V&D Jan Issue- TLF

www.voicendata.com

Telecom Trends 2013/ 16

Future of CDMA/ 32

` 75

VOL 20 ISSUE 1 January 2013

The Business of Communications

Q&A: Sanjay Kapoor CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti airtel

Survival Strategies for Indian Telecom Recognizing Excellence amongst Telecom Leaders

100 pages including cover

Special subscription offer on Page 94

contents

COVER STORY / 49

Website: www.voicendata.com EDITORIAL

GROUP EDITOR: Ibrahim Ahmad EDITOR: Pravin Prashant SR ASST EDITOR: Gyana Ranjan Swain SR CORRESPONDENT: Ritu Singh CORRESPONDENT: Malini Nagaraj EDITORIAL ADVISOR: Prasanto Kumar Roy

DESK

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Atreyee Ganguly SUB EDITOR: Charu, Ruchika Goel ASST MANAGER DESIGN: Bhagbat Pattnayak, Harnek Singh, Pramod S Rawat COVER DESIGN: Harnek Singh

BUSINESS

CORPORATE HEAD of SALES & MARKETING: Satish Gupta (satishg@cybermedia.co.in) MARKETING: Manish Uniyal (Mgr Audience), Gulnar Oberoi (Asst Mgr Mktg), Arvind Razdan (Exec Mktg) DELHI/NCR Amresh Mishra (Asst Mgr Sales), Ratul Mallik (Exec Sales) BANGALORE T Roshan Sahadevan (Mgr Sales), Pradeep Kumar (Exec Sales) MUMBAI Sana Khan (Mgr Sales), Meenakshi Madan (Asst Mgr Sales) PUNE Sunay Choudhury (Mgr Sales) CHENNAI Jayan A (Exec Sales) KOLKATA Sandeep Roy Chowdhuri (Sr Mgr Sales) HYDERABAD Srinivas S (Asst Admin) INTERNATIONAL Vikas Monga (Mgr Sales)

OPERATIONS

GENERAL MANAGER: CP Kalra SR MANAGER: Anuj Sharma MANAGER: Debabratta Joshi

SHARED SERVICES

ASSOCIATE VP: Manish Verma PRINT SERVICES: T Srirengan (GM) CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION: C Ramachandra (Sr Mgr), Sudhir Arora (Sr Mgr), Jagdeep Khanna (Mgr), Raghavendra S (Mgr), Raju Salve (Asst Mgr), Srinivas Gangula (Sr Exec) AUDIENCE SERVICE: Sarita Shridhar (Mgr) MIS & DATABASE: Ravikant (Mgr) PRESS COORDINATOR: Harak Singh (Exec)

OUR OFFICES GURGAON Cyber House B-35 Sector-32, Gurgaon, Haryana – 122 001 Tel: 0124 - 4822222 Fax: 0124 - 2380694 BENGALURU 401, 4th Floor MBC Building, #134, Infantry Road Bangalore – 560 001 Tel: 080 – 43412000 Fax: 080 – 22862971 CHENNAI 5-B, 6th Floor, Gemini Parsn Apartments 599 Mount Road, Chennai 600 006 Tel: 044 – 28221712, 28229116, 28220360 Fax: 044 – 28222092 KOLKATA 23/54, Gariahat Road, Ground Floor Near South City College, Kolkata – 700 029 Tel: 033 – 65250117/18, 65341101, 40011506 MUMBAI 501/502 5th Floor Acropolis, Military Road, Marol Andheri (East), Mumbai – 400 059 Tel: 022 – 29204142/43/44 Fax: 022 – 29203964 PUNE Flat# 9, Popular Heights-3, F- Block,North Main Road, Koregaon Park, Pune – 411 001 Tel: 020 – 66203378, 66203379 Fax: 020 – 66203377 SECUNDERABAD Room No. 5&6, Srinath Commercial Complex, Sd Road, Secunderabad – 600 003 Tel: (040) 27841970, 27841665 Fax: (040) 27808134 International Cyber Media (Singapore) Pte Ltd #14-03, High Street Centre, 1 North Bridge Road, Singapore – 179 094 Tel: 00 – 63369142, Fax: 00 – 63369145 Email: Naveenb@cybermedia.co.in California Huson International Media President, 1999, South Bascom Avenue, Suit 1000, Campbell, Ca95008, USA Tel: +1-408-879 6666 Fax: +1-408-879 6669

Survival Strategies for Indian Telecom Recognizing Excellence amongst Telecom Leaders POLICY / 16 Trends 2013

Top10

Telecom Trends VOICE & DATA brings you the hottest trends that will take the industry by storm in the coming year

Published by Pradeep Gupta on behalf of Cyber Media (India) Ltd, D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi - 110 017, and printed by him at Ratna Offset, C-101, Okhla Industrial Area Phase—I, New Delhi – 110 020 Subscription: Foreign— US $40 (SAARC Countries), US $50 (Rest of the world) All Payments Favoring: CYBER MEDIA (INDIA) LTD Distributors in India: IBH Books & Magazines Dist. Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher Corporate Website: www.cybermedia.co.in www.ciol.com (India’s #1 IT Portal)

| VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

IPv6

/ 24

Why and When Should One Consider IPv6?

Here we make an attempt to demystify IPv6, including its advantages over IPv4, and why organizations should consider deploying it

content

Broadband

ENTERPRISE

26 Data Business

15 Data Center

11 Ways for Telcos to Stay Profitable

... for business continuity planning

Top 5 Data Center Tips

38 Backhaul

The ecosystem should hold on to a comprehensive approach to invigorate data growth and create a more profitable data business

interview Telecom person of the year I 88

‘As the ecosystem develops 4G proliferation will happen in smaller areas’

Haul or Nothing for Mobile Operators

Choosing the right backhaul strategy is a tricky problem considering the fact that operators are expanding and enhancing their network along with keeping an eye on costs, performance, and the needs of subscribers

30 M-Payment The Time is Ripe for Mobile Money In a country like India where mobile phones have deeper penetration than banks, mobile payment makes a lot of sense

41 Cloud Building Trust Cloud adoption is on the rise, but security is still a big impediment

VAS

—Sanjay Kapoor CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti airtel

emerging company of the year I 92

‘We have begun an exciting journey and have a long way to go’

42 NFC The Next Wave in Mobility

32 Future of CDMA Will it Die or Fight Back?

With the potential to explode into new business areas, Near Field Communications is all set to rule the near future

A few policy tweaks and upgradations can resuscitate this dying technology, which is quickly losing ground in the country

44 Social Media

34 structured cabling

Thanks to smart devices and social analytics the retail industry is undergoing a huge revamp

Is your Structured Cabling Fire Proof?

Transforming Retail through Social Media

Commercial buildings should take up fire safety norms and prevention methods much more seriously

—Prakash Bajpai founder, MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks

cto OF THE yEAR I 96

‘Idea has been pioneering projects which use alternate and renewable energy’

46 Smart Cities For a Smarter India

40 Smart Networks Superior network performance will act as a competitive advantage for operators

With smart cities making way for smarter growth, the government is looking at models and digital technology customizable to adopt to Indian realities

—Anil Tandan chief technology officer, Idea Cellular

Regulars Voicemail.............................................. 6 Editorial................................................ 8 News & Views.............................. 10-14 Perspective.........................................98 A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JANUARY 2013 | VOICE&DATA |

VOICEMAIL

will pull up socks and complete the project as scheduled and also efficiently without any scam. Why I made a mention of scam is, several government projects have been ending up in scams. n Vanitha Prakash via Email

Must Knows for Every Operator

December 2012

This is with reference to your story ‘Must Knows for Every Operator’ (December 2012, VOICE&DATA). Thanks for highlighting the simple and the most important things that can contribute towards energy efficiency and reduction of carbon footprint by tower companies. n Kiran Singh via Mail

It’s Possible, Boss!

2G Auction: A Planned Disaster This is with reference to your story ‘2G Auction A Planned Disaster’ (December 2012, VOICE&DATA). It is a very well written article. Truly 2G auction was a mockery.

Instead of resorting to blame game postauction, the government could have planned it in a much better way by taking industry’s perspective seriously. Hope it takes lessons from this and plans the re-auction of unsold spectrum in 4 major circles—Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, and Rajasthan in a better way. n Venkat via Email

NOFN: Racing Against Time This is with reference to your story ‘NOFN: Racing Against Time’ (December 2012, VOICE&DATA). It is an excellent article.

Thanks for sharing the complete update on the ambitious NOFN project. I am eagerly waiting to see its completion. I hope BBNL

s e n d y o u r f e e dback FOR US t o s e r v e y o u better...

For subscription related issues, contact us at

rsevoicendata@cybermedia.co.in You can also write to Reader Service Executive, VOICE&DATA, Cyber House, B-35 Sector 32, Gurgaon-122 001, Haryana Fax: 91-124-2380694

This is with reference to your story ‘It’s Possible, Boss!’ (November 2012, VOICE&DATA). Rigorous efforts must be done to get the desired result. Finance should not come into the way. n AK Shukla via Email

Hundreds of Mobile Phones Dead in India Gate Protests This is with reference to your story ‘Hundreds of Mobile Phones Dead in India Gate Protests’ (December 2012, VOICE&DATA). The outrage at the gang rape and brutalization of a girl in New Delhi has been engineered and the incident itself fabricated by RAW to divert attention from its trafficking of Indian children to be used as food. n Satish Chandra via Email

Are Tablets Killing HDDs? This is with reference to your story ‘Are Tablets Killing HDDs?’ (December 2012, VOICE&DATA). Tablets won’t kill hybrid hard drives rather they will complement the functionality of tablets. Hybrid drives work similar to dual-technology configurations in many gaming and power-user PCs, as well as some ultraportable laptops. n Praveena Krishna via Email

Swipe Tab 3D Life: One More in the Crowd This is with reference to your story ‘Swipe Tab 3D Life: One More in the Crowd’ (October 2012, VOICE&DATA). This tab shows great promise. Bearing in mind that the launch of the 3D tab proved to be a great

| VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

success, this one too will not disappoint.

Let’s just keep our fingers crossed. n Imran via Email

Telephone Subscription Dips 2.52 mn in October This is with reference to your story ‘Telephone Subscription Dips 2.52 mn in October’ (VOICE&DATA,October 2012) I think some of the main reasons for decrease in number of telephone subscribers, specially the landline, are stiff competition from private operators, surrender of extra wireline telephone connections, lack of effective marketing and of course, poor customer service.

Trai regularly monitors the performance of basic telephone service (wireline) providers against the benchmarks for the various quality of service parameters laid down in its standards of quality of service(QoS).

In many cases, non-compliance with the benchmarks has been observed as the most common problem. n Raj Kumar via Email

ADVERTISEMENT INDEX Advt

Page No.

ABS India Pvt Ltd www.absindia.com

47

Dialogic www.dialogic.com

3

Ericsson India www.ericsson.com/in

9

Finolex Cables www.finolex.com

91

Exfo www.exfo.com

99

Matrix Cellular (International) Services Pvt. Ltd www.matrix.in

2

Narda Safety Solutions www.narda.com

13

Schneider Electric www.schneider-electric.com

31

Sony India www.sony.co.in

100

Voicegate Technologies India pvt ltd ww.voicegateindia.com

23

Xtend Technologies Pvt Ltd www.xtendtech.com

39

ZTE Telecom India Pvt ltd www.zte.com.cn

7,18,19

editorial

2013 Now At a time when it is more important to know what is going to happen tomorrow and how do we gear up, 3 year and 5 year term perspectives are less important. Today, everybody wants to know what will 2013 be like.

A recent conference organized by NASSCOM brought out some very interesting directions for the ICT industry for the new year. Before I begin, let me share the conference mood on a more fundamental question that is on everybody’s mind today. Good to see that all the speakers—industry CEOs; large, medium and small CIOs; consultants, trade bodies—all agreed that market sentiments today are much more positive than last year, and hence growth will be better. The guestimates ranged from 9-17% improvement in ICT spend in 2013. This is not bad, and I think is a good reason to cheer.

Coming back to key recommendation of the NASSCOM conference in terms of 2013 focus. The first point, that also got almost unanimous support from all attendees, was about the rapidly changing customer expectations.

While customers will become more demanding, they will ask for integrated and holistic solutions instead of separate IT, services, and consulting. Pricing and cost arbitrage will once again become critical. ICT purchase and outsourcing will now be CEO level decisions. Large account management and development will be critical.

Cloud, social networking, BYOD and other such trends will gain momentum.

The second was about the need for IT/ITeS companies to shift their game and focus on choosing the right growth verticals, have an integrated solution suite. Besides India, the good growth markets will be China, Turkey, Brazil, ASEAN nations, and South Africa. I am sure there are many more. The smart companies will seize the opportunity to build subsidiaries in these markets, and encourage local leadership to drive it. Shifting gear will also happen if we start promoting and celebrating innovation, and position India in a big way as a problem solver, and not just a cheap labor country.

The last focus for 2013, but not the least, is skill building. Things like integrated offering, innovation, addressing new markets, key account management etc, will happen not just like that. India, including its industry, academia and the government will have to work closely to make this happen. India will have to scale up and compete on skills.

One hopes that most of this positivity is not coming just from the few business friendly liberalization announcements made by the government in the last couple of weeks. The fact is that reforms will not mean much unless structural weaknesses in institutions and their systems are addressed. Rupees’ weakness could continue in the coming year. Exports slowdown continues, and we could even see protectionism from a few countries. The 2014 general elections in India could add to the uncertainty.

<ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in> | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

NEWS

and

VIEWS Wipro Launches Location Based Solution

interview

‘Indian companies have to look at testing differently’

Somenath Nag director, business development and marketing, Calsoft Labs

What are the market opportunities offered by the mobile apps testing segment?

Mobile phone/smartphone is completely transforming the way we communicate, work, and entertain. And mobility is accelerating at a supersonic speed. There is absolutely no dearth for opportunities in mobility testing as numbers and different types of devices are changing dramatically, consumerization of IT is driven by mobility and there is an ever increasing demand for enterprise applications.

There are over 1,150 network operators, nearly 400 mobile software vendors, 11 operating systems, 49 manufacturers, 8,000 devices, and 585,000 apps.

What is the revenue from testing mobility apps?

Nearly 10% of our overall testing comes from testing mobility applications.

What are the new challenges in testing of mobility applications?

Since 2008, the proliferation of mobile devices, mobility devices, and platforms has thrown up newer kind of challenges to the testing fraternity. Challenges include di-

versity in device management; application usage which is context sensitive; complex data entry process and high environmental input from camera and voice, etc; user interface design; network consideration; application and device security; and rapid application testing.

Devices have different application platforms, it has its own standards, application interface, programming languages, and applications ought to be tested on each platform. In fact, newer innovations in application platforms are also creating more complexities. Unlike the network landscape of PC environment, the network landscape of mobile device has different gateways; applications need to be tested for compatibility with WAP-enabled and HTTP-enabled devices. Application and device security risks can be hardly ignored.

What is your testing strategy to handle complexities?

At Calsoft Labs, we have a unique mobility testing strategy framework. We have adopted an automation process for datacentric apps and device capability based apps. We use a weighted device platform matrix method to identify the most critical hardware/platform combination to test; check the end-to-end functional flow in all possible platforms at least once; conduct performance testing, GUI testing, and compatibility testing using actual devices, and measure performance only in realistic conditions of wireless traffic and user load.

What are the concerns in testing mobility apps space in India?

Availability of resources, attaining the scale, and lack of awareness are the key concerns. Indian companies have to look at testing differently and the introduction of testing-as-a-service or testing-on-demand can work wonders in this space.

Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

10 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Wipro has unveiled a location based solution, Wipro SmartOffers, for banks in partnership with Intuition Intelligence.

Wipro SmartOffers solution helps to increase coupon redemption rates by delivering the right offers to a bank’s customers over the mobile or the internet. This solution leverages Wipro’s mobile based applications, data models, and partner’s algorithms to deliver highly targeted offers. Intuition Intelligence has a patented machine learning algorithm that applies rapid real-time learning to target coupons.

Telephone Subscription Dips 2.52 mn in October The number of telephone subscribers in the country decreased to 935.18 mn at the end of October, 2012, from 937.70 mn at the end of September, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.27%, according to (Trai). The number of urban telephone subscribers has declined 63.17%, whereas rural subscriptions increased 36.83% in October 2012.

With this, the overall teledensity in the country reached 76.75% at the end of October, 2012, while it was 77.04% in the previous month. Total wireless subscriber base decreased from 906.62 mn in September, 2012, to 904.23 mn at the end of October 2012, registering a monthly growth of -0.26%.

NSN Offers Integrated Network to airtel Nokia Siemens Networks has deployed unified network and service management dashboard solutions at Bharti airtel’s new network experience center in Manesar in India. The center offers a single point assessment of network operations and ensures the optimal management of service quality and customer experience.

The new network experience center includes a 3,600 sq ft video wall powered

by Nokia Siemens Networks’ dashboard solution. The solution monitors and analyzes the various aspects of the operator’s entire network operations, and offers a unified video view to make monitoring and analysis of Bharti airtel’s operations simpler and more efficient.

Alcatel Builds airtel Africa’s IP Based Network

interview

‘India has a great scope for computing devices, but it’s yet to be tapped’ of all the devices before they are shipped to India.

When will the product hit the market and what are your sales projections?

Presently, the tablet is in testing stage.

We are testing the device across various skilled technologies, communities, and that is entrenching us with confidence as we are getting positive responses.

Initially, our focus is to maximize the user experience. In a year, we are expecting to sell 8-10 lakh units.

Sandeep Arya MD, Amtrak Info Systems

Why do you intend to enter into an already crowded Indian tablet market and how your devices will make a difference?

Our research data suggest that our country has a great scope for computing devices that needs to be tapped completely. Technology is fast evolving and we are coming up with a device which offers never before experience for the users.

True, there are budget tablets in the market but our focus is to offer cutting-edge technology and premium experience to our users. Our tablet will offer maximum ease and convenience at a highly affordable price range. With this device, we will be opening new opportunities for our stakeholders.

Where would the designing, manufacturing, and assembling of the device take place?

We have an in-house designing team that is based out of Singapore. The manufacturing would be done in China with a strong quality control team, which keeps an aggressive check on the quality

What is the total investment so far, both in terms of manpower as well as financials?

We have the best of manpower who completely aligns with the company’s culture of serving the best user experience. We are investing continuously on the R&D of the device and have it in-house in Singapore. We always try to implement standard process and have best practices in place.

What is your distribution strategy? How will you cater to your customers?

We are operating through traditional distribution channels as well as e-retails. We greatly trust our distribution partners and have been able to have a good foothold in the market throughout. We will keep on changing our distribution strategy depending upon the requirements and demand of our customers.

What is the after sales service strategy?

We have strong servicing network planned across the country. This network comprises of 437 service centers with expert skillsets. There are more service related features in store. Our stakeholders will go on having more serendipity while owning the device.

