RELIANCE INFOCOMM : A Latecomer with Goodies

Born out of Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream and ambition to make it big in the
knowledge economy, his son Mukesh Ambani fashioned a strategy which was
conceptually simple and sweeping in its impact–he encouraged the Reliance
Infocomm team to look for the best technology in the world and use it to reduce
the cost to the consumer.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Infocomm, said at the
launch of the initiative–"We will offer revolutionary data, video and
value-added services at a cost affordable by all, in the largest and most
complex rollout in the history of the information technology and communication
sector worldwide." And indeed, it was the kickoff of a giant network, an
enormous campus and the boldest initiative in the Indian information and
communications sector so far.

 

Reliance Infocomm has created an overarching digital infrastructure using
state-of-the-art technology on the strength of a 60,000-kilometer terabit
capacity optic fiber network covering over 600 cities. The goal of Reliance
Infocomm is to progressively expand its optic fiber network and eventually cover
116,000 km, with the ability to seamlessly connect every individual, home, and
office in all 640,000 villages and 2,500 towns and cities of India.

The plan

What exactly is the master plan that Reliance Infocomm has held close to
its heart so far?

The first phase is to kick-off a mobile revolution, in the form of the
Reliance IndiaMobile service through a nationwide wireless network.
Intelligently, Reliance Infocomm is using its basic services license to do it
and exploiting the wireless-based limited mobility option. Not many anticipated
the large-scale attack; and that’s why cellular operators are yelping in pain.
Once unleashed, the service is expected to witness a mass following and the
frenzy that ensues will envelop the entire nation since the service is being
launched throughout the country in one sweep.

By mid-2003, Reliance Infocomm plans to take businesses in its sway. They
call it the ‘enterprise Netway revolution’. Already, the company is ready
with its data-centers, managed network services, and a host of applications like
GIS, vehicle monitoring system, broadband Wi-fi applications, videoconferencing
solutions, mobile ATMs, fixed wireless ATMs using CDMA, and VoIP. The plan is to
provide 100 mbps Ethernet links to desktops and devices to half a million
enterprise buildings initially and eventually to ten million buildings.

And by the end of 2003, the time would be ripe for a consumer convergence
revolution triggered by providing high speed Ethernet links to 80 mn homes
initially and eventually to every home. This revolution will enlighten every
home with an entire range of television channels, high-speed telephony, audio
conferencing, videoconferencing, and video-on-demand.

This then is the overall scope of the Reliance Infocomm initiative.

Of course, with time the company will also offer basic wireline telephony
services nationwide, international long distance, rural telephony, and
manufacture CDMA-compliant handsets–all of which does not require much
preparation now. Of the Rs 25,000 crore investment planned, Rs 15,000 crore has
been raised–Rs 6,000 crore through equity and Rs 9,000 crore through debt.
Till date, Rs 11,000 crore has been committed and it includes all of what has
currently been done in terms of infrastructure, redundancy, incremental ducts
for the next decade, and so on. An international listing is a possibility over
the next two-three years to raise further cash and unlock shareholder value.

The headquarters for all these services, programmes and operations of
Reliance Infocomm is located in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, a brand new
and modern campus built on a 140-acre site in Navi Mumbai, conceived by Nita
Ambani, President of the Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation. The campus hosts a
national operations center, applications development laboratories, data centers,
and contact centers, spread over 2.2 million square feet of office space.

The Infocomm network

Reliance Infocomm has built a nationwide optic-fiber based network
infrastructure intended to cover 90% of the population. It is a 100% digital
network capable of carrying terabits of data per second and could well be the
largest private information and communication network in the country. The
network infrastructure spans 60,000 kilometers of optic fiber cable, 250,000
kilometers of high-density polyethylene ducts, 30,000 kilometers of other cables
and 2,588 BTS towers. Wherever optic fiber could not be used due to difficult
terrain, digital microwave towers (15 to 42 m), with equipment shed to house
multiplexing and radio equipment, have been used.

The network architecture consists of nodal functional elements and transport
layers in a ring and mesh topology. The nodal functional elements are media
convergence nodes (MCN), building access nodes (BAN) and building nodes (BN).
The transport layers assemble these functional elements on three functional
transport layers–the backbone, main access ring, and building access ring.
Each transport layer, along with their nodal elements, performs specific
functions supporting customer traffic services and connection to the national
network operations centre (NNOC) and operations support system (OSS). The
transport layers carry information from one city to another. The national
backbone interconnects major cities throughout India. It consists of a
survivable optic fiber network configured as several interconnected rings and
mesh.

The design is a two-tier one. An express ring reduces passage through nodes
and improves reliability for traffic between major metros and all major node
cities. The collector ring transports traffic from other short distance calling
areas (SDCA). The ring topology provides necessary protection to traffic in
terms of alternate paths in the eventuality of breakage of optic fiber or
equipment failure, thus ensuring smooth and uninterrupted operation of the
network.

The fiber to the building (FTTB) architecture is achieved through the access
network. It enables end users to connect to the larger telecommunication
network. Access network consists of metro network and building access network.
Metro access is deployed in a three-layered approach–the backbone (MCN), main
access ring (MA ring) and building access ring (BA ring)–in order to provide
both narrow band as well as broadband requirements on wire line. Building access
rings aggregate building nodes and associated traffic up to the MCN (which
interconnects to the national backbone), except for intra city traffic, which is
handled by the BAN to BAN network.

