Wireless vs Wireline

NEW DELHI, INDIA: There's no doubt the world is going wireless-faster than anyone might have expected. Does this mean an end to wireline? If so which will be the dominant wireless technology? Answer to the first question is a clear no. Both wireless and wireline will co-exist. It is widely believed that with bandwidth hungry technologies like IPTV coming up it won't be possible for the wireless only to meet the bandwidth requirement of the future.

Wireline, on the other hand, is not cost effective especially in India, where a huge population lives in rural areas where RoI is very low. Therefore, wireline will act as the backbone whereas wireless will provide the last mile connectivity. On the last mile front as well, wireless faces tough challenge from metro Ethernet, which is touted as the cost effective and reliable method of providing high-speed last mile connectivity.

Scopes Galore

Currently, there are about 2.4 mn broadband subscribers in India, which is about 2% penetration, of which about 70% are on xDSL network. All major wireline operators are rolling out xDSL networks, and operators like BSNL and MTNL with largest local loop assets in the country are taking the lead. Of the present 45-50 mn wireline telephone connections in India, based on line condition, it is estimated that only 9-10 mn of these are capable of being upgraded for broadband delivery. It makes just 20% of the existing infrastructure and leaves a lot of scope for expansion. Here wireless is expected to fill the gap.

Some cable companies and multi system operators (MSO) are offering cable broadband services. It is expected that the cable Internet market share will be boosted when cable operators will start to offer triple-play services, including VoIP and IPTV. FTTx, fiber broadband technology, is also starting to gain popularity with operators, initially being offered for business services, via fiber-optic networks.

Atul Bindal, president, Broadband and Telephone Services, Bharti Airtel says, "We have plans to introduce new services like IPTV besides enabling wireless broadband access through increasingly promoting services like Wi-Fi and WiMax in the coming days."

Demanding Future

Internet access speeds have been rising sharply, both the speeds required by the applications and those delivered by the industry and service providers.

Nevertheless, new broadband deployments are commonly justified primarily by today's applications rather than anticipated demands. Streaming video content is considered by many as the ultimate bandwidth-hungry application, where one adds bandwidth requirements of high-definition TV stream and the Internet browsing; it may seem that 20-25 Mbps bandwidth is sufficient in the long run.

But research and projections indicate exponential growth in bandwidth demand. Indeed, service providers are already offering 1 Gbps access to residential customers today, and there are substantial deployments of 100 Mbps networks in some European countries. In such a situation wireless alone might not be able to meet the entire bandwidth requirements.

The New Warrior

India is targeting 20 mn broadband subscribers by the end of 2010. Achieving this target in a cost effective and speedy manner would require operators in wireless broadband technologies such as WiMax in licensed bands and Wi-Fi/WiMesh, P2MP/P2P solutions based on unlicensed bands.

Though both wireline and wireless broadband will grow rapidly, the latter will grow faster. Wireless broadband network can be deployed faster and is less expensive to maintain. On an average for every wireless subscriber line service provider spends around Rs 6,000 where as for wireline it spends Rs 16,500. Wireless network can be setup in six months, whereas wireline network will take more than a year.

With the arrival of high data speeds on wireless broadband, urban and rural India is expected to adopt it. A 3G base station can be up and running in a short timeframe, providing high-speed data transfer (100 Mbps). "Wireline cannot scale to meet the 20 mn subscriber base and wireless cannot meet the tremendous bandwidth demand, so the only answer is a mix of wireless and wireline," says Chandan Mendiratta, principal consultant, Service Provider, Cisco India and SAARC.

The Old Workhorse

Wireline last mile access has the capability to provide dedicated broadband connectivity to end users through various mature technologies such as xDSL, FTTx, cable networks, etc. Wireline has the benefit of more reliability and scalibility, which becomes very important given the fact that bandwidth requirement are increasing in non-linear pattern. The maximum speed on optical fibre is 107 Gbps whereas for wireless its just 5 Gbps.

Wireline has an edge over wireless in spectrum availability. Probably this is the reason that major players in India are still betting heavily on wireline. Recently, BSNL has awarded a contract to Nokia Siemens Networks to modernize its access network in seventeen Indian states. The project involves 800,000 new high-speed connections based on Carrier Ethernet technology. Similarly, Alcatel has won a $20 mn deal from the Tatas to expand the countrywide Tata-VSNL optical multi-service network, which delivers mobile and broadband services.

Case for WiMax

In a country like India, wireless will be the growth engine for rapid spread of broadband services, much the same way as it drove mass adoption of voice telephony. Combined to that, an all IP based infrastructure lowers the network setup and running costs.

"WiMax is promising to help India overcome its broadband infrastructure woes. It not only provides broadband connectivity in fixed mode but also mobility experience," says Tarvinder Singh, head, Marketing and Product Management, Networks and Enterprise, Motorola India.

According to estimates, the WiMax market in India is assessed to be around $1.5 bn opportunity for network and CPE equipment vendors. Wireline broadband infrastructure is expected to be $1 bn, hence total value of the broadband market infrastructure will be about $2.5 bn to $3 bn over the next four years.

3G Path

Operators with a 2G network have several technology migration paths available to rollout a 3G/4G network. However, these decisions need to be taken in the context of the operator's business case, its customer acquisition strategy as well as long-term services roadmap of the operator. In this context, existing cellular operators in India offering voice services using 2G GSM/CDMA technologies have the option of offering mobile broadband services using 3G technologies like WCDMA/HSxPA or EVDO RevA.

Many cellular operators around the world and in India are seriously evaluating the possibility of leapfrogging to 4G WiMax technology without investing in 3G or curtailing their investments initially planned for 3G. However, 3G rollouts by GSM operators will be mainly used for catering to the expansion of their voice subscriber base while addressing a niche mobile data market as well. On the other hand, mobile WiMax will attract investments to open up new mobile and fixed broadband services for subscribers, and in time generate new revenue streams for operators.

Leaping Forward

After years of talk about fixed–mobile convergence (FMC) and next-generation networks (NGN), technology solutions are now ready to give fixed and mobile operators a major leap forward in their full service broadband offerings. Operators have an opportunity to deploy an open, standards-based combined fixed and mobile architecture that offers a cost-effective evolutionary route to new full service broadband opportunities.

Full service broadband services face significant challenges in the form of huge increases in scale, massive new bandwidth demands, and the need to reduce the cost per transported bit. Moreover, there is uncertainty about the size, shape, and timing of these new requirements, primarily because of IPTV. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain network flexibility to be able to respond to changes.

Nilabh Jha

nilabhj@cybermedia.co.in