Soumitra Sana, Country President, Motorola India
With over 260 million wireless users and an evolving technology landscape, the Indian telecom market is a key focus area for Motorola. The company, which has been present in the country for over two decades, is looking to strengthen its position here. tele.net spoke to Soumitra Sana, country president, Motorola India and MD, Motorola Software Group, about the opportunities in the Indian telecom market, and Motorola’s initiatives in rural telephony. Excerpts…
What opportunities does India offer telecom equipment vendors?
India, the fastest growing telecom market in the world, is also witnessing the absorption of a host of telecom technologies.
These factors are a compelling reason for major global telecom players to establish a strong presence in this market. Moreover, there are a number of catalysts that make India an attractive base for equipment manufacturers. These include the presence of an evolving telecom ecosystem with the technical capability to internalise global telecom standards; governmental support that seeks to establish India as a global manufacturing destination, facilitated by special economic zones (SEZs); the ready availability of a vast pool of engineering talent; a mature software industry; and a vast local market that can absorb the manufactured output.
Given all these factors, India is bound to become a strong manufacturing hub in the coming years.
What is your current level of business in India? What are your future plans?
In 20 years of its presence in India, Motorola has partnered the country’s telecom revolution. Our portfolio spans a wide range of products, services and solutions for both the business-to-consumer (B2C) and the business-to-business (B2B) segments. In the B2C segment, we have a wide range of mobile devices and accessories addressing all price points and user profiles. In the B2B space, we help our carrier customers to optimise their existing networks and explore alternative revenue streams through our value-added services portfolio. We also continue to invest in strengthening our technology portfolio with a wider choice of technology solutions. We are market leaders in providing communications solutions for first responders, defence establishments and large enterprises that require private networks tailored to their needs.
Our enterprise mobility portfolio allows us to address all aspects of mobility for diverse enterprises, adapting to size, location and usage models.
The acquisition of Symbol Technologies and Good Technology has added to our portfolio. These acquisitions have given us the robustness and capability to offer tailor-made solutions.
The Indian economy presents a compelling growth story averaging 7 per cent growth year-on-year. Much of this growth is powered by private enterprises, and we believe that as enterprises strive to gain a competitive edge, the need for the enterprise workforce to go mobile will become inevitable. According to Gartner, “By 2009, 70 per cent of knowledge work will occur in locations where workers will depend on a wireless and remote-access infrastructure that is outside the enterprise’s direct control.”
What have been your key achievements over the past few years? Have you faced any stumbling blocks in achieving your targets?
Several achievements mark the story of Motorola in India. These include the setting up of Motorola Labs, the expansion of our R&D footprint and the evolution of India into a global R&D hub for Motorola-complete with a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that complements soft manufacturing (R&D) with hardwired manufacturing (products/devices). In addition, we partner with almost all players in both the GSM and CDMA areas, have key wins in the government and public safety space, and have introduced new enterprise mobility portfolios that have let enterprises go truly mobile. Iconic mobile devices in the B2C space and an overall brand resonance are some of our other highlights.
Stumbling blocks are faced by every player. The idea is to overcome them with foresight, innovation and intrinsic strength.And for an 80-year-old leader, these are familiar tricks!
How is the enterprise networking market in India likely to evolve over the next few years?
The enterprise segment has emerged as the growth engine of the Indian economy. As India continues to get increasingly aligned with the global economy, we will witness a greater assimilation of technologies at every step of the value chain.Telecommunications technologies, especially wireless technologies, have already begun to emerge as critical enablers in bridging the geographical divide and in achieving an integrated and time-saving approach to resource management.
Going beyond the enterprise, we have carriers exploring new technologies to expand their offering from voice services to high-speed data services. This also means that next-generation technologies such as mobile Wi-Max and 3G will emerge in this market.
Finally, the enterprise market will see the adoption of mobility technologies that will enable organisations to have more and more of their workers go mobile; have their assets and resources moved and tracked constantly; have business critical information available quickly and reliably; and also remotely manage resource deployment in a manner that maximises returns.