V&D Correspondent vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

Alcatel-Lucent has inked a deal with Bharti airtel to build its high performance IP based backbone network in Africa. Alcatel-Lucent will evolve airtel Africa’s data transport and mobile backhaul networks using its IP/MPLS (IP/ Multiprotocol Label Switching) technology to support the delivery of new mobile broadband data and video services. This new backbone network will support all mobile broadband services to airtel’s 17 affiliates across Africa.

Akamai Inks Deal with AT&T Cloud platform provider Akamai Technologies and AT&T are on a strategic alliance to leverage the content delivery network (CDN) solutions space, which will help customers to benefit from efficient content routing, better delivery of digital content, video and web applications. AT&T will transfer its existing CDN operations, customers, and service to the Akamai platform in 2013. As part of the deal, AT&T is combining Akamai’s content delivery platform with its IP network to deliver to companies an exclusive suite of global CDN and telecom solutions that will be jointly marketed, managed, and supported by the 2 companies.

Trai Asks Telcos to Ensure Quality Data Services (Trai) has released the Standards of Quality of Service for Wireless Data Services Regulations, 2012. As per the regulations, every cellular mobile telephone service provider or unified access services provider is mandated to establish a test set up, comprising servers and test probes to cover the entire geographical area of coverage of different data services in the licenced service area.

The service providers are required to meet the QoS benchmarks for the wireless data services in respect to parameter such as provision or activation of data services.

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 11

NEWS

and

VIEWS Hughes Wins `33 crore Deal from C-Edge

interview

‘We have signed MoUs with 13 states and 3 UTs covering 140,000 gram panchayats’ within 3-4 months, and then fiber will be rolled out.

N Ravi Shankar CEO, Bharat Broadband Network

Please give an update on BBNL’s pilot projects.

Bharat Broadband has done 3 pilot projects covering 58 gram panchayats and 3 blocks. The work was completed on October 15. We are hoping that services in these blocks will be offered by TSPs and ISPs that include BSNL, airtel, and Reliance. In 58 pilot locations, 200 kilometers of OFC has been laid.

Can you provide update on survey of 250,000 gram panchayats.

We have enrolled 3 PSUs—BSNL, RailTel, and PowerGrid to undertake survey in order to know the exact kilometers of route. Allocation of work has been done across states and union territories. BSNL has been assigned 70% of the survey work, while other two PSUs will complete 15% of work each.

Survey work of 25,000 gram panchayats (10%) has been done. Once it’s completed, then BBNL will ensure its quality and will allow digitization by NIC offices. Survey is necessary to know the exact kilometers of OFC to be laid.

Based on detailed estimates, we’ll give technical and administrative sanction

Will you vouch for home-grown OFC and equipment providers?

We had detailed discussions with OFC providers, equipment manufacturers, and GPON technology providers. If there is enough capacity and capability to provide these within the country with cost advantage, we could go for it. We are looking at Private Public Panchayat Partnership (PPPP) model.

DoT has issued a guideline on October 5th which lays down norms for preferential market access for different components.

We’ll source 100% indigenously-manufactured OFC. There is a minimum requirement of 75% GPON to be met from local manufacturers. It can go up to 100%. Network monitoring systems would be from CDoT. We are taking full services from C-DoT for designing network equipment.

BBNL is still to ink MOUs with many state governments. Do you believe that things will come in your way?

We have signed MoUs with 13 states and 3 UTs covering 140,000 gram panchayats. We are hopeful that in 3-4 months all states will sign MoU with us. At this point the response from the industry is less than desirable. Data is buyers market and enthusiasm from seller is less. It’s a matter of time. Ecosystem has to be developed. After more trials, it’ll catch up like a wild fire.

But again, pain points exist. Will it not miss the deadline?

We are very optimistic. This project will be completed within the desired time frame.

After the full survey, we’ll be able to understand the actual project cost and tenders will be floated. This is just a passing phase and we’ll turn the corner in new year. (The article was first published in CIOL) Muntazir Abbas muntazira@cybermedia.co.in

12 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Hughes Communications India (HCIL), a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, has secured a 5-year contract worth `33 cr from C-Edge to provide broadband satellite network and manage services for over 3,000 branches of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) across the country. NABARD has signed agreements with over 140 banks, which are willing to participate in this project. This strategy involves a major transformation of the current information technologies and a significant re-engineering of the bank’s business processes.

Juniper Offers Video Transmission System to NTT Juniper Networks has bagged a contract from Japan’s NTT Communications to power the latter’s video transmission system. Juniper Networks deploys its T1600 Core router that helps NTT Communications achieve a reliable, high-capacity delivery of high-definition video for customer applications. T1600 core router delivers 1.6 terabits per second (Tbps) throughput and has the ability to forward up to 1.92 bn packets per second. Switch forwarding capacity is also substantially improved, enabling NTT Communications to increase bandwidth flexibly in line with growing video forwarding capacity.

Anirban Dey Takes Over as MD, SAP Labs Anirban (Andy) Dey has been named as the managing director of SAP Labs India with effect from January 1, 2013. He will take over the reins from V R Ferose. In his new role, he will drive operational efficiency, speed up innovation, and steer SAP labs in its next phase of growth. He has been with SAP since 2008, and has over 15 years of expertise in technology and applications development. He has degrees from The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the USA, and Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, the US. V R Ferose will take on a new global role in SAP.

interview

‘Our green model demonstrated the potential to decrease diesel usage by 35%’

Vishant Vora director technology, Vodafone India What are the green initiatives taken up by Vodafone India?

We have deployed hybrid solutions (ie, diesel generators and batteries working in alternate modes, with intelligent controllers), taking the total site numbers to 2,550. Our initiative is to deploy variable speed diesel generators that yield fuel efficiency by optimizing the generator operation based on the actual load. Around 234 sites are now powered by variable speed diesel generators. This move has demonstrated the potential to decrease diesel usage by 35%.

We have deployed 358 inverters at indoor sites. The inverters help in using back-up battery to run the air conditioner during power failure which reduces the generator run time. Installed in fuel in-let pipe, these fuel catalysts are passive devices, which increase the combustion capability of fuel and thereby reducing 8-10% carbon emission.

We have also identified base stations that can work in a ‘non-air conditioned’ environment and have started removing air conditioners from these sites. These sites are being equipped with fan filters for air circulation, thereby reducing energy consumption.

We have successfully deployed solar solution at 146 off grid sites resulting in 75% reduction in diesel generator run time. We have deployed free cooling units (FCU) at 1,850 indoor sites.

What has been the tangible outcome of those activities?

Reduction of 8,500 tonnes of CO2 in FY12 compared to FY11 at our own controlled sites, reduction of 4.8 mn litres of diesel consumption and 8% reduction in energy cost in the compared period.

Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 13

NEWS

and

VIEWS airtel Launches New Roaming Pack

interview

‘airtel Toky helps an establishment to manage queue’ useful activity while airtel Toky waits in line for you.

Sukesh Jain head, VAS and Content, Bharti airtel

Tell us something about airtel Toky services. How has been the response since its launch?

At airtel, it is our constant endeavor to enrich the lives of our customers and airtel Toky has been launched in line with this. airtel Toky is a queue management solution, specially designed for service establishments like hospitals, clinics, restaurants, pubs, embassies, banks, passport offices, etc.

The service enables an individual to get timely updates on his status within the queue. The token/ appointment can be issued by the service establishment over sms or web. Now a customer doesn’t have to be physically present to get a token or wait for his turn in a queue.

An individual can also check his queue status from anywhere, anytime using a mobile or computer.

The service aims to utilize and manage the most precious and perishable asset -’time’, by providing customers an opportunity to avoid waiting in queue and be able to complete some other

Can you please explain the entire process involved in the delivery of the service to the end consumer? airtel Toky is an end-to-end tool that provides a platform to an establishment to manage queue. It comes with a display board for on premise screening of the token number.

Doctors may use it to issue appointments to patients while restaurants can issue tokens for table bookings. These establishments can also send reminders to patients about their turn. The service is available free of cost to end consumer, however, the establishment bears the cost for the service. The appointments / token can be issued through web, sms, call /personal visits.

What are the different services you are providing under this program?

Airtel Toky allows establishments to:n Issue, cancel or change tokens efficiently and conveniently via SMS or web n Update individuals on real-time basis on the status n Interface for end users to check the status on his mobile or through web n Provides a dashboard to establishments on overall queue status Is Airtel looking at expanding its Airtel Toky programme into a full-fledged telemedicine service in India? How big is the tele-medicine market in India? How do you analyze its growth potential?

No, that’s not the objective of this service, neither is it specific to the health genre. This is a general service to help people to manage the time in more efficient and effective way. It is a time management tool more than anything else.

Ritu Singh ritus@cybermedia.co.in

14 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

airtel has launched 3 new international roaming packs for postpaid mobile customers traveling to the US. Postpaid subscribers can get up to 5 hours of free incoming calls while traveling in the US, and also make outgoing calls to the local US numbers as well as outgoing calls back to India at just `20/minute. The pack is available in 3 different tariffs like `1,000, `3,500, and `8,500 with a validity of 30 days each.

Robots Alive launches Andy Powered by Smartphone Robots Alive, an emerging robotics and automation solutions company, has announced the launch of ‘Andy’, a personal smart robot enabled by the intelligence of a smartphone or any smart device. Andy is a robotic device which can drive around by being controlled by a mobile phone connected physically to the robot. The mobile phone communicates to the robot through the audio cable. Any software which can run on the mobile phone and utilize the audio therefore can be programmed to drive the robot.

The company has designed Andy to educate students on robotics and electronics and also to provide a source of entertainment. Andy comes with 2 models—a tank and an off roader.

Shyam Networks Offers Wireless Connectivity to LBSNAA Shyam Networks has announced the successful deployment of Wi-Fi access points and point-to-point radios at Mussoorie based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA). This will enable seamless communication within the academy’s campus network. The deployment ensures 24/7 connectivity with zero network downtime. This point-to-point radio deploys reliable and secured highspeed wireless IP connections between multiple remote locations, a statement says. Available in multiple frequency bands and configurations, it can cover 100 plus km.

Data C e n t e r

Top 5 Data Center Tips

...for business continuity planning

B

usiness continuity planning (BCP) should cover an organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to avoid major business disruptions from disasters while addressing the principal concerns of business risk mitigation, protecting and preventing data loss. Business transactions delivered from the data center pose major challenges to business continuity. Connectivity in data center infrastructure and the networks can be adversely affected by bottlenecks or complete failure due to network outages, hardware failures, human error, and natural disasters.

Application delivery controllers (ADCs) protect these vital corporate assets and keep the network up and running. Below are the 5 data center tips for business continuity planning. n Server load balancing ensures application availability, facilitates tighter application integration, and intelligently and adaptively load balances user traffic based on a suite of application metrics and health checks. It also load balances IPS/IDS devices and composite IP based applications, and distributes HTTP(S) traffic based on headers and SSL certificate fields.

The primary function of server load balancing is to provide availability for applications running within traditional data centers, public cloud infrastructure or a private cloud. The server load balancer redistributes traffic to healthy systems based on IT-defined parameters to ensure a seamless experience for end-users. n Link load balancing addresses WAN reliability by directing traffic to the best performing links. If one link becomes inaccessible due to a bottleneck or outage, the ADC

takes that link out of service, automatically directing traffic to other functioning links.

Link load balancing ensures uninterrupted connectivity from the data center to the internet and telecommunications networks. Link load balancing may be used to send traffic over whichever link or links prove to be the most cost-effective for a given time period. It may also be used to direct select user groups and applications to specific links to ensure bandwidth and availability for business critical functions. n Geographical load balancing provides reliability between geographically dispersed data centers. ADCs redirect traffic to the best performing sites based on latency, site performance, and user location. Global load balancing delivers high-availability, if one site goes down, traffic will automatically redirect to other working sites.

Global server load balancing is concerned with the possibility that entire data center may be taken offline due to unforeseen circumstances and events beyond IT control.

These events may include natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and fires or downtime caused by attack or sabotage. If data centers are intact, they are often overloaded with increased traffic in the wake of business continuity events. Global server load balancing is able to distribute requests to less trafficked data centers in order to maintain business processes. n SSL transactions consume server CPU cycles due to intensive encryption and decryption of the packets on a repeated basis. ADCs offload SSL from

servers, allowing them to focus on serving applications and content to end-users, improving availability and response times on the servers.

Modern application delivery controllers support high-performance hardware acceleration for 2048-bit SSL encryption, often at prices equivalent to previous generation 1024-bit encryption. Whether secure applications are running on dedicated servers in a traditional data center environment or on virtualized infrastructure in a public or private cloud, it is advantageous to offload process-intensive 2048-bit SSL encryption to dedicated hardware to provide the highest level of application security, availability, and performance. n TCP acceleration offloads connections and sessions in several ways to optimize data flows and reduce the impact on servers, preventing them from being overloaded.

Mobile traffic is increasingly outpacing traditional network traffic. It also uses far more connections and opens and closes connections far more often than traditional network traffic. Over time, legacy data center equipment will be unable to keep pace and application availability will suffer.

TCP acceleration supported on modern application delivery controllers offloads connections from servers, handles a far greater number of concurrent connections, and has the ability to handle far greater connections every second.

Shibu Paul The author is country sales manager, Array Networks vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 15

Trends 2013

Top10

Telecom Trends VOICE & DATA brings you the hottest trends that will take the industry by storm in the coming year TREND 1 M&A will Gain Momentum A wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the telecom space has been following since the mid 1990s due to liberalization and it will further gain momentum in 2013. In order to survive and thrive in a dynamic and capital intensive telecommunications market, telcos have been focusing on growth through M&A. Thanks to the cancellation of 2G licences and high reserve price of spectrum, the crowded telecom market in India will spin the ball of consolidation and operators will reduce from 12-15 to 6-8 operators in the next couple of years.

The Indian government in the National Telecom Policy 2012 has relaxed regulations for M&A in order to facilitate consolidation in the market due to the unsustainable competition in the Indian telecom sector.

“The announcement on merger & acquisition is an encouraging step from the point of view of the long-term health of the telecom industry and will pave way for consolidation in an over-crowded market,” Bharti Airtel had said in a statement.

To elucidate this, here are some M&A developments that took place in 2012 and are most likely to materialize in 2013  If media reports are to be believed, Norway-based Telenor was in talks with Tata Teleservices to merge its India operations, Telewings Communications, with the domestic firm.  Russian telco Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), which operates under the brand name MTS in India, is dicey after the cancellation of its 2G licences by the Supreme Court; if the court does not decide a curative petition in SSTL’s favor then it is forced to exit its local operations by January 18. So, it has to decide to either merge or exit.

16 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

TREND 2 Hike in Mobile Tariff We all know that one of the key factors which contributed to the unprecedented Indian telecom growth story was the low tariff rates, in fact the lowest tariffs in the world.

Telcos must have cogitated that they could grapple even with the lower ARPUs as it was a voluminous, immature and untapped market. But from the past 4 years, the situation is not that rosy due to fierce competition, higher capital expenditure, higher spectrum charges, uncertain regulations, and dwindling ARPUs. Consequently, hike in tariff rates will certainly be the talk of the town; some operators have already hiked call rates.

Average revenue per minute (ARPM) will gradually start rising after a sharp decline over the last few years.

Tariff hike will help to improve financial performance, credit profile, and it will improve profitability of telcos.

Over the last few years, telcos’ credit profile had deteriorated due to the debt for acquiring 3G broadband wireless spectrum in 2010, rolling out of network, lower-thanexpected adoption of 3G services, and subdued operating performance.

TREND 3 Increase in Backbone Bandwidth Thanks to the growing subscriber base and proliferation of mobile devices, which has resulted in exponential traffic impacting network performance and service quality.

Besides this, network outages are also due to frequent cuts in fiber optic cables laid in India because of construction process. To enhance the quality of service and experience, progressive service providers are working towards improving network backbone and to make India’s backbone more manageable and to turn bandwidth into differentiated services.

Backbone network upgrades are becoming quite apparent evolutionary

Smartphones would grab much attention in 2013. Lowcost smartphones with good functionalities have graced the telecom market, chances are that they will replace mobile feature phones path for telcos. Some of the evolutionary technologies include coherent 100 Gbps, Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Optical Transport Network (OTN), intelligent control plane, and associated multi-layer management solution. While traditional optical backbone networks have been either linear or ring formations, the significant number of fiber cuts that occur all over in India have driven service providers to explore mesh architectures for these networks.

Optical mesh networks have been enabled by a technology known as ‘intelligent control plane’. In the event of fiber cuts or nodal failures, this intelligent software knows what links remain active in the network and is able to intelligently and automatically re-route traffic over those links in near real-time to ensure reliable services.

Internet pipes are filled with diverse traffic, including streaming video and audio, which could negatively impact a database’s performance. And many of today’s applications are interdependent and they have to communicate across long distances, such as data center to data center so that there should not be slowdowns or even outages. The adoption of newer technologies like cloud computing, virtu-

For more related articles go to voicendata.com

alization, disaster recovery have increased the need and importance of bandwidth of late. Therefore, there will be an increase in the backbone bandwidth.

TREND 4 Smartphone Uptake will Increase Smartphones would grab much attention in 2013. Low-cost smartphones with good functionalities have graced the telecom market, chances are that they will replace mobile feature phones.

According to a survey by Neilsen Informate Mobile Insights, there were over 27 mn smartphone users in urban India as on June 2012. Another report on ‘2012 Internet Trends’ released by Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, however, said that with 44 mn smartphone users in Q4 of 2012, India is the 5th largest smartphone market globally.

India follows China, the US, Japan and Brazil. With just 4% of the total mobile subscribers being smartphone users, the country’s year-on-year growth in smartphones is pegged at 52%, higher than China and the US. Globally, there were 1.1 bn smartphone subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a report.

As smartphones are powerful devices that can act as a pocket supercomputer and can do a lot more than to just navigate through social networking pages, the uptake of smartphones will further accelerate in the coming year.

TREND 5 BYOD will Gain Acceptability In this digitization world, workplace is transitioning, on-the-move work culture is gaining traction; workforce is empowered to deliver work anytime and from anywhere in the world. .

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has made inroads and it will further transform the traditional corporate structure.

BYOD trend will gain acceptance and it will reign in 2013 despite IT challenges

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 17

Indian market contributes 5% to ZTE's ZTE Corporation, a publicly-listed g l o b a l p r o v i d e r o f telecommunications equipment and network solutions operating in more than 140 countries, was founded in 1985. With its wide portfolio of products ranging from voice, data, multimedia and wireless broadband services, ZTE is China's largest listed telecom equipment company and trades on both the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

ZTE has been in India for almost thirteen years now. The company was announced a separate entity in 2003 by marketing CDMA through its partners, until recently, products are being sold directly to the operators through the various local branches in different cities.

India has emerged as the most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets with the world's second largest mobile phone users and third largest Internet users' base. India continues to be one of the most significant markets for ZTE. Indian market contributes 5% to ZTE's total revenue and total sales for 2012 stands at approximately $800 million.

