Global Telecom Summit 2001 "Connecting India"
September 27-28, 2001

"Moving With Technology" : A Talk by Mr.N.K. Mangla, Sr. DDG(TEC)

It is indeed a great pleasure to have been invited to join the distinguished Panel of Speakers in the Session on "Moving with Technology" during the Global Telecom Summit 2001 - Connecting India.

I have tried to focus my presentation just on technologies without any emphasis on figures & statistics.

Telecommunications is one of the foremost infrastructures, which heralds the growth of GDP of a country. It is one of the very few infrastructures, which has seen so many evolutions of new technologies that are serving the mankind today. All these evolutions have been easily adopted from time to time without any loss of time so that the users of telecommunication services, whether the commercial establishments or the educational institutions or the Government or the individual customers could benefit to the maximum extent possible.

The telecommunication services in India have not lagged behind because of the technologies. All the available technologies in the world are available in India. Government of India has been the main facilitator in the development and utilization of latest technologies in Indian telecom network. NTP 1994 and NTP 1999 have clearly defined the Government's intention of introduction of latest state-of-art technologies in the Indian telecom network. It is heartening to note that even before 1994, the Department of Telecommunications has been adopting latest available technologies in the telecom network. Let me take you down the memory lane. The transition from manual telephone exchanges to strowger exchanges and from strowger exchanges to crossbar exchanges, crossbar exchanges to analogue electronic exchanges and from analogue electronic to digital electronic exchanges has been very smooth and very quick. Similarly the transition from single channel carrier systems to wide band microwave, satellite and optical fibre cable systems has been also smooth and very timely. Internet & Intelligent services are available to the large sections of the telecom consumers.

The development activities undertaken by the Government of India have resulted in accelerated growth of telecom network at about 20-25% per annum. However, there are still large segments of the population remaining to be covered with telecom facility and a certain percentage of the customers already served, remain to be fully satisfied with the services offered to them due to various reasons. Today, the challenge is not only to provide telecommunication services to the needy customers but it is also a challenge to cope with their growing demand of various applications and quality of service. The customers now want guaranteed quality of service and a number of them have started talking about SLAs, i.e., Service Level Agreements with the service providers.

In spite of unlimited technological choices that exist among many players in the telecom game, the telecom product, that customers want to buy today is not technology but rather the services that telecom technology makes possible. The technology becomes nothing more than a means to an end and a facilitator. Prevalent example world-wide is of success of Japanese mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, where technology is almost the same as available world-wide but it is the applications and exploitation of the available technology that has made it a distinct success. Every service provider in the world wants to follow the examples of the services provided and the customer base of NTT DoCoMo.

In India too, we have the same switching, transmission and other access technologies which are being used worldwide, yet our usage has so far been mainly limited to simple POTs. I feel that the telecom operators in the country have not been able to harness or market most of the value-added services resting in their networks. To give an example, simple facilities like tone dialling, call forwarding, call waiting, follow me, centrex, ISDN, etc. have not been fully exploited. Customers do not buy technologies. They want to buy services, applications, solutions and options. They will buy whatever makes them to gain or meet their requirements.

Telecom technologies can be broadly sub-divided into two interrelated segments, i.e., access and transport. Access includes the devices used by the customer to gain accesses to the network itself & including local loop technology options that a customer might exercise to enter the cloud. These could be traditional twisted copper pairs, ISDN. Digital Subscribers Line, i.e., xDSL, cable modems and wireless services. This region of technology and network is most important as it touches the customer. There is a saying that whosoever controls the ACCESS may control the customer.

Indian telecom network predominantly consists of traditional twisted copper pairs. The use of ISDN has been minimal even though capabilities existed for long. This may be due to the fact that customers were not impressed about the capabilities of IDSN or there was some reluctance on the part of the service providers to educate the customers. Digital Subscriber Loop systems have been in use in the Indian Telecom network for the last 7 to 8 years but their large-scale induction could not take place, mainly due to the quality of the products. Recently various service providers, mainly Government PSUs like BSNL and MTNL have started using HDSLs and DLCs in the local network. The initial response was very good but there have been mixed reactions in large-scale introduction of these technologies again because of their quality problems. Most of these products introduced in the various networks had left many questions unanswered. Worldwide, HDSL and DLCs have been introduced to a large extent and their introduction has been very successful. Indian telecom industry has to examine in depth the ways & means of improving the quality of a product. If we are not able to satisfy the customers or service providers in our own country with a product, how could we talk of exports to other countries.

Of late, wireless technology is entering into access network at a high speed. Already, wireless in local loop has been regarded as a quick & viable means to roll out the network and to provide service to the long waiting customers. BSNL is going in a big way to exploit WLL technology to provide service in the rural and urban areas. Other service providers have also adopted WLL as one of the leading technologies to achieve quick roll out. Yet there are temporary roadblocks. I am sure this will remain only a temporary phase and WLL will be a viable & reliable means of providing quick service to the customers as laying and augmenting conventional twisted cable pair is becoming a Herculean task.

