Indian telecom operators to go global

BANGALORE: In a few years Indian telecom operators would go international and become top global players, said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chennai.

“We have start-ups and established companies in India which designs wireless integrated circuit chips for the world. Our software companies provide services to most telecom companies in the world,” he elaborated.

He was addressing a media roundtable organized as part of the third International Conference on Communication System Software and Middleware (COMSWARE), here today.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala predicted that companies like Tejas and Midas would emerge from the shadows and become major suppliers across the world. The IIT professor told the roundtable that Tejas was planning to go public soon.

“In the wireless area, India has the potential to be among the top players,” he further said and invited Indian overseas professionals to return home to take the domestic telecom sector forward.

Wireless user base in India was expected to top 500 million in the next five years.

Emerging India

According to Giridhar D Mandyam, vice-president of Technology at Qualcomm, India was on a pace to become the second largest mobile phone market within the next two years.

“Research into the future of wireless technology is also increasing here (in India) with respect to the rest of the world,” Dr. Mandyam said.

He added that the Indian mobile market was of particular significance to the world because of the sheer number of subscribers who relied on their mobile phone for voice services as well as Internet access.

Research and development

Krishnan Sabnani, vice-president, Networking and Network Management Center, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent pointed at the need for networks to be readied for content traffic.

“In the next few years 95 per cent of traffic will be content,” Dr Sabnani said.

Subrahmanyam Goparaju, vice-president and head of Infosys’s SETlabs urged that research and development should go beyond product development.

“Look at how economies are growing. Services economies are growing. Innovations are possible in this (services) realm,” he said.

Unwire the next billion

According to Swaminathan Krishnan, senior vice-president, Global Business Operations and CMO, Sasken, the communication industry was at a climacteric point and now needed to look for innovative ways to unwire the next billion people.

“The wire-free world has contributed significantly to inclusive growth, Communications can bridge the north-south divide, by reducing information asymmetry and helping the people from all across to participate in the economy,” he said.

Manoj Dighe, general manager, Telecom and Product Engineering Solutions, Wipro, said, “Services required in India is dramatically different from that of western countries.”

The five-day COMSWARE 2008, a leading software event in India, would conclude on Thursday.