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Preethi J

Bangalore, Nov. 9 Like father like son. One revolutionised the audio industry and the other plans to upheave the telecom world.

Mr Vanu Bose, son of audio tycoon Mr Amar G. Bose of Bose Corporation, was in the country recently and spoke to Business Line about his company Vanu Inc.

This seven-year-old high-tech firm makes software-defined radios (SDR), transceivers that tune to any frequency band using software and minimal hardware. Signals are processed using software; and this can be used in a cellular base station to run different networks simultaneously. So GSM or CDMA can be transmitted by a single tower. SDR-based base stations will reduce the cost of setting up towers in rural areas. His crisp responses to a telephonic interview follow:

Why telecom?

I’ve always been interested in wireless telecommunication and computers and found a way to bring them together. Our base stations are basically computers: they run on IBM blade servers. Everything is controlled by software, hence it is called software-defined radio. The stations are based on an IP (Internet Protocol) backbone. They can operate GSM, CDMA and iDen simultaneously. Depending on the configuration, they can be between 30-70 per cent cheaper than existing base stations.

How will this help rural connectivity?

The next billion people that need to be connected are in rural areas of India, Africa and Latin America. The problem is setting up base stations and towers in such areas. Low ARPU (average revenue per user) and high infrastructure costs do not warranty this investment. Hence operators are reluctant to set up networks in rural areas. But India is at an exciting time. Liberalisation of spectrum, increased competition and better infrastructure have made it the right time to enter telecom here. With software-defined radio-based base stations, it will be cheaper to set up towers for the operators. We are working with C-DOT and IBM to conduct a field trial at Salem, Tamil Nadu. A lot of people without cell phones will now get access to network coverage.

What is the potential market you foresee?

The first multi-standard base station will be available in 2008. The Government plans to build 18,000 cell sites next year. Private operators plan much more. For example, we hear Bharti plans to set up 70,000 cell sites. To put this in context, Verizon only has about 30,000 towers total in the US. The difference is that you have to run a profitable network in rural India with an ARPU of $1.50, as opposed to one of over $50 in the US. We will remain the primary software supplier for the telecom industry, and will let other vendors supply hardware and other infrastructure such as routers. We have begun selling in US and will target Easter Europe and Africa too.

Do you see WiMAX as a competitive technology for last mile connectivity?

No. The reason why WiMAX is not a better backhaul technology is cost. Till now, there has not been a cost effective way to offer mobile connectivity in rural India. Cellular devices are cheap and you can now give the same connectivity using these base stations. So software-defined radios will be the simpler way to go.

What’s next at Vanu Inc?

Early next year, we will go in for another round of funding. We received $8 million in funds last year. We plan to expand the development team in Bangalore with the new round. We are putting together a product for managing shared infrastructure. This will be available mid-2008. For it, we see a market of 10,000 to 20,000 towers annually.

In the future, we will fill the indoor coverage gap with a base station at home. This box will connect to the Internet and cellular networks. Its primary advantage could be free, unlimited calls from home. We are still working on lab prototypes.

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