'I am in favour of such collaborations in India, too'

Prof Gerard Parr holds the full chair in telecommunications engineering. He
is also the coordinator of the Internet technologies research group at the
faculty of engineering in University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He has
developed a close working relationship with a number of major ICT companies
including Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Cisco and BT, attracting over £5 mn in
commercial funding. On his recent visit to India, he spoke to Anurag Prasad of
Cybermedia about various developments in wireless technologies as well as the
entrepreneurial role of universities.

What kind of relationship you foresee between the government, academic
institutions and the ICT companies?

Traditionally, the universities have been a center for excellence, research
and creation of IPRs. Things are now changing, and universities are adopting
entrepreneurial agenda. They are looking at business opportunities by selling
these IPRs and working with private companies on R&D. It gives companies
access to new technologies and universities to become a shareholder. The
government has to initiate and facilitate such co-operations. Like, in case of
the recent Tsunami. The warning system requires an initiation from the
authorities and then the research institutes and technology companies can take
it up.

My work is not just limited to research; we are into complete project
management. It is like a separate company working with others: Essential
components like lawyers, bank accounts are maintained, and we develop actual
products to be marketed off the shelves. I am in favour of such collaborations
in India, too.

How can the SMEs participate in technology development?

In Northern Ireland, where our university is located, we have been actively
working with SMEs and cooperatives to adopt broadband and associated information
communication technologies. This cooperation does not mean that we are directly
involved in their R&D work, or forcing some technology on these groups.
Rather, we help them to come out with their own R&D. In fact, almost 44% of
local R&D there comes from hinterland companies. These small companies may
not have the financial backing and their scale might not be large as well. But
they are capable of coming out with good work to suit their needs. We provide
them the base standard to work on and also give them objective consultancy.

There is no viable business model for wireless access technologies like
Wi-Fi and WiMax. How do you see them surviving?

Both Wi-Fi and WiMax are driven by demand. If there is no demand, they would
die out. It is not that Wi-Fi and WiMax are not being used. A process for
dissemination of user experience has to be devised for the benefit of others.
Next, they are not competing technologies. While Wi-Fi is used for last mile
wireless access within a limited area, WiMax would find itself being deployed as
backhaul for next generation networks. It holds good promise for better speeds.