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-----------------------------------------------------------This story was printed from Voice&Data Online at http://www.voicendata.com Do you want to receive FREE weekly Information Technology updates by email? Sign up for our newsletters at http://www.ciol.com/content/newsletters/ -----------------------------------------------------------Article Title: Reliance Industries: Bracing for the Broadband Hungama URL: http://www.voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/112110902.asp Section: Top Stories Author Name: Pravin Prashant Author Email: pravinp@cybermedia.co.in -----------------------------------------------------------2013 would be a significant milestone for Indian telecom as operators are gearing towards launching broadband services in a major way. This year would also be significant, as operators will make a paradigm shift from voice to data and they in turn will have to create surplus capacities for data and not voice. The operators also now need to shift fast to the data bandwagon, as this will give them an edge vis-a-vis their competitors and help them in gaining market share in broadband services. Infotel Broadband Services (Infotel), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries is also gearing in a big way to move towards data and plans are for launching broadband services by July, 2013. In order to make this happen, the company is getting its act together. The company's major focus is on recruiting people, finalizing vendors for network and devices, rolling out broadband infrastructure and developing applications which will be useful for consumers. For creating a broadband highway, the company is planning to invest $8 bn within 3-5 years. For creating this highway, the company is creating a worldclass data infrastructure by deploying 100,000 Rkm of OFC and deploying around 7,000 towers in phase I. Of this, 10% would be FTTx nodes in addition to LTE nodes. Also the company is planning to deploy around 3,500 traffic aggregators each in Delhi and Mumbai based on FTTx technology. Infotel Broadband has already invested around $2.8 bn in terms of pan-India BWA license, and is the only BWA player with license to operate in all 22 circles. The total investment planned for creating fiber and tower backbone is to the tune of $5 bn for 3-5 years time. Core Partners The company has already finalized its core partners and it is expected that Reliance Industries will finalize its remaining vendors on or before 1st quarter, 2013 thus getting ready for July, 2013 launch. To make broadband ready network, the company has started laying ducts in DMIC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor), a mega infrastructure project of $90 bn covering an overall length of 1,483 km between the political capital and the business capital of India, ie, Delhi and Mumbai. DMIC covers an overall length of 1,483 km and passes through 6 states-UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, with end terminals at Dadri in the National Capital Region of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai. Initially, the rollout is limited to Delhi and Mumbai. HFCL is executing project management for cable which includes trenching, laying ducts, and drawing fibers. HFCL is doing project management for both national long distance and metro area network and the company is deploying 100 G network both on the long distance, metro, and access network. For national long distance, the order has gone to Infinera whereas Alcatel-Lucent has bagged for both metro and access network. On the network front, Infotel has given contract to Samsung to deploy LTE base stations, including all associated systems and network support services. The deal includes Radio Access Network (RAN) and LTE core infrastructure solutions to be deployed by RIL. Plans are to deploy Smart LTE solution, ie, 3,000 eNodeB in Jamnagar and Mumbai. In the first phase, plans are for shipping 100 eNodeBs by December, 2012. As part of the deal, Samsung will deploy LTE base stations,
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including all associated systems and network support services. The deal includes Radio Access Network (RAN) and 3G/LTE core infrastructure solutions to be deployed in RIL. The deployment will mark Samsung's first commercial LTE network rollout in India. Focus is also on swapping 2.3 GHz with 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz. The company plans to deploy smart LTE solution offering better performance than conventional LTE with about 2 times more capacity at cell edge as well as enhanced coverage. Plans are to deploy Samsung's smart cloud solution, a future-proof solution which applies cloud computing principles to LTE technology for RIL. Smart cloud solution is part of Samsung's smart LTE solution portfolio and is designed to maximize the utilization of networks through specialized resource allocation technology. With Samsung's smart cloud solution, Radio Units (RUs), which reside in their own local site perform and manage radio transmissions. The Digital Units (DUs), connected to RUs via fiber optic backhaul, manage all communication signals centrally.

