Indian WiFi Market To Boom By 2012!

We recently carried a quote by Oracle R&D head that most devices would be internet enabled and would access the data available on the internet to function better. Well being internet enabled could very well mean that we could soon be in a wifi world. According to a study “Wi-Fi in India: A key enabler of economic, cocial and community development” India’s WiFi market will touch 890 Million dollars by 2012.



Which basically means that wifi enabled device sales will climb 36% year on year from 2008. Also this report doesn’t take into consideration devices like laptops, handsets, and chipsets. The growth mentioned in this report will come from sales of WLAN gear, networking tools, professional services, Wirless Internet Service Provider (WISP) revenues, Wi-Fi applications that are being built for niche sectors, handheld terminals, and system integration services.

I feel with such sales rising there is tremendous potential for a pan india wifi service provider who could also venture into the sales of cheap wifi phones for the masses. Phones like this one launced way back in 2006.

One can download the entire report from here.

Gartner sees 6.9 mn WiMax users by ’11, warns of hype

MUMBAI: Research house Gartner expects India to have 6.9 million WiMax connections by the end of 2011 but has cautioned that only quicker spectrum allocation and licensing from the government, and not the current hype, can help this wireless broadband technology be adopted widely. “We don’t see much growth in the next one or two years” as the spectrum squeeze drags on, a Gartner analyst who co-authored a report on the sector, said.

The government has touted WiMax as the answer for connecting the so-called last mile to rural households and e-governance kiosks and paving the way for higher Internet adoption. However, its departments and public sector institutions have occupied most of the wireless frequency spectrum that must be allotted to service providers. With whatever little spectrum is available, mobile companies including WiMax operators are jostling with each other to provide connectivity.

“The government had good objectives in mind when they came out with their broadband policy. But they did not really take adequate initiatives in freeing spectrum for broadband wireless,” Naresh Singh, Gartner analyst told ET. “So, the Indian WiMax market is not promising in the near-term, except for niche use like enterprises and high-end users,” he said.

Gartner’s study titled “Beware of WiMax hype in India” said the low personal computer usage in the country as well as the lack of adequate spectrum will act as hurdles to the growth of wireless broadband. As a result, the government will not be able to realise its ambition to take WiMax to villages in the next few years, Mr Singh said.

Seven companies have been licensed to offer WiMax services in India, but in the 3.5 GHz band with a very narrow slot of 5 MHz each, Mr Singh said. The microwave frequency band must be much wider to aid a rapid growth in subscribers, he added. The government also plans to open up the popular 2.5 GHz band and give each service provider double the current frequency, but it would be at least a few months before the rollout happens, he said. “So, till 2009, we don’t expect full-blown WiMax services to be available in India.”

In recent years, several wireless technologies have emerged, but most of them have become obsolete even before the governments and industry got around to standardise and adopt them. The latest “horses in the race”, Mr Singh said, are WiMax and the third-generation wireless CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.

The Indian government has sought to encourage both, letting market forces eventually decide the more popular technology. But Mr Singh said WiMax has seen better traction so far with services already beginning in many cities. Eventually, it would be the mobile phones and not computers that will drive the adoption of WiMax, he said. “Indian users seem to have a propensity for mobile services both for voice and data,” and hence there is a case for encouraging mobile WiMax services.

Source : EconomicTimes

Wi-Fi market in India to touch $891mn mark by 2011-12: Study

NEW DELHI: Riding on realty, retail and other infrastructure sectors boom, including the Indian Railways, the adaptation of Wi-Fi in India is set to increase massively.

After witnessing a 100% increase in the number of hotspots (locations that are Wi-Fi enabled, where one can log on to the Net without using cables) to about 1,600 in 2007-08, this number is expected to increase by several multiple times during the current year.

