CHAPTER - 1

INTRODUCTION

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 INRODUCTION- WIRELESS & DSL
BROADBAND TECHNOLOGIES
Computer networks for the home and small business can be built
using either wired or wireless technology. Wired Ethernet has been the traditional
choice in homes, but Wi-Fi wireless technologies are gaining ground fast. Both wired
and wireless can claim advantages over the other; both represent viable options for
home and other local area networks (LANs).

Below we compare wired and wireless networking in five key areas:

ease of installation

total cost

reliability

performance

security

About Wired LANs

Wired LANs use Ethernet cables and network adapters. Although two computers can
be directly wired to each other using an Ethernet crossover cable, wired LANs
generally also require central devices like hubs, switches, or routers to
accommodate more computers.

For dial-up connections to the Internet, the computer hosting the modem must run
Internet Connection Sharing or similar software to share the connection with all
other computers on the LAN. Broadband routers allow easier sharing of cable
modem or DSL Internet connections, plus they often include built-in firewall support.

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Installation

Ethernet cables must be run from each computer to another computer or to the
central device. It can be time-consuming and difficult to run cables under the floor
or through walls, especially when computers sit in different rooms. Some newer
homes are pre-wired with CAT5 cable, greatly simplifying the cabling process and
minimizing unsightly cable runs.

The correct cabling configuration for a wired LAN varies depending on the mix of
devices, the type of Internet connection, and whether internal or external modems
are used. However, none of these options pose any more difficulty than, for
example, wiring a home theater system.

After hardware installation, the remaining steps in configuring either wired or

wireless LANs do not differ much. Both rely on standard Internet Protocol and
network operating system configuration options. Laptops and other portable devices
often enjoy greater mobility in wireless home network installations (at least for as
long as their batteries allow).

Cost

Ethernet cables, hubs and switches are very inexpensive. Some connection sharing
software packages, like ICS, are free; some cost a nominal fee. Broadband routers
cost more, but these are optional components of a wired LAN, and their higher cost
is offset by the benefit of easier installation and built-in security features.

Reliability

Ethernet cables, hubs and switches are extremely reliable, mainly because
manufacturers have been continually improving Ethernet technology over several
decades. Loose cables likely remain the single most common and annoying source
of failure in a wired network. When installing a wired LAN or moving any of the
components later, be sure to carefully check the cable connections.

Broadband routers have also suffered from some reliability problems in the past.
Unlike other Ethernet gear, these products are relatively new, multi-function
devices. Broadband routers have matured over the past several years and their
reliability has improved greatly.

Performance

Wired LANs offer superior performance. Traditional Ethernet connections offer only
10 Mbps bandwidth, but 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet technology costs little more and is
readily available. Although 100 Mbps represents a theoretical maximum
performance never really achieved in practice, Fast Ethernet should be sufficient for
home file sharing, gaming, and high-speed Internet access for many years into the
future.
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Wired LANs utilizing hubs can suffer performance slowdown if computers heavily
utilize the network simultaneously. Use Ethernet switches instead of hubs to avoid
this problem; a switch costs little more than a hub.

Security

For any wired LAN connected to the Internet, firewalls are the primary security
consideration. Wired Ethernet hubs and switches do not support firewalls. However,
firewall software products like ZoneAlarm can be installed on the computers
themselves. Broadband routers offer equivalent firewall capability built into the
device, configurable through its own software.

Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband, is a high data rate
Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56k modem.

Dial-up modems are limited to a bitrate of less than 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and
require the full use of a telephone line—whereas broadband technologies supply
more than double this rate and generally without disrupting telephone use.

Although various minimum bandwidths have been used in definitions of broadband,

ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 2.0 Mbit/s[1], the 2006 OECD report[2] is typical by
defining broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than
256 kbit/s, while the United States (US) Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as of
2009, defines "Basic Broadband" as data transmission speeds exceeding 768
kilobits per second (Kbps), or 768,000 bits per second, in at least one direction:
downstream (from the Internet to the user’s computer) or upstream (from the user’s
computer to the Internet).[3] The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband
definition as the marketplace rolls out faster services.[4]

Data rates are defined in terms of maximum download because several common
consumer broadband technologies such as ADSL are "asymmetric"—supporting
much slower maximum upload data rate than download.

"Broadband penetration" is now treated as a key economic indicator.[2][5]

Overview

Broadband transmission rates

Connecti Transmission
on data rate

DS-1 (Tier 1.544 Mbit/s

1)

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E-1 2.048 Mbit/s

DS-3 (Tier 44.736 Mbit/s

3)

OC-3 155.52 Mbit/s

OC-12 622.08 Mbit/s

OC-48 2.488 Gbit/s

OC-192 9.953 Gbit/s

OC-768 39.813 Gbit/s

OC-1536 79.6 Gbit/s

OC-3072 159.2 Gbit/s

Broadband is often called "high-speed" access to the Internet, because it usually

has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection to the customer of
256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or greater is more concisely considered broadband
Internet access. The International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector
(ITU-T) recommendation I.113 has defined broadband as a transmission capacity
that is faster than primary rate ISDN, at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. The FCC definition of
broadband is 768 kbit/s (0.8 Mbit/s). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) has defined broadband as 256 kbit/s in at least one direction
and this bit rate is the most common baseline that is marketed as "broadband"
around the world. There is no specific bitrate defined by the industry, however, and
"broadband" can mean lower-bitrate transmission methods. Some Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) use this to their advantage in marketing lower-bitrate connections as
broadband.

In practice, the advertised bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer;
ISPs often allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection or
neighborhood access network can handle, under the assumption that most users will
not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. This aggregation
strategy works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full
bandwidth most of the time; however, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, often
requiring extended durations of high bandwidth usage, stress these assumptions,
and can cause major problems for ISPs who have excessively overbooked their
capacity. For more on this topic, see traffic shaping. As takeup for these introductory
products increases, telcos are starting to offer higher bit rate services. For existing
connections, this most of the time simply involves reconfiguring the existing
equipment at each end of the connection.

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As the bandwidth delivered to end users increases, the market expects that video on
demand services streamed over the Internet will become more popular, though at
the present time such services generally require specialized networks. The data
rates on most broadband services still do not suffice to provide good quality video,
as MPEG-2 video requires about 6 Mbit/s for good results. Adequate video for some
purposes becomes possible at lower data rates, with rates of 768 kbit/s and 384
kbit/s used for some video conferencing applications, and rates as low as 100 kbit/s
used for videophones using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The MPEG-4 format delivers high-
quality video at 2 Mbit/s, at the low end of cable modem and ADSL performance.

Increased bandwidth has already made an impact on newsgroups: postings to groups

such as alt.binaries.* have grown from JPEG files to entire CD and DVD images.
According to NTL,[disambiguation needed] the level of traffic on their network increased from a
daily inbound news feed of 150 gigabytes of data per day and 1 terabyte of data out
each day in 2001 to 500 gigabytes of data inbound and over 4 terabytes out each
day in 2002.

Technology

The standard broadband technologies in most areas are DSL and cable modems.
Newer technologies in use include VDSL and pushing optical fiber connections closer
to the subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fiber-optic communication, while
only recently being used in fiber to the premises and fiber to the curb schemes, has
played a crucial role in enabling Broadband Internet access by making transmission
of information over larger distances much more cost-effective than copper wire
technology. In a few areas not served by cable or ADSL, community organizations
have begun to install Wi-Fi networks, and in some cities and towns local
governments are installing municipal Wi-Fi networks. As of 2006, broadband mobile
Internet access has become available at the consumer level in some countries,
using the HSDPA and EV-DO technologies. The newest technology being deployed
for mobile and stationary broadband access is WiMAX.

DSL (ADSL/SDSL)

Multilinking Modems

Roughly double the dial-up rate can be achieved with multilinking technology. What
is required are two modems, two phone lines, two dial-up accounts, and ISP support
for multilinking, or special software at the user end. This inverse multiplexing option
was popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies
became available.

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Diamond and other vendors had created dual phone line modems with bonding
capability. The data rate of dual line modems is faster than 90 kbit/s. The Internet
and phone charge will be twice the ordinary dial-up charge.

Load balancing takes two Internet connections and feeds them into your network as
one double data rate, more resilient Internet connection. By choosing two
independent Internet providers the load balancing hardware will automatically use
the line with least load which means should one line fail, the second one
automatically takes up the slack.

ISDN

Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) is one of the oldest broadband digital
access methods for consumers and businesses to connect to the Internet. It is a
telephone data service standard. Its use in the United States peaked in the late
1990s prior to the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies. Broadband
service is usually compared to ISDN-BRI because this was the standard broadband
access technology that formed a baseline for the challenges faced by the early
broadband providers. These providers sought to compete against ISDN by offering
faster and cheaper services to consumers.

A basic rate ISDN line (known as ISDN-BRI) is an ISDN line with 2 data "bearer"
channels (DS0 - 64 kbit/s each). Using ISDN terminal adapters (erroneously called
modems), it is possible to bond together 2 or more separate ISDN-BRI lines to reach
bandwidths of 256 kbit/s or more. The ISDN channel bonding technology has been
used for video conference applications and broadband data transmission.

Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, is an ISDN line with 23 DS0 channels and
total bandwidth of 1,544 kbit/s (US standard). ISDN E1 (European standard) line is
an ISDN lines with 30 DS0 channels and total bandwidth of 2,048 kbit/s. Because
ISDN is a telephone-based product, a lot of the terminology and physical aspects of
the line are shared by the ISDN-PRI used for voice services. An ISDN line can
therefore be "provisioned" for voice or data and many different options, depending
on the equipment being used at any particular installation, and depending on the
offerings of the telephone company's central office switch. Most ISDN-PRI's are used
for telephone voice communication using large PBX systems, rather than for data.
One obvious exception is that ISPs usually have ISDN-PRI's for handling ISDN data
and modem calls.

It is mainly of historical interest that many of the earlier ISDN data lines used 56
kbit/s rather than 64 kbit/s "B" channels of data. This caused ISDN-BRI to be offered
at both 128 kbit/s and 112 kbit/s rates, depending on the central office's switching
equipment.

Advantages:

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Constant data rate at 64 kbit/s for each DS0 channel.

Two way broadband symmetric data transmission, unlike ADSL.

One of the data channels can be used for phone conversation without disturbing the
data transmission through the other data channel. When a phone call is ended, the
bearer channel can immediately dial and re-connect itself to the data call.

Call setup is very quick.

Low latency

ISDN Voice clarity is unmatched by other phone services.

Caller ID is almost always available for no additional fee.

Maximum distance from the central office is much greater than it is for DSL.

When using ISDN-BRI, there is the possibility of using the low-bandwidth 16 kbit/s
"D" channel for packet data and for always on capabilities.

Disadvantages:

ISDN offerings are dwindling in the marketplace due to the widespread use of faster
and cheaper alternatives.

ISDN routers, terminal adapters ("modems"), and telephones are more expensive
than ordinary POTS equipment, like dial-up modems.

ISDN provisioning can be complicated due to the great number of options available.

ISDN users must dial in to a provider that offers ISDN Internet service, which means
that the call could be disconnected.

ISDN is billed as a phone line, to which is added the bill for Internet ISDN access.

"Always on" data connections are not available in all locations.

Some telephone companies charge unusual fees for ISDN, including call setup fees,
per minute fees, and higher rates than normal for other services.

T-1/DS-1

These are highly-regulated services traditionally intended for businesses, that are
managed through Public Service Commissions (PSCs) in each state, must be fully
defined in PSC tariff documents, and have management rules dating back to the early
1980s which still refer to teletypes as potential connection devices. As such, T-1
services have very strict and rigid service requirements which drive up the
provider's maintenance costs and may require them to have a technician on
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standby 24 hours a day to repair the line if it malfunctions. (In comparison, ISDN
and DSL are not regulated by the PSCs at all.) Due to the expensive and regulated
nature of T-1 lines, they are normally installed under the provisions of a written
agreement, the contract term being typically one to three years. However, there are
usually few restrictions to an end-user's use of a T-1, uptime and bandwidth data
rates may be guaranteed, quality of service may be supported, and blocks of static IP
addresses are commonly included.

Since a T-1 was originally conceived for voice transmission, and voice T-1's are still
widely used in businesses, it can be confusing to the uninitiated subscriber. It is
often best to refer to the type of T-1 being considered, using the appropriate "data"
or "voice" prefix to differentiate between the two. A voice T-1 would terminate at a
phone company's central office (CO) for connection to the PSTN; a data T-1
terminates at a point of presence (POP) or data center. The T-1 line which is between a
customer's premises and the POP or CO is called the local loop. The owner of the
local loop need not be the owner of the network at the POP where your T-1 connects
to the Internet, and so a T-1 subscriber may have contracts with these two
organizations separately.

