Move over 3G — 4G is around the corner. Residents of Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Raipur in Chhattisgarh will be the first to experience high speed Internet on the move. Augere Wireless Broadband India, an Internet service provider (ISP), plans to launch its 4G service, Zoosh, in these two states this May.
4G, or fourth generation wireless communications system, is all set to change the way you play online games, watch YouTube or a live telecast or monitor your baby at home on your mobile phone or iPad.
Hang on. Wasn't the hype over 3G about a year ago precisely about all this? It was; 3G was supposed to revolutionise your handset. The 2G era — offering voice and some basic browsing — was passé. 3G was about being online all the time, watching television on the go, shooting and uploading videos, video calls, video conferencing and much more. But it didn't live up to its promise, for a variety of reasons .
4G is a step ahead. Its networks ride on technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced — a standard for wireless transmission that enables data to be relayed more efficiently over spectrum (airwaves that carry signals). Not only does it enable data transmission at lightning speeds, it also eliminates even minor lags in transmission (called latency). "LTE takes mobile broadband experience to the next level," says Atri, who's head, marketing and communications, India, at networking and telecommunications equipment firm Nokia Siemens Network (NSN). No wonder Lars Stork, Augere India CEO, declares: "3G is not the answer to data; 4G is."
When NSN demonstrated three-way video conferencing and high-definition video streaming in October 2010, using LTE, it got speeds of 110 mbps. But actual speeds in wireless technology could be far less than that, depending on interference levels (from buildings, trees, etc.), the number of people logged in to a network and the user's distance from the base station. Sudhir Gupta, principal advisor, mobile networks at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), cautions the speed could be one-fourth or one-fifth of what it is touted to be.
Nevertheless, the possibilities of LTE are mind-boggling. At the 2010 Shanghai Expo, telecommunications technology firm Alcatel-Lucent showcased a car fitted with LTE-enabled devices, which when configured to a LTE network allows remote monitoring of one's home or office from the car and vice versa, online shopping and watching on-demand movies. NSN has demonstrated, along with Germany's Deutsche Telekom, how LTE can make virtual classrooms a reality with interactive boards and high-definition video conferencing to reach out to students in far-flung areas.
Telecom operators in China are attempting pilot remote education and tele-medicine ventures using LTE. The technology, notes Sridhar Vadlamudi, director and head of radio access network at communications systems firm Ericsson India, was used very effectively by mobile TV teams for live coverage of a royal wedding in Sweden in June 2010.
Unlike 3G, which came to India a decade after its global debut around 2000, 4G will have a lag of only two years — a different version of LTE was launched in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and parts of Europe in 2010. Other than Augere, seven companies have got 4G (labelled broadband wireless access or BWA) spectrum. The largest player is Infotel Broadband Services (later acquired by Reliance Industries Ltd or RIL). The Mumbai-based ISP Tikona Digital Networks, which already provides broadband services through Wi-Fi in 39 cities, will launch its mobile broadband service by the year end.
US telecommunications technology major Qualcomm Inc., which has got spectrum for four circles, has applied for an ISP licence through an entity in which it holds a majority stake. It will work with 3G operators to commercially deploy LTE in the BWA spectrum. If the government auctions more 4G spectrum later this year (it was supposed to do so last year), more companies could enter the field.
All this is throwing up exciting opportunities for telecommunication services and equipment companies. A report by technology market intelligence firm ABI Research says that Airtel plans to give out contracts worth $75 million-$100 million for setting up its LTE networks. RIL, it says, is in talks with vendors for a $1 billion contract.
A RIL spokesperson stresses it is too early for the company to talk about its 4G plans, while an Airtel spokesperson says the company does not comment on market speculation or share information on arrangements with partners. Ericsson India, which will set up and manage Augere's LTE network, is expanding its manufacturing base in the country, points out Vadlamudi. NSN has done indoor and outdoor trials with its LTE modems and dongles (USB devices) as well as devices to upgrade 3G networks to 4G. Alcatel-Lucent is working with leading operators to provide its LTE offerings that have been deployed in several countries, says Anirudh Patil, vice-president, marketing, strategy and communications.
The 4G companies are upbeat about demand. "There is a craving for data. Internet connectivity and broadband access is low," says Stork. Indeed, a Credit Suisse report shows that Internet penetration in India is only 6 per cent versus the world average of 29 per cent, while the broadband penetration is even lower at 0.7 per cent against the world average of 7 per cent.