A study by the Global Wi-Fi Alliance has estimated that Wi-Fi market in India will grow to $891million by 2011-12. This figure includes WLAN gear, networking tools, professional services, Wirless Internet Service Provider (WISP) revenues, Wi-Fi applications that are being built for niche sectors, handheld terminals, and system integration services, but does not include chipsets, laptops, PDAs, cell phone handsets and other devices.

According to Global Wi-FI Alliance senior marketing manager Kelly Davis-Felner, the addressable base of Wi-Fi-enabled client devices is growing steadily in India since about 90 - 95% of notebooks being sold today had a built-in Wi-Fi capability.

“We have noticed that a small but growing number of Indian mobile subscribers are going in for handsets with Wi-Fi capability. A highly mobile, young generation increasingly expects near-always-on mobile broadband connectivity and is willing to pay for it. These factors will drive increased use of Wi-Fi in India moving forward,” Ms Davis-Felner added.

The global Wi-FI alliance’s study also points out that exploding real-estate market growing at 30% annually, where entire new townships are coming up in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, coupled with the fact that organized retail was expected to add about 220 million square feet of space by 2010, provided the perfect platform for Wi-Fi to take off in India.

More so, considering that the growth in commercial office space requirements is led by the burgeoning outsourcing and information technology (IT) industry-for example, IT and ITeS alone is estimated to require 150 million square feet across urban India by 2010.

Other factors that will ignite Wi-Fi in India include large-scale developments of hotspots by corporates, telcos and PSUs. For instance, the Indian Railways recently announced that all important rail-routes between metros would be made Wi-Fi-enabled together with 50 railway stations (20 of which to be completed by March, 2008).

Tata Communications, which has already rolled out rolled out 350 plus public hotspot locations is set to increase the chain to about 1,000 this year in 2008.

Similarly, BSNL is setting up 100,000 Community Service Centres which will be carrying a powerful info kiosk that has Internet connectivity, plans to make a significant number of these Wi-Fi enabled.

“While new technology solutions (PON, WiMAX, ADSL) will continue to address growing demand for broadband in India, Wi-Fi will continue to play a strong role in sub-tending the last mile to multiple end-points - slashing costs, improving inventory management in organized retail, enabling faster check-ins at airport counters, medical services in rural India, creating jobs in a rural BPOs, spreading education in hinterlands of India and enriching quality of life for many,” the Wi-Fi Alliance study adds.

Expressing confidence in Wi-Fi uptake in India, Ms Davis-Felner added: The biggest strengths of Wi-Fi are its ubiquity (virtually every notebook shipped is Wi-Fi equipped and an increasing number of mobile phones carry the capability now), its maturity as a technology and the demonstrated interoperability it provides today.

Wi-Fi’s complementary nature with a variety of back-haul technologies including DSL, WiMAX or FTTX, make it a natural ally to most service providers in extending the ‘last-mile’ of connectivity to the user.”

Source : EconomicTimes

Broadband Growth for Feb'08

Broadband (≥ 256 Kbps download) Growth: Total Broadband subscribers base has reached 3.47 million by the end of February 2008 as compared to 3.24 million by the end of January 2008.



Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/549/pr24mar08no27.pdf

BSNL to invite bids for 8 mn modems

NEW DELHI: In one of the largest orders for broadband services globally, state-owned BSNL is all set to invite bids for 8 million Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), also called modem. Sources said global majors Alcatel, Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, ZTE, Huawei and others have already expressed interest to bid for the BSNL contract, expected to be worth several hundred million dollars. India has about 3.24 million broadband connections and the BSNL tender is more than twice the existing broadband subscriber of all operators combined.

More importantly, BSNL is offering more than broadband services. The company has informed prospective bidders that the modem should not only offer high speed internet access, but also carry content services such as IPTV, internet telephony and VoD (Video on Demand systems allow users to select and watch video and clip content over a network as part of an interactive TV system). It should also offer enterprise services such as Virtual Private Network over broadband. Sources said that tender conditions would also stipulate that a significant per cent of these modems are Wi-Fi-enabled.