ZTE aims to satisfy customer requirements in their pursuit for reliable and innovative products via a suite of wireless, wired, business and terminal offerings.

It has been recognized for its products and services and has secured high rankings around the world.

The year 2012 has been a difficult year for the telecom industry. The

ZTE India

industry has witnessed a very slow growth across regions. In India, policies / regulations and spectrum were the key issues that hindered the growth of the telecom sector.

Even in this sectorial fluctuation, ZTE has not only successfully retained its key clients, but has also been able to expand its business in the country by adding new ones. The company bagged India's largest GSM deal from BSNL. This engagement allows ZTE to support 10.15 million BSNL's GSM lines in North & Southern region of the country and help increase its subscriber base. This partnership also allows ZTE to be involved in planning, engineering, supply, installation and testing, commissioning and annual maintenance of the GSM lines. The procurement of these lines for expansion of 2G and 3G services will cover all BSNL telecom circles in Northern & Southern Zones. Another major accomplishment for ZTE was Bharti Airtel appointing ZTE in Kolkata to supply and manage 4G networks and ZTE was the first vendor in India to deploy this 4G technology in this land.

Earlier this year, ZTE also entered a strategic distribution partnership with Beetel Teletech, India's leading manufacturer and distributor of telecom and allied products. With this partnership, Beetel Teletech is now a ZTE platinum distributor partner for enterprise data products and solutions in India and supports ZTE leverage its extensive network of over 150 channel partners spread across.

In

Mr. Cui Liangjun , CEO ZTE India

Mr. Xu Dejun, Head Services ZTE India

Mr. Zhang Wencheng, CTO ZTE India

Mr. Yuan Kang, Director Terminal Sales, Department, ZTE India

ADVERTORIAL

addition, ZTE has bagged the following deals besides becoming the most favoured suppliers to almost all the big operators: ·

Supply of VVS (Video Surveillance System) Solutions in Education institutes

ZTE also received the following accolades in 2012 for its work in the Indian market: · ·

ICT Business Award for 2012 - Voice & Data recognized ZTE as Top Most Broadband Infrastructure Company CISO Award for 2012 - ZTE is the only telecom vendor in India to bag this award that demonstrated the international security standards maintained by the company across its business units

Future Outlook The telecom ecosystem growth is expected to witness a negligible uptake during the next few quarters; however, it is likely to see positive changes towards the end of 2013.

ZTE's business strategy for 2013 is to build synergies and leading partnerships to develop nextgeneration ICT convergence solutions and assist government departments, enterprises, local operators, and higher education institutions to help India achieve real improvements in the services they deliver.

In addition to a continued focus on enterprise business and manufacturing, ZTE will play big in the telecom device business. Though ZTE globally is the fourth largest supplier when it comes to terminal business, but this has not been the focus in the Indian market which is likely to change going forward. The sales from the terminal business in 2012 in India stood at approximately $250 million.

Under its enterprise business, ZTE will focus on education, power, railways, smart cities and various other sections.

ZTE already has a manufacturing unit in Manesar near Gurgaon which provides local support to the Indian market. This factory is more focused in manufacturing GPON, SDH, and Broadband & DWDM Products and moving forward if required ZTE India

ZTE India

may look into further expansion of manufacturing facilities or will go for contract manufacturing as per DoT Norms said Mr. Cui Liangjun , CEO ZTE India.

Mr. Cui Liangjun, CEO, ZTE India said, “The telecom industry has evolved immensely in the last couple of years. This year has been a tough year for the entire ecosystem and ZTE is determined to overcome all the hurdles as a leading telecom equipment vendor.

With a strong business pipeline already in hand, we are confident of enhancing our business performance further in the forthcoming quarters”.

Mr. Xu Dejun, Head Services ZTE India said “As most of the capital investment is expected to be made in the spectrum proceedings, 2013 may also be a tough year for the operators in India . We at ZTE have built a strong service team to operate across the country and we look forward to expand our services support business for operators in ‘Managed Services’ segment”.

Mr. Zhang Wencheng, CTO, ZTE India said “India is one of the most significant markets for ZTE. We understand the uniqueness of the market and have always tried to customise our offerings accordingly.

We endeavour to do better in 2013 with focusing not only on the telecom equipment segment, but devices and enterprise business as well”.

Terminal business will be seen as one of the important segments along with enterprise business for the year 2013. ZTE endeavours to bring in the best of technology for the consumers to experience.

Mr. Yuan Kang, Director Terminal Sales Department, ZTE India said “the terminal business has been a great success for ZTE globally and we would like to bring our robust technology to the Indian open market and make it a success in providing appropriate products to the Indian market with easyto-use, quality and affordable products”.

As one of the world's leading telecommunication vendors, ZTE recognises its corporate social responsibility and will continue to drive activities for a greener tomorrow. ZTE promotes green manufacturing, green culture, green management and green value chains within the company. ZTE's green strategy has been executed in all of the company's operation processes including standards development, R&D, procurement, production, logistics and engineering.

Trends 2013

TREND 7 LBS to Create the Buzz

such as mobile device management, application management, data protection, and IT security. Enterprises today are also well-equipped with a strategy to minimize security risks, financial exposure and management chaos.

Employees are already using personal devices for work, and now more companies will give an official green signal for mobile workforce with a BYOD programme and policy.

TREND 6 Security will Get a Big Push Security threats are directly proportional to the advancements and adoption of technology, so security will never take a backseat. Information is an asset and it needs to be protected. This is especially important in the increasingly interconnected business environment, where information is now exposed to a growing number and a wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities.

Causes of damage such as malicious code, computer hacking, denial of service attacks, data theft, attacks on operating systems, vulnerabilities in web-based applications, and a mass level spread of malware/ spyware have become more common, and increasingly sophisticated. This concern has given a greater push to security and enterprises to adopt a holistic security approach.

LBS is another hot segment that will create much buzz in 2013. According to Gartner, the global location based services industry is set for a big plunge in the near future and is expected to generate $13.5 bn in revenue by 2015, driven by mobile advertising Investments on security are something telcos cannot do without. ICT systems are also basic core and the reservoir of all pieces of information which are fundamental to organizations, and it is also more complex and vulnerable, consequently it is exposed to new types of intrusion.

Clearly, there will be a complete shift from a ‘specialized’ phase where ICT security is a prerogative of technicians to an ‘aware’ phase where ICT risks and security strategies will be analyzed by the highest managerial spheres of each organization.

20 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Location based Services (LBS) is an information service, which delivers area specific information with the help of global positioning capability using IP addresses of mobile devices and computers.

Stating security reasons, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has urged mobile operators to track users within 50 meter of their location. Operators are making efforts but the current technology does not offer precise information, there are no vendors who can facilitate real-time info on the location of subscribers, and it also lacks an ecosystem in place.

Between 2013 and 2015, we are likely to witness major commercial LBS deployments in India. At present, LBS have been deployed in car infotainment sector. Some of the LBS apps are Hoppr, which enables users to avail deals and offers they check into, Zomato, which enables to check out restaurant, LocalEver connects buyers and sellers in real-time via Google Maps. DelightCircle is also a location-based shopping app, and LocalBeat is a GPS-enabled app that informs users about news, deals and events. LBS is another hot segment that will make much buzz in 2013.

According to Gartner, the global location based services industry is set for a big plunge in the near future and is expected to generate $13.5 bn revenue by 2015 driven by mobile advertising.

TREND 8 Green Towers to Make it Big DoT has directed telcos to go green and to run 50% of rural towers and 20% of urban towers on hybrid power by 2015.

By 2020, it wants 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban towers to become environment-friendly.

The industry has been talking of innovations like tapping renewable energy reservoirs to meet power needs. Sadly, there is more green talk than some real action and actual implementation. A prime

reason being the high cost of deployment of these energy sources and the long period to earn RoI. Mahesh Choudhary, CEO of Microqual Techno, says, “Though the initial capex of green products is higher because of R&D efforts, manufacturing control, supply chain control, and management. This high cost can be offset in the subsequent years because of lower opex and government subsidies.” DoT urged operators to reduce carbon emission from mobile networks by 5% by 2012-13 and 17% by 2018-19.

This government scrutiny of the telecom sector for utilizing a large chunk of the diesel subsidies to operate their towers and to reduce fuel bills has made telcos to implement green towers.

Though telcos appreciate government’s intent yet they grumble that green tower is not a viable business case as it is very expensive, ecosystem for green telecom is extremely poor and immature.

Industry consensus the regulation must be accompanied with incentives to have any realistic chance of succeeding.

In October 2012, Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) announced its plans to convert 25% of the existing towers on self-sustainable model. TAIPA plans to offer clusters falling under multiple tower companies to Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO), which is a sharing model. The program includes development of selfsustainable ecosystem. The association aims to transform 100,000 towers into green. With all these developments, it is evident that there will be a greater push than before for green towers in 2013.

TREND 9 Broadband Models As the telecom market transits from voice-centric to data-centric world, there is a paradigm shift in business models. Operators will move away from conventional and unsustainable business model while they leverage the broadband space.

Telcos are keen to increase monetization of their networks using network

Top 10 Telecom Trends for 2013 1. M&A will gain momentum 2. Hike in mobile tariff 3. Increase in backbone bandwidth 4. Smartphone uptake will increase 5. BYOD will gain acceptability 6. Security will improve 7. LBS will get implemented 8. Green towers will get a big push 9. Broadband models will gain acceptability 10. Manufacturing will make inroads

and customer intelligence to optimize customer experience and network utilization; with the assistance of key solutions such as smart off-load, smart loading, smart pricing, and smart congestion management via dynamic business management.

The National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, with its ‘Broadband on Demand’ vision, has envisaged a significant impetus to India’s broadband penetration and growth.

More than 10 lakh kilometers of optical fiber has been laid down till July 2012 in urban areas. The government is playing an instrumental role towards developing broadband infrastructure in the country.

The creation of the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) project in 2011 with an initial investment of `20,000 crore (from the USO Fund); under the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), has opened up new possibilities of development in the Indian broadband market.

BBNL equity holders, Railtel, BSNL and Power Grid, are conducting pilots in various parts of the country. They already have more than 6.7 lakh route kilometers of fibre running along their national optical transport backbone networks. They are yet to lay 5 lakh kilometer of new fiber to broadband 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats.

For more related articles go to voicendata.com

TREND 10 Manufacturing will Make Inroads India has been very ambitious about boosting domestic manufacturing as the demand and supply gap is widening and it has envisaged to meet 75% of domestic demand. The National Telecom Policy 2012 is promoting manufacturing big time. It provides incentives to promote manufacturing and build skilled workforce for innovation, encourages product innovation and IP registration to help accrue profits.

According to Sanjay Nayak, managing director, Tejas Network, “Telecom manufacturing will certainly make inroads in 2013. Some Indian products will gain prominence in 2013 but we will witness major impact of manufacturing initiatives in 2014. There is a lot of synergy in the ecosystem. The government has to bring preferential market access and telecom R&D fund into action.”

Manufacturing will make inroads in 2013. The government needs to identify the key issues in manufacturing and design robust incentives accordingly to focus on building a robust manufacturing ecosystem. It needs to define ‘value addition’ in a robust and implementable manner in order to make the policy relevant and effective.

Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 21

Trends 2013

E-learning to Walk the Extra Miles Increasing adoption of social media and smart phones would see e-learning making a headway in 2013

L

ast few years have been very interesting for the Indian elearning industry. E-learning has emerged from infancy and from being just a buzz word to a mature methodology to impart effective training to geographically distributed workforce at much lesser costs.

Better bandwidth availability has enabled this training medium to reach even to tier-2 and -3 towns. And the technology has advanced to give a much more interactive learning experience to the learner, instead of just boring page turners.

To be able to predict trends for 2013, we need to carefully look at other aspects that have been shaping our world over the last 2-3 years. Few things stand out – With the Indian government pushing Aakash like devices, we would shortly see a major uptake of mobile devices across various user segments in our country.

With increase rollout of 4G services across the country and aggressive market approach adopted by the telecom players, true wireless broadband access will finally become a reality for many Indians.

Social media is another technological disruption that is impacting the way we communicate, and the way we consume content Our regular work is becoming increasingly complex—be it repairing a car, or handling customer queries, or selling financial products to a customer—the amount of knowledge that is required to do one’s job is increasing by the day, and it’s becoming practically impossible for a human to know everything about their job. This means that we are today relying more and more on justin-time knowledge to do our jobs.

When we combine the above trends with the maturity that e-learning is gaining, and apply them to the field of e-learning, few very interesting trends emerge

that are most likely to occur in 2013 — Organizations are going to deploy more and more of mobile/tablet based learning solutions for their on-the-field workforce. Sales and service staff on the ground will be able to access learning content on the go, and get real-time updates about the products and services So far e-learning has largely been adopted by knowledge based sectors, such as IT, banking and financial services, and life sciences. In 2013, we should see new sectors such as automobiles, manufacturing, and retail also taking up e-learning in a big way Video has emerged one of the fastest growing medium to generate and consume content. With better bandwidth availability across the country, video based learning short modules will see a growth in the coming year. Focus will also be on subject matter experts (SME’s) generating short learning modules that can be created at low-cost, and enable fast sharing of knowledge within the organization More and more of our new workforce now consists of people who have grown up playing video games, and having vast amount of knowledge at their fingertips via internet. To effectively engage this workforce, forward looking organizations will try highly interactive solutions, such as game based learning, and experiential learning activities in their learning programs Peer based learning has always been there in corporate environment. In 2013, organizations will attempt to bring this ex-

22 | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

perience online via their own social media platforms or by building their communities on most common social media sites, which would enable employees to create connections across the organization – across hierarchies and geographies, and seek learning from anyone in the organization.

For reader with technological bent of mind—we see greater adoption of technology platforms, such as HTML 5, which will allow developers to create learning solutions that can run across devices and operating systems. For creating content, this would mean greater adoption of tools like storyline, and Xyleme’s Pastiche which allow developers to publish content in multiple formats, including HTML 5, and development of learning management systems using HTML5.

We expect another year of good growth for the Indian e-learning industry in 2013, which will be helped by above mentioned shifts, growing adoption of e-learning in middle-eastern and African nations due to push by governments there, and owing to continuous pressure in western nations to outsource e-learning development work to quality destinations, such as India.

Manish Gupta The author is co-founder and CEO of G-Cube Webwide Software Pvt Ltd vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

Helping organizations in redefining reliability, efficiency and competency through enterprise mobility solutions

Our Expertise: iPhone Android BlackBerry Windows 8 Symbian Java

Partnered with Intel for development on Ultra Book We enable businesses of all sizes to integrate mobile devices with existing enterprise communication, applications and infrastructure securely, simply and costeffectively.

Verticals

Our team provides consistent mobility implementation services to speed deployments and ensure use of best practices across industries.

Being the single point of accountability, we'll help your organization navigate the mobility ecosystem, streamlining processes needed to deploy, manage and support your workforce.

Corporate office:

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Navbahaarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 10-3-299/2/B, Humayun Nagar, Hyderabad. 500 028. A.P. INDIA. Tel.: 91 40 23537863 Fax: +91 40 23536212 Website : www.voicegateindia.com Email: business@voicegateindia.com, vgtmobileapps Our Branches : Hyderabad | Bengaluru | Kolkata | New Delhi | Mumbai | Chennai | Jaipur | Ahmedabad

IPv6

Why and When Should One Consider IPv6?

Here we make an attempt to demystify IPv6 including its advantages over IPv4 and why organizations should consider deploying it

T

he Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is the first standardized version of the internet protocol.

Introduced almost 3 decades ago. It is still relevant and is the dominant network protocol in use today.

The re-combination of digits in its 32-bit addressing system provides for 4.3 bn addresses which were assumed to be sufficient for the growth of internet. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) was given the responsibility of

allocating these addresses and it did so by distributing a subset of these to the regional internet registries in blocks of approximately 16.8 mn addresses each.

Also, in April 2011, the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Registry (APNIC RIR) entered the last stages of IPv4 allocation, making it much difficult for organizations in that region of the world to obtain the IPv4 address space that they would justify for under previous policies. The remaining regions will follow in the near future. Although IPv4

24 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

has served its purpose well so far, it did not anticipate and provide for the exponential growth of the internet, the network security threats, and the encryption needs.

Limitations of IPv4 The ubiquity of internet and the increasing number of servers, workstations, and devices are rapidly leading to a scarcity of available public IPv4 addresses. The value of IPv4 addresses is well illustrated by the fact that Microsoft bought 666,624 IP ad-

dresses from Nortel for $7.5 mn in 2011.

With several other constraints such as lack of in-built network security and limited Quality of Service (QoS), the stage is set.

Why an Enterprise Should Consider IPv6 By 2015, there will be more than 7.1 bn mobile connected devices globally. Smartphones, home and industrial appliances, internet connected transportation, integrated telephony, sensor networks, distributed computing, gaming, online business, and all other spheres are being driven by the internet increasingly. The phenomenal growth in the number of objects connecting to the network and the interactions between them brings an increased focus on the rate of depletion of IPv4 addresses, network security, and QoS making the transition to IPv6 inevitable. Not adopting IPv6 will not only limit the growth of internet but also the business potential of enterprises.

Realizing the urgency, governments across the world are mandating a transition to IPv6. The US government has mandated its federal agencies to ensure that all 10,000 of its websites support IPv6 by September 2012 and internal applications that communicate with public internet servers migrate to IPv6 by 2014.

In India, the Telecommunication Engineering Center under the Department of Telecommunications has been given the mandate to facilitate a smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

Benefits Galore IPv6 offers various advantages over its predecessor. The expanded addressing capacity of IPv6 will provide about 340 tn unique addresses in contrast to the addressing capability of IPv4 which is limited to 4 bn. The inexhaustibility of the number of IPv6 addresses can be inferred from the quote by Steven Leibson—“we could assign an IPv6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth, and still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths.”

IPv6 will eliminate the need for Network Address Translation (NAT) devices and thereby the capital and operating costs associated with its deployment and

Phase 1:

Highlights  By 2015, there will be more than 7.1 bn mobile connected devices globally  IPv6 will eliminate the need for network address translation devices and thereby the capital and operating costs associated with its deployment and maintenance

maintenance. The IP security protocol suite has been built into the IPv6 architecture thereby making way for an intrinsic security mechanism with IPv6 implementation. Identical security mechanisms in all applications within an enterprise simplify security management. A more secure network protocol additionally paves the way for deployment of applications that require secure transactions.

Planning Your IPv6 Migration While it is evident that IPv6 and IPv4 will continue to coexist for many years now, the true potential of the digital economy and next-generation services can only be realized once operators plan their IPv6 migrations. In addition, IPv6 transition is a tedious task given the complexities related with the migration and as IPv6 is not backward compatible companies need to be cautious while planning their migrations to ensure business. It is extremely important that all software and hardware aspects are clearly evaluated before launching a migration, as any gaps can have direct impact on the availability of many critical services.  Preparation should be such that design and build doesn’t become prohibitively expensive  Design, build, and migration should be achieved with minimal impact For this, a company should have vast experience in building and managing complex IP networks on a global scale. It is therefore that it will be well positioned to provide IPv6 transition services to enterprises, service providers, and manufacturers of all sizes and in any part of the world. Pointers below highlight required competencies that address the key complications of any IPv6 migration.