Meet the Infotel Team

Mukesh D Ambani is personally driving Reliance Infotel Broadband. He was also instrumental in creating Reliance Infocomm right from scratch. He joined Reliance in 1981 and initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibers and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production. He led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, with a current capacity of 33 mn tonnes per year integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure. He is also steering Reliance's development of infrastructure facilities and implementation of a pan-India organized retail network. Mukesh D Ambani is a chemical engineer from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and MBA from Stanford University, USA. Manoj Modi has been with Reliance for more than 20 years. He has played a key role in conceptualizing the blue print of Reliance's ICT foray, now known as Reliance Communications, and presently owned by Anil Ambani. After Reliance Infocomm, he has been managing retail projects and in charge of retail division. Manoj has been a member of the key management team of Reliance Petroleum and has contributed towards the planning and construction of the existing refinery. He has also played a key role in the implementation of mega projects on schedule for Reliance Industries. He is also driving Infotel right from blueprint to the execution of the project. Manoj Modi is a schoolmate of Mukesh Ambani at Hill Grange School and later Mukesh and Manoj studied Chemical Engineering at UDCT. Mathew Oommen was most recently chief technology officer at US based telecom operator Sprint-Nextel and was driving technology, systems, devices/chipsets development, and emerging opportunity investments and emerging verticals strategy. He has worked with Wiltel/Williams Communications and Reliance Industries. He has over 19 years of global experience shaping the telecom, technology, internet services, and application platforms on the operator front. Oommen has extensive and in-depth experience in wireless, internet, multimedia and entertainment, convergence across consumer and enterprise, and data center services-including the development of web-centric 'service creation and delivery platforms'. In his 6 years stint at Reliance Industries, he worked in different capacities as COO/EVP of Reliance Infocomm/Reliance Communications and CTO Flag Telecom/Reliance GlobalCom and was heading network, technology, and services. For 4 years, he worked with Wiltel/Williams Communications as vice president, network & technology development. Sumit D Chowdhury is the CIO at Reliance Infotel Broadband and is responsible for all systems, technology and product platforms to get this greenfield operations up and running. Till recently, he was vice president and partner, IBM and was the communications sector leader for the Global Business Services team in India and
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South Asia. In this role, he oversee the transformation initiatives and application management program across all the large telecom companies in India and other projects across telecom and media and entertainment industries. He was responsible for consulting and solution sales, delivery and resulting profit and loss of the sector. He was the CEO of Reliance Tech Services and was responsible for consulting, IT and managed services company of Reliance ADA Group. The company specializes in helping customers manage all aspects of technology. It takes on end-to-end turnkey projects that require scale and complexity. He has also worked for BearingPoint, KPMG Consulting, Philips and others. Sumit has done his bachelor degree from IIT Kanpur followed by MS and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. Kiran Thomas is assistant vice president at Reliance Industries. He has also been looking after Reliance Retail. He has completed his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and has completed his bachelor degree from Cochin University of Science and Technology. Anuj Jain has over 22 years of telecommunications industry experience with expertise in fiber optics, transport, IP/MPLS, and microwave networks with current position as EVP and CTO at Infotel Broadband. Anuj has 4 patents to his name. Based on his participating in IPTV project lightspeed for ATT, Anuj Jain was awarded President Gold award, highest tribute in Fujitsu 2005. Anuj has contributed to Verizon P-OTP/FiOS networks specifications in 2008. He is executive vice president and CTO, Infotel Broadband. Till recently, he was with Bharti airtel as senior vice president, network planning and engineering. He has worked earlier with Fujitsu Network Communication as director, product development, Fujitsu Network Communication, USA and principal sofftware architect, Alcatel CIT, France. PK Bhatnagar is the MD of telecom network solutions company Rancore Technologies, the research wing of Infotel. All technologies are initially tested by Rancore before trials begin. Rancore Technologies, is a fully owned subsidiary of RIL and is focused on research and development for 4G network and services. Rancore has close to 350 engineers comprising core product designers, systems QA engineers, telecom experts, and business analysts. The company has been focusing on standardization, technology evaluation and validation, acceptance testing, planning & engineering, operations, and management. Jyotindra Thacker known as 'JT' joined the Reliance Group as a full-time employee in 1990. He heads information systems division of Reliance Industries. Due to his background in IT, he was responsible for driving equipment procurement and operations at Reliance Infocomm, before the Reliance Group split. His prior experience at Infocomm has been handy for elevating him as the head of RIL's latest venture into the telecom sector, Infotel Broadband Services which has bagged broadband spectrum for 22 circles. A graduate from IIT Kharagpur, Jyotindra Thacker worked in India for 3 years before earning his MBA with specialization in management information systems from the USA. Mahendra Nahata is managing director of HFCL and is presently heading the project management for Infotel Broadband. He has over 35 years experience and leads the overall strategy and planning, business development, and marketing activities of HFCL. Nahata's expertise and experience is evident by his being one of the members of the board of governors of IIT, Mumbai. He has also been on the board of IIT-Chennai. He was also the co-chairman of the Telecom Committee of FICCI and executive member of Telecom Industry and Services Association of India. He has also been on the board of governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad and member of council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India. Arun Sur, a Reliance group old-timer was formerly the group CTO & president of RCom. A telecom industry veteran, he is the original architect of the erstwhile Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Infocomm's nationwide CDMA mobile network, which eventually became RCom. Sur also spearheaded the rollout of Reliance Telecom's GSM networks in the mid-90s. Sanjay Mashruwala, a Reliance old-timer has been an integral part of petrochemical, oil & gas pipeline rollout. He was instrumental in rolloing out OFC for Infocomm. As the solution enables the management of overall network conditions out of one hub, operators can not only effectively allocate radio resources by time and location according to the volume of data traffic, but also benefit from improving network scalability and capacity. Samsung applies its own advanced radio resource allocation technology to smart cloud, enabling operators to
