organization.

Ruchi Phadke and Arpita Prem
ruchip@cybermedia.co.in