Assessment network devices Lab setup DNS & DHCP migration Application and OS testing for IPv6 Enabling IPv6 device & network Ssecurity  6PE: IXP connectivity and peering  Enabling IPv6 enterprise requirement  Enterprise VPN services plan  Enterprise VPN services implementation     

Phase 2: Network topology assessment IPv6 addressing plan Smartphone & mobile device testing NAT 44 migration for 3G DSL broadband migration network security plan using LSN 444, 6RD, DSLITE & dual stack  DSL broadband migration     

Phase 3:  Identify areas that IPv6 has not been covered from access networks point of view  Example: Migrating pseudo wires using IPv4 based targeted LDP sessions  Implement solutions to address areas not covered in Phase I, II, and III

Phase 4:  Turn off IPv4

Conclusion The pace of growth of connected devices and internet makes the transition to IPv6 for communication service providers and enterprises inevitable. It is also clear that IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist in the immediate future making things be more difficult to manage and further delaying IPv6 migration. However the bigger challenge for service providers and large enterprises will be to draw an appropriate roadmap for IPv6 migration, keeping in mind their business continuity needs and strategic goals.

(This article first appeared in PC Quest) Kumara Guru Shunmugam, Varun Malhotra, and Rajiv Kumar The authors are from Wipro Infotech vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 25

Data B u s i n e s s

11 Ways for Telcos to Stay Profitable The ecosystem should hold on to a comprehensive approach to invigorate data growth and create a more profitable data business

W

e have witnessed a dramatic growth in the telecommunications industry in India.

And, in this decade the industry is gearing up for yet another great dramatic growth story, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the data storyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Thanks to the wide range of attractive smartphones and tablets, social networking have driven new consumption patterns, generating significant traffic, and the evolution of mobile value chain, etc, are fueling the escalation of data.

The data segment is at the threshold and the ecosystem should hold on to a comprehensive approach to invigorate

data growth in the country, bridge digital divide, and also create a more profitable data business.

If you closely watch the consumers behavior the tremendous growth of data will take sometime to be a reality in a highly cost sensitive market like India.

Hence the mobile data market is likely to be smaller and segmented. People will remain reluctant to pay unless they see value for each pie. The onus of boosting the data innings lies on the ecosystem by driving extra usage, they ought to provide faster and better networks and make apps more usable and by providing better structured data plans driving off-peak us-

26 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

age volumes. The ecosystem has to entice people to use data and only then, it can create opportunities for everyone from handset vendors to app developers.

Here we list 11 key focus areas for telcos to stay profitable and maximize the second innings of telecom growthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the data phase. #1 Strategic marketing and pricing will help to fuel data growth. Apt wireless pricing schemes can shake up introduction of usage based pricing and premium for higher bandwidth and reliability works better. #2 The government has to provide a conducive regulatory environment.

Telecom is a high investment sector and will become profitable business over a long period of time. For the industry to grow consistently and to ensure that the quality and gamut of services continues to improve and expand, the sector needs a stable and conducive regulatory environment. The rules of the game need to be clear, transparent, and stable. Frequent changes in the sector lead to course corrections which don’t suit anyone—neither the government nor business and definitely not the end customers. Government should also provide more spectrum because without more spectrum, wireless users will have to undergo longer downloads, higher costs, and congested networks. #3 Mobile services are poised to dominate future revenue opportunities. Mobile cloud, M2M, and mobile payments are likely to hold most value potential.

Services in areas such as social media and networking, location based technologies, and general mobile commerce, etc, will have more potential value than sub-segments such as mobile search advertising, display advertising, and mobile software applications. According to a report by Deloitte, gaming is thought to be the most lucrative paid app category for paid applications in the app economy, while apps for social networking, broad based entertainment, and mobile navigation round out the top four. In the enterprise apps category, customer relationship management (CRM) apps are thought to hold the most potential value for developers, closely followed by apps in the productivity category. #4 Are users willing to pay for all data charges they consume, is another multimillion dollar question. More than half of the population would not be willing to pay huge mobile data bills. Some deny to spend extra, others don’t have enough income, and some of them are not interested. Besides, some of the mobile phones will connect to internet by Wi-Fi only or they would be on pay-as-you-go plans. Telcos have to deal with this ground reality and try to captivate data users to use their services. This scenario is one side of the coin and the other side is

Highlights  In this highly competitive and capital intensive telecom market, monetizing data opportunity is another crucial focus area as it not simple as the voice and SMS predecessors  Telcos ought to have appropriate and efficient data billing systems in place so that they can offer alerts for customers to avoid ‘bill shocks’

much more brighter and sunny, because several smartphone users are also getting addicted to update their statuses, checking emails, gaming, entertainment, news, and also weather. #5 Network must be optimized and work in harmony to offer higher overall capacity and better user experiences. There is a coverage range of 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, and others, served by both macro network and small cells. Devices should have the intelligence to select the most appropriate links among all these, based on the signal level, possible data speed, network congestion, and the actual application or service it is using, etc, so that the user gets the best experience, while maximizing overall system performance. #6 In this highly competitive and capital intensive telecom market, monetizing data opportunity is another crucial focus area. According to a report

by Delta Partners, telecom investment firm, “Operators must act decisively in navigating the complex economics of data services, substitution of core voice and SMS revenues, and the growing threat of over-the-top players. Through evolved commercial management, focus needs to be on differentiation and a holistic and cross functional approach to implement, operators may indeed succeed in riding the next growth wave.” #7 Telcos ought to have appropriate and efficient data billing systems in place. They can also offer alerts for customers to avoid ‘bill shocks’. Avoiding bill shocks is good for consumers and also a good business for wireless carriers as well since making charges predictable for customers encourages usage. Operators can inform users about

actual usage per service and alert them when they reach threshold. #8 Proliferation of applications and social media drives usage, so companies have to refocus development efforts towards mobile applications, mobility features, and mobile user interfaces. #9 In the enterprise sector, a number of operators have started to develop ICT offers and capabilities based on network centric products and services. The likelihood of success appears to be proportional to the number of unique network assets that exist in the operator’s portfolio. Pure mobile players will find it more difficult to be a significant ICT player with total telecoms offering than integrated players that can leverage heavily on their fixed network infrastructure to provide national and international data connectivity services to enterprise customers alongside tapping consumer side. #10 Future mobile networks must be designed to cope with such variation of traffic and uneven traffic distribution, while at the same time maintaining a permanent and extensive geographical coverage in order to provide continuity of service to customers. #11 The data phase needs to combat bottlenecks in the network capacity.

Operators should enhance focus on radio access network (RAN) and spectrum, backhaul network, and core network.

Telcos should improve RAN by adding new cell sites/ small/ pico/ femtocells, by adding additional spectrum and refarming, and switching over to HSDP+ or LTE can boost data upsurge. On the network backhaul, the previous LLs standards are no longer sufficient and the networks ought to migrate to IP; and there is a need to adapt to backhauling capacity through FTTx or new microwave links etc. Usage of multiple antenna systems and Wi-Fi hotspots comes handy to offload data. Congestion and saturation network issues in dense areas will be more frequent, a network upgrade will be necessary. The main solutions offer to operator are LTE, Wi-Fi offloading, and femtocells deployment.

Malini N malininagaraj@gmail.com

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 27

THANK YOU For Making DQ LIVE a Grand Success PLATINUM PARTNERS

SILVER PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNERS

NOTE:Watch The DQ LIVE 2012 episode on

th

th

| Jan 5 at 4:30pm and Jan 6 at 5:30pm

Visit www.dqlive.in for the photo and video gallery

M - Pa y m e n t

The Time is Ripe for Mobile Money In a country like India where mobile phones have deeper penetration than banks, mobile payment makes a lot of sense

M

oney is arguably the most mobile of commodities.

We all know from our daily experience how money takes flight no sooner than it is in the wallet, especially in the times of double-digit inflation.

But it is a different matter altogether when it comes to the form of money. Over 80% of the monetary transactions in India are in the form of cash, with plastic and electronic forms restricted mostly to the top of the societal pyramid and between businesses.

In comparison, in developed economies cash transactions constitute a much smaller percentage. It may therefore be argued that the degree of electronification of money is a measure of the economic development of a society.

The time is ripe for electronification of money, with meteoric rise of smartphones and innovative apps. In fact, there is a Klondike rush in the world of mobile money - a new paradigm shaping up.

Consider this: You have your money loaded into a prepaid cash account (eg Itz Cash or mRupee) through cash deposit at a local retailer/ kirana store or through online transfer/ credit card/ debit card. This account is linked to your mobile phone number and can be accessed through an application downloaded on the phone, or mobile Web browser, or through a simple USSD or SIM Toolkit menu, which can be in vernacular and secured through the use of an mPIN. This money can then be transferred to any account in any sched-

uled commercial bank or any other mobile wallet anywhere in the country. One can also use this money for paying postpaid mobile bills, prepaid mobile recharges, DTH recharge, utility bills—like electricity and gas, and also to purchase movie, train bus or airline tickets.

While it is a much more secure alternative to carrying currency or plastic cash, it has deep-reaching benefits for the rural population and lower strata of the country; especially migrant workers from rural India who flock to the country’s major cities and various industrial hubs, in search of livelihood.

They depend on postal money order or some other less organized systems to send money back home, which are expensive.

And add to it, the opportunity cost of queuing up at a bank counter or post office for hours. Today, many have switched to remitting money through a Banks’ Business Correspondents such as EKO, FINO, mRupee etc., operating at the time convenient to them and at a reasonable price. And it’s not just migrant workers who stand to benefit; students staying away from home can have funds transferred to them at ease anytime, anywhere.

According to a World Bank survey, only 35% people in the country have any formal bank account which is far below the global average of 50%. On the other hand, mobile penetration in the country stands at 51%, as reported by Gartner. This also falls in line with the RBI’s vision of making 70% of the financial transactions paperless by end of 2012-13.

30 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

And with the country’s rural population living in almost 600,000 villages, establishing brick-and-mortar bank branches would be an intimidating task, contiguous on the impossible, given the inaccessibility of many such small parishes.

So far merchant payments are concerned, it is a demand-driven market where there is not enough supply of either mobile money or the mPOS (mobile Point Of Sale); the merchants are unaware of its benefits and the zeal to be an early adopter is low.

A report by Juniper Research indicates that mobile money transactions will hit $670 bn by 2015.

Now the need of the hour is to empower both consumers and retailers/ merchants with ubiquitous and low-cost mobile-based solutions, and craft an ecosystem where both can stand to benefit from a self-sustaining business model.

It is a huge opportunity for the country and we are at a juncture where our success in this experiment would determine our future.

Presently, the development of these services is in a very nascent stage and requires a lot of deliberation Will it creep into our daily lives and become a way of living? Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Sunil Tandon The author is head – non voice services, Tata Teleservices vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

Now, align your data centre with your business strategy.

StruxureWare for Data Centres insight enables a healthy, business-driven data centre.

Tap in to the health of your data centre.

As an IT or data centre manager, you know that doing your job well means saving your company both time and money. Today, there finally is a way for you to be completely tapped in to the overall health of your data centre. StruxureWareâ&#x201E;˘ for Data Centres gives you visibility across your entire data centre infrastructure so you can make informed decisions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not arbitrary ones â&#x20AC;&#x201D; about your infrastructure.

For example, you can plan proactively for needed capacity and streamline workflow management to improve your business agility and availability. In fact, now more than ever, infrastructure decisions are business decisions.

Now, make informed decisions about your infrastructure:

>

Plan proactively for needed capacity.

>

Blueprint data centre expansions and consolidations.

>

Streamline workflow management of your IT physical infrastructure to improve your business agility and availability.

>

Make changes knowing how they will affect your business.

>

Visualize change/capacity scenarios to improve your bottom line.

>

View your current and historic PUE/DCiE and energy costs of subsystems to make intelligent energy management decisions.

An always available, efficient data centre.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, StruxureWare for Data Centres communicates in real-time with the leading virtualization platforms: VMwareÂŽ vSphereâ&#x201E;˘ and MicrosoftÂŽ System Centre Virtual Machine Manager. The softwareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built-in automated response capabilities ensure that virtual loads always have healthy host environments. With your VMs on healthy hosts, you can focus on running your data centre more efficiently. The software also gives insight into PUE/DCiE trending over time, enabling you to make intelligent energy management decisions. With StruxureWare for Data Centres planning and reporting capabilities, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the company hero now? You are!

APCâ&#x201E;˘ by Schneider Electricâ&#x201E;˘ is the pioneer of modular data centre infrastructure and innovative cooling technology. Its products and solutions, including InfraStruxureâ&#x201E;˘, are an integral part of the Schneider Electric IT portfolio.

Discover which physical infrastructure management tools you need to operate your data centre. Download White Paper #104 today and 10 lucky respondents can win a Telescope!

Visit www.SEreply.com Key Code 47974y Š2012 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric, APC, StruxureWare, vSphere, and InfraStruxure are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. !LL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS s WWW SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC COM s 998-4108_B_IN

Future of CDMA

Will it Die or Fight Back?

A few policy tweaks and upgradations can resuscitate this dying technology, which is quickly losing ground in the country

E

ver since the emergence of wireless telephony, the Global System for Mobile (GSM) has dominated the mobile ecosystem, while its peer Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is always battling to create a niche for itself.

This is despite the fact that CDMA delivers better quality of experience and spectrally more efficient compared to GSM, the technology has failed to grab much attention in the industry.

Lately, the 2G re-auction for CDMA frequency band has also received a dismal response, raising doubts about its survival in the country. As the Indian telecommunications market gears up for the next phase of data revolution, the technology has been seen grappling to survive as it loses proposition in terms of economies of scale.

When Voice & Data tried to find out that what went wrong with the technology and its future in the country, it found that declining ARPUs, spectrum shortage are some of the factors bogging down its performance; but at the same time a few policy tweaks and upgradation can really buttress CDMA to sail through and make a mark for itself.

What Went Wrong?

The path for CDMA to strengthen its position in the Indian market and compete with GSM technology was not an easy task as the biggest challenge this segment faced was that of spectrum shortage.

The present policy offers a maximum of 15 MHz-20 MHz of airwaves per circle to GSM players, while the limit for CDMA players is 7.5 MHz. Besides spectrum, CDMA was numbed by declining ARPUs, lack of clarity in spectrum allocation, regulatory discrimination, tough competition, and high prices.

According to Ashwani Khillan, chief technology officer (CTO)–MTS India, “All telecom operators, including MTS and a number of industry analysts, have always maintained that the reserve price of CDMA spectrum in the recently concluded auctions was way too high and did not make any viable business sense. The same point was also vindicated when no bidders participated in the auctions of CDMA spectrum.”

He further added, “There is spirit within the plans of the Indian govern-

32 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

ment about taking mobile telephony and internet to more and more people.

The National Broadband Plan envisages provision of 160 million broadband connections, including 60 million wireless broadband connections, by the year 2014.

But taking a step back; one needs to understand that this requires additional spectrum, stable policy environment and moreover, investors’ trusts that have been shaken by the recent event.”

Meanwhile, Ashok Sud, secretary general, AUSPI, emphasized, “GSM offers abundant device options unlike CDMA; CDMA ecosystem should bring in more features to woo high-end mobile segment users. CDMA customers have no choice of choosing operators. It is difficult to replace handsets faster. Industry consensus that the Asian market and particularly the Indian market is more of inspirational and less of functional and this will be a huge challenge for CDMA technology in India. But data speed and data products have great potential to drive growth.”

Khillan also added, “Reviving CDMA can grab a major pie in the market by catering to enterprise segment. The device ecosystem for CDMA has to evolve and offer high-end CDMA phones.

CDMA consortium ought to perform a balancing act and push the technology from marketing and technical perspective, and there is a need of high quality dual SIM mobile phones i.e CDMA plus GSM.”

Government Must Dos The government should release some more spectrum and it has to reduce the reserve price also to revive this technology.

There is less allocation of 3G spectrum for CDMA players. Rationalized and levelplaying fields on the spectrum allocation by the release of spectrum in 800, or 1,900 MHz will be of great help.

This will show some forward growth path to the operators, who have invested in this technology.

The pace of journey of CDMA technology has been bleak but it would certainly not end and it has a long way to go. The increase in the uptake of data services through 3G will aid CDMA players to penetrate more in the country; the future of CDMA is likely to be vivid and data would be the main differentiator in the near future.

The industry and government ought to work towards reviving the CDMA market in this transition phase where we are moving from voice to data, as CDMA is much more efficient than GPRS/ EDGE.

Highlights  CDMA’s USP lies in the data communication and ease of connectivity  The increase in the uptake of data services through 3G will aid CDMA players

Don’t Let CDMA Die CDMA’s USP lies in the data communication and ease of connectivity, and this is what makes us re-think of this technology and not let it die.

It can drive affordability in the entire broadband and mobile broadband space.

CDMA as a technology is well-equipped to migrate seamlessly to LTE and leading CDMA players around the world would be the first to launch LTE based services ahead of anybody else. In India, wireless broadband will propagate and bridge the digital divide.

It is a boon for heavy-internet-on-themove users. CDMA is a much better technology with respect to its highly robust features than its counterparts, but due to its non-open source origin it has been limited to few carriers in some countries worldwide.

Some of the concepts from CDMA are more likely to be used for 4G networks.

Code division turned out to be a more powerful and flexible technology, 3G GSM is actually a CDMA technology called WCDMA (wideband CDMA) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System).

WCDMA requires wider channels than older CDMA systems, but it has more data capacity.

CDMA systems based on spread spectrum techniques, which are a legacy of defense applications relating to the elimination of interference (anti-jamming), measures the distance (ranging) or encryption. These techniques are based on spread spectrum frequency of a signal at a bandwidth greater than the minimum required for transmission, a situation which is maintained throughout the transfer process. Later, when arriving at the receiver, the signal is recomposed to obtain the initial signal.

Thus, one can obtain a series of links that use the same frequency band

simultaneously without generating interference. The underlying strength of CDMA include superior data capabilities, excellent voice quality, good coverage at lower costs, seamless packet data, greater capacity, and improved security as compared to GSM. It can accommodate more users per MHz of bandwidth–efficient use of spectrum; it is ideal for a spectrumstarved country like India.

CDMA has no built-in limit to the number of concurrent users. It is able to produce a reasonable call with lower signal (cell phone reception) levels – beneficial to rural users.

