Hitesh Lokhandwala, Managing Director, Nortel India

Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India, has chalked out an ambitious growth path for the company, with a strong focus on enterprise networking, Wi-Max and 4G technology. Excerpts from a recent interview with tele.net...

India represents one of the fastest growing mobile opportunities worldwide. Given the explosion in the number of subscribers, especially in rural areas, the number one priority is to support operators in the rollout of more network capacity to cope with that demand. As users demand higher bandwidth-driven services, operators are faced with some tough economic decisions. The economics of 3G have not proved successful in many parts of the world and, in a country with low revenue per user, the business case is difficult to prove. Nortel is working on a number of scenarios with our customers, including the introduction of evolved EDGE technology in the short term-providing 3G-like services at a fraction of the cost and without the need for new and costly radio spectrum and infrastructure-with an evolution in three-four years to the fourth-generation technology, LTE.With this strategy, operators can offer the services and speeds users require today and in the future, with a very cost-effective upgrade path. In tandem, we are also deploying Wi-Max networks where specific requirements for high speed broadband access cannot be satisfied by 2G networks, or where the economics of providing basic access are better served.

Today's data centres have very high power consumption and cooling requirements. Skyrocketing energy consumption poses a serious challenge to the environment. As a result, the IT world in India has begun realising the need for the "greening of IT".

Another trend that is rapidly gathering steam is wireless connectivity. Enterprises have gone wireless and all portable devices have embedded wireless technologies. As India moves towards a "wire-free" world, in 2008, beyond doubt, we are going to witness more technology development. The upcoming 802.11n will redefine enterprise networking in the coming year. Fixed mobile convergence (FMC) will tie fixed and mobile networks to deliver an enhanced user experience. The year 2008 is expected to be the year of mobile Wi-Max as well.

Nortel is also backing the hyperconnectivity trend which we had predicted sometime back and which has already become a reality. In a recent study that we commissioned with global analyst firm IDC, we asked almost 2,400 knowledge workers in 17 countries around the globe-including India-about how they are currently connected to the network, through which devices and which applications. Through this study, we found that 16 per cent of those surveyed are already hyperconnected, meaning they use at least seven different connected devices for work and personal use, and that they access at least nine different types of applications–IM, text, web conferencing, etc. And that number is set to increase to 40 per cent in the next two years.

Hyperconnectivity represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to provide the infrastructure and applications that will support the requirements and needs of this increasingly connected generation. The opportunity lies in the way in which we can improve business efficiencies through greater speed, more integration and intelligence of applications with the network. Nortel is ideally positioned to help customers meet the challenge.

Unified communications (UC) and nextgeneration wireless broadband are the key focus areas for Nortel in India. Our enterprise business is growing ahead of the market globally and we are working closely with industry heavyweights Microsoft and IBM to deliver a compelling UC solution to all enterprises, regardless of their desktop preferences.

Nortel has a long history of employing UC in its own global network. Eighty-five per cent of our employees are enabled to telework through VPN, including IP telephony access, which has cut our telephony costs by over 50 per cent. Our UC network handles 34 million voice minutes, 20 million minutes of audio conferencing, 1.3 million minutes of video conferencing and 34 million emails every month. We could no longer operate effectively as a company without UC.

The wireless broadband space is fundamental to the evolution of the hyperconnected world. The explosion of video, the phenomenal growth of sites like YouTube, the social networking phenomenon, the music download industry – all these are driving massive bandwidth requirements, and users want to do all of this as effectively on the move as when they are sitting at their desk. India may not be among the frontrunners in demand for mobile broadband yet, but that demand is coming fast.

Though India's mobile subscriber base is accelerating at tremendous speed, there is still no sign of new mobile spectrum arriving. So, we are eagerly awaiting a decision on spectrum which will allow us to accelerate the deployment of mobile networks.

Connectivity is still concentrated in urban India with rural India being largely ignored. Whilst this could be viewed as a challenge to the industry, Nortel believes rural India holds immense potential.With saturation in the urban market, growth in the Indian mobile market will be driven by an increased focus on the rural market, aggressive promotions and handset bundled offers. The major growth in mobile phone subscribers will be seen in C and B circles in the short term. Rural India will account for 35-38 per cent of the total mobile handset sales by 2010.

Mumbai International Airport Private Limited wished to consolidate the majority of its data, telephony and video systems onto a Nortel-converged wired and wireless IP-based network. This network would help Mumbai International Airport to achieve global levels of efficient service. Other international airports like Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad are also using Nortel's data solutions. More recently, Nortel supported Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's (BSNL) southern GSM network expansion with an aggressive rollout schedule, establishing the widest reach of any wireless network provider in India.

In India, Nortel is a leader in the UC space. Nortel has also partnered with both Polycom and Tandberg in India to offer a seamless, managed telepresence experience to enterprises across the country. It has designed its entire strategy around distribution and channel partners exclusively. Some of Nortel's premier partners in India are 3D-Wipro, HP, IBM, Orange Business Services, Spanco and TVSNet. Nortel has successfully deployed solutions across the aviation/airport, ITeS/IT and BFSI industries in India. The year ahead holds a distinct focus on the hospitality, media and entertainment business verticals.

Sierra Atlantic: Sierra Atlantic needed to deploy a state-of-the-art data network that would cater to present needs as well as provide the backbone for future applications and expansion plans in the Indian region. It chose Nortel's data solution.

Firstsource: Nortel's Self Service Solution integrated easily with the exisiting call centre infrastructure, enabling Firstsource to implement the latest advancements in self-service technologies and applications.

i-flex: i-flex needed an end-to-end IP telephony solution as well as a UC solution for its campus in Mumbai. Nortel's data solution demonstrated superior redundancy and high throughput at the core.

In June this year, Nortel and Alvarion entered into a strategic joint Wi-Max agreement to create an end-to-end Wi-Max solution to meet the needs of the wireless broadband market. The Nortel and Alvarion mobile Wi-Max solution is expected to combine industry-leading technologies from both companies to allow operators around the globe to simply and efficiently deliver high speed wireless broadband for a variety of applications including VOIP, streaming music and high definition video.

The joint solution features the integration of Alvarion's advanced radio access network technology, proven in over 200 commercial Wi-Max deployments, with Nortel's core network solutions, backhaul solutions and Nortel Global Services for Wi-Max.

How has Nortel benefited from its collaboration with Microsoft? How do you intend to leverage this in the future?

On the UC front, Nortel works closely with both IBM and Microsoft. The alliance with Microsoft is called Innovative Communications Alliance. Microsoft and Nortel recently announced the availability of four new joint UC solutions designed to transform how people around the world connect, communicate and collaborate. The joint products include the Converged Office Unified Communications suite, Multimedia Conferencing, and solutions for branch offices and hosted service providers. With these solutions, enterprises can choose to deploy unified communications via a customer premises solution, managed service solution, or a hybrid of the two. Going ahead, Nortel and Microsoft plan to focus attention on delivering solutions that will include fully hosted unified communications and contact centre integration which will provide the same user experience as the on-premise Converged Office solution.