Telecom Lead Asia: Test and measurement solution majors such as Spirent and JDSU are focusing on 4G and 3G testing in Indian telecom market.
A recent Frost & Sullivan report says that evolving technologies in wireless and data communication networks and infrastructure, such as 4G, have spurred the need for test equipment in Asia-Pacific, as testing these networks is imperative to support the product development cycle, cover a range of radio frequency and digital measurements, and ensure their performance, safety and security.
Sandeep Kapoor, country director – India, JDSU, said: “3G is giving better opportunities than 4G to us at present. The local market is currently in the process of revival and we hope to do better this year.”
JDSU, as part of focusing on LTE and UMTS testing, recently introduced Signaling Analyzer Real Time (SART) version 7.4. The new T&M product provides distributed multisite testing in real-time for reliable end-to-end performance measurements and network-wide investigations.
SART further enhances LTE and UMTS support and ease-of-use and quickly incorporates new technology via software upgrades. With this release, JDSU claims that it demonstrates its commitment to protecting operator and equipment-manufacturer investments and providing innovative solutions for today’s 3G/4G networks.
For both Spirent and JDSU, 4G / 3G testing is becoming an important tool for revenue generation. The communications test equipment market, according to Frost & Sullivan, earned revenues of more than $888 million in 2012 and estimates this to reach $1199 million in 2016 in the Asia Pacific region.
In India, 3G operators such as Reliance Communications, Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel, Idea Cellular, BSNL, etc. are expanding their 3G networks. At the same time, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Airtel will be aiming for 4G supremacy.
The shifting of manufacturing as well as research and development (R&D) sites to Asia Pacific owing to lower labor costs also drives the general purpose test equipment market. With the economic growth in emerging countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, attracting foreign direct investments for manufacturing and industrial activities, demand for test equipment will continue.
Spirent India regional sales manager S Chandra Mauli said Spirent would be betting on 4G / LTE growth opportunities in the country. “We are working with most of the telecom operators, mobile handset vendors and chip companies offering 4G testing solutions.”
In fact, Spirent India is planning to expand the number of members in India and moving to a new facility in Bangalore to address the growth potential in the Indian telecom market, said Dinesh Verma, areas sales manager, Spirent Communications.
Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation Research Analyst Susan Sahayan, in a March 2013 report, said: “To maintain market share in the face of stiff competition, equipment suppliers must invest in innovation, R&D, and a strong product differentiation strategy. The drive toward renewable energy and green technologies will open up new opportunities in R&D, debugging, and lead to the development of environmental-friendly solutions.”
Spirent India’s Technical Development Manager Ashish Kapur said that migration from 2G to 3G was easy for Indian telecom operators. “But shifting to 4G is a complex task. We support all stakeholders to ensure quality of network and services.”
Frost & Sullivan says over-the-top (OTT) video applications are expected to generate more than half of all IP traffic globally by 2020. To manage and optimize this traffic, network operators have to deploy end-to-end OTT video test and monitoring solutions that can measure the performance metrics of the network. Participants that are currently active in traditional video testing and IP video testing markets are expected to benefit the most in the next five years from this rising trend.
For instance, Spirent’s Nomad solution for voice quality and Chromatic solution for video performance enable measurement of these next generation services in service experience programs such as Spirent Fit4Launch and Insights.
Spirent also provides an additional dimension to testing by deriving application-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from IP logs – a capability that enables correlation of the subscriber experience with the underlying data delivery behavior.
In addition, Spirent Landslide offers the ability to test mobile infrastructure’s readiness for all-IP services such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), video calling and multi-player mobile gaming.
Indian telecom is trying to regain its lost glory. All stakeholders are getting ready for action in the T&M space as well. Hope T&M solutions will improve quality of services, one of the main demands of Indian mobile users.
Baburajan K
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