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reduce interferences between network cells and sectors and it also helps in substantially reduce capex and opex by decreasing the required number of base stations compared to conventional system. On the wireline side, the company is connecting commercial buildings and homes with OFC using FTTx technology so that consumers can get minimum 10 Mbps connections. In the first phase, the company is planning to deploy 2 mn lines each in Mumbai and New Delhi. In both the cities, the company is planning to deploy 3,500 traffic aggregation points. Out of this 10% would be FTTx and 90% would be LTE eNODeB. Each aggregation points can cater cater to 5,000-10,000 subscribers depending upon the geography. On the OSS/BSS front, Reliance has tied up with multiple vendors for different modules. According to industry sources, Infotel Broadband has chosen SAP for CRM, Amdocs for order management, HP for quality and problem management, HP Openview for network monitoring, Subex for revenue assurance and fraud management, Green Plum for BW/BI, and Microsoft for security management. The company has also taken around 100 people from IBM who will do OSS/BSS integration. The OSS/BSS integration would not be easy considering the fact that all the modules are from different vendors and they need to work in tandem to give the desired result. Infotel Broadband has also signed a deal with Ericsson for building and integrating Wi-Fi with its 4G network. Plans are to deploy 120,000 Wi-Fi zones across India but initially the deal is for setting up around 20,000 Wi-Fi hostspots in Delhi and Mumbai. The company is planning to deploy BelAir Networks technology which was recently acquired by the company. WiFi is likely to be an integral part of LTE networks in the country and this will help in enhancing coverage and also take some load from LTE network. The company is planning to set up one of the largest data center at Reliance Corporate Park, Navi Mumbai and the disaster recovery center is planned for Nagpur. Here the company has gone for EMC and data center integration is taken up by HP. To give consumer faster speed and faster download, Infotel Broadband is not planning for a centralized approach but going for caching at the edge of the network. So, most large cities will have content sitting locally as oppose to being hosted centrally. The company is also evaluating whether to build its own ILD network or take lease international bandwidth circuits from existing operators. Presently, Infotel has not opted for managed services model and this will gain momentum only when the complete project gets deployed. Service Model On July 26th, 2012, Google launched Google Fiber Project (a pilot project to boost internet speed) in Kansas City, US. For Kansas City, Google is providing high-speed internet and TV services at $120 per month. According to reports, within a week, the company has signed 7,000 homes in Missouri and Kansas and the consumer is presently availing 1 Gbps internet bandwidth (this is 100 times faster than most internet subscriptions in the US), 2 TB of DVR storage, 1 TB of Google Drive, and free Google Nexus 7 tablet. Using this service, consumer can do high-speed internet, view television channels, and avail on demand services on their tablets which was unheard till date. The service presently does not allow making voice calls but at such high speeds one can do a lot of innovations, be it in the field of education, healthcare, and other services. All this will open up new kind of services and applications which was not heard of before. It seems Reliance Industries is planning to replicate the Google Fiber model in India with a bit of localization. The focus is on providing high-speed internet (10-30 Mbps) for home consumers. Consumers can view television channels, avail on-demand movies, opt for home security solutions, and view multimedia education content. All this is planned to be packaged at Rs 800-1,000 per month for a home consumer. The company is also looking at providing voice calls on the IP backbone as and when they are allowed by policy makers. The NTP 2012 also talks about encouraging an ecosystem for provision of a significantly large bouquet of service
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on an IP platform. So addition of voice can act as a killer application for Indian consumers which would be experiencing voice, data, and video, making it completely a triple-play service. Apart from this, the company is also looking at M2M (machine to machine) applications and videoconferencing solutions. So, the focus is on entertainment, education, and security. And home consumers need all these services for increasing their productivity. Conclusion The company is making sure that broadband services whenever they are launched are truly broadband in nature and quality of service is up to the mark so that there is no disappointment to consumers. Infotel is finally gearing towards launching a true broadband service initially in Delhi and Mumbai by July, 2013. Presently, the focus is on 2 cities as this contributes a sizable portion of India's broadband subscriber base. Once the company is successful in these 2 metros, the company is planning to launch services in DMIC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor) cities and later is planning to roll out broadband services in state capitals and other cities in a phase-wise manner. The company is poised very well as they have a good team of industry veterans who have rolled out telecom project multiple times. It would not be easy for Infotel Broadband to roll this project as it is not just about broadband pipe but doing transformation project which includes telecom, IT, and entertainment. And all these are converging in a single pipe. To execute this project one needs a player with deep pockets and long-term commitment which is evident from the progress of the project which has already sunked in huge investment. To make Infotel Broadband successful, the company needs to do a lot of collaboration with new age companies like: Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and e-commerce companies. This would not be easy as RIL comes from old school of thought where focus is on doing everything end-to-end but this will not work in the data environment. So, the company needs to work on a conducive mechanism where they can help young talent to innovate and also do large scale tie-ups with new age companies for leveraging their strengths and increasing its revenue as this is an era of collaboration. If Infotel is able to handle this well, it will help in increased topline and bottomline for the company and also helping India to enter the big league with the arrival of digital revolution. -----------------------------------------------------------Copyright (c) 1999 CMIL All rights reserved. Additional reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without express written permission of CMIL is prohibited. Send your questions to webmaster@ciol.com Close this window

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