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V. Rishi Kumar

Wireless fidelity helps build an Internet ring round a financial services hub. Talk of crackling with connectivity.

THE story's all about a busy financial services hub in Mumbai. As is true of any other high-telecom-density scene, the players in this hub too want the best connections to the Internet, to technology, so they can offer the latest information and services. This means instant and continuous connection, and also issues of bandwidth and last-mile connectivity.

So what's the solution to this demand? It's simple — `wireless hotspots' or Internet access points. These don't involve digging and redigging, which all companies are loathe to do, but ensure that the Internet is always available, is literally in the air all the time, and all they may need is some rejigging on the rooftop, on the lines of an antenna. They can then log into the Net from anywhere, wirelessly.

And these hotspots are made possible, thanks to Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) technology, one of the hottest subjects today.

And cashing in on the need of this financial services hub is a private telecom services provider, Hughes Network Systems.

The Senior Director of Hughes Network Systems, Vinay Patel, and the Associate Vice-President, HNS, Rajiv Vaidya, in a chat with eWorld, say their offering is based on Local Multipoint Distribution System technology to leverage these hotspots. This enhances the optic-fibre cable's reach by creating a wireless, high-speed field across a ring of about two km round the financial services hub, thereby touching all potential user spots.

The Cotton Exchange building and other offices in the zone, about 14 such high tele-density centres backed by remote terminals and that support nearly 50,000 lines, are in the link, thanks to this technology, as a part of Hughes Tele.com. The company says it has created 16 hub sites. Of them, 14 are located in the Mumbai telecom zone, and two in the Pune region.

Following the merger of the Hughes Tele basic services operations with Tata Teleservices Ltd, the broadband solutions are now offered by the latter. This complements the existing, high-speed, fibre-optic cable network that connects the financial services centres, including the stock market operations, manufacturing and distribution centres. This enables audio/video streaming and high data transmission.

Backed by 26-Giga hertz equipment, one hub site supports about 20,000 subscribers. These sites have changed the way last-mile connectivity is offered in Mumbai, according to the company. The solution can be used by mobile telecom services networks too. For instance, a cellular operator that has increased its subscriber base from about 20,000 to 40,000 in a specific zone has to address the problem of congestion. The Wi-Fi hotspots help ease traffic congestion, Patel says.

Supporting all networks, including GSM, CDMA and 3G cell sites, the solution also supports the respective switching centres by providing support for backhaul operations too. As the mobile networks are growing at a phenomenal pace, all those cell sites will have to be connected to the Mobile Switching Centre. While the Wi-Fi hotspots are at an early stage of deployment, there is tremendous opportunity for growth.

Citing the example of the Mumbai operations to illustrate benefits, Patel says that most of the hotspot locations will not have to depend on the existing infrastructure to connect the site to the Internet. "For instance, even in a country like the US", Patel says "where telecom penetration is very high, I, as a consumer, feel the need for broadband connectivity. I am tempted to host a VSAT (very small aperture terminal) connectivity in order to benefit from an enriching broadband connectivity."

The situation is no different in India. While many operators are looking at VSATs for rural telephony obligations, the fact remains that there is a huge under-penetrated market even within urban conglomerates. One will see more such deployments sooner than one can possibly imagine.

vrishi@thehindu.co.in

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