'WiFi is not a technology for India'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Unifiedgateways is a provider of communication products and solutions for in-home and access networks. In this conversation, Ramesh Kumar M, founder and CEO of the company, talks about the possibility of broadband over powerline (BPL) in India and argues that WiFi is not a technology for India. Read on:

CIOL: How did it all begin for you at Unifiedgateways?

Ramesh Kumar: Unifiedgateways was incubated in IISc (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) in 1999-2000. It's a five-member-big product company. It all began with the idea that we should have no more than one cable attached to our televisions, no matter where we watch it from.

We tried WiFi during 1999-2000; however, it too failed because of bandwidth constrictions and issues such as that WiFi can't cross walls.

CIOL: However, today we have technologies such as beamforming from Ruckus or even Cisco, so signals don't get blocked because of walls...

Ramesh: I agree Ruckus works; however, at what price? You get an access point at a feasible price. However, in order to convert a non-WiFi board to a WiFi board is very expensive for any business.

CIOL: So when did you think powerline could be an alternative?

Ramesh: When we saw even WiFi did not deliver the way we actually thought it to be, we thought of going for the concept of data over powerline. However, back then the powerline technology was not very evolved and could cater to only three-four mbps.

So, a few years later, when powerline technology started giving a throughput of 14-85 mbps, we decided to take the plunge and came out with our first product, capable of 200 mbps data speed for both Ethernet and WiFi.

CIOL: Can you tell us more about your products?

Ramesh: Today, we hold a global patent for the concept of sending television signals over powerline. We have been trying it with various DTH providers. With our technology we can provide 10 times more definition than what is being provided today. Though Tata wasn't ready to believe us, we are still pursuing them.

We are also in talks with Airtel for the past one year. We have come across many digital signage TVs, which have a complete set of PCs and TVs.These PCs have a configuration of 340 GB HD, 3GB RAM, windows XP and cost Rs 48,000. However, what it does is dumb job of converting Ethernet signals to TV compatible signals.

We also have a patent for another product, which railways can use for data transfer over 23kb line.

Railways need not lay additional fiber in order to go wireless. As of now, we are trying this product with both the Malaysian and Indian Railways, for about four-five kilo meters range.

We also have products with 500 mbps at one gigabit for both Ethernet and WiFi.

CIOL: Why Ethernet and WiFi, when you talk of powerline?

Ramesh: Powerline will co-exist with WiFi. Today, whichever device you take, whether it is a laptop or a PC, it is either going to be on a Cat 5 connection, i.e. Ethernet, or WiFi.

Today my customers want a WiFi connection as well. So, though we send data over powerline, we have to be compatible with existing systems. So we give powerline in and WiFi out.

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So, ultimately you will have a DSL line coming into home or apartment. However, this DSL cannot be available at every point at home. So, what we do is put a DSL line and take it on the powerline.

Now that you have put it on the powerline, you need to convert it to something compatible with PC or laptop, i.e Ethernet or WiFi. So, we have powerline to Ethernet and powerline to WiFi converters for this.

With powerline you can deploy it in the existing cable itself in less time. It saves time, copper and money (our product deployment amount ranges from Rs 2000 to Rs 8000).

CIOL: So far there is no much traction for BPL technology in India. How do you look at this?

Ramesh: The powerline technology didn't have a standard till 2008. There will be more traction in future as we see an increased level of interest among businesses to try this out.

We have already 28 customers across India, including Prestige Gold Share, Spar Hypermarket, Gopalan Mall, Total Mall in Bangalore, Central Power Institute in Hyderabad, two clients in Pune, and one in Tanzania.

CIOL: However, lots have been written on BPL that it is a dead technology...

Ramesh: Yes, it is called a dead technology in Australia, the US, and in many other places too. In the US powerline has always been looked at as an access technology. That means you have an access point, which is usually a transformer, from where signals are passed to the end point.

Every transformer should have aggregator box, which will cost close to $10,000. In the US they have only four or five customers per transformer. That is why the cost per consumer is very high, at $250. Whereas in Europe or India, we have close to 120 customers per transformer, so the cost will be comparatively less.

However, even today Indian technologists believe that anything that does not work in the US will not work anywhere else. But this is not the case always. So the notion that BPL won't work in India is prevalent in India as well.

WiFi works very well in the US conditions, as they have wooden walls, whereas in India it does not. WiFi is not a technology for India.

We should have our own technology that works for us. The Chinese Government has passed a regulation, a year back, making BPL a de facto technology, for energy meters.

CIOL: How is the data carried over powerline or transformers?

Ramesh: Data is carried over a typical 50 hertz or 60 hertz cables. Even today there is no technology that can transfer data through a transformer.

Transformer is a DC block, so one has to bypass the transformer by either laying an Ethernet cable or WiFi link around the transformer, which makes it even more expensive for the US conditions.

Moreover, Access BPL is yet to be ratified. We expect it to be ratified in 2011 and once it is, we might get into it as well. We are into the in-home BPL space, which has been ratified in 2009, IEEE P1901 and ITU-T Ghn.

CIOL: To what extent can the BPL signals pass through a powerline?

Ramesh: Theoretically 200 meters, assuming that there will a lot of load and noise over the line. It can even go up to 400-500 meters in ideal conditions.

CIOL: What is the difference between Access and In-Home BPL?

Ramesh: In-home BPL is something that can be used within a closed area, such as a campus, home, mall or even a street (200 m). Whereas, as I said, you have a substation for Access technology, from where the signal travels to the end user, such as in WiMAX, or GSM technologies.

CIOL: How secure are these powerlines?

Ramesh: For an average hacker it will take at least a year to hack the data. So far, we have seen only 64 bit encryption in any wireless technology. Although WiFi is now coming out with 128 bit encryption, we already provide 128 bit encryption, be it either on AES link encryption or NMK (Network Membership Key). We have also patents in it.

CIOL: Does this technology work in all voltage situations?

Ramesh: We have tested our products for 80-300 volts and it works. We have also tested them for 7,000 volts successfully. We have both CE and SSE certified products. You can work it in the US (110 Kb) as well as Indian systems (230 Kb). We have chipsets close to 15 million nodes.

CIOL: What is the main challenge that you see in the market today?

Ramesh: The major challenges are lack of acceptance and awareness.

Businesses are generally not aware of the existence of powerline technology. Although it has been there since 2009, no one used it. A decade back technologists had discouraged WiFi, saying it won't survive. However, WiFi is very popular today. Similarly, people are very averse to this new technology.

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We had even gone to the extent of explaining things from the scrap and today wherever we have deployed our solutions, we seeing a trend of acceptance.

CIOL: What is your target for the next couple of years?

Ramesh: Although we are yet to make our first million, we are targeting Rs 100-150 million business in the next five-six years! The addressable market is so huge that even if there are competitors in future, we will have our piece of the cake.

Right now we prefer to be a B2B company, because being a start-up we will not be able to cater to the consumer market as of now. Somewhere down the line we might move to the B2C as well. Today, we rather believe in making India depend on our intellectual property rather than building on someone else's IP.