It is also learnt that BSNL has called a meeting of all chip set vendors who manufacture DSLs to understand what the PSU terms ‘latest developments in DSL.’ “The meeting is scheduled in the next few days and the tender conditions will be finalised only after that,’’ sources close to the development added.

While the DSLs will cater to broadband services via fixedline, BSNL is also pushing for high speed internet through wireless (also called WiMAX services). WiMAX will also paves the way for high-speed wireless internet on laptops and high-end mobile handsets. The PSU has already earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for it and has decided to follow a franchisee model for its wireless broadband services.

The company has also floated an expression of interest to select the franchisees through a two-stage bidding process. As reported by ET first, BSNL has tied up with US-based WiMAX solutions firm Soma Networks through the franchisee model for what is considered the largest WiMAX deployment in the country covering four states in three circles — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

BSNL had earlier received some spectrum in the 2.5 GHz frequency band for its WiMAX rollout. It plans to roll out WiMax services in 70 cities across the country by the second half of 2008 and set up 50,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) — ICT-enabled kiosks — across the country using WiMAX. The government has set itself a target of 20 million broadband lines in service by 2010 and BSNL is targeting a market share of about 60% of this figure.

Source : EconomicTimes

Jaipur to be Wifi City in 1 Year

We had blogged about the fact that the first wifi city could be Jaipur in India also the fact that builders themselves are looking at installing wifi in their new buildings is heartening for anyone who wants the internet penetration in India to grow. Now Jaipur has finally got its first wifi hotspot at the Sindhi Camp Bus Stand courtesy Data Infosys Ltd which is looking at wifi’ing the entire jaipur city.

Though these citywise initiatives are great I would love to see a national initiative on the wifi front atleast as far as the top 8 metros is concerned. This is because a wifi city would mean if you have a wifi phone or a voip phone which are available internationally then you would be able to make unlimited calls internationally at a fixed monthly wifi fee (thats assuming the wifi access is charged at a fixed monthly fee).

What this may also do is completely remove the operator from the picture and also bring to fore tonnes of voip providers. But again this is wishful thinking as to actually carry out such a mass wifi project requires a big company like reliance or tata to take up the same which they wont as they are operators themselves.

Source : WATBlog

Delhi metro stations to be Wi-Fi enabled before Commonwealth Games

NEW DELHI: With an aim of giving Delhi hi-tech infrastructure ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth games, the Delhi government has decided to make all the metro stations Wi-Fi enabled.

At places of tourist interest, railway stations, hotels and at Games locations, Wi-Fi kiosks would be set up. “We are exploring the feasibility of launching the Wi-Fi services at all metro stations ahead the 2010 Commonwealth games. This would enable tourists to get wireless net access on laptops or palmtops,” said an official in IT department of Delhi government.

Currently, the state IT department is working on its Wi-Fi pilot project at Connaught Place, South Ex I-II and Nehru place. These faciliteis would be ready by August this year.

The Delhi government has identified bidders including internet and telecom players such as MTNL, Net4 India, Spectranet, Tulip IT Services and Microsense for these projects. Gemini Communications and Velocis Systems have also emerged prospective bidders. Request For Proposals (RFP) will now be invited later for implementing these projects.

According to sources, Wi-Fi at these hotspots may be free of charge and service providers will garner revenue through advertising.

“The initiatives such as unwire Pune project and Delhi to make whole cities Wi-Fi enabled, at low or no costs for citizens, will increase broadband penetration and lead India faster towards the Vision 2020 goal,” said an official.

The IT department is also exploring the feasibility of information dissemination through portals at all places of tourist interest during the Games.

Currently, all Cafe Coffee Day outlets in Kamla Nagar, South Delhi and Barista Espresso Bars in Connaught Place, Janak Puri and South Delhi are Wi-Fi enabled. All Delhi Wi-Fi spots are working on 802.11g Wi-Fi standard.