“CDMA also offers better coverage area – better for rural penetration. CDMA offers superior voice quality compared to GSM. CDMA has a well-defined path to higher data rates and increased cellular communications security. Also 3G from GSM players using 2,100 MHz spectrum requires around 3 times more BTS covering same area compared to 800 MHz CDMA spectrum used for offering EVDO service,” says Sud. Some CDMA players have launched high speed internet via USB dongle (EVDO) for using with computers to capture wireless internet market first. Before 3G comes, EVDO data cards (speed 2.4 – 3.1Mbit/s) were the only option for high speed wireless internet.

According to Khillan, “One look at the global telecom industry will tell you that CDMA is a better suited technology for high speed data (HSD) services. Some of the biggest telecom operators worldwide, including Verizon and China telecom, run on CDMA. So it is not a question of one technology being better than the other.

In India, MTS has been committed to CDMA technology and in about three years of operations has secured more than 16 mn subscribers, including more than 1.8 mn HSD customers in over 450 towns across India. This clearly shows that CDMA is not a dying technology. However, there is no denying the fact that CDMA industry in India does face eco-system challenges including the availability and choice of devices.”

Malini N malinin@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 33

structured cabling

Is your Structured Cabling Fire Proof?

Commercial buildings should take up fire safety norms and prevention methods much more seriously

F

ire hazards and its regulations is a hot topic today that every facility manager is or should be familiar with. Professional organizations and bodies have done plenty of research on this in the last few decades.

Commercial buildings have to adhere to fire safety norms and be equipped with fire preventions methods. It is mandatory

to obtain safety certificates from relevant authorities before allowing possession of the building.

Even though all these norms are practiced, there are still fire accidents, loss of lives, destructions, and damage to properties and infrastructures.

A recent report from an office fire incident had the following startling revelations:

34 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

ď Ž The building was constructed as per fire norms, and all relevant pre-requisite certifications were in place. ď Ž The communications cabling was done with low smoke zero halogen jacketed cables. ď Ž Fire sprinklers and fire fighting equipment were in perfect working conditions.

And yet, smoke emission from the building was more than expected. Fire-

balls were seen coming out of the ceiling void. Firefighters took almost five hours to contain the fire.

A forensic study showed that the fire originated from one of the work locations and spread rapidly through the communication cable all the way to the ceiling through a hole that was built with the intention of cable routing. The fire spread to the void space between the original and false ceiling that resulted in deformation of trays and a thick residue was found due to the intense heat.

Reports here clearly showed that the communications cabling and the cable jackets were made of low smoke zero halogen materials, which intensified the fire.

The 3 factors that account for loss of human lives due to fire are:  Heat: High temperature causes fatal burns  Smoke: Reduces vision making it difficult to find the escape route  Toxicity: Carbon monoxide is fatal along with numerous other harmful chemicals and emissions, which cause eye irritation and burning

Simulation Experiment Full-scale fire tests simulating installation practices were conducted at BRE/FRS (Building Research Establishment/Fire Research Station) Cardington. The test program was designed to support the development of new performance data for hazard assessments, international fire test protocols and fire safety engineering.

Earlier tests were carried out in concealed-spaces or re-burnable structures with a nominal 1 megawatt wood crib source-fire. The later tests used a nominal 1 megawatt gas burner. Fire scenarios, ventilation conditions, and LAN cable designs and configurations were varied.

Fire performance measurements included mass loss, pressure differentials, lateral flame spread, heat flux, vertical temperature profiles, smoke opacity, heat release, CO and CO2 generation and O2 depletion. Tests were documented with still and video photography in both IR and white light. Most data were logged

Highlights  Commercial buildings have to adhere to fire safety norms and be equipped with fire preventions methods  They should obtain safety certificates from relevant authorities before allowing possession of the building

electronically (about every 10 seconds) for real-time on-line graphical monitoring, and then stored in spreadsheet formats to facilitate statistical analysis and computer modeling.

LSZH (for low smoke zero halogen) cables that pass IEC 332-1 and IEC 332-3 ignited readily and burned the full length of the concealed space configuration. A large fireball developed on the horizontal cable ladder and a pool of fire formed on the suspended ceiling beneath the cable ladder in the concealed space. Ceiling tiles often fell out during tests.

Under the same full-scale test conditions, LAN cables that pass NFPA 262 (Steiner Tunnel) test criteria showed no sign of flame spread and generated little smoke.

Other related tests were conducted in the intermediate-scale Steiner Tunnel and in the small-scale tube furnace/smoke box apparatus developed for the British Cable Makers Confederation (BCMC). The cable fire performance (flame, spread, smoke and heat release) data from the Steiner Tunnel was relatable to the BRE/FRS fullscale simulations. However, the data from the IEC 332-1 and IEC 332-3 tests was not relatable.

Surprisingly, dense dark smoke and forceful explosions occurred with just one gram of polyolefin cable materials from the LSZH cables in the BCMC smallscale apparatus tests. The PVC cable materials produced very little smoke and no explosions in the same small-scale BCMC tests.

Reports From various studies and simulation experiment the following results have arrived.

Ceiling and floor concealed spaces (voids) in commercial buildings were increasingly being used for utilities and ventilation. This design approach helps maximize flexibility in meeting changing tenant churn requirements. Installing services in concealed spaces provides convenient access, easy alterations, lower construction costs and energy conservation for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).

If these concealed spaces contain combustibles, they are potential sites for the undetected generation and movement of fire and smoke.

Construction products exposed in the concealed spaces have been required to be (a) fire partitioned, or be (b) very low in fuel-load and combustibility, or be (c) protected by either fire resistant coverings or fire extinguishment systems.

Concealed spaces being filled with multiple generations of data communications cables with low or unknown aggregate fire performance.

The simulation experiment results and IEC 60332-1 & 60332-3 do not match.

Conclusions #1 The data obtained in the Steiner Tunnel was relatable to the full-scale BRE/FRS simulations. #2 The flame spread, heat release and smoke opacity results for exposed Plenum (PVC) cable were significantly lower than results for exposed LSZH and CMX cable. #3 For LSZH cables, the high temperatures, high heat release rates, flame spread, fire-balls, pool fires and tube furnace explosions were unexpected considering their extensive use in concealed spaces in commercial buildings. #4 There was no discernible difference in toxicity between the fluoropolymer category of materials used in CMP cables versus polyolefin and PVC categories of materials used in the LSZH cables per NEMA data.10.

Kenelm Lopes The author is product manager, Enterprise Networks India, TE Connectivity vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 35

*

! " !#

$ % $

&

' %

%

$ ( & $ &

&

% $ &

) & %

$$$

Backhaul

Haul or Nothing for Mobile Operators Choosing the right backhaul strategy is a tricky problem considering the fact that operators are expanding and enhancing their network along with keeping an eye on costs, performance, and the needs of subscribers

R

apidly increasing growth in data traffic across mobile infrastructure is stretching networks to their limit. One area of the network that is feeling the pinch is backhaulâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;namely taking the traffic from the cell site back to the network core. Typically, 3 technologies can be used for backhaulâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;copper cabling, fiber cabling or microwave links.

Microwave being the technology of choice, provides an excellent combination of reliability, cost, and rollout speed for network operators.

Choosing the right backhaul strategy is a tricky problem considering the fact that operators are expanding and enhancing their network along with keeping an eye on costs, performance, and the needs of subscribers. According to the DoT, operators have invested around `67,718.95 crore to acquire 3G spectrum in the country. But there hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been much profit mainly because of low adoption of 3G services in India.

This is largely due to pricing of the services, low penetration, and quality of services. Compared to the 50% fiber pen-

38 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

etration in the west, the penetration in India is around 15%, considering the fact that 3G and broadband wireless airwaves were auctioned only in 2010. Optimal mobile backhaul solutions would become more critical as the data traffic grows.

The potential challenges for microwave backhaul include conflicts between increasingly congested networks, the limited availability of spectrum, the need for higher modulation schemes in radios to provide greater capacity and the ability of antennas to protect those radios from interference.

It is into this landscape of technical hurdles and financial constraints that operators must step in search of the most effective backhaul solutions.

Technical Hurdles While microwave backhaul is not the only solution operators can choose, it is still cost effective and reliable in rugged environments. For this reason, microwave backhaul is seeing increased popularity amongst operators worldwide.

The rising data traffic is leading operators to deploy increasing number of both conventional macro and newer small-cell base station links. This, in turn, puts greater pressure on microwave backhaul throughput—that is, the speed at which data from the wireless network can be fed back to the core network. More microwave backhaul links are being deployed in networks, resulting in a higher risk of signal interference in congested areas.

The best microwave backhaul is one which produces highly directional, pointto-point beams that minimize interference

and uses the available spectrum effectively.

Today, the microwave antenna is designed to address three of the greatest challenges faced by operators which include rapidly increasing data traffic, spectrum scarcity and return on network investment. These antennas are engineered to maximize the use of wireless spectrum, while withstanding heavy demands in data growth. An innovative improvement in radiation pattern helps squeeze more out of available spectrum and typically yields 40% higher link density.

Financial Challenges Few of the operators have chosen to pursue the false economy of reducing capital expenditure on new infrastructure by buying substandard microwave antenna which has the knock-on effect of reducing network service quality in the long term. A false economy is one where the operators spend more on identifying and replacing faulty components which affect the backhaul network’s performance since they would have bought substandard

equipment at low cost. This also results in poor subscriber churn and negative revenue for the operator.

The Long Haul The skyward trend of data traffic shows no signs of slowing, with the UMTS Forum recently predicting that voice and data traffic on mobile networks will grow more than 30-fold during the coming decade.

Higher quality infrastructure will help operators in the long term and also save them from the effect of false economy.

Clearly, many operators face tough choices in the years ahead. The decision to invest in higher quality infrastructure cannot be taken lightly in the current climate. However it’s also clear that operators should avoid extreme approach towards lowering the capex at any cost, or they may find that the choices of today become the problems of the future.

Dipesh Rattan The author is manager, microwave systems, wireless, APAC, CommScope vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 39

Broadband

Smart Networks

Superior network performance will act as a competitive advantage for operators

T

elecom operators need to start co-operating with developers and businesses to encourage development of products that make innovative use of their valuable services.

The value of a smart product is now dependant on the network infrastructure that provides connectivity. Superior network performance will act as a competitive advantage for operators and there is a need for integrating and operating a multi-vendor, multi-technology communications network. Managing such networks will involve developing efficient strategies for network planning, network provisioning, network assurance, and network operations and security.

With emerging powerful computing platforms on handheld devices and smartphones, major efforts are required to deploy a networked infrastructure that blends computing and communication technologies.

These â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;smartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; networks will allow operators to gain a better understanding of users, their preferences, and subscriptions as well as the devices, applications and content being utilized.

These networks include more than just infrastructure as they comprise of support systems that provide the flexibility needed to respond to changing user behavior and emerging business models. Smart networks need to be scalable in bandwidth, devices, signaling and analytics for inferring and communicating patterns in data.

We need to move from simple device management and connectivity to also supporting service delivery features such as monitoring, diagnostics, remote control, security management, application delivery and performance optimizing

analytics. A seamless interaction is also required between network operators and providers, device manufacturers, communication module manufacturers, application providers and system integrators.

Devices may consist of Connected Consumer Electronic (CE) devices, mobile broadband routers, smart phones, and notebooks. And the different levels of connectivity which need to be managed include high reliability, differentiated best effort, prioritized internet, best effort internet and guaranteed connectivity.

A rethink of the telecom business is required for innovating on business processes, business models and the underlying infrastructure. This can be achieved by taking a holistic, systems level perspective in the design of networks.

Smart Network Design Engineering Guidelines A formal systems engineering approach needs to be taken to design smart networks. Systems engineering is a discipline for seeing wholes and a framework for seeing interrelationships and patterns of change. It is a process which gathers all

40 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

possible processes and interrelationships in an organized structure.

The smart networked system should be modeled from 4 perspectives. The functional perspective helps define the systems functional elements, their responsibilities and primary interactions.

The information perspective that defines the way the architecture stores, manipulates, manages and distributes data and information. The deployment perspective helps describe the environment in which the system will be deployed, including the dependencies the system has on its run-time environment. And lastly, the operational perspective that defines how the system will be operated, administered and supported when running in its production environment.

Smart networked systems should be designed for security and privacy, performance and scalability, availability and resilience, and evolution and interoperability.

Rahul Sinha The author is a scientist and leading member of the IEEE vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

CLOUD

Building Trust Cloud adoption is on the rise, but security is still a big impediment

I

t’s clear that for many organizations, the security of cloud services is a real barrier to adoption. In fact, in a recent survey of more than 300 CIOs, 78% felt that security was the main reason holding them back from embracing cloud technology, and in particular, the public cloud.

Cloud adoption is on increase, driven by elasticity, scalability, and flexibility. IDC estimates the Indian cloud market to be in the region of $535 mn in 2011, with a growth of more than 70% expected for 2012 and almost 50% growth predicted for the next 3 years. But does that translate to sufficient security in the cloud?

I’m reminded of a regular mantra that peppers so many of my security presentations: The answer to the question of ‘how much security?’ is, ‘just enough’.

Of course, quantifying ‘just enough’ takes a bit of work. Alas, with so many security checklists available, it’s tempting to blindly follow someone else’s advice—especially advice that just might happen to confirm existing prejudices. This is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Trade-offs in Security Decisions A key point to remember is that many security decisions involve making some kind of trade-offs. To be secured in the cloud requires trading off one form of control for another. Traditional security controls are grounded in location: if you know where something is, and you can claim ownership of it, then it’s probably secure.

If you don’t know where something is, and someone else appears to own it, then it’s probably not secure.

In the cloud, location based security as a concept falls apart. You can’t pinpoint

the exact location of your data (building, room, rack, unit, drive). And this is a good thing! Someone else is the steward of your data—someone who likely has a larger budget and more staff dedicated to protecting your data from outside attacks, from other customers, and even from the provider itself.

Does this mean that, to achieve the promised benefits of cloud computing, your trade-off requires giving up all security?

No. The trade-off you make requires changing your understanding of control.

You give up the old model of location based control and instead adopt a new one. This new model is built from service level agreements, auditable security standards, and technology for privacy plus integrity protection (that is, encryption plus digital signatures). You can retain control and ownership of the data even though you don’t have control-or ownership-of the infrastructure.

In one respect, the model isn’t so new: We use it already for connectivity.

Where shared pipes (the internet) have replaced dedicated pipes (leased lines), we rely on this very same model to keep data in transit secure. The model extends to compute and storage, as well.

However there is another factor, one that I like to call a disinterested third party.

Cloud providers don’t know about the context of your data and how valuable it is to you. This can reduce insider threats a lot. But they do care about the safety of your data? Like street food vendors in Bangkok, who understand that their very livelihood depends on not killing their customers, cloud providers understand that it’s in their own best interest to implement controls that enforce high degrees

of separation between their administrative tasks and their customers’ data.

Plus, these controls also make the cloud a difficult platform for bad guys seeking to steal data or launch attacks.

Providers work to build massive scale with as much automation as possible: Fewer humans mean fewer opportunities to make mistakes, which corresponds to a reduction in risk. Fundamentally, ‘how much security?’ isn’t the right question.

Instead, ask yourself ‘how much risk?’.

Security decisions guided by sound risk assessment always strike the right balance and make the right trade-off.

Cloud Computing will Really Solve Your Problems CIOs and CSOs should get on the phone with their provider’s CSO and ask about their risk mitigation strategies—the good ones are willing to share this information, because they know it’s how they can win your trust.

Cloud computing solves a lot of problems really well. And it’s maturingcompared to just a couple years ago, offerings are more diverse and flexible, coming from well-known and trusted companies. If cloud security is becoming good enough for a marked increase in adoption of cloud services by some, then is not it probably becoming good enough for the rest of us, too?

Robert Healey The author is marketing evangelist, APAC & Japan, Riverbed Technology vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JanuARy 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 41

NFC

The Next Wave in Mobility With the potential to explode into new business areas, Near Field Communications is all set to rule the near future

T

he rise of the much-talked ‘paperless era’ was a direct effect of the PC revolution. Similarly, the world is edging closer towards a ‘cashless society’, thanks to the much-talked about NFC or Near Field Communications. With NFC, the conventional use of credit cards and other related business activities will just become a thing of the past as it provides exciting new ways to share information, make mobile payments, and interact with your surroundings. Hence this wireless technology promises to transform the way we shop, travel or even transfer data.

Organizations from sectors such as transport, banking, payment, entertainment, hospitality, and retail, across the globe, are looking to take advantage of the benefits of this exciting new technology.

A recent study by Gartner indicated that 50% of the smartphones in the near future will be NFC based. In fact, incumbent smartphone players have already started testing this technology and are in the process of rolling out more smartphones with NFC capabilities.

Applications NFC presents many exciting opportunities.

We believe that this exciting technology can extend well beyond mobile payments and will enable many lives to become much more convenient as programs become integrated, all while remaining secure and reliable. All this is also encouraging customers to think how they will include NFC and contactless transactions in their mobile commerce strategies and customer interactions in the future.

Besides, NFC can also be used in a variety of other applications such as:  Ticketing: Gaining access to gigs and shows 42 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

 Travel and Transport: Bus, train, metro, and airline access  Access and Identity management: 1. Using NFC for physical access to secure premises instead of having a fob or separate security access keycard.

2) Storing and displaying physical ID cards on a smartphone  Sharing: Using NFC to share electronic business cards, photos, files or data with other people just by tapping smartphones  Smart Surveys or Feedback: Smart cards which use NFC technology to capture information with a touch or press of a smart foil.

The Global Standard for Payment ‘Contactless payment’ is the most popular and talked about form of NFC over the last few years. This method of payment has traditionally been achievable through a ‘contactless payment card’, looking much the same as a regular credit or debit card but with the card’s chip housing NFC technology. This is set to grow and develop quickly, and we hope to see smartphones increasingly taking the place of traditional cards for many consumers.

Mobile payment systems, although in existence for long, are experiencing slow adoption rates and a lot of security issues. MasterCard PayPass a ‘contactless’ payment feature based on the ISO/IEC 14443 standard which enabled cardholders to make a payment by simply tapping a payment card or other payment device, recently certified 17 smartphones including BlackBerry, android and nonandroid smartphones. BlackBerry Bold 9900/9790, BlackBerry Curve 9630/9380, the Nokia 603, Lumia 610 as well as HTCOne X, LG Viper 4G LTE, Samsung Galaxy Nexus HSPA+, Samsung Galaxy S Advance, and Sony Xperia S are some of the android phones on the list.

This certification essentially means that they meet the functionality, interoperability, and security requirements of MasterCard for contactless mobile payments. Especially in the field of mobile payments where security is a paramount need, there is a significant need for a holistic approach to security

Highlights  50% of the smartphones in the near future will be NFC based  Appropriate standards are needed to manage back-end systems and secure content within the NFC mobile ecosystem to maintain the required reliability and consistency

and collaborative effort between OEMs and finance agencies. Thus it is highly appreciated by the industry that BlackBerry devices are FIPS certified, the most recent being the BlackBerry 10 platform being FIPS 140-2 certified. FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification provides confidence to security conscious folks and organizations dealing with sensitive information, so that the data stored on smartphones running BlackBerry operating systems can be properly secured and encrypted. The NFC technology is extremely popular owing to major benefits like convenience, speed, and interaction but security remains an imperative.

