Ron Resnick, President, WiMax Forum

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Ron Resnick, President, WiMax Forum

November 15, 2008

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Key members of the Wi-Max Forum were in Delhi recently for India's first global Wi-Max Exposition, "Transforming Narrowband India to Broadband India with Internet Airborne". The delegates and speakers discussed the global status of the Wi-Max industry, Wi-Max evolution for mobile broadband and opportunities in India. Ron Resnick, president, WiMax Forum, spoke to tele.net on the major issues. Excerpts...

What are the key opportunities for Wi-Max in India?

According to a study by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), implementation of Wi-Max services has helped in increasing Brazil's GDP. It will be the same for India. Wi-Max will enable increased opportunities in terms of enhancing education proliferation (via applications such as eeducation), improving health services, and enabling widespread availability of e-governance services. In India, WiMax will enable the replication of the mobile success in the broadband space.

A few years ago, the idea of Wi-Max had yet to mature.However, India is now ready for licensed Wi-Max spectrum, which has allowed the technology to become a realistic opportunity for the country in the future. Wi-Max is very competitive compared to certain voice cellular systems today and opens the door for more competition.

Wi-Max is also a great standardised bridging solution between the last mile and the wide access network (WAN). It can be used for a number of applications, including last mile broadband connections, hotspot and high speed enterprise connectivity for businesses.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Wi-Max in India compared to other technologies such as EVDO Rev. A and HSDPA?

The 3G camp will have you think that there are no advantages of Wi-Max vis-Ã vis the other technologies. However, this is not true. I am a salesman and I will sell whatever is commercially viable. Hence, common sense has it that if Wi-Max isn't a good product to sell, I would not sell it.Instead I would sell 3G.

Importantly, one can deploy Wi-Max at half the cost and get three times the throughput that high speed packet access (HSPA) can provide. Moreover, HSPA is not scalable with the addition of more users. Wi-Max, however, can keep adding more and more users and supporting them. It uses multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technology, which allows efficient usage of channel bandwidth, much more than HSPA can accommodate.

Moreover, since Wi-Max functions in a licensed band, an operator has the freedom of using his band freely without worries with regard to interference. Since the network is controlled by the operator, the quality of services provided to the end-customer is guaranteed.The Wi-Max standard also takes care of security issues. The operator has the freedom to use the security features built in, in addition to the various features that are part of any operator's core network. So the end-customer is relatively free from worries of unencrypted data.

Since the solutions can be easily scaled to suit local spectrum allocations, all emerging markets can grow and catch up with the developed countries on broadband penetration in a relatively short time and at an affordable cost.

What sort of business model should operators adopt in order to make money from WiMax in India? How will operators take Wi-Max to rural India?

In India, the Tatas have launched Wi-Max services using the 3.3 GHz frequency band for enterprises. Mobile Wi-Max on the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands will comprise the consumer model. In order to achieve WiMax user targets of 27.5 million users by 2012, one must change over to using a retail model.

For catering to consumers, one can use prepaid cards as is done in the US. This is very affordable, and consumers can check their mail quickly and download data in less than five minutes.

For rural areas, operators can use a kiosk model. This is a low-cost model which will attract users with low purchasing power. The government has already got a model for connecting common service centres in rural areas using wireless broadband.

What are the Wi-Max industry's main concerns with respect to the Indian market?What further government initiatives are needed to improve Wi-Max adoption and penetration in the country?

We have seen extreme resistance in the international market for Wi-Max with large telecom operators resisting the approval of Wi-Max standards. Though the Indian market holds tremendous potential for Wi-Max services, the government must auction Wi-Max spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz frequency bands. It would be a big loss if the 3G auction did not include Wi-Max in January 2009. There must be technological neutrality in the market. In India, the government has to look at what's good for them as there will be people who would do everything they can to slow down the auction.The 3G camp is trying to confuse the industry by stating that they must wait for long term evolution (LTE) technology.

The government must also allocate adequate quantities of spectrum. Sprint Nextel has 120 MHz of spectrum. However, though we hope to see larger quantities of spectrum handed out in the future, 20 MHz of spectrum is enough to get things started. All in all, we are looking forward to the spectrum auction as planned.This must get carried out as planned.

Do you expect the global financial crisis to affect Wi-Max's prospects in India and other countries?

When the 1929 depression happened, people turned to movies and entertainment to lift their spirits. They would switch on their radios. Now, they can switch to the internet. Wi-Max enables cheap downloading of Bollywood movies and other such forms of entertainment. Also, at times like this people need to be kept well informed, which is also enabled by Wi-Max in a cost-effective manner.

Wi-Max is a safe investment, enabling the widespread availability of education, health and e-governance. Besides, as mentioned earlier, Wi-Max is likely to contribute to India's GDP.

What are the key international trends with respect to Wi-Max? How would you compare India with other South Asian countries in terms of Wi-Max uptake and potential?

There are currently 407 Wi-Max deployments in over 133 countries. There are 480 products under development and more than 60 Wi-Max vendors worldwide. There are 1,700 Wi-Max licences owned by service providers. The technology is witnessing a very high growth rate of over 25 per cent per annum. There are many mobile Wi-Max deployments coming up in countries like the US, Japan and Russia by operators such as Sprint and Startel.

India is behind Pakistan and Malaysia, which have huge deployments. Countries like Indonesia and Vietnam have also deployed Wi-Max services. As long as the Wi-Max auction takes place in India, everything will be fine. Indian operators have huge investment plans and deep pockets.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, for instance, has already deployed six WiMax lines in 10 cities across India and has plans for major mobile Wi-Max rollouts.The company intends to reach 6,400 rural villages by March 2009 and another 18,000 in the following months. The Tatas are planning to deploy consumer mobile Wi-Max in 12 cities and enterprise services in 120 cities by March 2009. Reliance plans to participate in the auction as well and deploy Wi-Max in over 100 cities by March 2010.

What is the scope for research and development in India? What more needs to be done to promote R&D in the country?

There is substantial scope for research and development in India. India is big on telecommunications. Some of the best engineering schools in the world are present here. We have announced an Indiabased application lab at IIT, Delhi. This is the third in the world after Taiwan and the US. India must study and follow international examples.

What are some of the Wi-Max Forum's upcoming initiatives?

The Wi-Max Forum has come to India for the celebration of Wi-Max. The forum has focused its efforts on driving interoperability, reliability, and economies of scale.These, in turn, lower the cost of technologies in the marketplace. The Wi-Max Forum has also launched the global roaming readiness programme, which all operators can use to implement roaming tests, specifications, etc. in India. We are carrying out trade shows in multiple countries like Brazil, the US and the Netherlands.

What are your expectations for the increase in the Wi-Max subscriber base in India?

By 2012, we forecast over 133 million WiMax users globally, of which approximately 20 per cent (that is, 27.5 million) will come from India. The Indian Wi-Max market potential is projected to be worth around $13 billion by 2012. In comparison, there are expected to be only 10-15 million LTE subscribers. "By 2012, we forecast over 133 million Wi-Max users globally, of which about 20 per cent will come from India. The Indian Wi-Max market potential is projected to be worth around $13 billion by 2012." "During the 1929 depression, people turned to entertainment to lift their spirits. Now they can switch to the internet for movies and other entertainment. Also, at such times people need to be kept well informed."