The nomenclature for a T-1 varies widely, cited in some circles a DS-1, a T1.5, a T1,
or a DS1. Some of these try to distinguish amongst the different aspects of the line,
considering the data standard a DS-1, and the physical structure of the trunk line a T-
1 or T-1.5. They are also called leased lines, but that terminology is usually for data
rates under 1.5 Mbit/s. At times, a T-1 can be included in the term "leased line" or
excluded from it. Whatever it is called, it is inherently related to other broadband
access methods, which include T-3, SONET OC-3, and other T-carrier and Optical
Carriers. Additionally, a T-1 might be aggregated with more than one T-1, producing
an nxT-1, such as 4xT-1 which has exactly 4 times the bandwidth of a T-1.

When a T-1 is installed, there are a number of choices to be made: in the carrier
chosen, the location of the demarcation point, the type of channel service unit (CSU) or
data service unit (DSU) used, the WAN IP router used, the types of bandwidths chosen,
etc. Specialized WAN routers are used with T-1 lines that route Internet or VPN data
onto the T-1 line from the subscriber's packet-based (TCP/IP) network using customer
premises equipment (CPE). The CPE typical consists of a CSU/DSU that converts the
DS-1 data stream of the T-1 to a TCP/IP packet data stream for use in the
customer's Ethernet LAN. It is noteworthy that many T-1 providers optionally
maintain and/or sell the CPE as part of the service contract, which can affect the
demarcation point and the ownership of the router, CSU, or DSU.

Although a T-1 has a maximum of 1.544 Mbit/s, a fractional T-1 might be offered
which only uses an integer multiple of 128 kbit/s for bandwidth. In this manner, a

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customer might only purchase 1/12th or 1/3 of a T-1, which would be 128 kbit/s and
512 kbit/s, respectively.

T-1 and fractional T-1 data lines are symmetric, meaning that their upload and
download data rates are the same.

Wired Ethernet

Where available, this method of broadband connection to the Internet would

indicate that Internet access is very fast. However, just because Ethernet is offered
doesn't mean that the full 10, 100, or 1000 Mbit/s connection can be utilized for
direct Internet access. In a college dormitory, for example, the 100 Mbit/s Ethernet
access might be fully available to on-campus networks, but Internet access
bandwidths might be closer to 4xT-1 data rate (6 Mbit/s). If you are sharing a
broadband connection with others in a building, the access bandwidth of the leased
line into the building would of course govern the end-user's data rate.

In certain locations, however, true Ethernet broadband access might be available.

This would most commonly be the case at a POP or a data center, and not at a typical
residence or business. When Ethernet Internet access is offered, it could be fiber-
optic or copper twisted pair, and the bandwidth will conform to standard Ethernet
data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. The primary advantage is that no special hardware is
needed for Ethernet. Ethernet also has a very low latency.

Rural broadband

One of the great challenges of broadband is to provide service to potential

customers in areas of low population density, such as to farmers, ranchers, and small
towns. In cities where the population density is high, it is easy for a service provider
to recover equipment costs, but each rural customer may require expensive
equipment to get connected.

Several rural broadband solutions exist, though each has its own pitfalls and
limitations[clarification needed]. Some choices are better than others, but are dependent on
how proactive the local phone company is about upgrading their rural technology.

Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISPs) are rapidly becoming a popular broadband
option for rural areas,[citation needed] although the technology's line-of-sight requirements
hamper connectivity in areas with hilly and heavily foliated terrain. In addition,
compared to hard-wired connectivity, there are security risks (unless robust security
protocols are enabled); speeds are significantly slower (2 – 50 times slower); and
the network can be less stable, due to interference from other wireless devices,
weather and line-of-sight problems.Al[6]

Satellite Internet
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Main article: Satellite Internet

Satellites in geostationary orbits are able to relay broadband data from the satellite
company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive
ways of gaining broadband Internet access, but in rural areas it may be the only
choice other than cellular broadband. However, costs have been coming down in
recent years to the point that it is becoming more competitive with other broadband
options.

Broadband satellite Internet also has a high latency problem is due to the signal
having to travel to an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above sea level (from the
equator) out into space to a satellite in geostationary orbit and back to Earth again.
The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900 milliseconds, which
makes this service unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as
certain multiplayer Internet games and first-person shooters played over the
connection. Despite this, it is still possible for many games to be played, but the
scope is limited to real-time strategy or turn-based games. The functionality of live
interactive access to a distant computer can also be subject to the problems caused
by high latency. These problems are more than tolerable for just basic email access
and web browsing and in most cases are barely noticeable.

For geostationary satellites there is no way to eliminate this problem. The delay is
primarily due to the great distances travelled which, even at the speed of light
(about 300,000 km/second or 186,000 miles per second), can be significant. Even if
all other signalling delays could be eliminated it still takes electromagnetic radio
waves about 500 milliseconds, or half a second, to travel from ground level to the
satellite and back to the ground, a total of over 71,400 km (44,366 mi) to travel
from the source to the destination, and over 143,000 km (88,856 mi) for a round
trip (user to ISP, and then back to user—with zero network delays). Factoring in
other normal delays from network sources gives a typical one-way connection
latency of 500–700 ms from the user to the ISP, or about 1,000–1,400 milliseconds
latency for the total Round Trip Time (RTT) back to the user. This is far worse than
most dial-up modem users' experience, at typically only 150–200 ms total latency.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites however do not have
such great delays. The current LEO constellations of Globalstar and Iridium satellites
have delays of less than 40 ms round trip, but their throughput is less than
broadband at 64 kbps per channel. The Globalstar constellation orbits 1,420 km
above the earth and Iridium orbits at 670 km altitude. The proposed O3b Networks
MEO constellation scheduled for deployment in 2010 would orbit at 8,062 km, with
RTT latency of approximately 125 ms. The proposed new network is also designed
for much higher throughput with links well in excess of 1 Gbps (Giga bits per
second).

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Most satellite Internet providers also have a FAP (Fair Access Policy). Perhaps one of
the largest disadvantages of satellite Internet, these FAPs usually throttle a user's
throughput to dial-up data rates after a certain "invisible wall" is hit (usually around
200 MB a day). This FAP usually lasts for 24 hours after the wall is hit, and a user's
throughput is restored to whatever tier they paid for. This makes bandwidth-
intensive activities nearly impossible to complete in a reasonable amount of time
(examples include P2P and newsgroup binary downloading).

The European ASTRA2Connect system has a FAP based on a monthly limit of 2Gbyte
of data downloaded, with download data rates reduced for the remainder of the
month if the limit is exceeded.

Advantages

True global broadband Internet access availability

Mobile connection to the Internet (with some providers)

Disadvantages

High latency compared to other broadband services, especially 2-way satellite

service

Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel, inclement weather, and during
sunspot activity

The narrow-beam highly directional antenna must be accurately pointed to the

satellite orbiting overhead

The Fair Access Policy limits heavy usage, if applied by the service provider

VPN use is discouraged, problematic, and/or restricted with satellite broadband,

although available at a price

One-way satellite service requires the use of a modem or other data uplink
connection

Satellite dishes are very large. Although most of them employ plastic to reduce
weight, they are typically between 80 and 120 cm (30 to 48 inches) in diameter.

Cellular broadband

Main article: Cellular broadband

Cellular phone towers are very widespread, and as cellular networks move to third
generation (3G) networks they can support fast data; using technologies such as
EVDO, HSDPA and UMTS.

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These can give broadband access to the Internet, with a cell phone, with Cardbus,
ExpressCard, or USB cellular modems, or with cellular broadband routers, which allow
more than one computer to be connected to the Internet using one cellular
connection.

Power-line Internet

Main article: Power line communication

This is a new service still in its infancy that may eventually permit broadband
Internet data to travel down standard high-voltage power lines. However, the system
has a number of complex issues, the primary one being that power lines are
inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a device turns on or off, it
introduces a pop or click into the line. Energy-saving devices often introduce noisy
harmonics into the line. The system must be designed to deal with these natural
signaling disruptions and work around them.

Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as Power line communication, has
developed faster in Europe than in the US due to a historical difference in power
system design philosophies. Nearly all large power grids transmit power at high
voltages in order to reduce transmission losses, then near the customer use step-
down transformers to reduce the voltage. Since BPL signals cannot readily pass
through transformers, repeaters must be attached to the transformers. In the US, it
is common for a small transformer hung from a utility pole to service a single house.
In Europe, it is more common for a somewhat larger transformer to service 10 or
100 houses. For delivering power to customers, this difference in design makes little
difference, but it means delivering BPL over the power grid of a typical US city will
require an order of magnitude more repeaters than would be required in a
comparable European city.

The second major issue is signal strength and operating frequency. The system is
expected to use frequencies in the 10 to 30 MHz range, which has been used for
decades by licensed amateur radio operators, as well as international shortwave
broadcasters and a variety of communications systems (military, aeronautical, etc.).
Power lines are unshielded and will act as transmitters for the signals they carry,
and have the potential to completely wipe out the usefulness of the 10 to 30 MHz
range for shortwave communications purposes, as well as compromising the security
of its users.

Wireless ISP

Main article: Wireless Internet service provider

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This typically employs the current low-cost 802.11 Wi-Fi radio systems to link up
remote locations over great distances, but can use other higher-power radio
communications systems as well.

Traditional 802.11b was licensed for omnidirectional service spanning only 100-150
meters (300–500 ft). By focusing the signal down to a narrow beam with a Yagi
antenna it can instead operate reliably over a distance of many miles, although the
technology's line-of-sight requirements hamper connectivity in areas with hilly and
heavily foliated terrain. In addition, compared to hard-wired connectivity, there are
security risks (unless robust security protocols are enabled); speeds are significantly
slower (2 – 50 times slower); and the network can be less stable, due to
interference from other wireless devices and networks, weather and line-of-sight
problems.[6]

Rural Wireless-ISP installations are typically not commercial in nature and are
instead a patchwork of systems built up by hobbyists mounting antennas on radio
masts and towers, agricultural storage silos, very tall trees, or whatever other tall
objects are available. There are currently a number of companies that provide this
service. A wireless Internet access provider map for USA is publicly available for WISPS.

iBlast

iBlast was the brand name for a theoretical bandwidth (7 Mbit/s), one-way digital
data transmission technology from a Digital TV station to users that was developed
between June 2000 to October 2005.

Advantages:

Low cost, broadband data transmission from TV station to users. This technology
can be used for transmitting website / files from Internet.

Disadvantages:

One way data transmission.

Privacy/security.

Lack of 8VSB tuner built into many consumer electronic devices needed to receive
the iBlast signal.

In the end, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and the glut of fiberoptic
capacity that ensued following the collapse of the Internet bubble drove the cost of
transmission so low that an ancillary service such as this was unnecessary, and the
company folded at the end of 2005. The partner television stations as well as over
500 additional television stations not part of the iBlast Network continue to transmit
separate digital signals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
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WorldSpace

WorldSpace is a digital satellite radio network based in Washington DC. It covers

most of Asia and Europe plus all of Africa by satellite. Beside the digital audio, users
can receive one way broadband digital data transmission (150 Kilobit/second) from
the satellite.

Advantages:

Low cost (US$ 100) receiver that combines a digital radio receiver and a data
receiver. This technology can be used for transmitting websites / files from Internet.

Access from remote places in Asia and Africa.

Disadvantages:

One way data transmission.

Privacy/security.

Broadband technologies

Back-channel, a low bandwidth, or less-than-optimal, transmission channel in the

opposite direction to the main channel

Baseband

Fiber-optic communication

List of device bandwidths

Local loop

Narrowband

Public switched telephone network (PSTN)

Residential gateway

Broadband implementations and standards

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), digital data transmission over the wires used in the local
loop of a telephone network

Local Multipoint Distribution Service, broadband wireless access technology that uses
microwave signals operating between the 26 GHz and 29 GHz bands

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WiMAX, a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput
broadband connections over long distances

Other wireless technologies, including IEEE standards (802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a)
and many proprietary wireless protocols. In 2008, with WiMAX still at the top of the
learning curve in terms of price, these technologies dominate the market for fixed
wireless broadband.

