“Internet open eco-system” and “Telcos closed eco-system” both are generating good revenue. If everything is open then lot of opportunities will raise for user, government, service providers and small companies. Entrepreneurial development is must for any developing country like India. If we are one among the first set of countries adding openness to the mobile eco-system then we are clearly having the edge. To attain this, government policies need to be changed. Rules and regulations need to be altered.
Solution to overcome this problem is long range wireless OFDM technologies like Wimax, which has the potential to bring the Internet to the mobile devices and the power of devices has got increased a lot.
Convergence of Technologies.
1) Advanced Computing and Processor technology
2) Advancement in memory and storage
3) Long range Wireless technologies
4) Networking Advancements
Now we have some gadgets like iPhone, Nokia n800 and truly open mobile platform (openmoko). We are going to have Intel’s MID kind of gadgets and Google phone. These are web enabled mobile computers so we will call it as “Web Phones“. Technology wise we have everything ready or will be bridged in couple of years, we are only stopped by the monopoly of operators. So instead of having 10 big operators, we can have 10,000 small W-ISPs (Wireless Internet service providers) and they can form a consortium for inter-operability.
Case Study: Let us assume two cities in India, (Approximate data for clarification) Chennai (40 KM diameter) and Bangalore (20 KM diameter). For enabling Bangalore with Mobile Wimax 802.16e ( Minimum Range: 3-5 KM radius and Bandwidth: 5-10 Mbps) maximum of 25 W-ISPs are required and 50 W-ISPs for Chennai. Interoperability can be achieved by forming a consortium and understanding between these set of WISPs. Thus everyone will be connected by high bandwidth internet connections and we use data or internet calls like gtalk, skype. To cover whole Indian mobile users, we might need maximum of 10,000 W-ISPs.
Advantages:
1) Good business case for small and medium companies.
2) New and open Eco-system
3) Broader revenue stream for government than just licensing and spectrum allocation.
4) Developer and application service provider independence
5) More options for user
It is very similar to cable TV operators and Internet service providers model. Just pay monthly fixed service charge make any number of calls. Distributed application service providers is the key, for example video call service can be given by many small service companies thus user gets more options. Bottom line is “Give independence to the user, charge the user for the service provided instead of resource accessed”
It is not long, paradigm will shift from “operator driven” to “user driven“. It is the success of Internet and people wants this model.
“Are we really getting all the benefit of communication revolution?” Please ask this question always to yourself and others. We should not miss this communication revolution.
Throw your comments, lets refine the idea
Yes, you are right, when internet came in, it was not in for commercialization, but now the wireless operators run for money, the way to get out would be to have WISP as you mentioned.
But I think the shift will happen to WISP as the operators can get money with device that supports wimax (be it is pc or mobile) and can get the revenue for voice calls with the low end phones
Comment by RK — November 22, 2007 @ 9:28 am |
MNVO is a concept which is being tried out now. Even “Spice” telcom is a virtual operator. Competition in any market segment is good for enduser. There may be practical difficulties in succesfully interoping with so many virtual operators. But creating a army of smaller operators against existing gaints will force the gaints to rethink their strategies.
I am sure operators know that with only “Voice and SMS” service they cant survive long. Lets hope operators realize that innovating services are no longer their exclusive domain…
Comment by Pavan — December 5, 2007 @ 2:57 pm |
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Pingback by Independence of Mobile Communication « People’s Communication — January 13, 2008 @ 11:49 am |
Ok correct me if i am wrong but you are talking about providing Wireless Internet through Wimax technology to mobiles… and using it for all the Internet applications…. The call is for the government to free the restrictions to open up W-ISPs….. Fine.. but what about feasibility??
1. are we(ofcourse i mean a considerable majorityP at that stage of being connected on the chat even when travelling??
2. Even if we do then, can the W-ISP companies provide competitive prices??
I am sorry if i have misunderstood…… (which i probably have.. ) but i think it may not really be necessary right now..
Comment by anand — December 4, 2008 @ 2:48 am |
hi, Anand , I was busy doing sth .. so not able to reply sooner.. apologize!!
You are not wrong.
Feasibility: Now a days, mobile call QoS is not as good as landline (leased line) because most of them reach the end mobile/landline via Internet backbone lines (QoS: Best of service), only last mile connectivity is operator wireless connectivities. I accept, it has evolved to a usable state and feasibility is high.
Same case for W-ISPs with long range wimax lines, only last mile connectivity is gong to be Wimax, so till Internet backbone lines the QoS is same , we just need to improvise the last mile. It is not a competitive replacement at this point of time but it can start parallel and evolve.
Cycle:: evolve — use service — cheap service—evolve
Price should be very competitive for the data service. they can get money in many different ways like Advertisement , subscription share …. bottom line: It is a different business case .
Comment by Janakg — January 3, 2009 @ 7:11 pm |