WIRELESS & MOBILE: Who Needs to Be Wired Up?

Beyond Wires

The wiring-up of urban India is well under way. The challenge facing planners
is to take connectivity to the people–beyond big cities and fiber optics

Late in 1993, then DoT secretary N Vittal announced that he would provide
phones on demand in coming years. Quizzed about where the DoT would get the
large investment required, he answered that private operators would be brought
in. When someone pointed out that this might imply multiple operators digging
the same roads, he responded that wireless access would be used in future to
overcome the problem.

We have come a long way. Much of what Vittal spoke has happened. But the key
to this success was not just wireless, but wireless coupled with affordability.

At that time an operator needed Rs 40,000 to install a phone line in India.
To beak even after all the finance, depreciation and operating costs, the
operator needed per-subscriber revenues which not more than 2 percent of Indian
homes could afford.

It took some time to realize that the Indian market would really explode only
when the cost was brought down. Backbone network costs were already coming down
with fiber optics. Access was the bottleneck. And wireless was a good answer–not
just for rapidly expanding the network, but also in making it affordable.

Today, GSM and IS-95 (CDMA) systems provide cost effective mobile access in
cities. Both are mobile cellular systems, the former derived from Europe, the
latter, from the US. It is unfortunate that policy muddles like limited mobility
and dissimilar licensing and interconnect terms have undermined competition,
which would have brought down end-user cost further. The service that these
systems provide is primarily voice telephony. GPRS and 3G-1X upgrades of these
systems would provide some data to mobiles and PDAs, but would not provide the
kind of Internet connection we are used to at home and office, even with dial-up
connections, leave alone cable or DSL.

The indigenously-developed corDECT WLL system attempts to fill the gap by
providing fixed wireless connections to homes and offices. Providing
simultaneous telephony and 35 kbps Internet (and premier service at 70 kbps) at
very low cost, it provides a true "wire-line replacement." While
gaining some presence in urban areas, it is the most cost-effective system in
small towns and rural areas, because of its low initial investment requirement.

In the meantime, wireless is starting to play a new role in the developed
world. In countries like the USA, laptops are used widely. While they are very
convenient systems to carry to classrooms, cafeterias, offices, conference
centers, airports, railway station and even in shopping malls, the key is to
stay connected.

Wireless LANs, in the form of the IEEE’s 802.11 standard, have emerged as
an excellent way for the laptop user to remain connected to the network, whether
in the office or in a public park or in a coffee shop–at up to 11 Mbps. Even
at home, people have installed 802.11 access nodes, and move with their laptops
from one room to another. As the radio waves can leak outside the homes, you can
find laptop users parked in their cars somewhere, "catching" a stray
signal.. And an MIT Media Labs project brings a mail van with a WLAN card in
daily to remote villages, for an hour of wireless broadband daily..

How is 802.11 faring in India? There are several problems. Laptops are not as
common. Second, the 802.11 spectrum in India is regulated even for indoor use,
as Nicholas Negroponte pointed out to Pramod Mahajan.

This is expected to change now, enabling WiFi use in offices and conference
halls. However, 802.11 is also being projected by some as providing freedom from
high internet charges and a multi-hop 802.11 network as an alternative means to
connect urban (and even rural) areas of India. While such an alternative access
network can work and would be a boon, the key to high Internet charges in India
lies elsewhere. It is the high international Internet leased line cost and the
absence of direct connectivity between ISPs in India, which drives the Internet
charges: but that is another story. 802.11 devices are also expensive today.

We are still working with early versions of the wireless technologies to
come, those, which will deliver more for less money.

Wireless will thus continue to play a dominant role in changing the telecom
network and thereby the lives of people in India and the world.

The author is a professor of electrical engineering and leads the IIT Madras
telecom and computer networks (TeNeT) group. He has driven key developments in network technology, including wireless
systems. He was honored with the Padmashree this year. mail@dqindia.com