What are some of Motorola’s initiatives for rural telephony?
Motorola has a large portfolio of technologies and solutions that facilitate a deepening of the rural telecom footprint.Significant among them is Wi-Max, which can support applications such as distance education, tele-medicine, e-governance, e-commerce and the delivery of local-language-based entertainment content to rural markets which have remained under-served. Voice over internet protocol support on Wi-Max creates the ability to deliver low-cost voice services with mobility, using the same network infrastructure. Motorola is making significant investments and playing a pioneering role in commercialising WiMax so that affordable wireless broadband can be made accessible to all.
Solutions also need to allow service providers to have maximum choice and flexibility regarding the location of cell sites. They must also take advantage of local resources to keep costs low.
Motorola has developed its Reach solutions portfolio, which has products and solutions that aim to protect overall profit margins and ensure operational ease. Moreover, there are solutions aimed at reducing operating costs through alternative power back-up at cell sites. This is achieved through efficient designing of the radio access network and core network products that have minimum power requirements and can work on alternative power sources such as wind or solar power.
Motorola has also contributed significantly to driving the market for durable, low-cost handsets which do not require subsidy by the service provider to meet emerging market subscriber price points.
How is Motorola placed vis-a-vis its rivals both globally and in India?
Motorola has a long heritage of technology that goes back eight decades. Leveraging on this intrinsic strength of technology and R&D, we have maintained a robust portfolio of cutting-edge technology products, solutions and services to meet the needs of individual consumers as well as B2B customers.
Our Home and Network Mobility business offers a range of technologies and solutions encompassing 2G, 2.5G and 3G, including mobile Wi-Max solutions.Currently, Motorola has 19 commercial Wi-Max contracts and over 75 Wi-Max engagements across 43 countries.
Our Enterprise Mobility solutions portfolio presents a compelling value proposition to nearly all the market segments. Our mobile devices business has a wide range of products to address the needs of all segments of the market, from low tier to the mid-and high tier, and productivity enhancement enterprise devices such as the Q8 and Q9, aimed at the prosumer segment. This portfolio is backed by a countrywide network to offer after-sales service.
What are some of the immediate concerns in the Indian telecom sector that need to be tackled?
We need to sustain the momentum and with imagination, leapfrog into next-generation technologies. While the government has been supportive and helpful to the telecom industry, we look forward to faster introduction of technologies such as 3G.The entire domestic tariff area sales of SEZs should be allowed at 50 per cent or less of the total applicable import duties (basic customs duty + countervailing duty) along with complete central sales tax exemption on all telecom and IT products manufactured in India. A key to increased telecom equipment manufacturing is the reduction in excise duty on all telecom equipment, from 16 per cent to 8 per cent.This reform is critical in making India a global hub for international manufacturing.
Finally, the availability of globally harmonised spectrum (2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz or 2.3 GHz) with adequate bandwidth of at least 20 MHz per operator will enable a full and early rollout of broadband. This will offer players with commercially viable options to support investments in additional telecom infrastructure, which, at this point in time, is a major challenge.
With the launch of 3G services imminent, how do you expect the market to evolve?
Investments in 3G will primarily serve as a means to creating more capacity in networks for keeping pace with the present rate of growth in the wireless space. 3G investments will be made in cities with limited room for further growth on the available 2G spectrum. In this process, depending on the quantum of 3G spectrum allocated per operator, there will be a relative improvement in the medium-end data services experience compared to what exists today on 2/2.5G networks.
Wi-Max will play a complementary role with 3G. To start with, operators will invest in Wi-Max to offer fixed and nomadic broadband access, and over time, evolve to full mobility through personal broadband.Wi-Max will play a key role in ensuring rapid increase in broadband penetration while making it possible for operators to explore new revenue streams by offering services and segments they are not able to target with their cellular networks.