Network redundancy has been built to protect the network from cable cuts.
Network redundancy is also required to avoid loss of traffic due to equipment
failures. The ring and mesh topology achieves this. Use of synchronous digital
hierarchy (SDH) within the city and dense wave division multiplexed (DWDM) for
the national backbone ensures reliability, fast restoration from failures and
low probability of outages. Use of several self-healing rings enables a high
quality of service.

A stringent fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS)
requirement has been taken care of in the network management system (NMS), as
per the guidelines of the telecommunications management network.

Built on multiple software modules, the service delivery platform supports
service order management, service delivery, service/network activation, network
inventory management, resource and workforce management. The service assurance
package includes fault management, performance management, trouble ticketing
management, SLA management, test and maintenance management, SS7 management and
traffic management. The configuration management module enables service
creation, provisioning, test, and maintenance. The fault management module
enables detection, isolation, and correction of abnormal operation. The NMS
carries out real time alarm surveillance, fault location and fault correction
through testing, and trouble administration.

Getting the men and the brains together

To fulfill the scope of the Reliance Infocomm initiative, the company will
need mammoth human and intellectual resources. It is following a smart approach
here. Branded as the ‘Dhirubhai Ambani Entrepreneur Program’, it will create
an extended enterprise and a new paradigm in sales and distribution management.
It will enroll 200,000 individuals committed to acquiring customers, building
the brand, and provide information and feedback to the company. Saturation
advertising will create the pull, and the channel would satisfy the demand.
Multiple points of physical presence, branded as Reliance WebWorld (earlier
called Web Stores)–an Internet café, entertainment center, and digital
products shop rolled into one–will serve as outlets.

The sheer amount of software that needs to be developed for all the
applications that the company envisions is humongous. In the words of Mukesh
Ambani, " from managing queues in temples, to connecting all police
stations to delivering e-governance solutions to all citizens" suggests the
scope of application software development.

Software talent, though abundantly available within the country, cannot all
hope to be employed on the rolls of Reliance Infocomm. Instead, a developer
programme, branded ‘Dhirubhai Ambani Developer Program’ seeks to tap into
the intellectual resources of India’s software army. In a specific comment to
Dataquest, Ambani said, "The program will harness India’s formidable
software talent to develop products for the local as well as global markets, in
the opensource mode." One thousand developers of software solutions are
being enrolled now to eventually grow to 100,000 developers by December 2003.
Reliance Infocomm will provide the infrastructure, unlimited access to
comprehensive technical documentation and support and offer special rate plans
designed for the developer community.

These two programs are a tribute to Dhirubhai Ambani’s conviction that the
best way a business can contribute to society is by encouraging other
enterprises, and creating economic opportunities for millions of young Indians.

In the final analysis, Reliance Infocomm’s strategy rests on intelligently
using the provisions of the deregulated telecom environment along with the
remaining regulations to its advantage to gain a start. A huge domestic consumer
market would be tapped through the pricing strategy. Having invested so much in
the infrastructure, it can be used for offering enterprise solutions. Increasing
scales will turn the tide in the company’s favor because it owns a large part
through which the traffic will flow. Its brand equity, brand building
capabilities and saturation marketing will keep up the steam. The vision is
commendable, and the execution flawless up till now…

Easwardas Satyan

Reliance India Mobile The Early Bird Gets the Worm

This is a basic service that will compete with the cellular phenomenon
because Reliance Infocomm has chosen to take the wireless route. No longer would
wireless be restricted to the hilly terrains or the rural areas. Reliance
Infocomm is using it to stir up the telecom market and redefine its economics.
Its value proposition–mobility, data-capability, bandwidth, and applications–all
at rates cheaper than everything else.

Liken that to getting ‘Shahi Korma’ at rates cheaper than a bottle of ‘Bisleri’.

The star attraction is the ‘Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer’ under which
for an initial payment of Rs 3,000, one gets a free digital mobile phone (worth
Rs 10,500) and unlimited free incoming calls. For a monthly payment of Rs 600
thereon, one gets 400 minutes of outgoing talktime that includes all local
calls, all state long distance calls, and long distance calls to any Reliance
phone in the country. Over 40 % discount is being offered for national long
distance calls where Reliance network does not exist. And unused minutes can be
carried forward till the end of the quarter.

All
the value-added services like voice-mail, Internet access, call hold, call
divert, call conferencing, caller line identification, and text messaging are
free. The company has developed a suite of applications–a set of basic
applications will come free for a period of three years. An incremental set of
applications will be free for the initial 90 days. Such applications include
audio streaming, video streaming, web browsing, news, ticker services, and
games.

A handset exchange program whereby one can exchange old handsets for
international long distance calls worth Rs 7,200 is an added attraction. But
that’s not all for the early adopters. They are also entitled to a mega-saver
coupon book with discount coupons worth Rs 1 lakh from leading lifestyle brands
and branded retailers.

The Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer is intended to gather the critical mass of
customers. The bookings would officially start from January 15, 2003 onwards and
the Pioneer Offer is valid till March 2003. The Pioneer Offer is also available
if you make a payment upfront. The two other schemes are–the
"regular" scheme with an upfront payment plan covering only talktime
and the ‘standard’ plan, which is a monthly payment plan.

Under its licence agreement, Reliance Infocomm is not allowed to offer
roaming facility as in cellular phones. Services can therefore be availed only
within the SDCA (short distance charging area). The same handset can however be
used in any other SDCA. The Reliance IndiaMobile service will be available only
on CDMA 2000 1X handsets specially imported by Reliance. The phones, currently
from Samsung and LG, are light, sleek, Java-enabled, multimedia-ready and have
other advanced features.