Power line communication, wireline technology using the current electricity networks

Satellite Internet access

Cable modem, designed to modulate a data signal over cable television infrastructure

Fiber to the premises, based on fiber-optic cables and associated optical electronics

High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), a new mobile telephony protocol, sometimes

referred to as a 3.5G (or "3½G") technology

Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO), is a wireless radio broadband data standard

adopted by many CDMA mobile phone service providers

802.20 MBWA (Mobile Broadband Wireless Access)

Future broadband implementations

White Spaces Coalition a group of technology companies aiming to deliver broadband

Internet access via unused analog television frequencies

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access

Broadband applications

Broadband telephony

Broadband radio

List of countries by broadband users

WiMAX, meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a

telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a
variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully
mobile internet access. The technology provides up to 10 Mbps [1] broadband speed
without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard
(also called Broadband Wireless Access). The name "WiMAX" was created by the

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WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and
interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX[2] as "a standards-
based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an
alternative to cable and DSL".[3]

WiMAX base station equipment with a sector antenna and wireless modem on top

A pre-WiMAX CPE of a 26 km (16 mi) connection mounted 13 metres (43 ft) above
the ground (2004, Lithuania).

WiMAX

The 802.16 standards are sometimes referred to colloquially as "WiMAX", "mobile

WiMAX", "802.16d" and "802.16e."[4] Their formal names are as follow:

802.16-2004 is also known as 802.16d, which refers to the working party that has
developed that standard. It is sometimes referred to as "fixed WiMAX," since it has
no support for mobility.

802.16e-2005, often abbreviated to 802.16e, is an amendment to 802.16-2004. It

introduced support for mobility, among other things and is therefore also known as
"mobile WiMAX".
17
Uses

The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential
applications:

Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots to the Internet.

Providing a wireless alternative to cable and DSL for "last mile" broadband access.

Providing data, telecommunications and IPTV services (triple play).

Providing a source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan.

That is, if a business has both a fixed and a wireless Internet connection, especially
from unrelated providers, they are unlikely to be affected by the same service
outage.

Providing portable connectivity.

Broadband access

Companies are evaluating WiMAX for last mile connectivity. The resulting
competition may bring lower pricing for both home and business customers or bring
broadband access to places where it has been economically unavailable.

WiMAX access was used to assist with communications in Aceh, Indonesia, after the
tsunami in December 2004. All communication infrastructure in the area, other than
amateur radio, was destroyed, making the survivors unable to communicate with
people outside the disaster area and vice versa. WiMAX provided broadband access
that helped regenerate communication to and from Aceh.

In addition, WiMAX was donated by Intel Corporation to assist the FCC and FEMA in
their communications efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.[5] In practice,
volunteers used mainly self-healing mesh, VoIP, and a satellite uplink combined
with Wi-Fi on the local link.[6]

Subscriber units (client units)

WiMAX subscriber units are available in both indoor and outdoor versions from
several manufacturers. Self-install indoor units are convenient, but radio losses
mean that the subscriber must be significantly closer to the WiMAX base station
than with professionally-installed external units. As such, indoor-installed units
require a much higher infrastructure investment as well as operational cost (site
lease, backhaul, maintenance) due to the high number of base stations required to
cover a given area. Indoor units are comparable in size to a cable modem or DSL
modem. Outdoor units are roughly the size of a laptop PC, and their installation is
comparable to the installation of a residential satellite dish.

18
With the potential of mobile WiMAX, there is an increasing focus on portable units.
This includes handsets (similar to cellular smartphones), PC peripherals (PC Cards or
USB dongles), and embedded devices in laptops, which are now available for Wi-Fi
services. In addition, there is much emphasis from operators on consumer
electronics devices such as Gaming consoles, MP3 players and similar devices. It is
notable that WiMAX is more similar to Wi-Fi than to 3G cellular technologies.

Current certified devices can be found at the WiMAX Forum web site. This is not a
complete list of devices available as certified modules are embedded into laptops,
MIDs (Mobile internet devices), and private labeled devices.

Mobile handset applications

Sprint Nextel announced in mid-2006 that it would invest about US$ 5 billion in a
WiMAX technology buildout over the next few years[7] ($5.29 billion in real terms[8]).
Since that time Sprint has faced many setbacks, that have resulted in steep
quarterly losses. On May 7, 2008, Sprint Nextel, Google, Intel, Comcast, Bright House,
and Time Warner announced a pooling of an average of 120 MHz of spectrum and
merged with Clearwire to form a company which will take the name Clear. The new
company hopes to benefit from combined services offerings and network resources
as a springboard past its competitors. The cable companies will provide media
services to other partners while gaining access to the wireless network as a Mobile
virtual network operator. Google will contribute Android handset device development
and applications and will receive revenue share for advertising and other services
they provide. Sprint and Clearwire gain a majority stock ownership in the new
venture and ability to access between the new Clear and Sprint 3G networks. Some
details remain unclear including how soon and in what form announced multi-mode
WiMAX and 3G EV-DO devices will be available. This raises questions that arise for
availability of competitive chips that require licensing of Qualcomm's IPR.

HTC currently has a WiMAX device in development. Codenamed, "Supersonic", the

HTC A9292 has been deemed considerably sluggish as of January 2010, meaning
the device is in early stages of development. The estimated release date is
sometime in the second half of 2010.[9]

Some analysts have questioned how the deal will work out: Although fixed-mobile
convergence has been a recognized factor in the industry, prior attempts to form
partnerships among wireless and cable companies have generally failed to lead to
significant benefits to the participants. Other analysts point out that as wireless
progresses to higher bandwidth, it inevitably competes more directly with cable and
DSL, thrusting competitors into bed together. Also, as wireless broadband networks
grow denser and usage habits shift, the need for increased backhaul and media
service will accelerate, therefore the opportunity to leverage cable assets is
expected to increase.

19
Backhaul/access network applications

WiMAX is a possible replacement candidate for cellular phone technologies such as

GSM and CDMA, or can be used as an overlay to increase capacity. It has also been
considered as a wireless backhaul technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both
developed and poor nations.[10][11]

In North America, backhaul for urban cellular operations is typically provided via
one or more copper wire line T1 connections, whereas remote cellular operations are
sometimes backhauled via satellite. In most other regions, urban and rural backhaul
is usually provided by microwave links. (The exception to this is where the network is
operated by an incumbent with ready access to the copper network, in which case
T1 lines may be used). WiMAX is a broadband platform and as such has much more
substantial backhaul bandwidth requirements than legacy cellular applications.
Therefore traditional copper wire line backhaul solutions are not appropriate.
Consequently the use of wireless microwave backhaul is on the rise in North
America and existing microwave backhaul links in all regions are being upgraded.[12]
Capacities of between 34 Mbps and 1 Gbps[citation needed] are routinely being deployed
with latencies in the order of 1ms. In many cases, operators are aggregating sites
using wireless technology and then presenting traffic on to fiber networks where
convenient.

Deploying WiMAX in rural areas with limited or no internet backbone will be

challenging as additional methods and hardware will be required to procure
sufficient bandwidth from the nearest sources — the difficulty being in proportion to
the distance between the end-user and the nearest sufficient internet backbone.

IPTV over WiMAX

Deploying Internet access and Voice over IP using WiMAX radio access is quite easy.
In order to have a full triple-play offer, IPTV service has to be added. But it's not
straight forward, since the use of IP multicast over a WiMAX radio transmission to
carry the IPTV channels may be a technical challenge. Such commercial service are
not yet available, but trials have been conducted or are undeway.

Technical information

20
Illustration of a WiMAX MIMO board

WiMAX refers to interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.16 wireless-networks

standard, in similarity with Wi-Fi, which refers to interoperable implementations of
the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard.

MAC (data link) layer

In Wi-Fi the media access controller (MAC) uses contention access — all subscriber
stations that wish to pass data through a wireless access point (AP) are competing for
the AP's attention on a random interrupt basis. This can cause subscriber stations
distant from the AP to be repeatedly interrupted by closer stations, greatly reducing
their throughput.

In contrast, the 802.16 MAC uses a scheduling algorithm for which the subscriber
station needs to compete only once (for initial entry into the network). After that it
is allocated an access slot by the base station. The time slot can enlarge and
contract, but remains assigned to the subscriber station, which means that other
subscribers cannot use it. In addition to being stable under overload and over-
subscription, the 802.16 scheduling algorithm can also be more bandwidth efficient.
The scheduling algorithm also allows the base station to control QoS parameters by
balancing the time-slot assignments among the application needs of the subscriber
stations.

Physical layer

The original version of the standard on which WiMAX is based (IEEE 802.16) specified
a physical layer operating in the 10 to 66 GHz range. 802.16a, updated in 2004 to
802.16-2004, added specifications for the 2 to 11 GHz range. 802.16-2004 was
updated by 802.16e-2005 in 2005 and uses scalable orthogonal frequency-division
multiple access (SOFDMA) as opposed to the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM) version with 256 sub-carriers (of which 200 are used) in 802.16d. More
advanced versions, including 802.16e, also bring multiple antenna support through
MIMO. See: WiMAX MIMO. This brings potential benefits in terms of coverage, self
21
installation, power consumption, frequency re-use and bandwidth efficiency.
802.16e also adds a capability for full mobility support. The WiMAX certification
allows vendors with 802.16d products to sell their equipment as WiMAX certified,
thus ensuring a level of interoperability with other certified products, as long as
they fit the same profile.

Most commercial interest is in the 802.16d and 802.16e standards, since the lower
frequencies used in these variants suffer less from inherent signal attenuation and
therefore give improved range and in-building penetration. Already today, a number
of networks throughout the world are in commercial operation using certified
WiMAX equipment compliant with the 802.16d standard.

Deployment

As a standard intended to satisfy needs of next-generation data networks (4G),

802.16e is distinguished by its dynamic burst algorithm modulation adaptive to the
physical environment the RF signal travels through. Modulation is chosen to be
spectroscopically more efficient (more bits per OFDM/SOFDMA symbol). That is,
when the bursts have a high signal strength and a carrier to noise plus interference ratio
(CINR), they can be more easily decoded using digital signal processing (DSP). In
contrast, operating in less favorable environments for RF communication, the
system automatically steps down to a more robust mode (burst profile) which
means fewer bits per OFDM/SOFDMA symbol; with the advantage that power per bit
is higher and therefore simpler accurate signal processing can be performed.

Burst profiles are used inverse (algorithmically dynamic) to low signal attenuation;
meaning throughput between clients and the base station is determined largely by
distance. Maximum distance is achieved by the use of the most robust burst setting;
that is, the profile with the largest MAC frame allocation trade-off requiring more
symbols (a larger portion of the MAC frame) to be allocated in transmitting a given
amount of data than if the client was closer to the base station.

The client's MAC frame and their individual burst profiles are defined as well as the
specific time allocation. However, even if this is done automatically then the
practical deployment should avoid high interference and multipath environments.
The reason for which is obviously that too much interference causes the network
function poorly and can also misrepresent the capability of the network.

The system is complex to deploy as it is necessary to track not only the signal
strength and CINR (as in systems like GSM) but also how the available frequencies
will be dynamically assigned (resulting in dynamic changes to the available
bandwidth.) This could lead to cluttered frequencies with slow response times or
lost frames.

22
As a result the system has to be initially designed in consensus with the base
station product team to accurately project frequency use, interference, and general
product functionality.

Integration with an IP-based network

The WiMAX Forum WiMAX Architecture

The WiMAX Forum has proposed an architecture that defines how a WiMAX network
can be connected with an IP based core network, which is typically chosen by
operators that serve as Internet Service Providers (ISP); Nevertheless the WiMAX BS
provide seamless integration capabilities with other types of architectures as with
packet switched Mobile Networks.

The WiMAX forum proposal defines a number of components, plus some of the
interconnections (or reference points) between these, labeled R1 to R5 and R8:

SS/MS: the Subscriber Station/Mobile Station

ASN: the Access Service Network[13]

BS: Base station, part of the ASN

ASN-GW: the ASN Gateway, part of the ASN

CSN: the Connectivity Service Network

HA: Home Agent, part of the CSN

AAA: Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Server, part of the CSN

NAP: a Network Access Provider

NSP: a Network Service Provider

23
It is important to note that the functional architecture can be designed into various
hardware configurations rather than fixed configurations. For example, the
architecture is flexible enough to allow remote/mobile stations of varying scale and
functionality and Base Stations of varying size - e.g. femto, pico, and mini BS as well
as macros.

Comparison with Wi-Fi

Comparisons and confusion between WiMAX and Wi-Fi are frequent because both
are related to wireless connectivity and Internet access.

WiMAX is a long range system, covering many kilometers, that uses licensed or
unlicensed spectrum to deliver a point-to-point connection to the Internet.

