Call-Drops: Revenge of the Grandpa

Pratima H

BANGALORE, INDIA: For a change, senior citizens of our tech-invaded world are having the last laugh. For all those times, when the young, cellphone generation teased them on how they used to shout during a trunk call; there is finally vengeance arriving.

After all, who could have thought that this redemption day would happen not despite of but, because of smartphones – when these very youngsters would shout, scream and wrestle helplessly over a telephone call on uber-cool, sleek, edgy phones while their elders watched in amusement?

In the phrase ‘every time I had a dollar for something-something, I would be a billionaire’; the ‘something’ if replaced with ‘whenever a call dropped’, can actually make an average phone-slinging Indian quite a rich fellow.

The irritating syndrome of calls being interrupted by poor signals and abrupt drops have become so commonplace that a smooth, consistent mobile call today makes you feel unusually lucky and blessed. It has become annoying and routine to the degree that for a typical city-dweller, the prayers before stepping out now put smooth calls above fast traffic, open elevators, hot lunch and crisp shirt collars.

So when Samartha N, MD and CEO, at 5barz (the name says so much), dismisses it as a small technology challenge to be fixed; it’s tempting to sit up and check the bars he is setting himself to. In this interview, he tackles every side and every doubt from the ordinary to the environmental, the practical to the silly, the user-side to the Telco-side, ground-view to balloon/drone-view as he reveals why a new answer from a different corner could be quite the handyman we need to stop our grandparents from making fun of us and our technology.

What are your first thoughts on the new urban lifestyle disorder of call drops and poor quality?

If you look at signal penetration, you have to consider how mobile phones of the present age have become richer, feature-high and full of smart experience. It is not just a calling device but a multimedia device now. Phone usage has increased in multiple dimensions and yet network signals have not conquered some inherent problems – that of inability to penetrate inside walls.

Remember that India is different from other countries here in the usage of concrete. So every time, one is near a basement or a parking or a space with two, three walls in juxtaposition; the call has to drop. Poor signal strength is responsible for most call drops, garbled and choppy voices. It is extremely rampant in India than the US where they use a lighter building material.

Why can’t Telcos solve it?

They have the base station number pressure, capex issues and ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)-investment alignment issues. Even if the ARPUs justified the new investments, signals can’t be spread in every nook and corner. The Physics comes into play again. That’s what we are trying to do – to deliver good signal experience by optimizing what exists instead of what can be added. We want to change the in-home connectivity scenario.

Because, merely upgrading networks and base station capabilities or launching newer generations of cellular technologies won't suffice. Even for broad bands the optical networks in urban areas is not efficient to solve poor bandwidth and coverage due to limited router capabilities because unless one addresses last mile connectivity, the real issue persists. This is when the signal is able to reach its full strength inside buildings or closed spaces without any modifications to the building infrastructure.

What makes it work?

It is a simple technology on paper but complex to build. People have tried the methods using antennae on terraces or co-axial cables and boosters inside the house but the costs are prohibitive. Also, it ends up as a consumer-unfriendly solution. We brought something that entails antennae that can talk to base station and also covers networks and the user. We put all the enchilada in one box as a plug-and-play answer.

Our network extender incorporates patented technology into a small plug-and-play box that strengthens weak cellular signals on all cellular devices. Thanks to the innovation of seven years of R&D delivered across three continents and driven completely out of Bangalore;  now we have the end result as superior 5 bars signal for voice, data and video reception on cell phones, and other cellular devices at homes and offices.

Would this not raise concerns over hack-ability?

We are just repeating the signals and not hampering them. The user gets a clean signal instead of the barrier of connecting a weak signal to a base station.

Why would this be good news for a Telco? How do you factor in topography issues, limitations of towers, revenue angle etc.

One characteristic they have is for remote areas, number of users, signal strength and other parameters affect their scope. The typical performance indicators that worked at a tower level are now every-house-level issues. When networks were planned, the city demographics were different and now India’s urbanisation is so rapid that buildings are coming up too fast. Sharing towers has started among Telcos and yet network operators face infrastructure planning handicaps due to number of buildings, choice of location, static vs. dynamic aspects etc. What we do is break one chunk into smaller parts and relay it wherever it is required. We are solving the demographic and topographic problems that were hurting Telcos.

Any possibility of this changing revenue dynamics for a Telco when we look at it from the angle of data usage or number of calls made by a user?

If anything, it helps add to revenues and not take away from them. We try to give first experience of no call drops, second experience of no garbled voices and third experience of better data speeds of downloads etc which have improved three to ten times (As per lab and field trials). Now when all this happens, the operator has a happy customer and hence data consumption increases because of improved call duration and data. Capex is simultaneously on the lower side. So Telcos are in a better spot.

Telecom towers are anyways facing radiation and other environmental criticisms. How does that part come into play here?

The problem of radiation aggravates when the signal is poor and a phone has to consume more power for the output to be pumped. Now in a solution-scenario, the phone is pumping the least level of power with an advantage to user. Our intelligent network extender can identify phones in vicinity and give optimal strength to the user. So this would be the greenest product in terms of environment as we are breaking the signal into chunks instead of adding too many towers.

Would you extend this to Internet or would IoT (Internet of Things) etc be another opportunity area ahead? Also, what are your thoughts on approaches that Google, Facebook etc are taking to sort connectivity deficit?

We would be launching an IoT and router hub next to improve customer experience in that space as well. What Google etc are trying to solve is the big picture. We are looking at real, on-ground issues. Our forte is last-mile connectivity. The next problem we would move to would be that of wi-fi as current routers do not penetrate at good speeds and lack IoT readiness.

What makes India a good market for it? Any kinks that you have picked up so far?

We chose this as the first market and have got top two Telcos along with interest from other MNCs. We are at an inflection point.

It is a long cycle of lessons. We are solving 3G first and would then aim at 4G. The patience needed to go through a number of cycles in discussions with Telcos is a good learning.