3G HSPA is best bet to bridge last mile

3G HSPA is best bet to bridge last mile

3G HSPA technology will work wonders in helping the operators percolate the fruits of Information Technology to 250,000 villages in the country

Idhries Ahmad

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Notwithstanding the confusion around 3G rollout in the country and serious competition from new technologies like mobile WIMAX, 3G HSPA will become the default technology for operators to bridge the last mile in the country, forecasts P. Balaji, Vice President – Marketing & Strategy, Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd.

With the successful pilot of Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project to show for, Balaji is sure that once the 3G spectrum issue is sorted out, 3G HSPA technology will work wonders in helping the operators percolate the fruits of Information revolution to 250, 000 villages in the country.

Ericsson’s Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project is India’s first HSPA-powered rural broadband demo network that delivered the benefits of 3G across 18 villages and 15 towns in Tamil Nadu.

“3G HSPA has a two decades of headway over competing technologies, is a natural migration path for GSM, CDMA operators in India, offers significant economies of scale, gives access to existing ecosystem of global vendors and on top has existing infrastructure for roll out” says Balaji.

In an interaction with Idhries Ahmad of CIOL, Balaji explains in detail why 3G HSPA finds favour with the service providers across the world. Balaji also gives details about the Ericsson’s Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project and how this successful experiment can be replicated across villages in India.

Balaji also shares his thoughts on the fracas over 3G roll out in India and has a word or two about why operators have been slow to warm up to rural India.

CIOL: Please brief us about the about Ericsson’s Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project. How successful was the pilot and what were the key takeaways for the operators in India from this project?

P. Balaji: Ericsson’s Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project was actually is envisioned in line government’s mission to bridge the digital divide between in been rural and urban India and also increase the broadband penetration in the country.

The pilot project, which is India’s first HSPA-powered rural broadband demo network delivered the benefits of 3G across 18 villages and 15 towns in Tamil Nadu.

We provided high-speed internet and mobile connectivity over a 3G backbone, helping rural communities access range of new services - telemedicine, e-education, e-governance, online local information, voice and video call services and live television

The villages were connected by a mobile community centre, which carried personal computers, phones and audio-visual equipment to each of the villages on rotation.

The project was supported by operators like BSNL, Bharti, Maxis, Apollo and we were provided 3G spectrum for three months by the government on experimental basis.

We used the existing 2G infrastructure of BSNL, Bharti to quick rollout of the services helping farmers benefit from host of mobile broadband applications across 18 villages and 15 towns in Tamil Nadu.

CIOL: It is a common and at times correct notion that technologies intimidate rural users rather than stimulate them to dig deeper and understand the benefits of technologies. How difficult was to break the barrier and how successful was the project when judged against the user participation in the project.

P. Balaji: See, the core of this project was not technology. It is not about technologies. It is the benefits that the technology accrues to the user. The focus of the project was to use technology as an enabler for people to see the fruits of information technology.

The interface with the technology was in local language that helped farmers make the connect and see the benefits of the technology.

From the luxury and comfort of community centres in villages, the farmers were able to log into a high speed internet connection and know the latest selling rates of agriculture produce, weather and crop updates at the click of button.

Things like land record registrations, issuance of death/birth certificates and ration cards, which normally takes longer time were done faster. Forms for births, deaths and land records could also be accessed from the centres.

Children were taught through distance education, by a teacher sitting in Chennai. Villagers got treated by best doctors from Apollo, who interacted through video-conferencing from state capital.

CIOL: Coming to technology part of the project, 3G HSPA was the backbone for this project. Ho do you see 3G HSPA pitted against the new technology like WIMAX, which is being touted as the cheapest, technologically advanced and the next big thing to dissolve the digital divide. Why should operators choose 3G HSPA as against WiMAX as the best bet to connect the last mile?

P. Balaji: Simply, because 3G HSPA scores on all levels.

3G HSPA has more than two decades of headway over competing technologies like WiMAX and is a natural migration path for GSM, CDMA operators in India. The technology offers significant economies of scale to the operators coupled with existing support of major vendors across the globe.

On top of it, 3G HSPA provides operators economy of scale, as the basic infrastructure needed for its rollout exists in country, which is not the case with WiMAX. Operators, rather then in investing in new technologies which will cost them more money will use the existing infrastructure in the country.

Again 3G is a tested and tried technology. The standards were ratified more than two decades earlier than other competing technologies. It is already rolled out in major economies of the world with success.

And in our country which has 261 million and adds 7-8 million subscribers every month, 3G HSPA is the obvious choice. Also software and hardware upgrades for 3 G technology are easily available as against WiMAX.

Recent studies clearly indicate that while 3G HSPA will be dominant standard across world by 2012, WiMAX will struggle to even register double digit growth.

So naturally 3G HSPA is best bet to bridge the last mile in the country.

CIOL: Coming back to Gramjyoti Project, how sure are you that this pilot, which was done in 18 villages and 15 towns in Tamil Nadu, can be replicated with same success across the country, given the scale and complexity of our country.

P. Balaji: See, our pilot was done in real time conditions. The applications we rolled out and the services were made available in a real time. So when operators do a national rollout they have real time example as how to they will go about.

The project was watched and appreciated by TRAI along with other stakeholders.

I would however say the technology will not be driving factor. Technology will only be an enabler. The key will be partnership and collaboration. Collaboration between stakeholders of the project.

The Gramjyoti Project was a success because it was supported fully by Hand in Hand, an NGO, Edurite, an education content provider, One97, a commodities price/rate content provider, CNN, an entertainment content provider, Apollo Hospitals Group an the service providers, Bharti and BSNl.

The key is collaboration and if the same levels of co petition are achieved, the experiment will be replicated with success across 250000 villages across county.

CIOL: On addressing the rural market on the whole. Why have been service providers apart from BSNL very slow in capturing the rural market? Don’t they see business case for services in Rural India? Are the ARPU for a rural user so low that it is impossible for operators to make margins?

P. Balaji: I won’t agree with that statement that service providers have been slow to reach out to rural market. We have added 261 million connection and portion of which is from rural India. You have to give them credit where it due. See it is natural progression. Roads are made first followed by swanky highways. These are already early days now and once they see a business model, the will move faster.

They are constantly working around bouquet of applications and services to improve their margins and make business sense to their venture.

CIOL: Last, how do you see the fracas over the 3G rollout in the country? Hasn’t process going too slow

P. Balaji: The recent statements by the ministers in this regard have been very encouraging. We are grateful to the government that they have made headway in this area. As and when the 3G services are rolled out, we as responsible stake holders will facilitate service providers to roll out their services.

©CIOL Bureau