Different 802.16 standards provide different types of access, from portable (similar
to a cordless phone) to fixed (an alternative to wired access, where the end user's
wireless termination point is fixed in location.)

Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum to provide access to a network.

Wi-Fi is more popular in end user devices.

WiMAX and Wi-Fi have quite different quality of service (QoS) mechanisms:

WiMAX uses a QoS mechanism based on connections between the base station and
the user device. Each connection is based on specific scheduling algorithms.

Wi-Fi has a QoS mechanism similar to fixed Ethernet, where packets can receive
different priorities based on their tags. For example VoIP traffic may be given
priority over web browsing.

Wi-Fi runs on the Media Access Control's CSMA/CA protocol, which is connectionless
and contention based, whereas WiMAX runs a connection-oriented MAC.

Both 802.11 and 802.16 define Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and ad hoc networks, where an end
user communicates to users or servers on another Local Area Network (LAN) using its
access point or base station.

Spectrum allocation issues

The 802.16 specification applies across a wide swath of the RF spectrum, and
WiMAX could function on any frequency below 66 GHz,[14] (higher frequencies would
decrease the range of a Base Station to a few hundred meters in an urban
environment).

There is no uniform global licensed spectrum for WiMAX, although the WiMAX Forum
has published three licensed spectrum profiles: 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz, in an

24
effort to decrease cost: economies of scale dictate that the more WiMAX embedded
devices (such as mobile phones and WiMAX-embedded laptops) are produced, the
lower the unit cost. (The two highest cost components of producing a mobile phone
are the silicon and the extra radio needed for each band.) Similar economy of scale
benefits apply to the production of Base Stations.

In the unlicensed band, 5.x GHz is the approved profile. Telecommunication

companies are unlikely to use this spectrum widely other than for backhaul, since
they do not own and control the spectrum.

In the USA, the biggest segment available is around 2.5 GHz,[15] and is already
assigned, primarily to Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. Elsewhere in the world, the most-
likely bands used will be the Forum approved ones, with 2.3 GHz probably being
most important in Asia. Some countries in Asia like India and Indonesia will use a mix
of 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and other frequencies. Pakistan's Wateen Telecom uses 3.5 GHz.

Analog TV bands (700 MHz) may become available for WiMAX usage, but await the
complete roll out of digital TV, and there will be other uses suggested for that
spectrum. In the USA the FCC auction for this spectrum began in January 2008 and, as
a result, the biggest share of the spectrum went to Verizon Wireless and the next
biggest to AT&T.[16] Both of these companies have stated their intention of
supporting LTE, a technology which competes directly with WiMAX. EU
commissioner Viviane Reding has suggested re-allocation of 500–800 MHz spectrum
for wireless communication, including WiMAX.[17]

WiMAX profiles define channel size, TDD/FDD and other necessary attributes in
order to have inter-operating products. The current fixed profiles are defined for
both TDD and FDD profiles. At this point, all of the mobile profiles are TDD only. The
fixed profiles have channel sizes of 3.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 7 MHz and 10 MHz. The mobile
profiles are 5 MHz, 8.75 MHz and 10 MHz. (Note: the 802.16 standard allows a far
wider variety of channels, but only the above subsets are supported as WiMAX
profiles.)

Since October 2007, the Radio communication Sector of the International

Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) has decided to include WiMAX technology in the
IMT-2000 set of standards.[18] This enables spectrum owners (specifically in the 2.5-
2.69 GHz band at this stage) to use Mobile WiMAX equipment in any country that
recognizes the IMT-2000.

Spectral efficiency

One of the significant advantages of advanced wireless systems such as WiMAX is

spectral efficiency. For example, 802.16-2004 (fixed) has a spectral efficiency of 3.7
(bit/s)/Hertz, and other 3.5–4G wireless systems offer spectral efficiencies that are

25
similar to within a few tenths of a percent. The notable advantage of WiMAX comes
from combining SOFDMA with smart antenna technologies. This multiplies the
effective spectral efficiency through multiple reuse and smart network deployment
topologies. The direct use of frequency domain organization simplifies designs using
MIMO-AAS compared to CDMA/WCDMA methods, resulting in more effective
systems.

Limitations

A commonly-held misconception is that WiMAX will deliver 70 Mbit/s over 50

kilometers (30 miles). In reality, WiMAX can either operate at higher bitrates or over
longer distances but not both: operating at the maximum range of 50 km increases
bit error rate and thus results in a much lower bitrate. Conversely, reducing the range
(to under 1 km) allows a device to operate at higher bitrates. There are no known
examples of WiMAX services being delivered at bit rates over around 40 Mbit/s.

Typically, fixed WiMAX networks have a higher-gain directional antenna installed

near the client (customer) which results in greatly increased range and throughput.
Mobile WiMAX networks are usually made of indoor "customer-premises equipment"
(CPE) such as desktop modems, laptops with integrated Mobile WiMAX or other
Mobile WiMAX devices. Mobile WiMAX devices typically have omnidirectional
antennae which are of lower-gain compared to directional antennas but are more
portable. In current deployments, the throughput may reach 2 Mbit/s symmetric at
10 km with fixed WiMAX and a high gain antenna. It is also important to consider
that a throughput of 2 Mbit/s can mean 2 Mbit/s symmetric simultaneously, 1 Mbit/s
symmetric or some asymmetric mix (e.g. 0.5 Mbit/s downlink and 1.5 Mbit/s uplink
or 1.5 Mbit/s downlink and 0.5 Mbit/s uplink), each of which required slightly
different network equipment and configurations. Higher-gain directional antennas
can be used with a WiMAX network with range and throughput benefits but the
obvious loss of practical mobility.

Like most wireless systems, available bandwidth is shared between users in a given
radio sector, so performance could deteriorate in the case of many active users in a
single sector. In practice, most users will have a range of 2-3 Mbit/s services and
additional radio cards will be added to the base station to increase the number of
users that may be served as required.

Because of these limitations, the general consensus is that WiMAX requires various
granular and distributed network architectures to be incorporated within the IEEE
802.16 task groups. This includes wireless mesh, grids, network remote station
repeaters which can extend networks and connect to backhaul.

Silicon implementations

26
A critical requirement for the success of a new technology is the availability of low-
cost chipsets and silicon implementations.

Mobile WiMAX has a strong silicon ecosystem with a number of specialized

companies producing baseband ICs and integrated RFICs for implementing full-
featured Mobile WiMAX Subscriber Stations based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. It
is notable that most of the major semiconductor companies have not developed
WiMAX chipsets of their own and have instead chosen to invest in and/or utilise the
well developed products from smaller specialists or start-up suppliers. These
companies include but not limited to Beceem, Sequans and PicoChip. The chipsets
from these companies are used in the majority of Mobile WiMAX devices.

Intel Corporation is a leader in promoting WiMAX, but has limited its WiMAX chipset
development and instead chosen to invest in these specialized companies
producing silicon compatible with the various WiMAX deployments throughout the
globe.

Standards

The current WiMAX incarnation, Mobile WiMAX, is based upon IEEE Std 802.16e-2005,
[19]
approved in December 2005. It is a supplement to the IEEE Std 802.16-2004,[20]
and so the actual standard is 802.16-2004 as amended by 802.16e-2005 — the
specifications need to be read together to understand them.

IEEE Std 802.16-2004 addresses only fixed systems. It replaced IEEE Standards
802.16-2001, 802.16c-2002, and 802.16a-2003.

IEEE 802.16e-2005 improves upon IEEE 802.16-2004 by:

Adding support for mobility (soft and hard handover between base stations). This is
seen as one of the most important aspects of 802.16e-2005, and is the very basis of
'Mobile WiMAX'.

Scaling of the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the channel bandwidth in order to keep
the carrier spacing constant across different channel bandwidths (typically
1.25 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz or 20 MHz). Constant carrier spacing results in a higher
spectrum efficiency in wide channels, and a cost reduction in narrow channels. Also
known as Scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA). Other bands not multiples of 1.25 MHz are
defined in the standard, but because the allowed FFT subcarrier numbers are only
128, 512, 1024 and 2048, other frequency bands will not have exactly the same
carrier spacing, which might not be optimal for implementations.

Advanced antenna diversity schemes, and hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)

Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS) and MIMO technology

Denser sub-channelization, thereby improving indoor penetration

27
Introducing Turbo Coding and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC)

Introducing downlink sub-channelization, allowing administrators to trade coverage

for capacity or vice versa

Fast Fourier transform algorithm

Adding an extra QoS class for VoIP applications.

802.16d vendors point out that fixed WiMAX offers the benefit of available
commercial products and implementations optimized for fixed access. It is a popular
standard among alternative service providers and operators in developing areas
due to its low cost of deployment and advanced performance in a fixed
environment. Fixed WiMAX is also seen as a potential standard for backhaul of
wireless base stations such as cellular, or Wi-Fi.

SOFDMA (used in 802.16e-2005) and OFDM256 (802.16d) are not compatible thus
equipment will have to be replaced if an operator is to move to the later standard.
Intel provides a dual-mode 802.16-2004 802.16-2005 chipset[21] for subscriber units
which can be used in the production of dual-mode CPE's for network operators
which have an existing OFDM256 investment.

Conformance testing

TTCN-3 test specification language is used for the purposes of specifying

conformance tests for WiMAX implementations. The WiMAX test suite is being
developed by a Specialist Task Force at ETSI (STF 252).[22]

Associations

WiMAX Forum

The WiMAX Forum is a non profit organization formed to promote the adoption of
WiMAX compatible products and services.[23]

A major role for the organization is to certify the interoperability of WiMAX products.
[24]
Those that pass conformance and interoperability testing achieve the "WiMAX
Forum Certified" designation, and can display this mark on their products and
marketing materials. Some vendors claim that their equipment is "WiMAX-ready",
"WiMAX-compliant", or "pre-WiMAX", if they are not officially WiMAX Forum
Certified.

Another role of the WiMAX Forum is to promote the spread of knowledge about
WiMAX. In order to do so, it has a certified training program that is currently offered

28
in English and French. It also offers a series of member events and endorses some
industry events.

WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance

WiSOA logo

WiSOA was the first global organization composed exclusively of owners of WiMAX
spectrum with plans to deploy WiMAX technology in those bands. WiSOA focussed
on the regulation, commercialisation, and deployment of WiMAX spectrum in the
2.3–2.5 GHz and the 3.4–3.5 GHz ranges. WiSOA merged with the Wireless Broadband
Alliance in April 2008. [25]

Competing technologies

Speed vs. Mobility of wireless systems: Wi-Fi, HSPA, UMTS, GSM

29
Comparison of Mobile Internet Access methods

Standard Family Primary Radio Tech Downlink Uplink Notes

Use (Mbit/s) (Mbit/s)

LTE Within UMTS/4GSM

the marketplace, WiMAX's
General 4G main competition
OFDMA /MIMO/SC-comes
360from existing,
80 widelyLTE-Advanced
FDMA update expected
to offer peak
rates of at least
1 Gbit/s fixed
speeds and 100
Mbit/s to mobile
users.

WiMAX 802.16e Mobile MIMO-SOFDMA 144 35 WiMAX update

Internet IEEE 802.16m
expected offer
up to 1 Gbit/s
fixed speeds.

Flash-OFDM Flash-OFDM Mobile Flash-OFDM 5.3 1.8 Mobile range

Internet 10.6 3.6 18miles (30km)
mobility up 15.9 5.4 extended range
to 200mph 34 miles (55km)
(350km/h)

HIPERMAN HIPERMAN Mobile OFDM 56.9 56.9

Internet

Wi-Fi 802.11 Mobile Inter OFDM/MIMO 288.9 Antenna, RF front

(11n) net (Supports 600Mbps end
@ 40MHz channel enhancements
width) and minor
protocol timer
tweaks have
helped deploy
long range P2P
networks
compromising
on radial
coverage,
throughput
and/or spectra
efficiency
(310km &
382km).

iBurst 802.20 Mobile Inter HC- 95 36 Cell Radius: 3–

net SDMA/TDD/MIMO 12 km
Speed: 250kmph
Spectral
30
Efficiency: 13
bits/s/Hz/cell
Spectrum Reuse
Factor: "1"
3G cellular phone systems usually benefit from already having entrenched
infrastructure, having been upgraded from earlier systems. Users can usually fall
back to older systems when they move out of range of upgraded equipment, often
relatively seamlessly.