BYOD and NFC But how will this steer the future of mobility? From a corporate perspective, mobile devices that are NFC enabled are heralding a new age for managing identities in the enterprise, offering security, and other capabilities enabled through developments in NFC. As BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) becomes more common at work, this could very well address such concerns and do away with the existing badges or ID cards by allowing employees use their smartphones as ‘digital keys’ to gain access into their work environments.

Essentially, what NFC does here is to identify the card reader and authenticate all information about the employee before giving access. Additionally, the use of NFC for allied services such as clocking in time and attendance, at food courts and vending machines or even for logging into work stations, has been fuelling further demand for this technology.

Consequently, while enterprises take advantage of the flexibility of mobile access, they must also ensure that security

is not compromised. It will be a challenge to maintain the required consistency, reliability, and interoperability within the NFC mobile ecosystem in an organization unless there are appropriate standards to manage backend systems and secure contents, exchange messages or to simply download and personalize applications.

Providing a trusted and secured communications channel for transferring information between NFC-enabled devices and the other devices, enabling employees manage security by revoking NFC applications or services when a device is lost or stolen and allowing users the access to their personal data in real-time are some of the areas where organizations can stay secure while making the employee experience more convenient.

It is imperative for IT managers to have a robust plan and implement policies that support such access controls. As physical and logical access controls converge, it also brings the urgency to create cloud based data security for these devices.

Enterprises can also avail from a suite of comprehensive web based services and solutions for managing physical access credentials. The platform should ideally provide businesses with the tools to create, use, and manage identities for both traditional badges and digital credentials on NFC-enabled smartphones. From the employees’ perspective this could help them centralize their security access to their smartphones, while from the enterprise point of view, such a centralized web based management platform would provide a solution to keep a check on employee turnover, tracking, and so on.

As the uptake of mobile NFC is expected to increase significantly, it also has the potential to explode into new business areas. Therefore organizations need to be ahead of the curve when it comes to security related issues and should be aware of the issues involved and ensure that users are educated in its risks and can protect themselves against threats at the workplace or outside.

Sunil Lalvani The author is director, Enterprise Sales, RIM India vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 43

social media

Transforming Retail through Social Media

Thanks to smart devices and social analytics the retail industry is undergoing a huge revamp

R

eview sites, social networking, and mobile devices are valuable tools for savvy consumers today. For retailers, these tools are creating a mountain of valuable data, which, if analyzed properly in real-time, can significantly transform the retail experience especially

at point of sale. Here’s how the ‘meaning of like’ is transforming retail today.

The State of Social Commerce Research states that 64% of the smartphone users shop online using their devices, while over 167 mn people will

44 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

shop online this year and spend an average of $1,800 per person. Online shoppers consider social sites as valuable and credible resources for searching products and services, with 40% of the users say that they search for products through Twitter, while 60% of the Facebook users say they would discuss a product or service if they

were offered a discount or a deal of some kind. Around a third of smartphone users have shared their location with a retail company using a check-in service. Of the 6 bn mobile phone users across the world, 62% hope to use location based services one day.

For example, Walmart’s Facebook page has nearly 20 mn likes and over 1 mn people are actively talking about them. Walmart’s efforts around the world, product advertising, and various forms of marketing make their way to Facebook.

On Twitter, close to 7,854 accounts are created every day. On a day with high traffic, there are around 175 mn tweets.

Another staggering example is of Starbucks which has over 2,800,000 followers, just for their Starbucks Coffee account.

Google+ is another social media tool that is seeing phenomenal activity, having over 150 mn active users, and new updates or features being launched every day.

For example, Samsung USA has 779,958 +1’s on Google+, their approach being to provide updates about their newest products, occasionally using celebrities to promote them.

Sites, Smartphones, and Socializing The statistics below are an interesting representative of how much social and community tools impact buyers:  Customer Reviews-59%  Question & Answer-42%  Internet Forums-26%  User-generated Videos-15%  Facebook Fan Page-13%  Facebook Newsfeed-13%  Mobile-9%  Twitter-9% Links to user generated content (eg, review sites, Facebook, Twitter) make up a quarter of the search results for the top 20 brands in the world. In the year 2014, it’s predicted that internet will influence 53% of all retail sales, both online and offline.

Analyzing the trends on how shoppers are using their smartphones, the following results came up:  33% of shoppers looked for sales and specials  33% checked store info

Highlights  Retailers use POS system data to analyze sales records, inventory, and consumer data  64% of the smartphone users shop online using their devices

 32% looked at product reviews and ratings  31% compared prices on Amazon  31% checked out an online store for a certain product  29% looked around at other online retailers other than Amazon  27% used a site that focuses on providing competitive prices  26% made sure the store had a product in their inventory  24% scouted the prices for certain products on a retailer’s mobile site 85% of people anticipate a change in their shopping behavior in response to the growing number of user generated content.

Changing the Retail Experience in Real-Time Using mobile point-of-sale (PoS) transactions, businesses, such as Apple, are working to eliminate long lines and reduce lost sales from long waits. More businesses are able to set up their stores faster and advertise exclusive deals and offers using tools such as Facebook places and Foursquare. Retailers are also able to use the information obtained from social media and smartphone data to supply consumers with targeted offers when it’s relevant to where they’re shopping. Aside from being a delivery mechanism for special offers, smartphones provide the location of a user and what they might be doing at a specific moment.

Data Creation and Utilization Retailers use POS system data to analyze sales records, inventory, and consumer

For more related articles go to voicendata.com

Links to user generated content (eg, review sites, Facebook, Twitter) make up a quarter of the search results for the top 20 brands in the world data. Knowledge obtained via loyalty data and individual transactions is used to better understand consumer spending patterns and, improve sales campaign targeting. Utilizing data obtained from social media is being actively implemented to analyze customer behavior and address their potential needs.

Research indicates that online and web based American retail sales will become over half of all sales by 2013. The average retailer in the US has almost 700 terabytes of stored data. Utilizing big data could increase retailers’ operating margins by 60%. It’s also anticipated that there will be a 30% annual growth in the quantity of connected nodes. The further adoption and development of big data levers have boosted many retail companies’ capacity to increase productivity by at least 0.5% every year until 2020. The effects on operating margins in various levers are indicated as marketing (10%-30%), merchandising (10%-40%), and supply chain (5%-35%).

Conclusion The decision for consumers to make a purchase is contingent on a number of factors in the modern age. These include comments made on review sites, through real-time updates via mobile devices, and numerous posts on social networks. By mining this mountain of data, retailers have the potential to further improve their point of sale experience.

Keith Higgins The author is the chief marketing officer, Symphony Teleca Corporation vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 45

Smart Cities

For a Smarter India

With smart cities making way for smarter growth, the government is looking at models and digital technology customizable to adopt to Indian realities

T

he concept of a smart city is a relatively new one. Cities in the developed world are formulating technology master plans and then using these plans to develop a citywide command and control network that monitors and optimizes the delivery of services like power, water, traffic, and healthcare. The basic premise of a smart city is making infrastructure network and delivery of services more efficient across telecommunication, logistics, water and gas supply.

Indian cities, in a small way, are using advanced technologies within departments. These include traffic control, using sensors to monitor water leaks, tracking garbage trucks through global position-

ing systems, and energy management in smart buildings and complexes. Also under development are smart townships that are controlled centrally, and entire cities along the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor. As these projects expand and mature individually, Indian cities will be ready for technology integration which is in a nascent stage right now.

Seven new cities coming up along the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor will also use smart technologies with a total investment of $90 bn over a decade. The government is looking at mass systems and digital technology that cuts across power, water, safety, and transportation needs. While technology firms are working on digital master plans, the models

46 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

will be customizable to adapt to Indian realities.

Sensors and Smart Meters In a smart city, sensors will provide realtime inputs to control energy usage, public transport, public safety, education, and healthcare. Intelligent communication tools will let administrators manage and respond to emergencies quickly as well as provide residents with constant real-time inputs.

But what about old urban centers? Can smart technologies help in reengineering utility systems and delivery? Water distribution systems, for example, were built 50-100 years ago and badly need upgrading. Revenues of $14 bn are being

Smart Cities

lost, according to the World Bank report which makes a compelling economic case for better water metering. Smart water grids that leverage the value of smart water meters in homes and other buildings are being deployed, albeit slowly.

According to a report from Pike Research, the global installed base of smart meters with 2-way communication capabilities will only reach 29.9 mn by 2017, up from 10.3 mn in 2011.

A major challenge in the developed world is creating an ultra high-speed broadband network along its waterfront area, with speeds of 100 Mbps for residences and 10 Gbps for commercial establishments. This network is supposed to deploy large number of new services like telemedicine, distance education, virtual tourism, and several business applications. Wembley Stadium in London went through a major overhaul, integrating all building safety systems with data, video, and voice communications, and then using an intelligent control solution making it the most technically advanced sports stadium in the world.

States Envisaging Smart City Concept Even in India, there are departments that are beginning to employ smart technologies. Bangalore’s traffic police has 180 cameras around the city which they are managing from a control room, making it the most advanced traffic management system in India.

In the power distribution sector, smart meters are gradually being used which have various advantages over the existing electricity meters like real-time 2-way communication, anti-tamper capability, remote disconnection and reconnection capability, remote load control, energy loss calculation, automatic energy loss calculation, automatic energy loss alert by text or email, pre-disconnection advice and remote configuration of multiple tariffs. Such meters can store information up to 100 days.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh, for example, distribution companies or discoms as they are called have been closely monitoring real-time energy losses, volt-

Highlights  Telecommunications service providers can help make cities smart by supporting machine-to-machine (M2M) and machine-to-machine-tohuman (M2M2H) communications  By installing more smart meters, power distribution companies can monitor outage management effectively and time taken for restoration can be reduced

nical reason why they should not share the same communications network. Data from all 3 sources can go over the same local area network and be aggregated in the same concentrator and be sent over the same cellular network.

There is a massive amount of computing power inside such wireless modules and it can be employed to identify the relevant resource and send the data packets to the relevant utility.

Making Cities Smarter age levels at consumer end, peak demand and tamper alerts with their own staff.

By installing more smart meters, power distribution companies can monitor outage management effectively and time taken for restoration can be reduced. The consumers can also closely monitor their appliance-wise, consumption, and plan for load management.

One of the biggest facilitators of smart technologies in urban landscapes is machine-to-machine technology. Smart meters are smart because they can disseminate information about resource use over a communication network which machine-to-machine technology performs admirably. For example, a wireless module within a utility meter with huge computing power and a powerful embedded processor allows customers’ applications to run inside it.

The module has short-wave radio links that help in monitoring groundwater levels for cities and water boards. Field trials are going on involving smart water meters that employ wireless modules for radio frequency communications over a metro area network to a concentrator/ gateway that aggregates the traffic and then transmits the data over GSM. This is a combination of local and wide-area technologies, smart metering is coming to electricity, gas, and water meters in that order. From a machine-to-machine perspective, there is a little difference between electricity, gas, and water meters. They measure the consumption of separate resources, but there is no tech-

For more related articles go to voicendata.com

48 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

In fact, telecommunications service providers can help make cities smart by supporting machine-to-machine (M2M) and machine-to-machine-to-human (M2M2H) communications. Smart cities demand common open platforms and an information and communication technology infrastructure that can support high-speed internet access across wireline and wireless networks. This infrastructure requires 2 key components: n An all-IP core network that can seamlessly integrate wireline and wireless technologies and create a converged infrastructure for buildings and ICT systems n A broadband access network that can integrate systems through wireless, wireline, copper, fiber, and other access technologies Such an infrastructure will not only enable machine-to-machine technologies but also help in enabling advanced services and applications such as telecommunication coordination, urban traffic management, lighting and energy management, and access and security networks.

There is a huge pressure on the Indian government to build smart cities. Every minute, 20 Indians move into cities. A recent analysis by Booz and Company says that India’s urban population will increase by 140 mn in 10 years and 700 mn in 4 decades. To avoid total collapse of the urban environment, India has to build new smart cities and re-engineer the old ones.

Tony Spizzichino The author is CEO, Telit RF Technologies vadmail@cybermedia.co.in

Telecom Leadership FORUM 2012

TLF2012

Session 1: Indian Telecom â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Learnings so Far

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kuldeep Goyal, former CMD, BSNL; SK Gupta, former CMD, VSNL; RN Prabhakar, former member technology, Trai

Highlights The Government needs to move forward with unified licensing and come up with the guidelines The industry has to work on new business models Sharing needs to happen at both active as well as passive levels We need a fair, transparent and credible policy

50 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

The corporate sector needs a longterm stability and this is possible only when they combine together, work out and be a part of the government, and see what the best way can be there to implement unified licence

—SK Gupta former CMD, VSNL

I feel the shared infrastructure model is one which has to now be really taken up. The passive, active, the whole network needs to be shared

—Kuldeep Goyal former CMD, BSNL

When things are left to the industry, they quote and participate with a certain price, when the government decides certain things it is a hue and cry—that it is very high

—RN Prabhakar former member, technology, Trai

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 51

TLF2012

Session 2: Survival Strategies & New Business Models in Changing Scenario

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Vsevolod Rozanov, president & CEO, MTS; Himanshu Kapania, CEO, Idea Cellular; Aniket Patange, director, DC Lifecycle Services, Schneider Electric; Vijay Jain, COO & director, telecom infrastructure, Sterlite; Arvind Bali, director & CEO, Videocon Telecommunications; RK Upadhyay, CMD, BSNL; K Srinivas, president, consumer business, Airtel; Sachin Salgaonkar, executive director, Goldman Sachs; Rajeev Mittal, managing director, Avaya India; Shobit Khare, VP research, Motilal Oswal Securities

Highlights Right of Way (RoW) cost for fiber deployment needs to be rationalized There is an issue of allocation of spectrum and not quantum of spectrum Operators need to gear up for cloud services and need to do more tie-ups Service providers are struggling with respect to B2B services

52 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

3G is the future for which we have to prepare and work now, invest a lot but do not expect returns immediately and celebrate even small achievements there because this requires even education of the potential customer base

—Vsevolod Rozanov president and CEO, MTS India

Now the question comes is that do you want to wait for 5 to 7 years, when things become mainstream or you get into the bandwagon now.

And the answer lies somewhere in between

—Rajeev Mittal managing director, Avaya India

It’s my belief that we may have aberrations, we may have quarter on quarter issues that may creep up, but there is a lot of distance that still needs to be traveled on the voice side of the business, and please don’t write off voice

—Himanshu Kapania CEO, Idea Cellular A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 53

TLF2012

The cost of laying fiber is so expensive and time-consuming and that’s the reason why fixed line has not been able to reach out to the masses. So, I think this is one area if the policy makers can take up and facilitate easy roll out of fiber

—K Srinivas, president, consumer business, airtel

All those whose actions impinge upon the telecom sector—I mean the policymakers, the regulators, other government agencies, authorities, local bodies, they should not treat telecom operator as one who is flush with money and on the drop of the hat, money can be extracted from him

—RK Upadhyay CMD, BSNL

Even on 3G, we saw no operator launching ‘all you can eat plans’.

What you are seeing is more on the lines of pay as you grow.

So, these kind of mistakes are definitely avoided, which is again a good thing

—Sachin Salgaonkar, executive director, Goldman Sachs

54 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Investors think that probably the worst is over, worst of regulation, worst of irrational competition, so we are actually quite hopeful because we think this is a full cycle which has to happen and probably we are just seeing the beginning of a positive cycle

—Shobhit Khare VP research, Motilal Oswal Securities

I think the problem is that there is no gloom in this industry and it is probably not a hen which gives a golden egg, but I think the fundamentals of this business rests on its physical infrastructure. The operators need to look at that seriously

—Aniket Patange director, DC lifecycle services, Schneider Electric

In corporate jungle, and every now and then we keep on hearing that some new animal has come and what will happen to the others. But in reality, you know, God has given every animal a survival instinct.

Same is the case with any industry; industry has also got a lot of survival instincts

—Arvind Bali director and CEO, Videocon Telecommunications

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 55

TLF2012

Session 3: Is policy an impediment in telecom growth story?

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Rajan S Mathews, director general, Coai; Ashok Sud, secretary general, Auspi; Rajesh Chharia, president, Ispai; RK Upadhyay, advisor, technology development, Trai; NK Goyal, president, Cmai; CS Rao, president, Reliance Communications

Highlights Policy needs to be consistent; and should not change frequently All service providers should be given due weightage as focus should not be on telcos only We need to have a collaborative approach rather than competitive approach Price reduction in prices will lead to increase in uptake of 3G services

56 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

TLF2012

The present pessimism is because the fundamental at present is increasingly deteriorating and what do I mean by the fundamentals—if you look at the ARPU, if you look at the cost of doing business, if you look at the cost of spectrum, if you look at the increasing cost of regulatory burden that’s happening, if you look at the decreasing revenue stream that is coming in, the increasing burden on debt, all of these are darkening fundamentals which if not addressed will continue to drive this industry into negative territory —Rajan S Mathews director general, Coai

Instead of systematic planned initiatives, telecom policies have largely emerged as reactions to the events of the day as a patch-work of emergency procedures administered to the patient in ICU, rather than a well thought out treatment for recovery and long-term health

—Ashok Sud secretary general, Auspi

One of the major issues, which ISPs are also facing, is about the infrastructure. If I am an ISP, I am a telco also I cannot share my router between two organizations. I have to keep a router separately for the ISP and I have to keep a separate router for telco also. This is our policy which is coming as a hurdle and we are not able to use both the router optimized —Rajesh Chharia president, Ispai 58 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

WOW, THANKS! Give your customers what they want, when they want it. Even before they know they want it.

Because delighted customers are your best advertisement.

Ericsson helps you REALIZE great experiences through an OSS/BSS that keeps both you and your customers informed and empowered in real time.

An OSS/BSS that uses all the intelligence, from network to customer behavior, that delivers those â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wow!â&#x20AC;? moments.

Find out more:

ERICSSON COM REALIZE

TLF2012

Despite all bad things, we are even now the second-largest, even now we have very good services to the customers, very low tariff, large network and whatever policy decisions are taken by the government I think they are after wide consultation so let’s accept it

—NK Goyal president, Cmai

It’s unfortunate that nobody in the government nor in the regulator has taken the spectrum pricing issue on an objective, scientific, engineering, business oriented basis. Instead, it’s driven by the perception and no logic based decision

—CS Rao president, Reliance Communications

Unless we reduce the price the demand uptake of 3G will not happen.

