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Why broadband wireless
should be reinvented in India
India,
with its recently privatised telecommunication industry, is
set to reap the benefits of wireless technology, if only we
play our cards right and leapfrog directly into the digital
age, writes Mohan
Babu
For nearly a
century, America has been at the forefront of the information technology
revolution, but with all its advances, it is still found wanting in one
area—ubiquitous wireless. The past decade has seen an astronomical growth in
the usage of Internet technologies, along with the use of various modes to
connect our “wired world,” including telephone lines, broadband, cable and
increasingly, wireless. However, Americans have been trailing Europeans when
it comes to the use and proliferation of wireless technologies.
I have a cell
phone that supposedly has a “nationwide” coverage, but every time I go
hiking in the Rocky Mountains, it goes blank. This irks me no end,
especially because the whole idea behind my buying a wireless phone was to
have the ability to call anyone, anytime from anywhere. And it is not just
me complaining about the service. My friends and peers across the country
seem to be in a similar fix. The problem gets more complicated because
different plans offered by different wireless companies like AT&T, Worldcomm
and Sprint are mutually exclusive, riding on their own private networks with
different coverage areas and consumers are expected to use specific phones
with specific services. Not exactly the most customer-focused system around.
You might be
wondering that if the services are so bad and unpredictable, why are
entrepreneurs not rushing to fill the gap. Have you seen American
telecommunication sector stocks lately? With the downturn in the tech
sector, entrepreneurs are not exactly jumping to seize this opportunity
because of the lack of real demand. This is especially true because most
people have access to excellent communication systems and networks that
compete with wireless, and which are more cost effective. Large companies
have excellent LANs and VPNs for their intranets; and for their external
communications they are content to use huge broadband or T1 pipes.
Individuals too have access to excellent phone systems that are ubiquitous
across the country. It is only the road-warriors and people whose livelihood
depends on travel, who are finding things difficult. But even they are not
willing to pay a huge premium when it comes to the use of wireless
technologies. In his famous essay “Is the information revolution dead?” Prof
Brian Arthur says, “Information technology morphs every 10 years or so, so
that what we thought defined the information revolution—batch processing,
desktop computing, Web-based interconnection—is continually superceded by
something new.” Similarly, wireless technologies are undergoing a steady,
albeit slow transformation in the US. A trend that is not likely to be
reversed anytime soon.
Indians, who
assiduously imitate western technologies, are perhaps waiting for a signal
from their American brethren when it comes to the use of wireless
technologies. This is not to say that the techies there are not hyped up. On
the contrary, even a year ago, when I visited India, WAP and “m-commerce”
were extremely hot and hyped up. However, the focus of the sector has been
to service their clients in the US and the crashing of the American market
has led to a slowdown in the wireless sector in India too. This should not
be so.
India, with
its recently privatised telecommunication industry, coupled with a lack of
world-class telecommunications infrastructure, is poised to reap the
benefits of wireless technology, if we play the cards right. Instead of
upgrading the existing infrastructure and antiquated telecommunication
systems, we can leapfrog directly into the digital age by using the
ubiquitous wireless bandwidth. There is a pent-up demand for world-class
communication systems from multinationals operating from India who may not
be content to use the unreliable networks with limited bandwidth. Telco’s
entering the Indian market can bypass the huge investments in real estate,
telephone exchanges and hubs and ubiquitous leased lines, and work on
harnessing the available wireless technologies efficiently and in a
cost-effective manner.
There is
precedence for this: A year before cable Internet became popular in the US,
Zee TV was already offering customers cable Internet in India, complete with
rental modems and Internet accounts! We weren’t exactly following the
American biggies, we were using the available technology, modifying it for
the Indian market. If we could do it in Cable Internet, why not in wireless?
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