The major cellular standards are being evolved to so-called 4G, high-bandwidth,
low-latency, all-IP networks with voice services built on top. The worldwide move to
4G for GSM/UMTS and AMPS/TIA (including CDMA2000) is the 3GPP Long Term
Evolution effort. A planned CDMA2000 replacement called Ultra Mobile Broadband has
been discontinued. For 4G systems, existing air interfaces are being discarded in
favor of OFDMA for the downlink and a variety of OFDM based techniques for the
uplink, similar to WiMAX.

In some areas of the world, the wide availability of UMTS and a general desire for
standardization has meant spectrum has not been allocated for WiMAX: in July
2005, the EU-wide frequency allocation for WiMAX was blocked.

Harmonization

Early WirelessMAN standards, the European standard HiperMAN and Korean

standard WiBro have been harmonized as part of WiMAX and are no longer seen as
competition but as complementary. All networks now being deployed in South
Korea, the home of the WiBro standard, are now WiMAX.

Comparison

Comparison of wireless data standards

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk
page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January
2009)

The following table should be treated with caution because it only shows peak rates
which are potentially very misleading. In addition, the comparisons listed are not
normalized by physical channel size (i.e., spectrum used to achieve the listed peak
rates); this obfuscates spectral efficiency and net through-put capabilities of the
different wireless technologies listed below.

v•d•e

Notes: All speeds are theoretical maximums and will vary by a number of factors,
including the use of external antennae, distance from the tower and the ground
speed (e.g. communications on a train may be poorer than when standing still).
Usually the bandwidth is shared between several terminals. The performance of
each technology is determined by a number of constraints, including the spectral

31
efficiency of the technology, the cell sizes used, and the amount of spectrum
available.

LTE is expected to be ratified at the end of 2008, with commercial implementations

becoming viable within the next two years.

Future development

The IEEE 802.16m standard is the core technology for the proposed Mobile WiMAX
Release 2, which enables more efficient, faster, and more converged data
communications. The IEEE 802.16m standard has been submitted to the ITU for IMT-
Advanced standardization[26]. IEEE 802.16m is one of the major candidates for IMT-
Advanced technologies by ITU. Among many enhancements, IEEE 802.16m systems
can provide four times faster data speed than the current Mobile WiMAX Release 1
based on IEEE 802.16e technology.

Mobile WiMAX Release 2 will provide strong backward compatibility with Release 1
solutions. It will allow current Mobile WiMAX operators to migrate their Release 1
solutions to Release 2 by upgrading channel cards or software of their systems.
Also, the subscribers who use currently available Mobile WiMAX devices can
communicate with new Mobile WiMAX Release 2 systems without difficulty.

It is anticipated that in a practical deployment, using 4X2 MIMO in the urban

microcell scenario with only a single 20-MHz TDD channel available system wide,
the 802.16m system can support both 120 Mbit/s downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per
site simultaneously. It is expected that the WiMAX Release 2 will be available
commercially in the 2011-2012 timeframe[27].

The goal for the long-term evolution of WiMAX is to achieve 100 Mbit/s mobile and
1 Gbit/s fixed-nomadic bandwidth as set by ITU for 4G NGMN (Next Generation
Mobile Network).

Interference

A field test conducted by SUIRG (Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group) with
support from the U.S. Navy, the Global VSAT Forum, and several member
organizations yielded results showing interference at 12 km when using the same
channels for both the WiMAX systems and satellites in C-band.[28] The WiMAX Forum
has yet to respond.

Deployments

As of October 2009, the WiMAX Forum claims there are over 500 WiMAX (fixed and
mobile) networks deployed in over 145 countries, Yota is largest network in the
world

32
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a collection of two mobile telephony protocols,
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access
(HSUPA), that extend and improve the performance of existing WCDMA protocols. A
further standard, Evolved HSPA (also known as HSPA+), is soon to be released.

HASPDA Overview

HSDPA and HSUPA provide increased performance by using improved modulation

schemes and by refining the protocols by which handsets and base stations
communicate. These improvements lead to a better utilization of the existing radio
bandwidth provided by WCDMA.

HSPA improves the end-user experience by increasing peak data rates up to 14

Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s in the uplink. It also reduces latency and
provides up to five times more system capacity in the downlink and up to twice as
much system capacity in the uplink, reducing the production cost per bit compared
to original WCDMA protocols. HSPA increases peak data rates and capacity in
several ways:

Shared-channel transmission, which results in efficient use of available code and

power resources in WCDMA

A shorter Transmission Time Interval (TTI), which reduces round-trip time and
improves the tracking of fast channel variations

Link adaptation, which maximizes channel usage and enables the base station to
operate close to maximum cell power

Fast scheduling, which prioritizes users with the most favorable channel conditions

Fast retransmission and soft-combining, which further increase capacity

16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), which yields higher bit-rates

HSPA has been commercially deployed by over 200 operators in more than 80
countries.

Many HSPA rollouts can be achieved by a software upgrade to existing 3G networks,

giving HSPA a headstart over WiMax, which requires dedicated network
infrastructure. Rich variety of HSPA enabled terminals, more than 1000 available
today together with ease of use gives rising sales of HSPA-enabled mobiles and are
helping to drive the HSPA.

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)

33
Main article: HSDPA

The first step required to upgrade WCDMA to HSPA is to improve the downlink by
introducing HSDPA. The improved downlink provides up to 14 Mbit/s with
significantly reduced latency. The channel reduces the cost per bit and enhances
support for high-performance packet data applications.

HSDPA is based on shared channel transmission and its key features are shared
channel and multi-code transmission, higher-order modulation, short Transmission
Time Interval (TTI), fast link adaptation and scheduling along with fast hybrid
Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ).

The upgrade to HSDPA is often just a software update for most WCDMA networks,
and as of May 2008 90 percent of WCDMA networks are upgraded to HSDPA.[2] With
HSDPA mobile broadband becomes a reality and users can download files, read
mails and browse web pages with the same end-user experience as that of fixed
broadband.

Majority of deployments provide up to 7.2 Mbit/s in the down-link and 14 Mbit/s is

already available as soon as the devices are available in the market.

Voice calls are usually prioritized over data transfer. Singapore's three network
providers M1, StarHub and SingTel provide up to 28 Mbit/s throughout the entire
island. The Australian provider Telstra provides up to 14.4 Mbit/s nationwide, as does
the Swiss provider Swisscom. The Croatian VIPnet network supports the speed of 7.2
Mbit/s in down-link, as does Rogers Wireless in Canada. Rogers Wireless now supports
21 Mbit/s in the Toronto area.[3] In South Korea, a nationwide 7.2 Mbit/s coverage is
now established by SK Telecom and KTF. In Hong Kong PCCW and Smartone-Vodafone
also provide 7.2 Mbit/s coverage. In Portugal all the mobile phone operators support
14 Mbit/s HSDPA, and the Sri-Lankan companies Airtel Pvt Ltd and Mobitel Pvt Ltd
also provide 7.2 Mbit/s in the Asian region.

High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)

Main article: HSUPA

The second major step in the WCDMA upgrade process is to upgrade the uplink,
which is introduced in 3GPP Release 6. Upgrading to HSUPA is often only a software
update. Enhanced Uplink adds a new transport channel to WCDMA, called Enhanced
Dedicated Channel (E-DCH). An enhanced uplink creates opportunities for a number
of new applications including VoIP, uploading pictures and sending large e-mails.
The enhanced uplink increases the data rate (up to 5.8 Mbit/s), and the capacity,
and also reduces latency. The enhanced uplink features several improvements
similar to those of HSDPA, such as multi code transmission, short Transmission Time
Interval (TTI), fast scheduling and fast hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ).

34
In Singapore, Starhub announced a 1.9 Mbit/s HSUPA Service as part of its new
MaxMobile plan in 1 August 2007.[4] In Finland, Elisa announced on 30 August 2007
1.4 Mbit/s HSUPA to most large cities with plans to add the service to its whole 3G
network within months.[5] 3 Italia and Ericsson announced on 16 July 2008 the
successful tests of HSUPA 5.8 Mbit/s in the live network of 3 Italia.[6]

Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+)

Main article: HSPA+

Evolved HSPA (also known as: HSPA Evolution, HSPA+, I-HSPA or Internet HSPA) is
an upcoming wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7 and 8 of the
WCDMA specification. Evolved HSPA provides data rates up to 42 Mbit/s in the
downlink and 11 Mbit/s in the uplink (per 5 MHz carrier) with multiple input, multiple
output (MIMO) technologies and higher order modulation.

Dual-Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)

Main article: Dual-Cell HSDPA

Dual-Cell HSDPA, part of 3GPP Release 8, is the natural evolution of HSPA by means
of carrier aggregation.[7] An HSPA+ network can theoretically support up to 28Mbit/s
and 42Mbit/s with a single 5 MHz carrier for Rel7 (MIMO) and Rel8 (Higher Order
Modulation + MIMO), in good channel condition with low correlation between
transmit antennas. Alternatively DC-HSPA can be used from Release 8 where the
MAC scheduler can allocate two HSPA carrier in parallel and double the bandwidth
from 5 MHz to 10 MHz. Besides the throughput gain from double the bandwidth,
some diversity and joint scheduling gains can also be expected.[8] This can
particularly improve the QoS for end users in poor environment conditions that can
not gain from MIMO and Higher Modulation only. From Release 9 onwards it will be
possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO used on both carrier. The
support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators deploying
Release 7 MIMO to benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8.

Dual-Cell HSUPA (DC-HSUPA)

Similar enhancements as introduced with DC-HSDPA in the downlink for UMTS

Release 8 are being standardized for UMTS Release 9 in the uplink called Dual-Cell
HSUPA.[9] DC-HSUPA will have similar limitations, for instance that the carriers have
to belong to the same Node-B and have to be adjacent. Furthermore, it is assumed
that at least 2 carriers are configured simultaneously in the downlink and have the
same duplex distance to the uplink. The dual carrier transmission will only be
applied to HSUPA UL physical channels and DPCCH. The standardisation of Release
9 is expected to be completed in December 2009.

35
Multi-carrier HSPA (MC-HSPA)

While the aggregation of more than two carriers has been studied the 3GPP
specification does not yet allow this option. Nevertheless it seems likely that such
option will be added at a later state of the technology.

TELECOM SECTOR - AN INTRODUCTION

Telecommunications is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth
and modernization of various sectors of the economy. It has become especially
important in recent years because of enormous growth of Information Technology
(IT) and its significant impact on the rest of the economy. India is perceived to have
a special comparative advantage in IT and in IT-enabled services. However,
sustaining this advantage depends critically on high quality telecommunication
infrastructure. Keeping this in view, the focus of policy is vision of world-class
telecommunication facilities at reasonable rates. Provision of telecom services in
rural areas would be another thrust area to attain the goal of accelerated economic
development and social change. Although the telecom network has grown rapidly in
recent years, its growth needs to be accelerated further in the Tenth Plan.The
telecom sector in India has also been witnessing a continuous process of reforms
since 1991. With the opening of international long distance services and internet
telephony from April, 2002, the process of liberalization and opening up the sector
for competition is complete. Convergence of services is a major new emerging area
and the telecom sector will have to address this in the Tenth Plan.Business
conditions both external and internal do not remain constant for long, necessitating
corporations to continuously innovate to remain in business. Management Guru
Peter Drucker underlines, management has only two functions – marketing and
innovation. Competitiveness has become the key to survival and growth of business
in post liberalization era in India.
The success of any enterprise in a highly competitive situation largely depends not
only on its marketing savvy alone but also on its sensitivity for gathering and using
market intelligence. Especially in the current context, where the customer has a
wide choice and the competition is but on one’s heels. Only companies that invest
in market information that involves their organization, their customers, their
channel members and but of course their competitor will succeed.

36
Language of the report is deliberately kept simple and non-technical so that people
without any prior knowledge of the subject can easily understand it. Although
utmost care has been taken to prepare this report, but there may be some
shortcomings which the readers are always welcome to print out.

The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India. India has
nearly 200 million telephone lines making it the third largest network in the world
after China and USA. With a growth rate of 45%, Indian telecom industry has the
highest growth rate.
Much of the growth in Asia Pacific Wireless communication Market is spurred by the
growth in demand in countries like India & China. India mobile phone subscriber
base is growing at a rate of 82.2%.China is the biggest market in the Asia Pacific
with subscriber base of 48%. Of the total subscriber in Asia Pacific compare to that
India share in Asia Pacific Mobile Phone Market is 6.4%.Considering the fact that
India & China have almost comparable population India low Mobile penetration
offers huge scope of growth.

