The DoT’s recent decision to effectively exclude ISP bids for WiMax spectrum revives memories of India’s past flights of fancy. The fantasy this time is the cell operator’s commitment to roll out 2.5GHz spectrum nationwide for wireless broadband on WiMax and not hoard it or sneak it into 3G use, if DOT has its way, they are owed grant both.
This is another kick in the teeth for Indian ISPs, as the nation still has a chastity belt around VoIP that does not allow interconnection with public landline and mobile networks. Now drunken Internet providers are locked out of WiMax in what can only be a complete flight from logic.
If the Department of Transport really wants to have a real, functional, no-nonsense, ubiquitous, mobile “wireless broadband” service that allows the country to retain a bit of the shine of the “India Shining” plaque on the door, then the guy who will deliver it is the one. no vested interest in legacy air interfaces that drive mobility.
That is, keep the cellular establishment away from WiMax because they will do everything with it, but provide serious ubiquitous mobile truly wireless broadband service that will cannibalize existing revenue and kill those hot 3G dreams.
To be fair, our incumbent and cellular friends (same difference) would use WiMax for backhaul, which means it’s a great way to connect base stations to the mothership while customers continue to connect to these base stations through existing investments. at the cellular air interface. They would also use WiMax to provide fixed wireless local loops (WLLs) to homes in another area that they find relatively uninteresting compared to the mainstream cellular seam. Remember how Reliance sneaked cell phones into the public under the guise of WLL? It was cellular mobility that Reliance coveted, not boring old fixed wireless local loops. And it’s the vaunted mobility of WiMax that the cellular establishment wants to keep out of reach of ISPs and away from the user.
Keeping it real, I’d probably do the same in cell shoes. The internet is synonymous with freebies, long distance and landline voice revenues go the same way with the only remaining telecom property making money within the cell phone. You put an eight lane highway of WiMax broadband on your cell phone and there goes that walled garden.
No one is asking the cell site to be denied spectrum for wireless broadband. Let them keep their existing 3.5GHz shards admirably suitable for WLL, but don’t waste 2.5GHz or 2.3GHz God-given to spawn mobility across wireless broadband footprints. Assign that mission to the ISPs.
In general, the cellular establishment does everything possible to protect legacy investment and avoid air interfaces that lend themselves more naturally to Internet access. There’s no reason to think your Indian chapter will do anything but lie until the legacy costs are fully amortized and beyond. Consumers must pay for cellular airtime until the store’s books stop requiring the title. Until that happens, no video, YouTube or VoIP access will be efficiently allowed on your mobile phone.
3G is the cellular establishment’s answer to broadband and they have already spent $150 billion globally on licensing and similar implementation changes. Why would the Indian cell establishment go with anything else? Even more so because tried and tested equipment is available today to make 2G and 3G networks seem seamless. WiMax is a totally different technology, and while roaming is possible, it requires a completely different perspective to deliver what is essentially a very data-centric service, something the cellular operator is not yet comfortable with, unlike the ISP, for whom it is their own bread and butter. Just one look at the imprecations hurled at WiMax mobility by the august cellular lobby suggests that their love of any technology other than 3G may not be all-encompassing.
Ergo, any spectrum available for true wireless broadband over 2.5 GHz or 700 MHz is less likely to be used by the cellular establishment to quickly generate mobile access over non-cellular technologies like WiMax. The sensible way forward would be for the cell operator to focus on proper 3G implementation while the larger ISPs are required to offer national WiMax.
The Department of Transport, of course, doesn’t see it this way and scoffs at a lobby group whose massive investment in legacy networks ensures that economic trends that posit not just more and more Indians spending more and more time will continue. on the Internet, but we will do it with higher bandwidth and wireless connectivity.
Doing the math, higher bandwidth translates to at least 3 to 5 Mbits/second of ubiquitous wireless broadband speeds for the mobile phone if we move beyond SMS or Blackberry messaging and into the realm of true mobile Internet access. to our mail servers, for YouTube, vlogging, interactive games and movies.
