3G operators in India are gearing up to look for new
methods of mobile broadband optimization and educate customers on 3G apps to
fuel the growth of 3G
in the country.

 

The uptake of 3G in India is poor due to several
reasons. Customer understanding of 3G apps is very important. Most
high-end phones today are not consumer-friendly, so 3G apps remain
underutilized.

 

We need a segment-wise education of customers according
to individual needs for 3G growth will be fueled. Typical usage today is 2-3
MB; to take this amount to 20 MB, subscribers need to be educated more about
apps,” said Arvind Pandey, VP & head of network planning & engineering,
Idea Cellular.

 

A common complaint on 2G that has been carried forward
with respect to 3G is the network rollout. While the current 3G network is
currently being worked on by operators, in the next six months, subscribers can
expect a better 3G experience, according to Peeyush Agrawal, executive director
– Mumbai, MTNL.

 

New technologies always take time to catch up and
compelling content will push adoption. However, another reason for the slow
uptake of 3G in the country can be attributed to lack of sufficient devices.

 

There is a small amount of 3G devices available today,
and speed also needs to improve. However, with costs of devices coming down,
inter-access of the phone is set to grow by 3x-4x per year,” said Jonathan
Bill, head of Internet & Data Services, Vodafone.

 

Packages are another area where 3G still needs to catch
up in India. While there are three kinds of 3G packages that are offered the
world over, namely, Base package (dongle and high-speed access), basic and
converged broadband (ADSL + HSDPA), and premium broadband, India currently
offers only the basic package and is yet to launch other combination packages,
since it is waiting for better 3G uptake.  

 

The four key areas for successful business case for 3G
are device, apps, pricing and network,” said Sanjay Sharma, director (Sales
& Business Development), Huawei Software.

 

Subscribers need killer apps for every segment of the
market. There should also be a synergy of technologies, since there is no
single all-circle 3G player and only one – all circle BWA
player in the market today.

 

Scalability of infrastructure, OPEX expenses, and TDM
support – not concentrating solely on voice, and taking previous 2G networks
also into consideration are also important to fuel 3G uptake,” said Bhuvnesh
Sachdeva, deputy GM, DragonWave, HFCL India.

 

The industry is looking at Wi-Fi as last mile
connectivity with outdoor CPE and LTE for backhaul. Nowhere in the world has
LTE had full coverage – only in certain hotspots. Moreover, 3G is only a part
of the LTE network.

 

“The question that lingers is that will we be able to
sustain the 3G experience? The answer to that lies in spectrum efficiency,
optimization and refarming of spectrum,” said Sethumadhavan Srinivasan,
director – strategy & marketing, Huawei India.

 

LTE due to being a flat technology will also help in IP
transmission and can offload last-mile traffic – thereby solving the traffic
issue at the network level. Thus, last-mile access can also be deployed through
Wi-Fi. However, whether for LTE or Wi-Fi, more spectrum is required than what is currently available with 3G.

 

Seeing a growing amount of data migrating to the cloud,
data and network must converge and this will take place either through 4G or
HSDPA. Thus wireless convergence will definitely happen, and putting apps on
the cloud is also important for the growth of 3G and BWA. A time will come when
everything will be on the cloud and portal – and not on the mobile.

 

Some of the main characteristics of the current telco
environment today are that ROI is low, bandwidth demand is low, app strength is
shared and regulatory intrusiveness is also low. Some of the main challenges
for an MBB network today are cost, capacity, capability and coverage.

 

While MPLS and HDA are good for IP transmission, as they are open standardization
platform, total capacity management is needed. Moreover, pricing, app,
terminal, and bandwidth network are important for KSF,” said Anil Kumar Reddy,
carrier sales expert, RAD Data Communications.

 

Huge bandwidth requirement and expanding network costs
will drive costs for operators to move to IP/Ethernet backhaul or packet
backhaul. Some other key requirements in packet backhaul are TDM services, SLA
assurance, network oversubscription, timing services, and multiple base station
transport.

 

However, going forward, new growth drivers for 3G and BWA
will be low ROI, rapid bandwidth demand, rapid rate of innovation, low
regulatory role. However, the apps’ new strength will be Edge.

 

Educating customers, introducing new applications and
expanding 3G services in more towns will be the focus of 3G operators in India
in coming months.

 

By Beryl M
[email protected]