"This decade will belong to mobile broadband and the key will be 4G," asserts Prakash Bajpai, Tikona's managing director and CEO. Eighty per cent of the estimated 5 billion worldwide broadband subscribers by 2016 will be on mobile broadband and a majority will be on LTE or high speed packet access (an earlier technology), adds Vadlamudi. 4G in India could be a viable wireless alternative to different kinds of dial up connectivity, believes Kasturi Bhattacharjee, director, InfoComm practice, at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers India.
So is it going to be goodbye 3G, hello 4G? It's a little early to predict, but India's late entry into the 3G arena has meant that 3G and 4G have come back to back here. There was a gap of at least five years in other countries, giving 3G time to take off. In other markets LTE came after 3G networks got extremely congested, points out Lakshminath Reddy Dondeti, director, engineering, technical standards, Qualcomm India.
That could mean people dissatisfied with 3G may switch to 4G, without giving 3G a chance to prove itself. Unfortunately, the less than satisfactory 3G experience has created some consumer resistance, admits Stork, with people wondering whether 4G will also go the same way. An Airtel spokesperson, however, said the company successfully rolled out 3G in the 13 circles for which it got spectrum and got "an encouraging response" from over 7 million subscribers in a short period.
But the 4G experience may be different from 3G.
For one, operators have got 20 megahertz of 4G spectrum each (against 5 mhz in the case of 3G players).
That, says Trai's Gupta, will make for more reliable service. Two, barring Augere and RIL, operators won't have to spend too much on network infrastructure. "LTE in the BWA spectrum works best as an overlay on existing networks and isn't efficient to deploy in a greenfield scenario," says Dondeti.
The presence of an existing network will save Tikona 20-30 per cent of the cost, adds Bajpai. Besides, since sharing physical infrastructure like towers is allowed, Augere doesn't see spending on infrastructure as a huge drain.
In any case, subscribers may not need to choose between 3G or 4G. LTE allows them to be complementary to each other. NSN, for example, has a base station — flexi-multi radio — that has slots for all technologies to run in parallel on a network. Qualcomm has an LTE chipset for mobile devices — including dongles, smartphones and tablets — that is compatible with 2G and 3G technologies. Such "multi-mode" technology will allow people to switch seamlessly between 2G, 3G and 4G networks, says Rajan Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India.
3G and 4G will also co-exist because they will have different usage profiles, says Bhattacharjee. 3G will be used for more popular offerings on handsets — chatting, interactive games, accessing the Internet and so on. 4G will be preferred by small and medium businesses, police or radio cab networks or people who carry their work around.
But it may not be a cakewalk. There's no dearth of LTE devices (smartphones, dongles, tablets) globally, but they are not yet easily available in India and are expensive. This, adds Dondeti, could lead to a situation where devices aren't available or affordable because the service has not taken off. And in a vicious circle, a service may not take off because of a lack of devices.
The answer, Dondeti says, would be for operators to offer the equipment along with the service. Augere plans to do so initially — bundling devices along with the service. It is in talks with tablet PC manufacturers to supply tablets with an LTE chip.
Content too could be an important factor in 4G's fate. Augere will partner with universities and colleges and offer services that will appeal to the young — games, music and education. The lack of content in non-English languages is a dampener,
Stork points out. NSN's Atri agrees, pointing out that in China there was a close link between broadband penetration and the number of Chinese language sites. There's been a buzz about RIL investing in media group TV18 to provide content for its proposed
4G tablet, but a spokesperson refused to comment. Airtel too did not answer a question on content offerings.
More than only Internet-based content, operators have to think of innovative services in education, health and entertainment to exploit the potential of LTE, says Patil. They have to evolve from a primarily connectivity-based business to a differentiated services business to lead in the LTE space, he asserts.
Will operators make that shift? Time will tell.
WHY 3G DIDN'T TAKE OFF
Service was patchy because: Operators got only 5 mhz of spectrum each, which does not allow high speed transmission. Having bid huge amounts for spectrum,
operators were short of funds to invest in networks. Government objected to roaming arrangements operators had with each other.
Government did not allow video calls citing security concerns.
So 3G didn't live up to the marketing hype — video calls, television on the move, downloading and watching films and videos.
Subscribers felt they were not getting value for money since 3G was priced higher.
Pre-paid customers, who form 95 per cent of the market, didn't take to it as they found their account balance being eaten up by heavy downloads.
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