Since the fastest cellular 3G speeds available for a cell phone today and forever are around 500 to 700 kbits/s very expensive, it means we have a situation.
Almost everyone I see on the streets of India’s subways flaunts state-of-the-art cell phones, so I suspect there are enough such phones to support my point. What is, when was the last time you used this WiFi capability? It’s a safe bet that the wireless broadband highway to your cell phone goes unused while you’re paying your cell phone provider to check email through your Blackberry and download music files. As for easy online access to YouTube or TV and interactive games, forget about it because 3G or no 3G, cellular technology has no answers. The cellular establishment has circumscribed the user and we are all guilty of allowing this to happen.
The reason you don’t use the cell phone’s WiFi feature is because it’s intentionally hostile, but mainly because you’re connected to cell service because of its billion dollar mobility feature and that’s where you and your phone automatically lock themselves out. If ubiquitous mobile true wireless broadband happened, you’d happily use it instead of buying expensive airtime on enhanced cellular air interfaces that aren’t suitable for data downloads and stop flipping through Band-Aids like Blackberry.
Why is all this so important for a mostly poor country like India? Because India today is in the same ballpark as China when it comes to internet usage. That’s the good news. The sad part is that most of the Indians are still using dial-up and we are not even close to being close to China in broadband penetration. However, given a proven penchant for mobility and video, India is fertile ground for massive growth in mobile broadband Internet access. The DOT’s decision favoring the opposing camp, precisely this possibility, doesn’t help engender a critical mass to complete our giant friend looming over the Himalayas. The case today is on economic growth, which is where more chunks of 2.5GHz spectrum need to be deployed, not South Block speed.
Earlier this year, the Malaysian regulator MCMC banned the Malaysian cellular phone establishment from bidding on wireless broadband. He had good reasons for his ruling, since cell phone carriers have absolutely nothing to show for past wireless broadband commitments.
Pushing even further, Google looked at the US cellular behemoth on behalf of ISPs in the run-up to the 2008 FCC auction for 700 MHz segments across the country. In early August of this year, the FCC Chairman announced the ground rules for the fight, and while he did not fully agree to Google’s request, he conceded enough to warrant a “third pipeline” that would allow ISPs a chance to fight to deliver true and ubiquitous wireless broadband mobility in the face of recalcitrant cellular. lobby. Here is the point. In the United States, arguments have moved on over whether a spectrum owner (Telco or ISP, it doesn’t matter) should allow any and all devices to connect without hindrance and whether the owner should be forced to offer wholesale spectrum to another suppliers. Much to the chagrin of cellular establishments, the FCC is also working with proponents of wireless broadband to test devices that would access white (ie, unused) space in the TV broadcast spectrum. Instead of involving the industry at such sophisticated levels, DoT forces Indian ISPs to waste time fighting just to be allowed into the auction hall.
what we see is that while regulators elsewhere have reason to suspect the bona fides of the cell establishment, the DoT seems to have eyes full of faith and poignantly monogamous intent.
The DoT may not realize it (who am I kidding?), but their decision helps ensure that much-needed new technology doesn’t get in the way of the cellular establishment milking their established networks in near perpetuity.
The preponderance of advantage enjoyed by incumbents means that a regulatory or decision-making body like the DoT fails even if it simply remains scrupulously neutral. Whether in the European Union, North America, Australia, Malaysia or India in the past, we see ultimate change only happening through decisions that give newcomers and ISPs a real advantage. To be fair, TRAI’s forward thinking on regulatory matters is matched only by an inability to stand up to the Department of Transport. So the ball is in DoT’s court when one sees it fail even in neutrality to the point of openly favoring starters, the attempt at levity really can’t hide the disgust.
However, if the Department of Transportation decides to listen, the radical departure from the legacy can do wonders for both users and the industry. That includes the cell establishment whose own long-term interests are poorly served by its current approach. Inviting ISPs to bid on a peer-to-peer basis benefits everyone. One can only hope that the DoT does what is best for the Indian consumer and for this wonderful technology that allows us so much magic over the ether.
