India is emerging as a key market for global network equipment players. Recent traction in the 4G space as well as the progress made under government initiatives like Digital India and the Smart Cities Mission have created new business opportunities. Nokia, a leading telecom equipment manufacturer, is optimistic about leveraging these emerging opportunities and foresees strong growth prospects for the telecom sector as a whole. In a recent interaction with tele.net, Harri Holma, fellow, radio systems, Nokia Bell Labs, and Amit Marwah, head, E2E sales solutioning, Nokia India, share their views on the technology evolution in the Indian market, the growth drivers and opportunities for the company. Excerpts…
Harri Holma, fellow, radio systems, Nokia Bell Labs
Amit Marwah, Head, E2E sales solutioning, Nokia India
How have the networks evolved globally and how has India kept pace?
Data has been growing at a phenomenal rate across most of the markets globally. Technology development in India has got a push with the roll-out of 4G networks. Now, long term evolution (LTE) technology is becoming readily available, which will further increase data uptake. At Nokia, we aim to help markets move further from 4G to 5G.
What are the requirements for migrating from 4G to 5G?
5G is not entirely a separate network but is a gradual evolution from 4G. One can offer a part of 5G services such as internet of things (IoT) on top of 4G networks as well. Also, the new products being currently deployed by operators are mostly 5G-ready, which means that they do not need to invest in completely new hardware to support 5G. Networks can be upgraded to become 5G-compatible through software upgrades instead of bringing in a new piece of hardware altogether. Thus, the evolution of 5G should be easier than the introduction of 3G or 4G services. Further, adequate spectrum and a sound backhaul network (preferably based on fibre) are fundamental for 5G deployment.
Given that India has less fibre in the backhaul networks, can we look at wireless backhaul as well?
When we are deciding on a new network (even a cloud radio as in the case of 5G), there is no need to have fibre always. We can have Ethernet in the backhaul and it may even run on microwave radio. For small cell deployment, we are also looking at in-bent backhauling. If you deploy small cells, you can actually use the same fibre for not only the access link but also for the backhaul. Nokia has conducted some demonstrations in this regard. One is based on how to do in-bent backhauling on top of the existing LTE networks. It consists of a solar-powered base station that does not need any power cables. Moreover, no fibre backhauling is required as it involves LTE backhauling.
How is Nokia optimising the energy consumption of telecom networks?
There are a number of activities that we have undertaken in this regard. A part of these activities are aimed at reducing the base station power consumption by using several advanced technologies. The second part is to use alternative energy sources like solar panels to cut down the overall CO2 emissions. The third part involves improving the energy efficiency of new networks such as 5G radio. This was never considered while setting up 2G, 3G or 4G networks in the past.
Where does India currently stand in Nokia’s global business strategy?
At Nokia, we have divided our operations into seven markets, of which India is one. This shows that there is a lot of emphasis and focus on the market with significant global visibility. We have one of our largest workforces operating out of India. We have a huge research and development base and a sales engine, which are supporting the networks of almost all operators in the country. We also have manufacturing units in India. Our entire radio portfolio, that is, all 2G, 3G and 4G base stations, are manufactured here from scratch. We cater to the entire requirement in India from these manufacturing units. Also, more than half of what is produced in these factories is being exported to countries all over the world. Further, we are trying to insource a lot of global back-end work into India. For instance, under the global shared services set-up, support is provided for pre-bidding of big global contracts. For instance, if we are evaluating a request for proposal (RfP) in Verizon, USA, that RfP comes to India and the back-end team does the work and sends the first response, thereby helping the front-end team. We are also doing in-sourcing of a lot of services. We have a global delivery centre and two global network operation centres in Chennai and Delhi, where we monitor and service networks not only for India but also for 82 other countries.
The managed network operations centre monitors networks across the world and provides Tier II and Tier III support. These centres fix networks across the world through offline or online intervention. We are also trying to use analytics and automation to a large extent.
How can networks be optimised to support more data consumption?
If you look at operators apart from Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, most of them still support 3G data networks and have limited spectrum usage, which means that they are using only a part of their network resources. There is a lot of room for growth if they offer 4G services using spectrum in the 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands, which carry a very small amount of data at present.
What is your view on the usage of small cells and Wi-Fi to expand coverage?
Small cells and Wi-Fi provide massive capacity and are mainly used for indoor coverage. However, the adoption of small cells will happen in the true sense only when LTE and 4G roll-outs gain traction. 4G roll-outs have just started and they still have to reach a target of 30-40 per cent in terms of coverage. Today, the priority for operators is to provide 4G to the masses. Although the deployment of small cells in India has been slow, there has been limited strategic deployment across all operators.
What opportunities do you see in terms of network requirements in the next few years?
India has undergone a 20-25-year cycle of network build-out. There is a large fraction of networks that needs modernisation from a radio point of view. A key emerging trend is that of self-optimisation, which includes making networks more automated and self-fulfilling. Public safety is going to be a key engine for the government machinery to be able to provide better security to subscribers and to the public. However, India lags in this area. Video surveillance on commercial LTE networks will be important to ensure public safety.
“There are very high expectations about what 5G can deliver, not only for the telecom industry but for society as a whole, in terms of providing better efficiency and better productivity.”
What opportunities do Digital India and the Smart Cities Mission present for Nokia?
Programmes like the Smart Cities Mission or Digital India involve large backhaul build-up (which is typically internet protocol and optical based), switching (which consists of device management) and setting up of IoT use cases. Looking at all these three buckets, we are very well placed in terms of opportunities. With the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, our portfolio has expanded to a very large extent. We have been engaged with a lot of state governments to evaluate the role that Nokia can play in these programmes. We are also engaged with several system integrators to see how we can become technology providers to them in terms of providing our stack and solutions. We are evaluating a couple of RfPs right now.
Every state has a different implementation approach. While some states may prioritise electricity meters, others may
prioritise water management or Wi-Fi. There are various use cases and the states are taking different approaches to address these. The good thing is that we can address most of them. As these state initiatives start rolling, we will be playing a larger role. We are very optimistic and upbeat about this.
Overall, there are very high expectations about what 5G can deliver, not only for the telecom industry but for society as a whole, in terms of providing better efficiency for a city’s safety and better productivity. It will be more like a complete connectivity layer, which can dramatically change the lives of the masses. Earlier, our theme was “Connecting People”; now it is “Connecting People and Things”. India is one of our growth markets and from a global perspective, we are very optimistic about India and the opportunities that come our way here.