And this can be seen that the moment operators reduce the prices of 3G, there was an immediate month over month growth of 17% we have observed. So, if we need to really milk this 3G we need to reduce price

—RK Upadhyay advisor, Technology Development, Trai

60 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

TECH TRENDS 2013

By Zubair Alam, GM- Sales & Marketing, NEC India

T

he customer of today is getting smarter and is even more focused on return on investment and how cost effective is the investment in IT. While 2013 will be a year where a lot of technologies will get greater prominence than before, the enterprise customer will focus more on the value proposition that is being offered to him. Hence the need to understand the needs of the customer has increased more than before.

sector with the FDI in retail policy taking shape, this will lead to further international retail chains entering the Indian subcontinent and making way for more organized retail. With technology adoption in the retail segment, some of the clear advantages will be: radically lower total cost of ownership (TCO) through exceptional serviceability, reliability and power conservation while enhancing the experience. Point of sale solutions will not just benefit retailers but also enhance customer delight.

Also customers will look at one stop shop solution provider who can address all his needs and offer an integrated infrastructure management environment. The customer will increasing look at vendors who can promise them not just quality products but also interoperability, better service and a bundled offering which can meet more than one requirement of the customer.

Focus on Mid-market segment will intensify. Tier 2 and 3 markets continue to be a hotbed for IT investment and will continue to generate greater demand .Same goes for the SMB industry. While large enterprises continue to invest in IT, it is the SMB segment which seems to have greater market potential.

In the IT industry, I also foresee Original Equipment Manufacturersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (OEMs) looking at taking over smaller players to broaden their portfolio and strengthening expertise in various verticals.

From a technology standpoint, we are witnessing yet another wave of convergence, wherein everything is moving to the mobile. With the number of mobile handsets all set to overtake PC penetration, applications on mobile and value added services through the mobile is where the value proposition to the customer will reside.

Technologies like NFC, will gain greater prominence and have a wider acceptance in the near future. We are already seeing handset providers, mobile service providers and technology providers joining hands to go to market to gain mileage from an already existing lucrative market.

We also foresee amplified influx of technology in the Indian retail

With national security and public safety as one of the key priorities of the government, we foresee greater adoption of biometric, fingerprint and other authentication technologies not just by various state governments but also at the level of PSUs. These technologies will have adoption across the board from banks to public infrastructure. Even to securitize our borders and large infrastructure facilities like airports, high sensitivity night cameras and perimeter security systems have been installed.As a part of the airport modernization project, Biometrics is set to boost Indian airport security and aid immigration projects.

Creating an information society that is friendly to humans and the earth will emerge as the need of the hour. Greener technologies, eco friendly products and cleaner working environments is what all enterprises will aim for. Enterprise customer too will also look for solutions that help them become more eco friendly.

While customers and technologies are two sides of the same coin, there is one very important facet of the technology industry in India which cannot be ignored, viz the partner ecosystem. 2013 will see the channel ecosystem getting more mature and establishing for itself a clear distinction in the With national security and market place. With large System integratorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and public safety as one of the distributors dominating this ecosystem, smaller key priorities of the partners and value added resellers will have to government, we foresee look at carving a niche for themselves. Partner will greater adoption of have to educate and train themselves to break biometric, fingerprint and away from the clutter or they will get acquired by other authentication larger players in the market.

technologies not just by various state governments but also at the level of PSUs.

TLF2012

Session 4: VAS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The 2 Sided Business Opportunity

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Rajesh Razdan, co-founder & director, mCarbon Tech Innovation; Vishwanathan Alluri, founder, chairman & CEO, IMI Mobile; Nivedan Sahani, president, Navayuga Spatial Technologies; Rajeev Seoni, CIO, Ernst&Young; Sunil Dutt, managing director, RIM India; Jagdish Mitra, CEO, CanvasM

Highlights There are many opportunities on m2m, m-banking, m-education, and m-health There is lack of innovation on the application side Application providers need to make investment in understanding challenges of business users and then design solutions VAS providers should look at holistic solutions

62 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Download Now!

Your Voice&Data App. and access the digital editions anytime anywhere

b u s i ig

d d n /v

ly . t i //b

: p t t h

ta

Da

Vo

& ice

TLF2012

We need to answer many questions to find out what’s wrong. One, do the VAS providers know what the subscribers are looking for, or what the consumers are looking for? Or is it the fact that subscribers do not know what they want? Or is it that the incentives for producing those VAS services are still not strong enough? Is it that carriers or operators are choking up revenues for VAS developers? Or is it just not rich enough content right now in the industry, or is there lack of innovation —Sunil Dutt managing director, RIM India

There are so many things which can be done with it. So, there is no doubt if somebody approaches enterprises directly there would be huge amount of opportunities available, there are simple things like we have got many mobile workforce, if somebody tells me look your people don’t have to come to office to proof or fill up time sheet or fill up like that, I think that’s a huge benefit for any enterprise —Rajeev Seoni CIO, Ernst&Young

We caught on to the low hanging fruit of doing easy solutions around content, which basically means entertainment around Bollywood songs, wallpapers and so on, and so forth and never really looked at the holistic solution that the services can actually offer

—Jagdish Mitra CEO, CanvasM

64 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Today, technology definition has under gone various changes. It’s not paradigm change its seismic shift actually like earlier it was based on hardware, software, capex, licences.

Today, it has gone to a new level what we call cloud mobile social. If you are not dealing with this than whatever business you do today you are not a technology-advanced company

—Vishwanathan Alluri founder and CEO, IMImobile

We haven’t tasted what the services could unleash in this huge market and what India had seen in the last 5-6 years in the name of VAS are very basic services that we talked about, because if you see the overall structure, most of us are in B2B to B2C model

—Rajesh Razdan co-founder and director, mCarbon Tech Innovation

When I talk about the Indian scenario, our dependency is on VAS service provider or application developer, and we have to be dependent upon the service provider. We don’t have those kind of infrastructure of financial strength that we create our own without ignoring and tell to the people fine I am not going to depend upon the operators

—Nivedan Sahani president, Navayuga Spatial Technologies A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 65

TLF2012

Session 5: LTE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Where are We Moving

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Pravin Prashant, editor, Voice & Data; Prakash Bajpai, MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks; Puneet Garg, vice president, networks, Bharati Airtel; Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman & MD, One97; Shashin Devsare, executive director, Karbonn Mobiles; Dr Lakshminath Reddy Dondeti, director engineering, Techinical Standards, Qualcomm India

Highlights Focus on coverage, capacity, cost and devices Not many application developers focusing on rich applications Service providers need lot of band rather than bandwidth We need to demonstrate WoW experience to users

66 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

The good part is that china is also working in the TTLD mode in which we are working. So, hopefully the device ecosystem with the volumes of China coming into this game will take care of this particular thing —Puneet Garg vice president, networks, Bharti airtel

In most part of the word people have experienced the broadband and multimedia from their home and now they are trying to replicate that experience on their mobile phones. And I don’t know whether India can wait that long because Indian homes are only 4% penetrated with broadband connectivity

—Prakash Bajpai MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks

If you look at the 3G devices portfolio it’s just about 6 to 8 months old and we are not in great rush to introduce 3G devices as the network started rolling out. Because we feel that we should be able to get the devices at particular price point, wherein they start drawing in traction and we able to fulfill what we truly believe that’s going to work for us as a business model —Shashin Devsare executive director, Karbonn Mobiles

One problem that we can see in app ecosystem vs the traditional vernacular voice based ecosystem is that you could not offer vernacular services on these platforms. So, you could launch voice based services which were vernacular and you could address speaking local language —Vijay Shekhar Sharma chairman & managing director, One97 A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 67

TLF2012

Session 6: NOFN — Challenges in Broadbanding Bharat

From left to right — Pravin Prashant, editor, Voice & Data; N Ravishankar, administrator, USO Fund; Babu Varghese, GM, telecom, Pgcil; AK Bhargava, director (operations), Bharat Broadband; Sunil Gujral, EVP & CTO, Quatrro

Highlights Telcos and ISPs can leverage NOFN infrastructure for increasing rural penetration Right of Way (RoW) challenges can delay NOFN deployment in the country e-learning, telemedicine, e-governance and e-commerce can ride on NOFN infrastructure NOFN can open a new revenue stream for rural BPOs

68 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

I assume that there is somebody who is monitoring the overall perspective, saying I need to drive the PPP model . So that I can say that I am the plumber and I have done my job and let somebody else do the rest of it, somebody who will monitor the end consumer experience of saying here is what I was set out to do —Sunil Gujral EVP and CTO, Quatrro

We have got responses from the state authorities, the district authorities, even the secretary to the panchayats. They were all very enthusiastic even to the extent they had identified one secretary of panchayat, who used to come with us at each and every place and used to tell the villages and the people that there is a new project that is coming in and it will give you the world from here —Babu Verghese GM, Telecom, PGCIL

We accept the right of ROW and we would like that the state government issue a unified order which cuts across all the departments of the state government, whether it is PWD, the irrigation, the local bodies or any of the electricity utility etc.

—A K Bhargava director (operations), Bharat Broadband

The challenge is to compress the cost as well as the time and create a network, which will be evolving a multitude of agencies, so that coordination work can be carried out by BBNL that again is a difficult task, but we feel that it is a doable task —N Ravi Shankar administrator, USO Fund A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 69

INFLUENCE

Annual Research, Conference & Awards

e-Gov will benefit India’s citizens exponentially and maximize the return on the government’s investment in it. The contradiction in India is that the country is rightly recognized as a global leader in the delivery of IT services, but it suffers from very little internal IT deployment.

The weakest link – and where it can have the greatest impact - is in the Government and its various departments.

Today the Govt. of India is spending about $8Bn (Rs 43,700 Cr) on computerization and various e-Gov initiatives at the Central and State levels. These include the 27 Mission Mode projects plus a whole range of small and big e-Gov programs such as Bhoomi, Akshaya, MCA21, APOnline, e-Choupal, etc. which are benefiting millions. But there are many more that have not been able to make much impact. e-States survey and conference, started in 2005, has featured an average of 23 states every year, analyzing and showcasing the efforts and results of state e-gov projects. And what actions need to be put in place for more impact.

To know more/ advertise/ sponsor contact Arvind Razdan at +91 99717 82277 || arvindr@cybermedia.co.in

TLF2012

Session 7: Manufacturing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Joining the Broken Links

From left to right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Satendra Singh, head of manufacturing, NSN India; Dr Ashok Aggarwal, director general, TEMA; Lt Gen SP Kochhar, signal officer-in-chief, directorate general of Signals; Keith Cochran, global vice president, Jabil Circuit; PS Narotra, senior director - electronics & hardware, DeitY; Sanjay Nayak, CEO & MD, Tejas Networks; Arun Malik, executive director, QuestForum India Hub

Highlights We need to put component supply chain in place for manufacturing to flourish in India Single window clearance for manufacturing companies to set up base in the country Need an environment that is at par with other manufacturing destinations Incentives should be given to manufacturing companies at par with other countries

72 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

We need an environment that is on par with what we receive when we make investments in China, we make investments in Vietnam, and the time is now for it to happen in India

—Keith Cochran global vice-president, Jabil Circuit

To say that behind all this manufacturing and behind all this R&D and design, an Indian is sitting there, yes that should make us sit up and realize that we are capable of designing, R&D, and we are capable of production, provided that supply chain is available in India

—Lt Gen SP Kochhar signal officer-in-chief, Directorate General of Signals

It is not about manufacturing telecom things alone here and you need to look at the whole supply chain and that’s exactly where you will have this momentum build up. I think the policies which are coming up are very very good

—Satendra Singh head, manufacturing, NSN India

The fact that the whole product can be done from India is most important because if you don’t do the first part, you still don’t have the knowhow, no company in the world will give you its crown jewels in India —Sanjay Nayak CEO & MD, Tejas Networks A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 73

T L F Awa r d s

Telecom Leadership Awards 2012

Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, airtel (India & South Asia) receives the Telecom Person of the Year award from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia; and Rajeev Mittal, managing director, Avaya India & Saarc 74 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Anil Tandon, CTO, Idea Cellular, receives the CTO of the Year award from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, and Vijay Jain, COO & director, telecom infrastructure, Sterlite

Vishant Vora, CTO, Vodafone India, receives the Green Company of the Year award from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, and Aniket Patange, director, DC lifecycle services, Schneider Electric A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 75

T L F Awa r d s

Mouli Raman, managing director, OnMobile India, receives the VAS Company of the Year award from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

Prakash Bajpai, MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks, receives the Emerging Telecom Company of the Year award from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

76 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

K Srinivas, president, consumer business, airtel, receives the Quest Forum India Quality award for the top telecom operator from new and renewable energy minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, and Arun Malik, executive director, Quest Forum India Hub

Shanky Viswanathan, head, global communication business practice, TCS, receives the Quest Forum India Quality award for the top telecom software company from Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, and Arun Malik, executive director, Quest Forum India Hub

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 77

T L F Awa r d s

Sanjay Vidyarthi, MD, Telmar India, receives the Quest Forum India Quality award for the top telecom services company from Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia, and Arun Malik, executive director, Quest Forum India Hub

Lakshminath Reddy Dondeti, director engineering, techinical standards, Qualcomm India, receives the Chipset Company of the Year (Smartphones category) from Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti airtel, and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

78 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Anku Jain, senior director of engineering & deputy general manager, MediaTek India, receives the Chipset Company of the Year(in featurephone) from Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti airtel, and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

Ravi Kunwar, general manager, Nokia India, receives the Most Popular Mobile Phone of the Year from Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, airtel (India & South Asia), and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 79

TLF snapshot

Schneider Electric showcasing its product

Chief Guest Dr Farooq Abdullah and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Cybermedia, on a serious note

A Jam-packed session of industry leaders

80 | VOICE&DATA | JanuARy 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

A magician enthralling the audiences

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JanuARy 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 81

TLF snapshot

Swati Rangachari, VP, corporate affairs & communications, Ericsson India addressing the delegates

A house full of delegates

82 | VOICE&DATA | JanuARy 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Prasanto Kumar Roy, editorial advisor, CyberMedia, giving an overview of the Indian telecom scenario

Pravin Prashant, editor, Voice&Data, in Tech-Talk with Schneider Electricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Amit Verma and Nandeshwar Singh

Media partner ET Now engaging with industry leaders

Rajeev Mittal, managing director, Avaya India, addressing the audiences

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JanuARy 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 83

TLF snapshot

Chipmaker Qualcomm demonstrating its products at TLF

Avaya showcasing its products at TLF

84 | VOICE&DATA | JanuARy 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Schneider Electricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stall at the venue

TLF awardees with chief guest Dr Farooq Abdullah and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

The makers of TLF

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JanuARy 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 85

THANK YOU For Making Telecom Leadership Forum a Grand Success PLATINUM PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNER

MOBILE BROADBAND PARTNER

SILVER PARTNERS

TV PARTNER

Visit www.tlfindia.in for the photo and video gallery

I n t e rv i e w / T e l e c o m p e r s o n o f t h e y e a r

‘As the ecosystem develops 4G proliferation will happen in smaller areas’

—Sanjay Kapoor CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti airtel

He is best described as the ‘principal architect’ for Bharti’s western India operations. During his 14-year stint with the company, Sanjay Kapoor took up different responsibilities and finally, reached the helm of affairs in March 2010.

After playing a vital role in new operations, he took up the responsibility of group director corporate strategy and planning in 2002, and joined Bharti airtel’s mobile services as president in 2006.

During his tenure Sanjay created a strategic blueprint for the telecom group and managed its early deployment. He managed to add more than 70 mn customers to reach over 93 mn customers in March 2009, gaining an incremental market share of nearly 4%.

In March 2009, he was elevated from president mobile services to a newly created position of deputy CEO, and in 2010 he became the CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti airtel.

As the CEO, Sanjay launched airtel’s new brand identity, integrated Sri Lanka and Bangladesh operations with rest of South Asia, and implemented shared services model, among others.

Recently VOICE&DATA felicitated Kapoor as the Telecom Person of the Year. In an interview with the magazine, he spoke about his achievements, mobile money plans, reverse mentoring program, LTE strategy, and regulatory challenges. Excerpts— 88 | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

W

hen you were elevated to be the CEO of India’s largest telecom company, what were your thoughts and agenda for the company?

We were stepping into a structural change in the industry, moving into hyper competition and there were opportunities to be explored. We had done Sri Lanka and were acquiring Warid in Bangladesh and Zain in Africa. We were resetting our vision for 2010 and created a new vision with the leadership team as the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions.

For the first time there was power in

of networks, Ip-fication of microwave, and creating heterogeneous network.

We have around 40 mn data users and around 4 mn 3G users and the base is growing every month. We are the first operator to venture out for 4G. We have done fairly well on these things and no matter how large we become we have retained the spirit of a young company.

How would you rate your 14-year stint with Bharti Airtel?

I would probably rate it as the best years of my profession as this has been the most rewarding time. I have grown professionally and matured as a business leader. I have seen telecom going through ups and

We have done fairly well on many things and no matter how large we become we have retained the spirit of a young company the vision and airtel as a brand was alive, inclusive and respectable. We had dovetailed our vision into the strategy and it was consumer and business facing ie, B2C and B2B. So from August 2011, we had more synergies since we had a common face to our consumer.

Change is significantly hitting the world and India. Data will explode in the country and change the social engine. In data, one has to focus on capabilities, eco-system, and partnership.

In this brief period, how successful have you been in fulfilling your goals?

We have gained unprecedented ground in the last 2 quarters. As far as the brand is concerned, it is appealing to an 18-yearold and we have executed brilliant brand campaigns like ‘har friend hai jaroori’ and ‘joh tera hai woh mera hai.’

Programs like ‘Reverse Mentoring’ and ‘Young Leaders Program’ are changing the look and feel of the organization. We are pushing data and internet. In case of 3G, we are present in 13 circles and intra-circle roaming through operators. We were making networks future ready by back-hauling

downs and have worked with visionaries like SBM (Sunil Bharti Mittal), an entrepreneur best in the world.

What are some of the unfinished agendas which you plan to complete?

The telecom industry redefines every 5 to 7 years. Data is an unfinished agenda and one will see a great upside on data.

The telecom industry has not only reshaped, but it has reshaped other industries—financial, education, healthcare, entertainment, and advertisement. airtel Money is an unfinished agenda and that is a great business coming up.

Even on voice, one will see consolidation. We have 50% penetration and 50% is still unserved and rural penetration is less than 35%.

Many of the industries are underserved, so the whole work of enriching lives is in progress. We have to nurture so many opportunities, so many challenges, and so much talent.

What have been some of your achievements in Bharti airtel?

Leaders can’t take credit as it was all

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JANUARY 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 89

I n t e rv i e w / T e l e c o m p e r s o n o f t h e y e a r

team work. We have the finest team in the telecom industry in terms of collective wisdom and hard work. What is important is we didn’t have 100,000 customers long long ago. So, from one city we moved to a pan India operator.

We took the customer base from 18-19 mn to 100 mn customers with increase in more than 8% revenue share. We diversified Bharti outside India and added DTH. We implemented the new vision and shaped the agenda for data.

Bharti airtel was the first to launch 4G services in the country by launching services in Kolkata, Bangalore, and Pune.

