By K.K. Sharma, Hub Networks Head (Mobility and ISP), Videocon Telecom Limited 

Telecommunication technologies are constantly evolving and undergoing continuous innovations across the world. Since the commercial deployment of mobile networks and services began in India in 1995, there has been phenomenal growth in this area on a year-on-year basis. Usage profiles have undergone a dramatic change from voice-centric services to data/internet-based services. Nearly all operators in India have seen around 30 per cent growth in data usage on a yearly basis over the past three years or so, and further growth in data is inevitable. The time is not far when individual customers would need around 40 Mbps of data speed to meet their data/internet requirements. 

Telecom service portfolios can be further classified into spectrum-based and non-spectrum-based services. It has been noticed that non-spectrum-based telecom technologies have nearly the same usage and revenue shares as that of spectrum-based technologies. Many companies are thriving on their non-spectrum-based service portfolio, which is expected to reach around $100 billion by 2020. 

The future telecom technology trends and landscape can be categorised as follows: 

4G/LTE to 5G migration plans

Large technology companies have started discussing 5G radio access (OFDMA/S-CDMA) technologies after realising that 4G/long term evolution (LTE) is already at the commercial deployment stage across various countries and networks. From 2015 to 2020, the world will see 4G/LTE deployments on a larger scale as well as maturity in its usage through mass deployments and evolving device ecosystems. During this period, 5G trials are expected to be carried out by major technology companies. From 2020 onwards, 5G products and services will start appearing on the landscape to meet the requirements of connectivity of things and internet of things rather than only user/subscriber data experience. 

In 4G/LTE technology, frequency division duplex (FDD) has been considered the preferred choice as compared to time-division duplex-LTE and companies are migrating from TDD to FDD because of the latter’s better ecosystem and use for specific applications. In the meantime, the 1800 MHz band (3GPP Band3) has been emerging as the most popular band for LTE deployment across various networks. 

Carrier-grade Wi-Fi services

Spectrum-based radio access technology cannot provide large bandwidths, particularly in clusters or areas with static requirements of access bandwidth, and hence, carrier-grade Wi-Fi for nomadic use is the only viable option for large bandwidth requirements. In addition, seamless handovers to cellular networks through Wi-Fi hotspots and other means are being largely taken up across different networks and technologies.

Hotspots like malls, hotels, hospitals and tourist areas are all proposed to be covered with carrier-grade Wi-Fi for the provision of large bandwidth experience and the facility of seamless cellular handover. It has been further noticed that 80 per cent of data service usage happens when the customer is stationary, either at home, in shops, offices or shopping malls, etc., which further justifies the coverage of all important hotspot locations with secure Wi-Fi. 

Network virtualisation and SDN

Network function virtualisation (NFV) and software defined networks (SDN) are the concepts being advocated by all large IT companies for the future. NFV is a network architecture that proposes the use of network virtualisation technology to virtualise the control and signalling plane-based network node functions. The concept is currently more prevalent for the implementation of data centre virtualisation; however, it is also being explored for using mobile switching centres, signalling transfer point nodes, session border controllers, firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention devices and systems, and wide area network nodes, among other aspects. 

SDN enables networks to separate the bearer plane from the control and management planes for better optimisation of network resources, improved service innovations, and to enable service-driven virtual networks. Cloud storage, cloud-based data centres, cloud-based radio access networks, and network virtualisation are being promoted so that capex and opex investments and time-to-market can be minimised and operators can realise secure cloud-based services. 

Non-spectrum-based telecom services

Non-spectrum-based services for access networks and application-based client services on handsets, laptops, tablets, etc. are also being demonstrated in a big way and many companies are doing good business in this regard. Work related to the Smart Cities programme, including smart power utility meters with embedded SIMs, embedded modem features, intelligent traffic monitoring and controls, efficient crowd management systems and connectivity of things, are under implementation across various countries and will begin to witness in India as well. This is in line with the vision of the Indian government, which has proposed 100 cities across India to be converted into smart cities in the near future. 

Value-added services (VAS) for value enhancement and customer experience enrichment are the other non-spectrum-based services that are growing rapidly. At present, 12-15 per cent of operator revenues come from VAS offerings, and its proportion is growing.  

Note: The views expressed above are personal and have been collated from various study materials, workshops and exhibitions.