1.1 HISTORY OF INDIAN TELECOMMUNICATION

Started in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government
near Calcutta (seat of British power). Telephone services were introduced in India in
1881. In 1883 telephone services were merged with the postal system. Indian Radio
Telegraph Company (IRT) was formed in 1923. After independence in 1947, all the
foreign telecommunication companies were nationalized to form the Posts,
Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry of
Communications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic service and the
government considered it best to bring under state’s control. The first wind of
reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in 1980s when the private
sector was allowed in telecommunications equipment manufacturing. In 1985,
Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. It was an exclusive
provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator
(separate from the postal system). In 1986, two wholly government-owned
companies were created: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international
telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in
metropolitan areas. In 1990s, telecommunications sector benefited from the
general opening up of the economy. Also, examples of telecom revolution in many
other countries, which resulted in better quality of service and lower tariffs, led
Indian policy makers to initiate a change process finally resulting in opening up of
telecom services sector for the private sector. In 1997, Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) was created. TRAI was formed to act as a regulator to
facilitate the growth of the telecom sector.

37
New National Telecom Policy was adopted in 1999 and cellular services were also
launched.
Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service
Provider (FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed line services consist of basic services,
national or domestic long distance and international long distance services. The
state operators (BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from
basic services. Private sector services are presently available in selective urban
areas, and collectively account for less than 5 per cent of subscriptions. However,
private services focus on the business/corporate sector, and offer reliable, high- end
services, such as leased lines, ISDN, closed user group and videoconferencing.
Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSM
sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodafone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA
sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and
domestic long distance telephony services are the major growth drivers for cellular
industry. Cellular operators get substantial revenue from these services, and
compensate them for reduction in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the
main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance,
international long distance, and handset prices has driven demand.

1.2 CLASSIFICATION OF TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES

Basic services

Cellular services

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

CELLULAR SERVICE
Overview
There are five private service operators in each area, and an incumbent state
operator. Almost 80% of the cellular subscriber base belongs to the pre-paid
segment.

The DOT has allowed cellular companies to buy rivals within the same operating
circle provided their combined market share did not exceed 67 per cent. Previously,
they were only allowed to buy companies outside their circle.

Growth Drivers
38
Opening up of international and domestic long distance telephony services are
growth drivers in the industry. Cellular operators now get substantial revenue from
these services, and compensate them for reduction in tariffs on air time, which
along with rental was the main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for
airtime, national long distance, international long distance, and handset prices has
driven demand.

The Key players in the Telecom Market in India (OPERATING IN

UP)
Cellular Service provider:

1.BSNL(ISP)

2.Airtel (ISP)

3.Vodafone (ISP)

4.Idea(ISP)

5.Reliance (ISP)

6.Tata Indicom (ISP)

7.Aircel (ISP)

8.Virgin (ISP)

1.3 THE INDIAN INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER MARKET

The cellular and fixed-line penetration levels in India are lower than those in most
developed countries in the world. Compounded annual growth of cellular
subscribers in the FY97 - FY01 period was 80%. Despite that, the market is still
under-penetrated and offers significant potential for growth. The Indian mobile
market, according to the COAI, increased from approximately 29.21 million
subscribers as of March 31, 2004 to approximately 51.40 million subscribers as on
June 30, 2008. Despite this rapid growth, the mobile penetration rate in India,
approximately 7.8% as of June 30, 2008, is significantly lower than the average
mobile penetration rate in other Asian and International markets.

The cellular subscribers grew to approximately 31 million in 2008. The number of

mobile subscribers in India showed rapid growth. By 2009 it is projected at 68
million by COAI and 60 million by Gartner. This shows the potential of the telecom
industry over the next four years. There was a lot of action in the cellular field with
respect to mergers and acquisitions. The sector had the operators consolidate their
positions with acquisition and increased competition.
39
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The cellular phone sends and receives radio single to and from the nearest cell

Site, the Base Transceiver Station (BTS), which is connected to the Mobile
Switching

Center (MSC). The MSC is connected to the conventional local phone network. The
use

Of radio waves, as the communication line, eliminates the use of wires that tie
down to

one point. As long as you are in the cellular service area, whether you are moving
or

Stationary you remain connected with the service provider of your cellular services.

When you subscribe to cellular phone services you are provided with a SIM Card
(Subscriber’s Identity Module). The SIM Card is about the size of a regular Bank
Credit Card with a microchip, which stores your cellular number and other
subscriber’s information. In the field of cellular telephony, mainly four technique are
used which are G.S.M., C.D.M.A., W.L.L, M.P.S./Cellular business based on GSM and
P.D.C.S. Technology is spread all over the world, i.e., the cellular services are on air
in more than 200 countries, totaling close to 530 million subscribers.

Different operators allow assessing of different type of GSM networks. There are
essentially three types of GSM networks - GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900. GSM
stands for Global System for Mobile communication. It lays down the common
standard for mobile telephone, which allows the subscriber to use their handsets, at
any place, which has GSM coverage. GSM is the PAN European standard for digital
cellular telephone services. It is world’s fastest growing mobile communication
standard. GSM was designed for European market to provide the advantage of
automatic, international roaming in multiple countries. GSM system has already
been implemented in Asia, Africa, European countries etc.

Being a digital technology GSM provides crystal clear sound, fewer drop cells,
excellent transmission quality and mobility not only in India but even when you are
traveling abroad. The SIM card is vital component in GSM operation. The user can
store all relevant data in the phone on a removable plastic care. The card can be
plugged onto any GSM compatible phone and the phone is instantly personalized for
the user.

1.4 Telecom India - Tariff war that never ends

40
Indian telecom market might be growing fast, but surviving in this highly
competitive market is not easy for telecom companies. Here’s the list of schemes
that fuelled the tariff war in India and brought down the ARPU significantly.

Post card or Phone call:

Reliance Infocomm launched mobile services in India at 40 paisa per minute

fulfilling Dhirubai Ambani’s dream to make a phone call cheaper than a post card in
2003.

Chotta Recharge:

Hutch (Vodafone now) launched the chotta recharge voucher at Rs.10 when the
lowest add-on recharge card available was about Rs 50. What’s the message?
Lowering the price by 20-30% to the competitors won’t help much in gaining the
market share. Think five times cheaper to make an impact.

Non-stop Mobile:

So Life went good with chotta recharge. But there was a problem in prepaid mobile.
You need to recharge regularly as the validity period is limited. With the recharge
card of Rs 200, you will get validity only for one month. So people have to spend at
least Rs2000 per year for their mobile just to receive the incoming calls. Not so
long.

Tata Indicom launched Non-stop mobile, a scheme where you don’t need to
recharge for 2 years but still get free incoming calls. Soon other players responded
to Tata Indicom’s plan and then come in Lifetime validity plan by all major telecom
players in India

Get paid for incoming: Customers are happy with their free incoming calls. Not
the new

telecom players. Virgin Mobile jumped into the competitive Indian mobile telecom
market with the breakthrough-marketing scheme, Get paid for incoming calls. 10
paisa free for every minute of incoming call. That’s the deal.

Daily telephone allowance:

Getting paid for incoming calls is fine. But what if you don’t get incoming calls.
Don’t worry; Anil Ambani is ready to help you now. Reliance Communication

41
launched its GSM services in Mumbai offering subscribers Rs 10 talk-time every day
for the first 90 days. That’s free talk-time worth Rs 900!

With more new players like Swan-Etisalat, Unitech-Telenor and Datacom (subsidiary
of Videocon) entering the Indian mobile market, this tariff war is not going to end
soon.

RCOM's GSM foray triggers price war in pre-paid segment

NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) entry into the GSM space has
triggered a price war in pre-paid segment as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have slashed
tariffs on several entry-level schemes.

A new price-war may start soon

Tata Teleservices launched an Rs 1,699 single-chip ultra thin cell phone to help
expand its customer base rapidly. Tata Group Company hopes to sell three million
such phones in the first year. Officials of the company said the device has voice
prompts in six languages — English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
The new cell

phone will enable customers to avail double talk time for the first six months valid
for one year from the date of activation, company officials said.

Telecom Battle Intensifies With Pre-Paid Price War

The battle for supremacy in the fastest growing Mobile communications market
intensified with Bharti Airtel slashing prices in the pre-paid segment and
RCom reacting within couple of hours. ~80% of the mobile phone users are in
the pre-paid category. It has been widely reported in the press that Bharti has
announced a reduction in local outgoing tariffs for its prepaid customers to a
uniform Rs1/min from Rs1.20/min earlier. However on inquiry with dealers in the
Karnataka circle they said Rs 0.79 / minute on the most minimum pre-paid recharge
and Rs 0.30 for calls originating and terminating on Airtel network. 40-45% of
CDMA operators’ revenues are from Local calls while it is 34-37% with GSM
operators. RCom will be under severe pressure as it unveils multi-billion dollar
capex for GSM operations.

Logically, lower tariffs will be offset by higher usage, sounds reasonable. However,
we differ and we feel its because of the competition and to gain more customers
before the entry of new GSM players in more circles. Recall, incoming calls were
made FREE in India only with the entry of Reliance Infocomm. More innovative
42
schemes will be launched in the next 12 months putting severe pressure to
maintain margins.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Huge wireless subscriber’s potentials 1.Lowest call tariff in the
world.

Fastest growing mobile market. 2. Market strongly regulated

by

Consumers are ready to pay Government bodies

for cutting edge Technology. 3. Too many authorities

ruling.

4. Government proposes to hike 4. Wide scale Customer

Churn.

FDI limit in Telecom to 74%. 5. A Voice based market.

5. Unified license regime.

OPPURTUNITIES THREATS
1. To offer VAS in GSM, CDMA &IP 1.Low cost
service provider—no

2. Language Independent Services. Possibility of

breaking.
43
 3. Mobile Marketing Concepts. 2. Weak IPR
Protection.

4. Content influenced by local as well as 3.Software &

digital content

Global culture. piracy.

5. Unified messaging format. 4. Political

instability.

6. Foreign investment in form of equity or 5. Regulatory

interference.

Technology.

CHAPTER 2

ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE’S
OF THE COMPANY

44
INTRODUCTION TO MAJOR ISP’S WHO PROVIDE
WIRELESS & DSL INTERNET

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (known as BSNL, India Communications Corporation

Limited) is a state-owned telecommunication company in India. BSNL is the sixth largest
cellular service provider, with over 57.22 million customers as of December 2009 and
the largest land line telephone provider in India. Its headquarters are at Bharat
Sanchar Bhawan, Harish Chandra Mathur Lane, Janpath, New Delhi. It has the status
of Mini Ratna, a status assigned to reputed public sector companies in India.

BSNL is India's oldest and largest Communication Service Provider (CSP).[citation needed]
Currently has a customer base of 90 million as of June 2008.[3] It has footprints
throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi which
are managed by MTNL. As on March 31, 2008 BSNL commanded a customer base

45
of 31.55 million Wireline, 4.58 million CDMA-WLL and 54.21 million GSM Mobile
subscribers. BSNL's earnings for the Financial Year ending March 31, 2009 stood at
INR 397.15b (US$7.03 billion) with net profit of INR 78.06b (US$ 1.90 billion). BSNL
has an estimated market value of $ 100 Billion. The company is planning an IPO
with in 6 months to offload 10% to public in the Rs 300-400 range valuing the
company at over $100 billion.

BSNL Broadband is a broadband internet service from state owned BSNL in India since
14 January, 2005. Until September 30, 2007 it was known as Data One [1]

BSNL is commissioning of a multi-gigabit, multi-protocol, convergent IP infrastructure

through Internet backbone-II (NIB-II), that will provide convergent services through the
same backbone and broadband access network. The Broadband service will be
available on DSL technology (on the same copper wire that is used for connecting
telephone), on a countrywide basis spanning 198 cities.

In terms of infrastructure for broadband services NIB-II would put India at par with
more advanced nations. The services that would be supported includes always-on
broadband access to the Internet for residential and business customers, Content
based services, Video multicasting, Video-on-demand and Interactive gaming, Audio
and Video conferencing, IP Telephony, Distance learning, Messaging: plain and feature-
rich, Multi-site MPLS VPNs with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. The subscribe
will be able to access the above services through Subscriber Service Selection
System (SSSS) portal.

The Service will be given through the state of the art Multi Protocol Label Switching
(MPLS) based IP Infrastructure, which is designed to provide reliable routes to cover
all possible destinations within and outside the country. Layer 1 of the network will
consist of a high speed Backbone comprising of 24 powerful Core Routers
connected with high speed 2.5 Gbit/s(STM-16) links.

There are different plans available for rural,urban and village consumers.

