Can WiMax Deliver Broadband For Rural Masses?

Now WiMax has emerged as the next frontier of mobility. Owing to the large
area it covers, the technology is tipped to be a big piece of the jigsaw for
providing rural connectivity in the country.

It is important to note that the current Indian administration has been very
willing to adopt the next generation of networking technologies at an early
stage — whether it is the wireless standards of Wi-Fi or the upcoming WiMax
standard.

“Connectivity is one of the most important factors that we look at. We are
committed to provide common service centers (CSCs) for the rural masses. These
would ideally be in diffe­rent villages and provide a one-point access to all
government applications and services under one roof. This would require
connectivity at the village level, and we are looking at various options
including WiMax to facilitate this connectivity,” explains R Chandrashekhar,
Joint Secretary, e-gov Projects, Ministry of Information Technology.

Major role to play

With common service centers dotting India's rural map, WiMax can play a major
role in delivering various applications. These include online bill payment,
processing and submission of government documents, delivery of agriculture,
healthcare and entertainment services, in education, research and information
sharing and for e-commerce activities including commodity price information,
online trading and banking transactions.

The government of India is already working on programs in order to develop
simple, low-cost messaging terminals that could extend wireless communications
to poorer communities; an operating system for smart cards; and various building
blocks for an available mobile communications infrastructure, with Wi-Fi and
WiMax key elements.

“WiMax can play a major role towards providing wireless broadband
connectivity for the rural masses in India. We have already seen some pilot
deployments going on at various locations in India. Moving forward, we are
pretty positive about the potential of this technology and how it can deliver
more for less for a country like India,” said Karthik Rangarajan, Product
Manager, Navini Networks, a broadband wireless access solution provider.

Projects underway

In continuation with its efforts to revitalize the conectivity space, the
government has recently set up the Center for Excellence in Wireless
Technologies (CeWIT) in Chennai. This is a public-private initiative to promote
R&D in fixed and mobile technologies and to create next generation wireless
platforms. CeWIT is likely to address issues related to solving problems with
access at a low-cost in order to increase the connectivity canvass of the
country.

Another project, implemen­ted by the Indian Institute of Technology in
Madras, is working on mesh peer-to-peer technologies for rural Wi-Fi-based
networks that would solve the last 25km access problem in rural India. MeTel is
another initiative directed towards providing a low-cost messaging terminal for
villages with the help of sharing a Wi-Fi connection.

While India is stepping up its activities in R&D that can be exported as
well as exploited internally, the country still lacks the advanced vendor
community to commercialize these technologies and sell in global markets. India
offers a low-cost manufacturing base, but so far this has benefited western
companies to a large extent.

Is India ready?

However, with a large rural population and a national agenda to provide seamless
connectivity, emergence of WiMax-based equipment providers in the country can
act as a stimulant to further establish the country's image as a favoured
manufacturing location for global players.

“India is probably the biggest market for WiMax in the world. More
importantly, WiMax is the ideal technology for providing high-speed connectivity
to the rural parts of India, which are not connected so far,” informed, Manish
Gupta, VP-Marketing and Alliances, Aperto Networks. However, there are certain
things on spectrum regulation that need to be addressed for this technology to
really take off. There is the whole WiMax ecosystem being developed and this is
really going to change things for this region, he added.

Many experts in the industry feel that moving forward, WiMax will play a key
role towards delivering wireless broadband connectivity for the rural masses of
the country. Especially with Intel and other big players working intensively on
encouraging Indian adoption of the technology.

The French communication player, Alcatel, is another key partner in WiMax,
especially in its bid to combine the network with low-cost user equipment, an
effort that lies at the heart of its plans to extend access in India. As part of
this initiative, Alcatel has formed a venture with the Center for the
Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the Indian government's telecoms technology
center, to design and develop products related to broadband wireless and WiMax.

With mobility becoming a necessity for population residing in metro
locations, technologies like Wi-Fi, GSM and CDMA have played a key role. Moving
forward the same role is likely to be played by WiMax in terms of providing
seamless broadband connectivity for the untapped regions of the country.

ZIA ASKARI