How do you plan to scale it up as we are only seeing city based launches and not circle based launches?

Data play is pan India and we will roll out in other cities as and when it is ready. We will focus on 4 circles of Qualcomm. We have been shaping 4G and as the eco-system develops 4G proliferation will happen in smaller areas.

How is the Reverse Mentoring program helping Bharti airtel?

We have the reverse mentoring program and the young leader program running simultaneously. Around 120-130 leaders in Bharti airtel have opted for reverse mentoring. The top management benefits in terms of experience and sharing of ideas. It also helps the management in taking quick decisions as these young people are tomorrow’s consumers. The Spark Plug program also gets people from different geographies, different divisions at one location which gives a lot of exposure and creates entrepreneur culture in the organization.

Bharti airtel is the only operator to launch mobile money pan India. How has been the response for this service?

We have been in the process of transformation and have launched semi closed wallet and also bank wallet. FIs, banks, and governments can improve financial inclusion through mobile money. Presently, electricity bills, cinema bills, toll, merchandise, home delivery, and cooperatives payments are made through

Hobbies

Music and Traveling

Favorite book

Higher than Everest by Major HPS Ahluwalia Jack Welch (for sheer consistency over a long-period of

Role Model

time) and Steve Jobs (for innovation, customer experience, and execution)

Ideal holiday destination Favorite movie (Hollywood/Bollywood)

Kashmir and Amsterdam 3 Idiots and Pretty Woman

airtel Money. It is an alternate for cash economy and there is a huge value by enriching lives of customers.

Bharti has done extremely well in the first phase of the Indian telecom revolution by being the number 1 voice operator. How are you planning to move in the second phase by becoming the number 1 operator in broadband?

We are agnostic to technology as data is about customer experience. The operator with the most robust customer experience will be the winner. We have enhanced and differentiated our customer experience. Success will depend on best customer experience and we have our eyes on content, application and technology.

Though the company is doing great overall including increase in revenue and subscriber base, net profit has been an issue for the last few quarters.

What do you think are the causes and what are your strategic measures to tackle this?

It is an industry issue and it is difficult to cover up with optimization and costcutting. Many operators had 10-year tax holiday and the tax structure has been going up. In India more than 30% goes to the exchequer, which is highest in the world. This industry has the potential in terms of rural India and data infancy and one needs lots of spectrum for building

For more related articles go to voicendata.com

90 | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

digital India. The whole thing becomes a question mark if spectrum is available at this price. The uncertainty needs to die down and certainty needs to return.

We need a lot more investment and sustainability of industry in terms of newer technology and digitization of virtual infrastructure.

Had you been the telecom minister, what regulatory changes would you have liked done?

I don’t envy his job. On the regulatory policy, we need more certainty and more sustainability. The regulator should focus on protecting consumer interest and ensuring profitability of service provider.

As an industry leader, what do you think are the missing links in the Indian telecom ecosystem?

The government has announced its broadband initiative. A clear roadmap needs to be announced on how we will get the virtual infrastructure which will benefit consumer and economy. Broadband has a multiplier effect and we need to execute it well. We need lot of spectrum for the competitiveness of India Inc because in future they will compete in physical infrastructure.

On a personal note, what do you do when you are not thinking about airtel?

I seldom ‘don’t think’ about airtel...I spend my time with my family and listen to music.

Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

I n t e r v i e w / e m e r g i n g c o m pa n y o f t h e y e a r

Armed with the vision of making it big in the wireless broadband arena, Prakash Bajpai launched Tikona Digital Networks in 2008. While everyone was scrambling for voice spectrum, Bajpai vouched for wireless broadband and in a span of 4.5 years, the company expanded in 25 cities, with a capacity of 1.6 mn fixed broadband users.

Of course Bajpai’s rich IT and telecom experience and his stint with IBM, Phillips, Tata Telecom, AT&T Network Systems, Tata Lucent Technologies among others helped him to spearhead the company. But challenges for the man, who pioneered India’s first integrated broadband network in Maharashtra and Goa in Hughes Telecom, were many.

And now, with investment of `1,000 crore in the pipeline for LTE, one thing is certain, that there is no looking back for him.

Recently, Tikona Digital Networks was awarded the emerging company of the year by VOICE&DATA magazine.

In an interview with the publication, Bajpai speaks about his journey, network coverage, investment, and LTE plans.

Excerpts—

—Prakash Bajpai founder, MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks

‘We have begun an exciting journey and have a long way to go’

Y

ou are a strong believer in broadbanding India and that’s the reason you formed Tikona Digital Networks. How has been the journey so far?

The journey has been full of challenges in terms of taming the technology to deliver better than wireline quality and capacity over unlicenced wireless network, and building a strong technical support for the ever-demanding internet customers.

But, I look back with satisfaction that Tikona has built a strong foundation for growth and successfully accomplished an audacious and unprecedented task.

In the last 3 years of commercial operations, the company has rolled out wireless broadband network in 25 top cities, with a capacity of 1.6 mn fixed broadband users on a network of 40,000 base stations, making it one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world.

Tikona now delivers 2 Mbps and 4

92 | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Mbps wireless broadband connections in the market. We have recently launched 10 Mbps services to select premium buildings by invitation.

What were the thoughts going through your mind when you started Tikona?

I was fortunate to be in the middle of an exciting telecom revolution of the last decade.

When mobile telephony and its phenomenal success established India as one of the biggest telecom markets in the world, I had

sensed that as the headroom for growth of voice telephony narrows down, there is going to be much bigger opportunity in the wireless data growth as the broadband penetration in India continues to remain low.

Due to lack of wireline infrastructure, maximum growth would be derived from wireless as compared to traditional capital intensive wireline networks.

How did you manage to wade through the challenges?

We were confronted with questions like: How to build a large retail broadband data capacity equivalent to fiber based wireline networks? How to build lowest cost data

Can you give us a detailed picture of your network, coverage, total customers, ARPU? Tikona wireless broadband network offers coverage in top 25 cities with 40,000 outdoor Wi-Fi base stations, equipped with smart antenna and beam steering 4G technologies.

Core network comprises of over 700 fiber nodes which can scale up to STM-64 capacity to meet the future growth of internet/data traffic. The unique micro-cell architecture provides a strong RF penetration which is very essential for providing high-speed internet connections.

Conventional large macro-cell located

The company plans to build 4G LTE mobile broadband network in all 5 circles, with plans to invest `1,000 crore in the next 3-4 years factory to produce affordable retail prices for home and SMB segment? How to create full mobility broadband architecture at a fractional cost to enable hundreds of millions of smartphone users, which are likely to grow exponentially, and perhaps make India the biggest mobile data market in this decade?

But then, team Tikona conceived of an unprecedented and innovative model to meet the above challenges by using both unlicenced Wi-Fi band as well as licenced 4G LTE spectrum. This unique strategy to leverage 4G LTE and Wi-Fi combination allowed Tikona to offer end-to-end suite of fixed and mobile broadband services, including fixed broadband for multiple users as well as LTE dongles, smartphones for full mobility applications.

on mobile towers would not achieve even a fraction of Tikona network performance.

Tikona has not only built this unique and innovative high capacity network architecture (large data factory), but has managed to bring down the cost structure to a fraction of conventional mobile data networks.

Consequently, we offer broadband capacity at a very affordable band of 2 paisa to 5 paisa per MB. Average Tikona customer consumes about 12 GB of internet data every month. Tikona has over 2,75,000 retail and SMB customers, besides over 400 large enterprise customers.

ARPU for retail home customer is `500-550 per month. SMB and enterprise customer range varies from `1,200 to `10,000 per month.

Are you planning to pump in more money in the next 2-3 years?

We have invested over `600 crore in the wireless broadband network and has additionally acquired 4G BWA spectrum in 5 circles, covering a population of 300 mn. The company plans to build 4G LTE mobile broadband network in all 5 circles, with plans to invest `1,000 crore in the next 3-4 years.

Everybody was hoping that Tikona will be the first operator to launch 4G services in the country. What went wrong?

LTE is already the technology of choice globally to build 4G networks and its eco-system is fast developing on the back of contemporary investments by all leading global telcos. Fortunately, countries like China, India, Australia Hobbies:

Table Tennis and Chess

and several others have finalized on LTE-TDD standards and will be investing in 2,300 MHz spectrum band, which will lead to availability of LTE devices at a very affordable price points in the near term.

Tikona remains enthusiastic about LTEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in spearheading internet revolution in India and will invest in LTE network from 2013 onwards as the eco-system gets ready.

As an industry leader, what do you think are the missing links in the Indian telecom ecosystem?

As I mentioned the device eco-system is very crucial. Large telcos in India have committed to 2,300 MHz band and LTE-TDD standard.

My sense is that 20 MHz licenced spectrum is going to be woefully short to meet the exploding data traffic future demands in terms of capacity and licenced spectrum would be too expensive to build affordable retail capacity. Therefore, there is a need to identify more spectrum bands which can be delicenced which will allow service operators to build macro and micro cell architecture to build coverage and capacity and cost points low enough to trigger the inflexion point. Combination of LTE and Wi-Fi shall be the most effective strategy.

On a personal note, how do spend your leisure time?

Relax with family but somehow thoughts of Tikona do not fade away completely.

What are your future plans with respect to Tikona Digital Networks?

Build a role model of a service company and achieve customer service excellence.

Unlike prepaid mobile service internet and data networking services require a lot of technical handholding, while supporting the clients.

Customers expect a seamless experience and will demand speed, service, security and savingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;4S, Tikona model of service excellence. We have begun an exciting journey and have a long way to go.

Any professional regrets so far?

None.

Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | JANUARY 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 93

I n t e rv i e w / c t o O F T H E y E A R

Anil Tandan joined Idea Cellular in 2001 and has been the group chief technology officer since April 2003. He has driven the network growth of the company from 8 circle operations to pan-India.

He has been associated with the GSM industry for the last 10 years, starting from Fascel Gujarat (now Vodafone Gujarat) and as CTO of Tata Cellular in AP. An MTech from IIT, Kharagpur, in microwave and radar technologies, Tandan has vast experience in the field of telecommunications and has served in the Corps of Signals of the Indian Army for 30 years before he took premature retirement as a Brigadier in 1998.

For his commendable performance, VOICE&DATA recently felicitated him with the ‘CTO of the Year’ award. Anil Tandan took out time and spoke on his achievements, network planning secret, innovation, and new initiatives.

Excerpts—

—Anil Tandan chief technology officer, Idea Cellular

‘Idea has been pioneering projects which use alternate and renewable energy’

W

hen you were elevated as the CTO, Idea Cellular, what were your thoughts and agenda for the company?

When I became the CTO of Idea, it was a regional player with operations in only 5 circles. The company’s operations were being brought under one entity, as a result of merger of 3 companies. Four of these circles were on 900 MHz spectrum, and the fifth, Delhi, had just been launched

on 1,800 MHz band in the year 2002. My initial agenda was to bring all the merged entities onto a common technology platform, with common processes and vibrant culture to effectively absorb people from different backgrounds. Idea was the first operator to launch GPRS in Delhi in 2002 and introduction of data in various markets was another area of focus.

A key expectation from network team was to achieve optimal utilization of the existing assets. And, obviously, as a

96 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

company the dream was to become a big player with a pan-India foot print.

In this brief period, how successful have you been in fulfilling your agenda?

My tenure as the CTO of Idea spans almost a decade, ever since I took up this assignment in 2003. The journey from those days to today’s pan-India network operations has been very eventful, rewarding, and hugely fulfilling. It has been a stepby-step, meticulous process of creating

the network of the 3rd largest operator in India with pan-India 2G presence and 3G networks in 10 service areas. Today, we cover the largest geography with 3G services in India, and the highest 3G data download amongst all operators.

From a pure mobility player to building NLD, ILD, and ISP operations and managing them as separate businesses, has helped me learn and understand the intricacies of long distance business. With the vast OFC network, we are in a position to build and support Idea’s offerings in the enterprise business.

What were some of your achievements in Idea? How would you rate your stint in Idea Cellular?

I feel that one of the main challenges and achievements has been building a pan-India 2G network in a short time, as we were a late entrant in many markets.

From just 4,700 sites in March 2006 to 89,000 2G and over 15,000 3G sites, we have emerged as a stronger and larger

experience in 3G. We delivered the 3G network across the largest geographic area with speed and agility. This meant building an extensive IP transmission network to cater for the rapid jump in data growth. This included transforming the TDM based microwave network into an all IP network and increasing the fiber based backhaul, mainly in the towns where we were launching 3G. Idea Cellular has focused a lot on innovation and employee retention. How has this helped in improving Idea’s QoS on both 2G and 3G network?

Since Idea is not on the managed services concept in most circles, it is essential that the manpower is kept constantly technically upgraded and motivated to deliver a high-quality network. With decentralized operations at the circle level, the network team members get a lot of opportunity to innovate at the circle level. We share the best practices across other circles for implementation. All this coupled with the

Nearly all our 2G and 3G data requirement are handled by our ISP set-up, which was established less than 18 months ago player, now ranked amongst Top 3 in India and indeed among Top 10 in the world in terms of traffic. Our strong network footprint has given Idea a competitive edge, and this has been made possible with the support of the entire team.

To be competitive in this fast evolving industry, we started building our NLD, ILD and ISP network and operations from scratch, in 2007. Today, we have over 70,000 km of OFC, which carries all our domestic and international long distance traffic (voice and data) from our own network. Nearly all our 2G and 3G data requirement are handled by our ISP set-up, which was established less than 18 months ago.

Introducing a new technology—3G— was another challenge especially since Idea did not have any partner or prior

motivation, passion, and commitment of the Idea team has helped it to maintain a very high-quality network.

Idea Cellular was one of the first few operators to do pilots on using new and renewable energy. What is the progress on adoption of clean and green energy for sites?

Idea has been pioneering projects which use alternate and renewable energy. We launched our first initiative in 2005-06, along with GSMA in using biodegradable fuels for DG sets in Andhra Pradesh. Currently, we have over 450 sites running on solar with DG backup. In addition, we have nearly 10 sites as solar–hydrogen fuel hybrid, which do not have DG sets at all.

Hobbies

Playing Golf

Our unique project has been introduction of 25 hydrogen fuel cell sites in Madhya Pradesh, which is the first in India.

What are the new initiatives taken by Idea Cellular under your leadership?

The major focus has been to introduce the latest in technology into our network as soon as they became available. In this regard, we were the first to launch GPRS and even online data charging. OFC and IP based transmission build out has been a major initiative which has really made the company ready for the data tsunami, when it happens. We are the first to have launched 100 G network.

Some of the other initiatives have been the setting up of a centralized NOC for transmission and IP, creating a hub architecture for IN and Packet Core with built-in redundancy, re-engineering the signaling architecture with a separate signaling network and automation of performance monitoring. Focus on alternate energy resources and improving the skillset of the team have also borne good results for the company.

It’s been seen that over the years the QoS has deteriorated across cellular networks, moreover, it gets worse when users move from 2G to 3G. What are your recommendations to improve QoS? Maintaining QoS in an environment where spectrum availability is limited is a challenge for every network head. Idea QoS has consistently improved over the last 3 years, in spite of the perception that there has been deterioration across the networks. Apart from the paltry 4.4 MHz allotted to Indian operators as start-up spectrum as compared to global average of 17 MHz of GSM spectrum; non-availability of sites; uncertain municipal laws; and the recent totally unfounded health scare due to radiation, are issues which directly impact network QoS. Initial user experience in 3G network may not have been as robust as the existing 2G network experience. However with the expansion of 3G sites, this will be a thing of the past.

Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication | voicendata.com | January 2013 | VOICE&DATA | 97

Persp e c t i v e

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make

2013 Cheerful!

2012 was gloomy, but letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s try to make 2013 cheerful! Not an easy task but if everybody does their bit it can be achieved.

I believe that to make the telecom industry cheerful, the government and the regulator should play a proactive role.

The government should be seen as pro-industry and should focus on how to achieve the objectives of NTP 2012. This mammoth task would not be achieved, be it on broadband or manufacturing, unless and until the government lays down phase-wise implementation of all the key objectives enshrined in NTP 2012.

The government should open up new frequency bands so that the industry can plan its activities in a comprehensive way. All this will help operators to plan their 2G, 3G, and 4G expansion in a planned way so that quality of service can improve and we do not get frequent call drops and there is a lot of clarity on voice and data. Somebody said that the industry needs more band than bandwidth if they plan to achieve broadband targets.

The much-publicized NOFN (national optical fiber network) needs to gain momentum and the government should roll out NOFN projects in full swing in the first quarter of 2013 so that we can see the infrastructure in place. All this will help service providers and VAS community to provide applications to rural community once the infrastructure is in place. Not only this, the operators can also get pipes to increase rural teledensity from present 35% to make it at par with urban teledensity.

Regulator needs to do a balancing act and needs to focus on consumer interest as well as industry interest without hurting anybody. The regulator needs to focus on roaming, mergers and acquisitions, and spectrum licencing in a more liberal manner so that the industry can come out of the crisis rather than help in creating another crisis. They have to relook at things which have not worked for them and then come up with plans which will help the industry move forward. More focus should be on how we plan to meet the broadband numbers quickly so that India can catch up with other developing economies.

At the same time, the service provider has to do a lot in 2013. The operator has to focus a lot on back-hauling and IP-fication of the network as all future networks be it 3G or 4G will be dependent on this infrastructure. If the infrastructure is not robust, the operators will not be able to provide quality voice and data to consumer and businesses. To make 3G and 4G successful, the operators need to be open minded so that they can tie up with application providers on a long-term basis as sustainability of future infrastructure will depend on what suite of applications are being provided to cater to different cross section of users be it consumers or business users.

Service providers should learn from 3G launches in the past and launch 4G services in cities where they can provide quality service at affordable cost and also provide good quality content which can attract users to latch on to 4G service. On the fixed side, operators will move towards NGN technologies. Focus would also be on FTTx technologies as this will help in providing quality speeds to end consumer while at home or at office. Entertainment will get a facelift with city and gram panchayat fiberization.

All this will help in benefiting consumers on the broadband side but we will see an increase in voice tariff. Consumers will also get increased quality of service for both voice as well as data and will also benefit from convergence of devices and convergence of technologies.

Pravin Prashant pravinp@cybermedia.co.in

98 | VOICE&DATA | JANUARY 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

Inclusive Connectivity: A LT E R N A T I V E E N E R G Y

Empowering India’s Women in Every Walk of Life Putting India First

32°C

12

Indus’ connectivity has enabled India’s women to not only change their lives, but also the lives of their family, village, community and nation, as the impact of providing opportunity to a woman offers lasting sustainable systemic change.

Mobile technology and reach have the potential to change lives, and even more so when they are in the hands of India’s women, giving them a greater sense of independence, security, confidence and ownership of their own lives and better prospects for those whose lives they touch.

64 | VOICE&DATA | January 2013 | voicendata.com | A CyberMedia Publication

we transform lives by enabling communication

www.industowers.com