This year has been the year of many exciting ICT revelations
for the Indian telecom industry with the continuous growth in mobile
subscribers & roll out of 3G services. The telecom sector is constantly
evolving with newer technologies coming into the picture, providing better user
experience and also contributing to the national economy. We are already
witnessing a new era in communication services where data is expected to become
as important as voice. 3G services in India are set to grow in right direction.
LTE is now on the threshold of getting introduced in India and is all set to
revolutionize the Indian wireless broadband space.

 

Ericsson envisions a Networked Society – a world of 50
billion connected devices by the year 2020. The Networked Society is what
follows after the Information Society (that we are living in today). Over the
coming decades, technology advances and infrastructure evolution will change the
way we live, the way we work, the way markets function and the way societies
act. In the Networked Society, everything that benefits from a connection will
be connected. In this society, old barriers to learning, participation and
economics are broken down and we will see new models, services and solutions to
meet the global challenges we face. In the Networked Society, information and
communications technology (ICT) is converging into a universal information
infrastructure driven by the combined forces of mobility, broadband and cloud
services.

We see three big interdependent trends:

1.    Mobility and that we envision 50
billion connected devices

2.    Broadband; continued growth with 900
million mobile broadband subscriptions in 2011 and proven benefit for a
sustainable society — job creation and GDP growth

3.    The Cloud; enables new business models;
rationalizes resources by combining IT and telecom networks; new and better
services at lower prices for consumers.

There is also a continued industry focus on network capacity
and quality of services. We at Ericsson combine our strong technology
leadership position, services capabilities and global presence to provide value
to our customers.

 

Let’s look at the key technology trends expected to impact
individuals and organization.

 

3G

Ericsson believes that the successful roll out of 3G
represents a major milestone in the Indian telecom space and is a step forward
in actualizing the vision of driving communications for all thus strengthening
the socio-economic backbone of the country. With the advent of the 3G
technology better access to communications will be ensured eventually boosting
our economy in due course and with expansion of 3G technologies across the
country it will surely going to impact the lives of the people.

 

LTE

After the BWA auction in the country last year,  we expect the roll out of services in
different parts of the country in 2012. LTE technology offers a great
opportunity for wireless service providers to capitalize on the ever-increasing
demand for broadband and take advantage of the technology innovation that
improves the economics of deploying mobile broadband networks. LTE offers a
superior user experience and simplified technology for next-generation mobile
broadband. Of the estimated 5 billion people who will have broadband by 2016,
about 80 percent will be mobile broadband subscribers and the majority will
be served by High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE)
networks.

LTE will further enhance the user experience will by
offering more demanding applications such as interactive TV, mobile video
blogging, advanced games and professional services. The step towards full
mobile broadband is intuitive and simple, especially with LTE that offers
ubiquitous coverage and roaming with existing 2G and 3G networks.

 

Cloud

Many operators and service providers are scaling up their
delivery of cloud services for their global customers. Cloud computing means
that capacity is available on demand from a service provider, which means your
enterprise, can right-size IT based on actual needs. Migration to cloud
computing is an enabler for true standardization.

 

Cloud computing is likely to significantly change the way we
source services (from technical platforms to applications, infrastructure,
storage and software as a service), and will also drive transformation of
information architecture and business processes.

 

We see mainly hybrid solutions as the likely structure to
emerge for enterprises, which means a need to securely combine on-premise or
hosted infrastructure with multi-tenancy in the cloud. The challenge is how and
when to begin the transition. The strategy should include which processes and
applications should migrate and why. One step to minimize risk is by first
migrating IT capabilities for non-or less strategic business processes.

 

Media Content Delivery

TV and video consumer behavior is changing. While broadcast
TV is still popular for news and live events, consumers are using a wider
variety of platforms and different ways to view content. There is a very
obvious shift towards media services that focus on the individual, are simple
to use, and deliver on-demand content in a way that meets user expectations for quality. There is an increase in on-demand spending among consumers that is driven by the quality of the user experience, ease of access and good content.
In short, users are willing to pay if the content, experience and price are
right. The consumption of content is changing at fast pace with Internet and
mobile are becoming the preferred platforms, this throws a great challenge for
operators as it will incur increased costs to deliver increasingly large
amounts of data efficiently while keeping customers satisfied. There are
various business models that operators can adopt to manage the traffic growth
and create new revenue streams by developing services.

 

By Sanjay Dhawan, vice president, Ericsson India
[email protected]