The Indian telecom sector is at the threshold of a new revolution with the recent launch of 3G services, an emerging technology platform to deliver high-speed data and voice on a single network. In the coming days, India will witness a huge demand for video calls and video messaging.
Therefore, voice traffic will soon take a backseat. One of the key factors responsible for this change is the growing penetration of smartphones and data devices, the iPhone, Android phones, iPad, and tablets – and most importantly, the services offered on these devices.
Smartphones are increasingly taking over market share from basic mobile handsets. According to a new report, the number of 3G subscriber connections in India is likely to reach 400 million within four years, representing almost 30 percent of the country’s total subscribers.
3G is the quickest way for Indian consumers to experience mobile broadband. In addition, firms that won BWA spectrum will launch services shortly. This will give an impetus to the wireless broadband penetration in the country in a big way.
Overcoming industry challenges
Over the last two years, the telecom sector has withstood the challenges of global recession, an intense tariff war and the launch of services by new operators.
Capital spending constraints among carriers over the last few years due to severe recessionary conditions were the main hindrance to the growth of this industry. However, today, large telecom service providers are gradually expanding their networks on the back of significant subscriber growth.
The existing backhaul networks are struggling to support the increasing requirements of high-bandwidth mobile video and data services in India.
Leading carriers around the world have embarked on an aggressive strategy to upgrade their mobile networks in order to manage the explosive growth in traffic.
Now the global telecommunications industry is talking about the installation of the next-generation super-fast 4G technologies. Several global operators are funding projects to deploy Wi-Max and LTE-based 4G networks.
Selecting next generation networks
In India, operators are divided over which next generation network to deploy. The general perception amongst industry commentators is that the ecosystem will prefer LTE to Wi-Max, but in the short-term Wi-Max may find more takers.
Both Wi-Max and LTE are equally viable alternative technologies for next-generation wireless networks. The decision by a telecom operator to choose either of the technologies, therefore, becomes a business decision rather than a technology decision.
LTE would mean incremental expenditure to operator?s planned capital expenditure on 3G infrastructure. However, the readiness of LTE and its immediate monetisation is questionable, especially given that operators need to take some risks toward building an LTE-based viable service.
Telecom operators with little or no prior legacy infrastructure in 2G/3G networks are likely to opt for the Wi-Max route and monetise their deployment for near-term returns.
Wi-Max is available in the market today. It can be deployed quickly and is supported by a vibrant ecosystem of devices.
Irrespective of different platforms and systems, mobile backhaul was never as important as it is now. Today, data traffic is a key differentiator in this tough competitive market place unlike in the past where voice was dominant. As data traffic significantly shoots up, the backhaul reliability and capacity is a critical success factor.
New services, particularly VoIP, IPTV, video-on-demand and peer-to-peer traffic are content heavy. If the consumers cannot view the latest video on their new smartphone or experience dropped calls on their VoIP service, they have the choice to switch their carrier.
As the link back into the core network, the backhaul can act like a bottleneck for this data traffic; therefore, it is incredibly important that it the backhaul is reliable and efficient – more so now than ever.
Analyst firm Infonetics predicts mobile backhaul expenditures to reach $8 billion by 2014. Ethernet is expected to be the dominant carrier technology by 2014, approaching 100 percent usage in mobile network base stations.
The growth in mobile traffic has also led to a need for a transition from the traditional TDM -based transport system (currently used by all operators) to a packet-based IP/Ethernet transport system. It offers almost six times the bandwidth than a traditional network. This makes Ethernet more affordable for our market owing to its low cost per deployment, high scalability, and quality of service and homologous nature.
Indian Scenario
Leading Indian operators are well ahead in understanding the technology and deploying Ethernet networks. Moreover, many telecom service providers, mobile backhaul service providers, and IT service providers have also started focusing on packet-based networks.
The mobile backhaul is focused on higher capacity and bandwidth, hybrid, and packet based transport system, use of higher modulation techniques, Interference cancellation techniques for better link reliability and use of better transmission planning tools- Like iQLink.
Another trend is that microwave will play an important role in mobile backhaul. Fiber is still not logistically or economically a good choice for installations in many regions, so telecom operators need to prepare their networks to have the correct number of frequencies available and consider the whole site solution (radio, antenna, tower, cable etc) as they plan out their networks.
As the backhaul changes to become more densely populated with more antennas in areas of high population, then quality and enhancements to antenna quality (tighter radiation specifications) along with increased capacity (some OEMs are now demonstrating speeds of up to 5Gb/s on the backhaul Microwave links) become even more important.
According to the second edition of Maravedis’ ?Wireless Backhaul Market from an All-IP Perspective? report, the microwave backhaul equipment market is expected to surpass US$ 12 billion by 2016. During 2010 the PtP microwave backhaul market reached US$ 4.74 billion, representing an 18.9 per cent year-on-year decrease.
Despite a recent slowdown in all-outdoor radio shipments, Maravedis believes those radios will see great market demand.
The Road Ahead
Wireless backhaul is here to stay over fiber connectivity due to costs associated with fiber- approximately Rs 10 million per Km. Many operators have started outsourcing the backhaul functions to OEMs/companies, and this has led to the emergence of many OEMs/companies dealing specifically with mobile backhaul. Radio OEMs are still the key backhaul providers to operators.
In order to support higher bandwidth on backhaul, better specification, and improved design of antennas is must.
Profitability from 3G will take time due to the high investments in spectrum and rollout costs. Network-sharing deals will speed up the adoption of 3G. Device availability and affordability will have an immediate impact on demand in the price sensitive market.
Wireless operators should look out for infrastructure solution providers that deliver the most comprehensive portfolio of base station antenna systems, terrestrial microwave antenna systems, transmission line systems, filters, tower- mounted amplifiers, and point-of-interface combiners.
The service should offer the appropriate mix of technologically advanced products and solutions to deliver superior performance while minimising wireless operators? capital and operational expenditures.
Using converged and scalable infrastructure, operators can improve their ROI on network infrastructure, an important factor to consider when launching 3G networks in a low ARPU market such as India.
In addition, to install towers in remote/rural locations of India where power supply is unreliable or absent, new integrated power solutions such as fuel cells should be encouraged.
Today, the telecom market is incredibly competitive, and operators are under a great deal of pressure to deliver the best service in the industry. The capability of delivering much higher bandwidth and faster connectivity to the growing number of next generation users will result in a much more satisfying end user experience and path to succeed.
