The Indian telecom sector operates in a volume-driven market. Target broadband connections have recently been revised to 9 mn subscribers by 2007 and 20 mn by 2010. "Quite likely, the majority of these will be wireless broadband connections because of inadequate wireline infrastructure in place," Guruswamy adds.

"WiMax radio technology offers broadband access to end users and clearly depends on the operator's business case on the basis of which he would use this access to provide either data, voice, or both," says Prashant Agnihotri, head of radio networks product management, India Sub Region, Nokia Siemens Networks.

As WiMax will basically provide VoIP unlike prevalent 2G mobile networks, dual mode handsets are one of the essential prerequisites in addition to smooth hand-off and roaming between networks. "The industry eco-system is growing faster to address this critical issue of roaming, hand-off and affordability. It is pertinent to mention here that currently VoIP is allowed only for making PC-to-PC calls," Huawei's Sharma adds.

"New market entrants can cost-effectively establish competitive wireless mobility using higher spectrum to compete with operators that deploy service in the 2G and 3G spectrums. Also, the capacity of WiMAX to offer VoIP ensures that new entrants can offer a complete range of voice and data services for business and residential customers," Guruswamy says.

A Sethuraman, chief marketing officer, Alcatel-Lucent, South Asia says, "Due to global traction, dual-mode WiMax Rev.e end user devices are being seriously considered, and we can be hopeful that in 2008 we would have dual-mode WiMax CPE from leading CPE vendors."

Prickly Issues
Broadband operators could face spectrum-related issues. If restrictions in deployment are eased, the cost of WiMax customer premises equipment (CPEs), that would account for around 50-60% of an operator's capex, will decrease consecutively. The cost of WiMax CPEs is likely to remain on the higher side for another two to three years. As such, operators would find it difficult to roll out WiMax on a mass scale.

As a solution for broadband enterprise connectivity, current deployments are hardly beyond the limits of urban markets. This is vindicated by a report from Lehman Brothers that WiMax is still looked up as the last mile wireless solution for broadband connectivity. However, as the progress of WiMax predicts, its business case is contemplated to be universally attractive compared to other technologies.

"WiMax is an attractive alternative for providing last-mile connection in wireless metropolitan area networks"		"Due to global traction, dual-mode WiMax Rev.e end user devices are being seriously considered"
-Ganesh Guruswamy, country manager and director, Freescale Semiconductor		-A Sethuraman, chief marketing officer, Alcatel-Lucent, South Asia

WiMax Rev.e technology is best fit for both rural and urban scenarios. In the urban scenario, the challenge is to provide large bandwidth and high-end muti-media applications to end-users, with mobility being the crucial feature WiMax Rev.e is inherently designed to deliver the same with precision. In the rural scenario, the challenge is to provide basic telecom (inclusive of voice and broadband) connectivity to unconnected at low costs.

"As of now, base station radios are expensive, hence it would make sense for all operators to deploy at high potential areas"		"For rural areas the choice of WCDMA/HSPA (3G) or WiMax will depend on the operator's business case"
-PK Saji, vice president, Technology, Sify		-Prashant Agnihotri, head, Radio Networks Product Management, India Sub region, Nokia Siemens Networks

WiMax is a promising technology and is being forecast to become the fourth generation mobile technology. According to Sharma, "A diversified ecosystem, a sound business model and interoperability are the hallmark of WiMax which would require a supporting regulatory regime to provide necessary spectrum, the oxygen for wireless network and devices."

"The success of any technology in rural areas will depend on the cost of CPE. We strongly believe that WiMax deployment will start from urban areas and will gradually enter rural areas. "For rural areas the choice of WCDMA/HSPA (3G) or WiMax will depend on the operator's business case," Agnihotri said.

Surging Hopes
Though the industry is extremely bullish about the scope, uncertified devices in a network can result in unpredictable system behavior, including impacts to capacity or performance. Devices may not roam on other networks, or partner's devices may not work on the operator's network. There is no guarantee that all features will work as they have not been verified by an independent entity.

According to a research done in June 2006 by Maravedis and Tonse Telecom, the number of WiMax users in India will be 13 mn by 2012. "There is huge potential for broadband wireless Internet and VoIP services in India because there are still more than 600,000 villages with no basic communication services," says Sridhar T Pai, co-author of the research.

In India, where monthly broadband ARPU is estimated at $8-10, and computer penetration is still at around 4%, BWA/WiMax adoption will depend on very low cost end-to-end pricing for connectivity including the computer platform and CPE, the Maravedis and Tonse Telecom research says.

It also says that approximately 60% of WiMax subscribers will be mobile customers globally. While fixed WiMax will continue to be driven by large corporations and, to a lesser extent, by SME customers, WiMax is perfectly positioned to solve the last-mile problem in developing countries.

Maravedis and Tonse believe that with the upcoming spectrum opening, the certification of new equipment and low cost CPEs, the annual 3.3 and 3.5 GHz equipment opportunity will increase from $4 mn in 2005 to $256 mn in 2012.

"We believe that the success of WiMax will strongly depend on two factors. First factor is the adaptation of standard WiMax band (the 3.3-3.8 GHz European WiMax band). It will be the strongest global WiMax band which most countries are likely to adopt. The same band is likely to be adopted in India as well. Secondly, it is important for WiMax to support mobility. On top of this, the cost of CPEs and availability of dual mode CPEs will play an important role in WiMax uptake," says Agnihotri.

However, the WiMax Forum is in the process of certifying WiMax Rev.e products globally for the first time. It is expected that latest by Q3 2007, the Forum would certify Rev.e products and would be available for deployments in India at the same time.

WiMax will need significant investment in resources and time to become genuinely useful for mobile applications. Fixed WiMax is an interesting technology for fixed broadband access and backhaul, but mobile WiMax is still not optimized for a mobile environment. A long way to go!

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in