Services

46
BSNL provides almost every telecom service in India. Following are the main
telecom services provided by BSNL:

Universal Telecom Services : Fixed wireline services & Wireless in Local loop (WLL)
using CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively. As of December 31,
2007, BSNL has 81% marketshare of fixed lines.

Cellular Mobile Telephone Services: BSNL is major provider of Cellular Mobile

Telephone services using GSM platform under the brand name BSNL Mobile[4]. As of
Sep 30, 2009 BSNL has 12.45% share of mobile telephony in the country[5].

Internet: BSNL provides internet services through dial-up connection (Sancharnet)

as Prepaid, (NetOne) as Postpaid and ADSL broadband (BSNL Broadband). BSNL has
around 50% market share in broadband in India. BSNL has planned aggressive
rollout in broadband for current financial year.

Intelligent Network (IN): BSNL provides IN services like televoting, toll free calling,
premium calling etc.

3G:BSNL offers the '3G' or the'3rd Generation' services (for booking in chennai

BSNL is divided into a number of administrative units, termed as telecom circles,

metro districts, project circles and specialized units, as mentioned below:

Maintenance Regions Jharkhand Telecom Circle Eastern Telecom Maintenance

Region Karnataka Telecom Circle Telecom Circles Metro Districts Chennai +91
9445233233 Andaman & Nicobar Telecom Circle Calcutta Andhra Pradesh Telecom
Circle Chennai Assam Telecom Circle

Project Circles Bihar Telecom Circle Eastern Telecom Project Circle Chhattisgarh
Telecom Circle Western Telecom Project Circle Gujarat Telecom Circle Northern
Telecom Project Circle Haryana Telecom Circle Southern Telecom Project Circle
Himachal Pradesh Telecom Circle IT Project Circle, Pune Jammu & Kashmir Telecom
Circle

Maintenance Regions Jharkhand Telecom Circle Eastern Telecom Maintenance

Region Karnataka Telecom Circle Western Telecom Maintenance Region Kerala
Telecom Circle Northern Telecom Maintenance Region Madhya Pradesh Telecom
Circle Southern Telecom Maintenance Region Maharashtra Telecom Circle
Specialized Telecom Units North East-I Telecom Circle Data Networks North East-II
Telecom Circle National Centre For Electronic Switching Orissa Telecom Circle
Technical & Development Circle Punjab Telecom Circle Quality Assurance Rajasthan
Telecom Circle

47
Production Units Telecom Factory, Mumbai Telecom Factory, Jabalpur Telecom
Factory, Richhai Telecom Factory, Kolkata

Other Units Training Institutions Telecom Stores Advanced Level Telecom Training
Centre North East Task Force Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute Of
Telecom Training Telecom Electrical Wing National Academy of Telecom Finance
and Management Telecom Civil Wing Regional Telecom Training Centres Circle
Telecom Training Centres District Telecom Training Centres

Present and future

BSNL (then known as Department of Telecom) had been a near monopoly during
the socialist period of the Indian economy. During this period, BSNL was the only
telecom service provider in the country (MTNL was present only in Mumbai and New
Delhi). During this period BSNL operated as a typical state-run organization,
inefficient, slow, bureaucratic, and heavily uinionised. As a result subscribers had to
wait for as long as five years to get a telephone connection.The corporation tasted
competition for the first time after the liberalisation of Indian economy in 1991.
Faced with stiff competition from the private telecom service providers, BSNL has
subsequently tried to increase efficiencies itself. DoT veterans, however, put the
onus for the sorry state of affairs on the Government policies, where in all state-
owned service providers were required to function as mediums for achieving
egalitarian growth across all segments of the society. The corporation (then DoT),
however, failed miserably to achieve this and India languished among the most
poorly connected countries in the world. BSNL was born in 2000 after the
corporatisation of DoT. The efficiency of the company has since improved. However,
the performance level is nowhere near the private players. The corporation remains
heavily unionised and is comparatively slow in decision making and
implementation. Though it offers services at lowest tariffs, the private players
continue to notch up better numbers in all areas, years after year. BSNL has been
providing connections in both urban and rural areas. Pre-activated Mobile
connections are available at many places across India. BSNL has also unveiled cost-
effective broadband internet access plans (DataOne) targeted at homes and small
businesses. At present BSNL enjoy's around 60% of market share of ISP services.[6]

Year of Broadband 2007

48
2007 has been declared as "Year of Broadband" in India and BSNL is in the process
of providing 5 million Broadband connectivity by the end of 2007. BSNL has
upgraded existing Dataone (Broadband) connections for a speed of up to 2 Mbit/s
without any extra cost. This 2 Mbit/s broadband service is being provided by BSNL
at a cost of just US$ 11.7 per month (as of 21/07/2008 and at a limit of 2.5GB
monthly limit with 0200-0800 hrs as no charge period). Further, BSNL is rolling out
new broadband services such as triple play.
BSNL is planning to increase its customer base to 108 million customers by 2010.
With the frantic activity in the communication sector in India, the target appears
achievable.
BSNL is a pioneer of rural telephony in India. BSNL has recently bagged 80% of US$
580 m (INR 2,500 crores) Rural Telephony project of Government of India.[7]

On the 20th of March, 2009, BSNL advertised the launch of BlackBerry services
across its Telecom circles in India. The corporation has also launched 3G services in
select cities across the country. Presently, BSNL and MTNL are the only players to
provide 3G services, as the Government is still in the process of auctioning the 3G
spectrum to private players.

BSNL has also launched a Entertainment Portal called BSNL Hungama Portal from
where subscribers could download contents like music, music videos for free and
also download or play various games online. Only Tamil,Kannada,Telugu & Hindi are
provided at present. Hopes are there that the database could be expanded. BSNL
charges a fixed monthly subscription fee for this function.

Challenges

During the financial year 2006-2007 (from April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007) BSNL
has added 9.6 million new customers in various telephone services taking its
customer base to 64.8 million. BSNL's nearest competitor Bharti Airtel is standing at
a customer base of 39 million. However, despite impressive growth shown by BSNL
in recent times, the Fixed line customer base of BSNL is declining. In order to woo
back its fixed-line customers BSNL has brought down long distance calling rate
under OneIndia plan, however, the success of the scheme is not known. However,
BSNL faces bleak fiscal 2006-2007 as users flee, which has been acBSNL.[8]

Presently there is an intense competition in Indian Telecom sector and various

Telcos are rolling out attractive schemes and are providing good customer services.

Access Deficit Charges (ADC, a levy being paid by the private operators to BSNL for
provide service in non-lucrative areas especially rural areas) has been slashed by

49
37% by TRAI, w.e.f. April 1, 2007.[9] The reduction in ADC may hit the bottomlines of
BSNL.

BSNL launched 3G services in 11 cities of country in 2nd march 2009.MTNL which

operates in Mumbai and Delhi first launched 3G services in these cities

General Home Plans

Particulars Tariff in Rs.
Home Home 250 Home 500 Home Home Home
125 1000 1800 3300
Bandwidth 256 Kbps/ 256 Kbps/ 256 384 Kbps/ 512 Kbps/ 2 Mbps
(wherever Upto 2Mbps Upto 2Mbps Kbps/Upto Upto 2Mbps Upto 2Mbps
technically 2Mbps
feasible)
Monthly Charges 125 250 500 1000 1800 3300
(Rs)
Annual Charges 1250 2500 5000 10000 18000 33000
(Rs)

Free 150 MB 1.0 GB 2.5 GB 5 GB 10 GB 20 GB

Download/Upload
Limit (GB) per
month
Additional Usage 0.90 0.90 0.80 0.80 0.70 0.70
Charges/MB
beyond free
download/upload
limit (Rs)
Free E-mail 1/5 MB 1/5 MB 1/5 MB 1/5 MB 1/5 MB 2/5 MB
IDs/Space (Per
E-mail ID)
Night Unlimited No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
(0200-0800 Hrs)
Fixed Monthly As per As per As per As per As per As per Existing Plan
Charges for
Telephone (Rs) Existing Existing Existing Existing Existing
Free Calls Plan Plan Plan Plan Plan
Charges Beyond
Free Calls Limits
(Rs)
Maximim Usages NA NA NA NA NA NA
Charges for BB
inclusive of FMC

50
 Unlimited Home Plans
Particulars Home Flexi Home UL 750 Home UL 750 Home UL Home UL
350 Plus 1350 1350 Plus

Bandwidth 256 kbps 256 kbps 256 kbps 512 Kbps 512 Kbps
(wherever technically
feasible)

Monthly Charges (Rs) 350 750 750 1350 1350

Annual Charges (Rs) NA 7500 7500 13500 13500

Free Download/Upload 1.8 GB Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited

Limit (GB) per month

Additional Usage 0.80 NA NA NA NA

Charges/MB beyond free
download/upload limit
(Rs)

Free E-mail IDs/Space NA 2/5 MB 2/5 MB 2/5 MB 2/5 MB

(Per E-mail ID)

Night Unlimited (0200- NA NA NA NA NA

0800 Hrs)
Fixed Monthly Charges As per Existing As per Existing Plan NIL As per Existing Plan NIL
for Telephone (Rs) Plan

Free Calls NIL NIL

Charges Beyond Free 1.00 0.80
Calls Limits (Rs)

Maximim Usages Rs.1500 NA NA NA NA

Charges for BB inclusive
of FMC

Tariff of WiMAX service

51
 Unlimited
Limited Plans Tariff in Rs.
Particulars Home Plans Unlimited Business Plans Tariff in Rs.

BUWI UL BUWI UL
WI 220 WI 350 WI 750 HOWI 999 BUWI UL
1999 3500
7000
Bandwidth (wherever
512 Kbps to 2Mbps 512 Kbps 1 Mbps 2 Mbps
technically feasible)
Applicability All Users All Users All Users Home only All Users All Users All Users
Single/Multi Users
SU SU SU SU MU MU MU
(SU/MU)
Activation/Installation
NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL
chares in Rs.
Fixed Monthly Charges
(FMC) for service in 220 350 750 999 1999 3500 7000
Rs.
Discounted Annual
2200 3500 7500 9990 19990 35000 70000
Payment Option in Rs.
FMC for Indoor &
Outdoor CPE by BSNL 50 50 50 40 40 40 40
in Rs.
FMC for USB Dongle
provided by BSNL in 40 40 40 30 30 30 30
Rs.
Free usage per month 400 MB 1.0 GB 4.0 GB Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Additional usage
Not Not Not
charges beyond free 0.80 0.80 0.80 Not Applicable
Applicable Applicable Applicable
limit (Rs./MB)
Free E-mail IDs/Space
1 / 5 MB 1 / 5 MB 1 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 4 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB
(Per E-mail ID)
Static IP Address (On Not Not Not
Not Available One One One
Request) Available Available Available
Security Deposit One month FMC
Three Three Three
Minimum Hire Period One Month One Month One Month One Month
Months Months Months
Note: The above rates are exclusive of Service Tax, which will be charged as per prevailing rates.

Note: The above rates are exclusive of Service Tax, which will be charged as per prevailing rates.

2. In case customer wants to purchase the WiMAX CPE directly from BSNL, the same can be sold to
customer with the following sale price.

Sl. No. Particulars Sale price in Rs.*

1 Indoor-CPE 4200
2 Outdoor-CPE 5000
3 CPE-PCM-CIA/USB 2800

Reliance Communications, formerly known as Reliance Infocomm, along with

Reliance Telecom and Flag Telecom, is part of Reliance Communications Ventures
52
(RCoVL). It is the second largest mobile operator in India, based on number of
subscribers. According to National Stock Exchange data, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
controls 66.77 per cent of the company, which accounts for more than 1.36 billion
shares.[3] It is the flagship company of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group,
comprising of power (Reliance Energy), financial services (Reliance Capital) and
telecom initiatives of the Reliance ADAG. It uses CDMA2000 1x technology for its
existing CDMA mobile services, and GSM-900/GSM-1800 technology for its
existing/newly launched GSM services.

RelCom is also into Wireline Business throughout India and has the largest optical
fiber communication (OFC) backbone architecture [roughly 110,000 km] in the
country.

Reliance Communications has launched its Direct To Home (DTH) TV also, known as
"Big TV". RelCom have presence across all B2C communications channel in one of
the fastest growing markets in the world.

