Polaris Wireless banks on location based solutions

MUMBAI, INDIA: With the latest Department of Telecom (DoT) guidelines for telecos to comply with highly accurate LBS, California-based Polaris Wireless, the global provider of high-accuracy software-based wireless location solutions, is foreseeing an huge opportunity for doing business in India  

“About 5-6 years back we had started an R&D center in Bangalore where we have been developing software solutions for various countries as per the regulatory requirements. And with Indian regulators issuing a new norm to comply with highly accurate location based solutions (LBS) to all operators, it offers us a big opportunity to do business and provide solutions to operators,” Bhavin Shah, Polaris Wireless's vice president — Marketing & Business Development told CyberMedia News over phone from the US.

ALSO READ: CanvasM, Polaris intro n/w-based wireless location soln

“Given the huge opportunities provided by Indian telecom market, we are planning to double our head counts in next 12-18 months, largely focusing on operations and business development,” Shah added. Overall, the company has around 120 people, of which 50 are based in India and rest at the headquarters in Mountain View.

While the DoT has asked all telecos to comply with highly accurate LBS by May 31, Shah opined that most operators will follow it at first and slowly others will follow suit.

In term of opportunities, LBS is different from value added services (VAS), as the former is more contextual in nature which takes into account the location and specific target audience. The company offers its solutions on different business model depending on operation choice, such as capex, opex and revenue sharing.

A software-based solution, this can easily be integrated with telcos' various platforms and provides the scalability required to roll out the services across many circles and even its cost is quite lesser than other hardware-based solutions.

“Overall our solutions have higher performance, accuracy and has no technology limitations,” he added.

Further, Shah said that company has become the member of Cellular Association of India (CAOI) and is already in talks with telcos and has conducted trails for location based solutions for them.

However, the company hasn't signed any customers yet as many operators have approached the DoT to raise their objections and concerns on the recommendations. Besides, Polaris also plans to work with the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) in the field of education, and attract talent in software development.

Compared to 2010, Polaris Wireless revenue book has grown four times and reported 30 per cent growth in revenues. In last November, the company partnered CANVASM technologies, Tech Mahindra's VAS subsidiary, to strengthen its offerings in India.