The usaga of Internet has made the task of access providers a daunting one. There is a demand for wide bandwidth access network for proper exploitation of the various services made available by Internet. Some of the requirements cannot be made in a time bound manner by traditional twisted pair or ISDN or xDSL or cable modems. This could, however, be provided quickly by employing point to multi point fixed broadband wireless. The system comprises a typical hub and scope architecture providing a full duplex RF interface to multiple subscribers' stations. These access networks are popularly known as LMDS and MMDS, i.e., Local Multi Channel Distribution System and Multi Channel Multi Point Distribution System. These systems are going to provide very quick and cost effective solutions in providing various bandwidths to a customer.

Another important segment of telecom technology is the transport. This is a set of technologies that make up the fabric of the network cloud including circuit switching, traditional packet frame Relay, ATM and Internet Protocol popularly known as simply IP. It is evident that any pure technology network is not on cards. The network of forciable future will comprise of hybrid of multi technologies that altogether are capable of supporting the diverse transport requirements of an increasingly set of customer applications. Ideally the customer will remain blissfully unaware of the involved technologies.

From technological point of view, the watch world for the day, without any doubt, is IP. Although IP is one of the most crucial technologies, other technologies will play role at least central. Circuit switching, which in spite of all the words to the contrary, will continue to be a central delivery method for years to come. I feel that the most effective service providers will be those who will sell a cloud, i.e., their product will be accessible to a transport mechanism capable of handling all means of services and able to deliver every possible and desirable quality of service available as per the customers demand. In some cases, that capability could be via Internet as Virtual Private Network and in other cases we may have to look to rather access and transport mechanism. Many companies are looking towards a strong future focus on IP but the current focus is on ATM and Circuit Switching as well as high-speed local access techniques such as Cable Modems, DSL, and high-speed wireless in local loop.

When we talk of Internet and its related services & applications, we have to take note of VPNs, which have emerged, on the forefront of network and Internet development. They combine easy remote access and low cost of Internet with the management and security benefits of a private network. VPNs can and are replacing expensive cabling, leased lines, and proprietary equipment while extending the reach of traditional enterprise networks to individual workers, remote office locations and business partners. VPNs are the technology to provide full support, in a cost effective and secure manner, for the connectivity needed to fulfil the promise of "virtual organistion". VPNs can provide access from anywhere at any time. It may even replace the current fixed Wide Area Network (WAN) technologies not very far.

The other technology, which has been making waves apart from IP, is Fiber. Fibre technology has been in use throughout the world for more than two decades. The telecom operators throughout the world including India have been utilizing fibre technology to a great extent. The main reason for the worldwide optical infrastructure growing so rapidly is the huge bandwidth potential that it offers over cable or radio relay or satellite system. It is estimated that over 175 million Kms. of fibre optical cable is presently deployed worldwide. To me, it appears that fibre optical communication is a wave of the future and it is here today. Driven by the increasing requirements of data delivery, new applications being developed everyday and the quest for more speed, the cable capacity of the fibre optic network at both the backbone and the local access levels must try and keep ahead of these networking demands. Broadband is the future of the Internet and this need of broadband can be easily met by proper exploitation of optical fibre cable.

A few years ago in the world and in India too and even today, network backbones operated at speed of 2.5 Giga bits. In some of the countries, the equipment from these networks operating at speeds of 2.5 Giga Hz are being moved down to more congested side routes making deployment of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, i.e., DWDM in the main backbone network. The DWDM systems took colours of light and divided them into separate channels for information to use on one cable. This was done to extend the capacity and eliminate congestion in the network. Addition of a new fibre to the existing infrastructure may not be desirable due to time, money and disruption. DWDM is aimed at providing access in a timely and cost effective manner. Deployment of 32 channels DWDM systems, i.e., a composite speed of 80 Giga bits has become quite predominant in some part of the world. In India, the BSNL is also deploying 32 channels DWDM system on its backbone. A number of private operators have also not only similar but very high capacity plans, which might be sufficient for any forciable future & any forciable service. These systems used in Metros and access environments can be upgraded on a per channel basis. It is not necessary to purchase a fully populated DWDM system. Channels can be added as service requirements increases. The manufacturers world-wide are coming out with fibre cables that can optimise even upto 40 Giga bits operations and offer the ability to operate in all the three transmission bands. These can support more than 320 channels at 10 Giga bits on one pair of fibre. This would mean more than 100 million voice calls over one fibre pair. It is expected that cost of DWDM technology will drop dramatically as its capacity increases over next few years. Time is not far when service providers will be able to connect homes in a neighbourhood with a single fiber and assign one or more DWDM channels to each home.

To complement thin fibres in the backbone network, radio can be deployed over certain routes involving adverse terrain. The cost of radio system could be substantially reduced than the cost of aerial or fibre cable. High Altitude Platforms Stations (HAPS) is another new concept, being addressed to enable a vast multitude of services by stations allotted at a height of 20 to 50 Kms. above the earth surface. This station will be a repeater close to the earth and focus reflected to a point earth station and thus avoiding the problem of delay that accrues in satellite communication. Due to its height, it is visible over a large area and few such systems could cover the entire nation. HAPS can be defined with telecommunication technology capable of providing fully duplex digital channels from 64 Kbps to 155 Mbps. Such systems will enable complete blending of digital telephony and video informations to be delivered to multimedia terminals, wireless in local loop terminals and fixed wireless networks.

