The Hindu Business Line : Worth the wait

We need to think of ways to bring Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) applications to the developing world, so as to make use of unlicensed radio spectrum to deliver cheap and faster Internet access.

— Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General

TAKING cheap and faster Internet access to the masses, especially to those located in the rural and remote corners of the developing world, has been a dream and challenge for regulators and policy-makers worldwide. Since Wireless Fidelity, popularly known as Wi-Fi burst on the wireless broadband scene in 2003, there has been a flurry of excitement across the globe. In simple terms, Wi-Fi allows laptop or computer users to gain high-speed Internet access without wires within a 30-50 metre range in homes, campuses or public places (called the Wi-Fi hotspots) such as coffee shops, conference centres or airports.

The Wi-Fi technology, which has made an appearance from the computing world, is a path breaking one on its own merit. But viewed from a larger prism of technological innovation, Wi-Fi represents only a beginning. Its true potential to spawn a suite of wireless broadband technologies of the future, especially those with wide-area capabilities, is just beginning to emerge. One such powerful version of Wi-Fi called WiMAX, with wide-area capabilities, attracted the heightened attention of the participants from the telecom and information technology arena at the recently concluded CeBIT fair at Hannover, Germany.

The buzz over the potential of WiMAX had begun to do the rounds at the ITU World Telecom Conference held at Geneva in October 2003. Sean Maloney, Executive Vice-President, GM Intel Communications Group, Intel Group, speaking at the Conference made an ambitious claim that, "Broadband wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX will be how the world will connect the next five billion people and will open up the next wave of productivity."

A disruptive technology

At the moment, the excitement over this technology may seem a little premature as its launch on a commercial scale is likely to happen only by 2005 or beyond. Its capabilities are, however, quite promising. Unlike Wi-Fi, which offers coverage within a small area, WiMAX can offer coverage up to a maximum range of 30 miles (or 50 ft). WiMAX, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, carries the strong backing of the semiconductor giant, Intel and among others, Nokia, AT&T and Fujitsu.

WiMAX has been around for years as a fixed wireless access medium, but has never been a technology to reckon with. This is primarily because fixed wireless access was being provided by different vendors using their proprietary technologies. This made switching between vendors/companies difficult as the networking gear of one vendor did not seamlessly talk to another. But with the adoption of the WiMAX standard by the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) last year, this glitch has been ironed out. In turn, it is expected to expand and widen the market for this technology in a significant way.

The attractiveness of WiMAX in the developing countries stems from its ability to offer voice calls using Voice over Internet Protocol, apart from high-speed Internet access.

Since existing technologies such as copper lines or cable networks have not reached consumers in the nook and cranny of these countries, WiMAX as a wireless medium has emerged as a reliable and cheaper alternative. The trial runs and commercial feasibility of WiMAX are being worked at in Britain and parts of Europe.

A few companies working with this technology in the developed world propose to initially experiment the economic viability of WiMAX by addressing developing markets such as China, India or Latin America.

Given the challenging task of wiring up rural India with over 6 lakh villages over the next five years, this technology holds disruptive potential which cannot be dismissed without analysing its economic viability. Though several issues such as equipment costs and availability of unlicensed spectrum will have to be ironed out first, WiMAX may be one technology, if it lives up to its promise, the Indian telecom industry can ignore only at its own risk.

Picture by Mohammed Yousuf

maverick@thehindu.co.in

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