“WiMAX adoption is just accelerating in all markets”

Founded in 1999, Aperto Networks, developer of WiMAX base stations and

subscriber units, has been a leader in broadband wireless space. The company was

the cofounders of the WiMAX forum and of the WiMAX standard - the 802.16

standard.






Aperto is also a board member of the WiMAX forum and have customers in 65
countries, which are more than 200 service provider customers.






India is one of our key markets for the company with its largest customer being
VSNL. In an interview with Pragati Simlote of CyberMedia News during

Communicasia 2006, Aperto Networks president and CEO Mike Pratt and Aperto

Networks marketing and alliances VP Manish Gupta who share the company's plans

for India as well the global trends in the WiMAX space.






CMN: What are the current global trends in WiMAX?





Mike Pratt: WiMAX adoption is just accelerating in all markets. The range of
applications where it can be applied is also very huge. WiMAX is a very

versatile technology and can serve everything from low-density residential

application to very demanding enterprise customers.






On a global basis, it is growing very rapidly. We are seeing spectrum being
allocated and freed up and designated for this particular application, much more

discussion going on about future spectrum to be made available for WiMAX

application. The broadband wireless phenomenon is just now beginning to pick up

major momentum.






CMN: What are the advantages of WiMAX?





Pratt: WiMAX is a global phenomenon. The world today really is missing
connectivity and worldwide there are just 200 million broadband subscribers.

Wired connections just will not make it fast enough as it is too expensive and

takes too long to do that.






WiMAX is cost effective and gives an option to service providers to serve
residential customers as well as enterprise customers and the technology is

mature. It is getting excitement and improving deployment around the world.






CMN: What are the benefits of WiMAX?





Manish Gupta: WiMAX is a technology that is proven. It is being deployed in many
places and is now standardized.






Second benefit is cost. The cost of servicing an end user is much lower when you
compare to fiber or DSL where there is no infrastructure today.






Third is time to market. So service provider don't have to wait for three - four
years to put in wires or cables and then offer services. With WiMAX they can get

there in a matter of weeks. So it is very different.






Lastly service providers can also tier the services. Service providers can start
with high end customers like the enterprises and then use the same

infrastructure to layer in services for the low end residential market where the

revenue maybe lower. So they can segment the market further in terms of

profitability.






CMN: What is your presence in India?





Gupta: We have a strong presence in India and have sales, sales engineering
team, customer support as well as a development center in India. We also have

channel partners who help us sell and support our customers. Our development

center is in Bangalore. The facility is doing work for global products and not

just for India. Our plan is to have 35 people in this center by the end of the

year.






What kind of WiMAX adoption is being seen in India? What are the impediments to
WiMAX adoption here?






Gupta: In the Indian market, there are about a dozen service providers who are
looking at WiMAX. There are statewide initiatives, government initiatives like

Asia bowel that are aimed at leveraging WiMAX. So there are activities around

WiMAX all over India. In Ahmedabad, there is a municipality, which is deploying

WiMAX. In Bangalore there is a citywide deployment of WiMAX taking place.






VSNL is using our technology to service enterprise customers in 80 cities today
and they plan to expand it to 200 cities in the next 12 months. BSNL has talked

about rural marketplace that they are planning to launch.






Availability of spectrum is the only impediment in implementing WiMAX in India.
Some service providers have the spectrum to provide WiMAX in India. WiMAX is

operating primarily in 3.3-3.4 GHz band. But India is looking at opening up

3.4-3.6 GHz band also, which is a large spectrum and is looking quite possible.

It is also exploring 2.3 GHz. We expect the 3.4-3.6 GHz band to open up in the

next 12 months.






CMN: What is the growth Aperto is expecting in India?





Pratt: India is going to be one of the most important markets in WiMAX. The
degree of broadband penetration is low and demand for connectivity is high in

India. And of course, wireless technologies have the lowest cost and are easiest

to deploy to get out to address that need. So it is going to be a huge market.








WiMAX adoption is growing at an exponential rate in India and we are looking at
a multi fold growth in India over the next few years. It is one of the fastest

growing markets for us and has the potential to be the single largest market for

Aperto.






CMN: What is your customer base in India?





Pratt: VSNL is our largest customer in India. Today we have six service
providers in different parts of India who are our customers. We have two

additional service providers of the top five who will announce soon. Deployment

will start soon. One of the customers will primarily focus on rural and

residential market.






We work very closely with service providers directly but for implementation we
bring in the right channel partners who have local people who can put up towers,

etc. in India we have about six channel partners. Most are large global

companies operating in India.






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