Learning to Conform

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For a technology that promised to shake up the world, the currently proposed avatars of WiMax are a toned down version of the initially hyped demon. Most speakers at the conference on WiMax-Technology for Mobile Broadband & Mobile VoIP Services-came out with the view that WiMax is not likely to be the disruptive technology that it was hyped to be. It is more likely to complement the existing 2G/3G systems that are likely to be around for a while.

Dr Arogyaswami Paulraj clarified formally that WiMax is not really a technology; it is a standard, albeit a new one, based on some pretty old technologies like MIMO, OFDM, and opportunistic scheduling.

Various speakers at the conference brought out the cost advantages of the WiMax technology by pointing out that the immense capacities that the technology provides can spawn unique business models.

Protip Ghose, VP, Sales and Marketing, Telsima held out another promise for the application developers in India. He said, India could take the lead in WiMax, something it does not have in 2G/3G technologies, and applications developed here would have applications in many other markets that are in the growing stage.

Tarvinder Singh, head, Marketing & Product Management, Motorola India Networks & Enterprise also spoke of WiMax helping India leapfrog the wireline technologies and lead the broadband revolution.

Abhay Savargaonkar, VP, 3G, Bharti Airtel spoke about WiMax playing a complementary role to the existing technologies and that it was entirely possible for the two to coexist, till the time that all technologies converge into the all IP core technologies or the 4G technologies. For starters, WiMax is likely to develop in islands, and as its adoption grows, larger/contiguous or even pan-India networks can bee looked at.

Spectrum remained the contentious issue, even before it is launched. To begin with, there is no global harmonization effort for its spectrum now. The favored spectrum is 2.5 GHz, and deployments have started in that band. However, In India, the bands allocated are 3.3GHz and 3.5 GHz.

The bottleneck, despite all the eloquent business models proposed at the conference, remains the technology itself. The technology, however, grew organically to reach the masses in an affordable manner. We can surely hope that a technology that starts out with the promise of reaching the masses, will achieve that in a much shorter timeframe.

Alok Singh
aloksi@cybermedia.co.in