The government’s impetus to provide connectivity to rural regions has created a host of opportunities for the telecom industry. To leverage these opportunities and mobilise the rural economy through technological empowerment, service providers are continuously looking for low capex and opex products. Vanu India is helping them in drivine revenues and profitability from rural markets. Sanjay Bakaya, managing director and vice-president, Asia Pacific, talks about Vanu’s key focus areas, challenges and the future roadmap…
How has the rural telecom landscape evolved in recent years?
The telecom industry has experienced substantial growth, primarily in the wireless segment, in the past few years. A new set of services including data, Wi-Fi, virtual private network (VPN) and bandwidth-on-demand are transforming the way business is being conducted. The key trends point to a higher consumption of data services and initiatives to bridge the gap between rural and urban India. However, falling ARPUs, inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads, power and backhaul, and the need for huge capital investment continue to pose challenges.
What are Vanu’s key focus areas?
At Vanu, we are focused on making rural connectivity economically viable. Through a combination of innovative technology and a unique business model, Vanu has been working for more than 20 years to ensure that no community is left behind in the digital economy. There are three elements to this strategy: software-based radio, network architecture and business model. Our software-based radio technology addresses opex challenges by improving power and backhaul efficiency, and leveraging solar power to run network elements. We also use small cell architecture to focus on offering connectivity where it is most needed. Further, Vanu offers network operators a new shared wholesale business model to provide connectivity to customers without the need to build a dedicated network for each communication. We have also developed a proprietary set of tools to pinpoint populations that do not have coverage. These business intelligence tools provide critical insight and guidance regarding capital allocation.
What business potential do emerging technologies such as IBS, Wi-Fi and fibre hold for the telecom infrastructure space? What role can Vanu play?
With approximately 80 per cent of the voice and data consumption taking place indoors and considering the challenges of higher frequency spectrum, the need for in-building solutions (IBS) today is greater than ever before. This is an immense opportunity for a company like Vanu, which focuses on small cell solutions (2G and 4G) and public broadband networks. The phenomenal growth in data consumption on 4G networks is pushing telcos to connect their sites to fibre to fulfil the future requirements of data. There is a huge opportunity for neutral host service providers for sharing fiberised infrastructure to multiple operators. At present, we offer IBS for 2G, 4G, 2G+4G and 2G+Wi-Fi solutions.
What is the current level of green energy deployment in the industry?
Green telecom has many facets. Increasing the use of renewable energy has now become a target for the telecom industry. Diesel generators are costly and the industry is looking to replace diesel with wind turbines, solar power and fuel cell power. Tower companies have taken initiatives to reduce their opex by investing in hybrid energy solutions. Currently, about 25 per cent of the 470,000 towers in the country are diesel-free sites. Recently, we secured a contract to deploy almost 1,000 base transceiver station (BTS) sites, most of which are 100 per cent solar based. However, tower companies have been unable to convert the majority of their sites to green sites due to the high power consumption of the installed equipment at these sites. Due to the huge cost pressure on telcos, they are aggressively looking at a zero opex solution. We have been at the forefront of bringing the trend of deploying low-power BTSs/ eNodeBs in the industry. At Vanu, we are focusing on developing BTSs with 50-100 W power consumption that transmits up to 10 W radio frequency power, with a coverage radius of 4 km, running on solar energy without grid connectivity.
Do you have a regulatory wish list?
Some of the technologies we wish the regulator and policymakers would consider are:
- The wholesale network should be promoted and subsidised as a neutral host mobile virtual network operator in rural operations.
- Long term evolution (LTE) in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U).
- Disconnected mode of operations among local communities, such that there is at least access to emergency services even when there is a loss of backhaul.
What will be the key business drivers and opportunities for Vanu, going forward?
Globally there are one billion people with no connectivity and 3.5 billion without access to the internet. Addressing this problem will deliver major benefits to these populations and is a compelling business opportunity. Moreover, social media outreach is becoming important for businesses, and thus it is imperative that rural India is connected so as to foster growth, agriculture, jobs and healthcare. We plan to continue to develop and deliver technology solutions that will help operators in profitably providing voice and high speed data services.