An other technology which is going to create waves in last mile is FSO, i.e., Free Space Optics. Fibre technology is hot, wireless technology is hot. Combine the two and what we get? Free Space Optics. Lasers beaming signals through the air rather than over fiber. Compared with fibre optic lines, FSO systems take much less time to deploy and much less cost. But like fixed wireless; FSO is subject to environmental interference. FSO has to compensate for fog. The FSO could provide bandwidth up to 1 Gbps. These could be useful for back haul transmissions, i.e., for delivering bandwidth to the system hub.Perhaps, FSO does not require any licence, i.e., either for spectrum or road cutting, etc. and thus speedy deployment & cuts costs.

With the Globalization of the business, need for mobile communication becomes very significant. Presently mobile services world-over are mostly provided using Second generation technology using frequency spectrum, in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, & 1800 MHz bands. GSM has been a spectacular success and operators have enjoyed the results of 50% & even more growth annually. There has been exponential growth in Internet as well as mobile services. With the present 2G mobile technology, it had been possible to provide Internet access of speeds up to 9.6 Kbps. For meeting the increasing demand of bandwidth on mobile, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) has developed and has been deployed by many operators to solve the problem of accessing Internet over the small screen. For achieving greater access speeds of Internet technologies, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) which provide speed to 170 Kbps and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) which provide speed up to 384 Kbps are being deployed world over. The actual speeds experienced in GPRS & EDGE are, however, much lower.

With the development and growth of Internet based services requiring broadband connectivity, there is a need for supporting the same over mobile networks. Third generation mobile system, which support data speed up to 2 Mbps, is being developed to solve this problem. 3G technologies enable a wide range of new service that combine wide band or broadband with the unique power of wide area mobility. However, the high license fees, large investment required in infrastructure, uncertainty about the nature and timing of demand and the current adverse financial climate have hindered the growth of 3G commercial 3G services are expected to start in October 2001 in Japan. In Europe, the operators had to shelve out more than 130 billion US dollars to get licences of 3G services. This has effected the financial health of some of the operators. In India, the issues related to 3G are still under discussions and no clear view has emerged so far about the timing of introduction, method of licensing & other regulatory spectrum issues.

To achieve the goal of providing communication anytime, anywhere, Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite provides a milestone. GMPCS provides communication services to end user from a constellation of satellites (geostationary, non-geostationary, broadband) in accordance with GMPCS-MOU. GMPCS is especially useful to provide communication in accessible and difficult areas including on land, and at water. In case of natural calamities and other difficult situations when the traditional means of communication may not be effective, GMPCS plays an important role. Some of the initial Global based services like Iridium have not taken off due to huge capital investment and high usage cost, however, the regional services based on geostationary satellites may prove to be financially viable and attractive.

No talk on telecom could be considered as complete without talking of convergence. The term convergence can not be defined by a single definition. I feel that the most commonly available definition of convergence could be;The ability of different Network platforms to carry essentially similar kinds of services, and The coming together of Consumer Devices such as Telephone, Television and Personal Computer.

All the systems are moving towards a common platform i.e. digital. This common digital platform has provided a new concept of "Technological Convergence". Technologies like Computers, Switching, Transmission and Communication are converging and their functions are being combined to provide user-friendly services.

The integration of today's separate audio, video and data services gives traditional operators and service providers a migration path to providing the customer with an integrated service offering. This could be achieved by NGNs, i.e., Next Generation Networks, which the manufacturers of Telecom equipment, world-wide, have started talking & designing, and such networks may roll out in next 2 to 3 years.

In some of the developed countries, it is forecasted that by 2005, many households will no longer have to bother with or expect separate communication bills for television, Internet access or telephone calls. It will be available as one package, may by Telcos or Cable TVs. For some of the traditional service providers, it would mean that Telcos, the masters of residential telephony, would face a huge threat to their existing position in voice and data services unless they come up with an effective defence strategy.

While we talk of convergence of television, Internet access & telephone calls, we cannot forget power supply lines for ever. The idea of power line technology providing high speech data services to homes has not found favour till now due to technological problems like interference and emissions. These problems have been solved to a great extent. Given the universal presence of electricity in homes, there is a view in certain sections of world community that power line technology could be a real challenge to Telcos in providing wide band data access in the distant future.

Let me tell, you about my personal perceptions about mobile access. I feel that in India, mobile access, however, will remain far behind wireline or short distance radio access. Wireline will remain the preferred access means. The speech services will continue their growth for many years, may be, for at least a decade. Data services may not have the success currently advertised. Exceptions might be specific services, for example, machine to machine services and services like SMS or e-mail, i.e., to say, very low data rate data services.

In the end, I will say that there are a number of technologies available worldwide which can meet the entire demand of the customers but I will say that it is not the technology which will make a service provider, a leader. It will be the customer service without which the best technologies in the world become meaningless.