Source : EconomicTimes

Is Your Net Connection Painfully Slow?? Welcome To India!

On one end there is talk of wireless connectivity and wimax being deployed in India by various players and one the other end comes a report that shall surely put a dampner on all those who are setting up web businesses and streaming movies thinking that an audience exists that has the time and patience to fight a painfully slow internet to access that content.

 

Not sure what im talking about? Well im refering to the recent report by Internettrafficreport.com which states that India had an overall index of 74 and a response time of 253 milliseconds. A higher Index indicates faster and more reliable connection while a response time refers to time taken for a packet of information to reach from one point to another.

 

Check the image below to see how India is ranked with respect to other countries..

 

According to Rajesh Chabbria President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) “Indian bandwidth providers have the infrastructure to offer capacity in terrabits but they are making available only a few gigabits. This has resulted in artificial change in the supply and demand equation.” He also stated in this businessline article that smaller isp’s are not able to afford higher bandwidth as its priced higher than what its is priced for its UK and US counterparts.

 

On the whole this report does paint a sorry picture for those basing their business models on Internet Usage numbers stated by IAMAI in its reports because now the questions arises how many of those supposedly internet users have a good enough internet connection? Also What is IAMAI doing to improve this situation given that its the representative body for the Indian Internet and Mobile Industry. I guess IAMAI needs to do more than just conduct events around India if anything has to improve for Internet players and for IAMAI to be taken as a serious body.

Source : WATBlog

AT&T to increase investment in India to enhance physical infra

NEW DELHI: Global telecom major AT&T on Wednesday said it will increase its investment in India this year to enhance physical infrastructure, including setting up of three nodes and an internet data centre in the country.

The company also announced global investment of one billion dollar outside the US in 2008, up 33 per cent from last year. AT&T, however, declined to reveal exact investment figures for India.

It already has seven nodes in India and would add three more in Delhi, Pune and Kolkata by the end of this year. The US-based company would also set up an internet data centre in Bangalore in the same period, AT&T's India CEO and Managing Director Sanjiv Bhagat told the media.

He said the company was evaluating the option of setting up a customer briefing centre in India for product demonstrations.

The Indian revenues for the company has increased by 85 per cent year-on-year in 2007, Bhagat said, refusing to give further details.

AT&T holds an ILD/NLD license in India and provide services in partnership with Mahindra Telecommunications.

Source : EconomicTimes

Tatas to invest $500mn for WiMax

NEW DELHI: Tata Communications on Tuesday said that the company will investment $500 million dollars for its wireless broadband venture or WiMax services over the next three years. The company has also said that it has given the contract to Telsima of Sunnyvale, California for supply of WiMax equipment.

“The company will invest 500 million dollars by 2010 in Wimax technology and is in talks with investors to sell minority stake in retail business,” Tata Communications retail business unit president Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

Tata Communications’s plan is to connect 200,000 retail customers using WiMax by March 2009 and also rollout wireless high-speed internet services in 110 cities for its enterprise customers and 15 cities for retail customers this year, the company said.
Tata Communications was the first company to launch broadband services on the WiMax platform on a large scale for retail consumers in India. In the initial phase, the company’s WiMax network will offer broadband internet access and content services to enterprises and residential customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.

In fact, as per data provided by the company, Tata Communications currently serves over 5,000 enterprise and retail customers across ten cities where it offers this service.

While India’s telecom (read mobile) is booming, its braodband sector is witnessing rather slow growth and is way behind the targets set by the Department of Telecom. India has just under 3.5 million braodband users as of January end according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

While WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is still an evolving technology, it is still considered a threat to third generation mobile services. As per global industry experience, WiMax offers data speeds that are 10-30 times faster than 3G. To put this in perspective, the data speeds of 3G networks are over five times faster than those offered by 2G cellular networks that telcos in India currently use.

Source : EconomicTimes