Type Public (BSE: RCOM)

Founded 2004
Headquarte Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra,
rs India
Key people Anil Ambani
(Chairman) & (MD) [1]
(Vice-Chairman Reliance-ADA
Group)
Industry Telecommunications
Products Wireless
Telephone
Internet
Television
Revenue US$ 4.26 billion (2008)[2]
Net income US$ 1.35 billion (2008)
Total US$ 19.31 billion (2008)
assets
Employees 33,000
Website Rcom.co.in

53
Reliance Net connect – DSL
Internet

Broadnet Plans
Flat Fee Monthly Plans
Plan Name Night Booster 2X Night Booster 4X Surf addiction 400 Zoom 1 Mbps Zoom 2 Mbps
Band width
75 Kbps# Day : 150
Kbps night#
75 Kbps# Day : 300 Kbps
night 400 Kbps 1 Mbps 2 Mbps
Monthly Rental (arrears) Rs. 400 Rs. 500 Rs. 749 Rs. 1,499 Rs. 2,599
Free Bundled usage Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Additional Usage Charges NA NA NA NA NA
Estimated monthly Bill Rs. 400 Rs. 500 Rs. 749 Rs. 1,499 Rs. 2,599
Service Tax‐Extra 10.3% 10.3% 10.3% 10.3% 10.3%
Flat Fee Quarterly Plans
Plan Name
Night Booster 2X ‐
Quarterly
Night Booster 4XQuarterly
Band width
75 Kbps# Day : 150
Kbps night#
75 Kbps# Day : 300 Kbps
night
Quarterly Rental (advance) Rs. 1200 Rs. 1500
Free Bundled usage Unlimited Unlimited
Additional Usage Charges NA NA
Estimated Bill (Quarterly) Rs. 1200 Rs. 1500
Service Tax‐Extra 10.3% 10.3%
Flat Fee Halfyearly Plans
Plan Name
Night Booster 2X ‐
Halfyearly
Night Booster 4XHalfyearly
Band width
75 Kbps# Day : 150
Kbps night#
75 Kbps# Day : 300
Kbps night
Halfyearly Rental (advance) Rs. 2000 Rs. 2500
Free Bundled usage Unlimited Unlimited
Additional Usage Charges NA NA
Estimated Bill (Halfyearly) Rs. 2000 Rs.

54
Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ USB Modem.

Monthly discount of Rs. 200/- for 12 months (worth Rs. 2400/-) on any monthly
rental plan above Rs. 1000/-

Tariff Mont Free Usage Extra Roaming Effective Rental in

Plan hly Bundled/Mont Usag Money back offer
Rent h e (for 12 months)
al
Anytime/ Nig
Day ht
Usage Usa
ge

Broadb Rs. Nil Nil Rs. 1 / Nationwid Rs. 299/-

and+ 299/- MB e*
Pay as
you go

Broadb Rs. 512 MB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 499/-

and+ 499/- MB e
512 MB

Broadb Rs. Nil 10 50 Nationwid Rs. 499/-

and+ 499/- GB p /Min e
10GB @
Night

Broadb Rs. 1 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 650/-

and+ 1 650/- MB e
GB

Broadb Rs. 2 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 750/-

and+ 2 750/- MB e
GB

Broadb Rs. 3 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 850/-

and+ 3 850/- MB e
GB

Broadb Rs. 1 GB 10 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 849/-

and+ 1 849/- GB MB e
GB day,
10 GB
Night

55
Broadb Rs. 2 GB 10 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 949/-
and+ 2 949/- GB MB e
GB day,
10 GB
Night

Broadb Rs. 3 GB 10 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 849/-

and+ 3 1049/- GB MB e
GB day,
10 GB
Night

Broadb Rs. 5 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 899/-

and+ 5 1099/- MB e
GB

Broadb Rs. 10 GB Nil 50 p / Citywide Rs. 899/-

and+ 1099/- MB
10 GB
City

Broadb Rs. 5 GB 10 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 1098/-

and+ 5 1298/- GB MB e
GB day,
10 GB
Night

Broadb Rs. 10 GB 10 50 p / Citywide Rs. 1098/-

and+ 1298/- GB MB
10 GB
day, 10
GB
Night
City

Broadb Rs. 10 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 1050/-

and+ 1250/- MB e
10 GB

Broadb Rs. 10 GB 10 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 1249/-

and+ 1449/- GB MB e
10 GB
day, 10
GB
Night

56
 Broadb Rs. 15 GB Nil 50 p / Nationwid Rs. 1550/-
and+ 1750/- MB e
15 GB

Day usage - 6 AM to 10 PM ; Night Usage

- 10 PM - 6 AM

* Nationwide coverage will ensure Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ coverage in 44

major cities and seamless integration with High Speed 1x for National coverage.

- Please note that day/night classification of a particular session will be done on

basis of session start time i.e. If the session starts in Peak time/Day Usage (6 AM to
10 PM), it would be classified as a day session and if the session starts in Off-peak
time/Night Usage (between 10 PM to 6 AM), it would be classified as night session.

- Minimum guaranteed speed on Netconnect Broadband+ is 256 Kbps subject to

technical feasibility.

Netconnect Broadband+Prepaid tariff Plans

Netconnect Broadband+ USB Modem and get

FREE data usage of 10 GB valid for a period of 30 days

Life time Validity

Choose for any of the below mentioned Prepaid Broadband+ plans

Pack Price Validity

Broadband+ Rs. 250/- 30 Days

300MB Pack

Broadband+ Rs. 500/- 30 Days

700MB Pack

Broadband+ 1GB Rs. 715/- 30 Days

Pack

Broadband+ 3GB Rs. 935/- 30 Days

Pack

Broadband+ 5GB Rs. 1,210/- 30 Days

Pack

57
 Broadband+ 10GB Rs. 1,379/- 30 Days
Pack

Broadband+ 15GB Rs. 1,925/- 30 Days

Pack

Additional usage @ Rs. 1 / MB

Bharti Airtel (BSE: 532454) formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is the
largest cellular service provider in India, with more than 121 million subscribers as
of Jan 2010.[2] With this, Bharti is now the world's third-largest, single-country
mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom operator. It also offers fixed
line services and broadband services. It offers its TELECOM services under the Airtel
brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The company also provides telephone
services and broadband Internet access (DSL) in top 95 cities in India. It also acts as
a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The
company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the
submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

The businesses at Bharti Airtel have always been structured into three individual
strategic business units (SBU's) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services &
Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services
using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services
business offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities and has recently
launched a Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel Digital TV. Shahrukh Khan is the
brand embassador of the mobile company and Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are
the brand embassadors of the DTH company. The company provides end-to-end

58
data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber
optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP
and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.[3]

Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber
base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6%
share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance
Communications and 17.4% for Vodafone Essar.[4] In January 2010, company
anonced that Manoj Kohli, Joint Managing Director and current Chief Executive
Officer of Indian and South Asian operations, will become the Chief Executive Officer
of the International Business Group from 1st April 2010. He will be overseeing
Bharti's overseas business. Current Dy. CEO, Sanjay Kapoor, will replace Manoj Kohli
and will be the CEO with effective from 1st April, 2010.

Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India, Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka

owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. It is the largest cellular service provider in
India in terms of number of subscribers. Services are offered under the brand name
Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services
(Fixed line, Internet Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and
Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates). It has presence
in all 23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current population (as of
Financial Year 2009). Airtel has also launched 16Mb/s broadband plans in India,
making it the first ISP to do so.

Acquisition Talks

On 14, February 2010 a statement issued exclusively to the Ghana News Agency by
Zain Ghana, said "the Board of Directors of Kuwaiti the Zain Group, after its meeting
on February 14, 2010, issued a resolution to accept a proposal received from Bharti
Airtel Limited (Bharti) to enter into exclusive discussions until 25 March 2010,
regarding the sale of its African unit, Zain Africa BV." The offer was for $10.7 billion.

“This potential transaction does not include Zain’s operations in Morocco and Sudan
and remains subject to due diligence, customary regulatory approvals and signing
of final transaction documentation,” Bharti said. The deal would provide Bharti
access to 15 more countries in the region, adding around 40.1 million subscribers to
its already 125 million-plus user base. With Bharti having presence in five overseas
markets post the deal, it would increase its global presence across 20 regions. The
combined revenue of the two entities would be around $12 billion.

Recently a shareholder of Zain Nigeria, Broad Communications, secured an

injunction against the company from managing its subsidiary in that country
because Zain was destroying shareholder value. Experts have said the
developments in Nigeria could have implications for the Bharti acquisition.

59
Airtel 3G

Airtel plans to launch the nationwide 3G services in India in the second quarter of
2010

Type Public
BSE: 532454
Founded July 07, 1995
Founder(s) Sunil Bharti Mittal
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Key people Sunil Mittal
(Chairman) & (MD)
Sanjay Kapoor
(CEO)
Industry Telecommunications
Products Wireless
Telephone
Internet
Satellite television
Revenue ▲ US$ 7.254 billion
(2009)[1]
Operating ▲ US$ 2.043 billion
income (2009)[1]
Net income ▲ US$ 1.662 billion
(2009)[1]
Total assets ▲ US$ 11.853 billion
(2009)[1]
Owner(s) Bharti Enterprises
(64.76%)
SingTel (30.5%)
Vodafone (4.4%)
Employees 25,543 (2009)
Website Bharti.com

ISP,S PROVIDING WIRELESS INTERNET

INTRODUCTION

60
Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that covers 23

telecom circles in India Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar, its products are simply

branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout

India with good presence in the metros. Vodafone Essar provides 2.75G services based on

900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the

country's 23 license areas.

Ownership

Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian nationals,

15%.On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by

Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications,

Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company

was valued at USD 18.8 billion. [2] . The transaction closed on May 8, 2007.

Previous brandsIn December 2006, Hutch Essar re-launched the "Hutch" brand nationwide,

consolidating its services under a single identity.

The Company entered into agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch i-mode mobile Internet

service in India during 2007.

The company used to be named Hutchison Essar, reflecting the name of its previous owner,

Hutchison. However, the brand was marketed as Hutch. After getting the necessary government

approvals with regards to the acquisition of a majority by the Vodafone Group, the company was

rebranded as Vodafone Essar. The marketing brand was officially changed to Vodafone on 20

September 2007.
61
On September 20, 2007 Hutch becomes Vodafone in one of the biggest brand transition

exercises in recent times.

Vodafone Essar is spending somewhere in the region of Rs 250 crores on this high-profile

transition being unveiled today. Along with the transition, cheap cell phones have been launched

in the Indian market under the Vodafone brand. The company also plans to launch co-branded

handsets sourced from global vendors as well.

A popular daily quoted a Vodafone Essar director as saying that "the objective is to leverage

Vodafone Group's global scale in bringing millions of low-cost handsets from across-the-world

into India."Incidentally, China's ZTE, which is looking to set-up a manufacturing unit in the

country, is expected to provide several Vodafone handsets in India.

Apple iPhone 3G

Vodafone launched the Apple iPhone 3G in India from 22nd of August

62
2.5 INTRODUCTION

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is a part of the Tata Group of companies, an

Indian conglomerate. It operates under the brand name Tata Indicom in various
telecom circles of India. The company forms part of the Tata Group's presence in
the Telecommunication Industry in India, along with Tata Teleservices
(Maharashtra) Limited (TTML) and Tata Communication Limited.In February
this year, TTSL announced that it would provide CDMA mobile services targeted
towards the youth, in a joint venture with Virgin, UK,on a Franchisee model basis.
Interestingly, Virgin Mobile is a direct competitor of TTSL in a number of telecom
circles across the cou

Company background

Tata Teleservices is part of the INR Rs. 2,51,543 Crore (US$ 62.5 billion) Tata
Group, that has over 87 companies, over 330,000 employees and more than 2.8
million shareholders. With a committed investment of INR 36,000 Crore (USD $7.5
billion) in Telecom (FY 2006), the Group has a presence across the telecom value
chain.

Tata Teleservices spearheads the Group’s presence in the telecom sector.

Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile
services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle.

The company acquired Hughes Telecom (India) Limited [now renamed Tata
Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] in December 2002. With a total
Investment of Rs 19,924 Crore, Tata Teleservices has created a Pan India presence
spread across 20 circles that includes Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, J & K,
Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, North East, Tamil Nadu, Orissa,
Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E),
Uttar Pradesh (W), Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

Having pioneered the CDMA 3G1x technology platform in India, Tata Teleservices
has established 3G ready telecom infrastructure. It partnered with Motorola,
Ericsson, Lucent and ECI Telecom for the deployment of its telecom network.The
company is the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market with a total
customer base of over 3.8 million.Tata Teleservices’ bouquet of telephony services
63
includes Mobile services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and
Wireline services. Other services include value added services like voice portal,
roaming, post-paid Internet services, 3-way conferencing, group calling, Wi-Fi
Internet, USB Modem, data cards, calling card services and enterprise services.
64