With the increasing demand for more bandwidth at affordable costs, wireline and wireless telecommunication networks are racing to deploy high-speed next-generation digital services. Operators need to maximize network performance and ability to offer next-generation digital services while bringing a new level of flexibility and dynamic configuration to the network.

Integrating smart devices involving M2M/telemetry capabilities; building high-speed ubiquitous communications networks, intelligent software and services to process, consolidate, and analyze data in order to transform industry-specific business processes are the key requirements for building next-generation architecture.

In order to run a smooth, reliable, and secure intelligent ecosystem of services in most potential implementations, the telecom service providers (SPs) are expected to play an integral role in providing the bandwidth and operational know-how needed. The challenge for SPs will invariably be in integrating their legacy OSS/BSS and network management systems to the future scalable needs of intelligent communities. Another huge challenge for the architects of the connected cities will be the exploding mobile and embedded devices coming on to the market at an accelerated pace.

Mobile Broadband Services

The high-speed access to the Internet and other data services over mobile networks is already changing the way people across the globe access the Internet. It promises to drive even stronger economic growth than mobile telephony alone and to fundamentally change the way, in which people live, learn, work, and collaborate. This in turn is driving seismic shifts across the communications and computing industries. Perhaps most importantly, it provides unprecedented opportunities to empower individuals across all socioeconomic classes.

Global scenario. With more than 6 billion connections worldwide and USD 1.3 trillion of annual revenue, mobile telephony has become the largest information and communication technology in history. Mobile connects four times as many people as landline telephony owing to its better reach, convenience, and functionality and its lower costs. Mobile telephony also surpasses the landline Internet by more than 3.5 billion users while driving economic growth and important societal benefits.

Indian market. Mobile broadband adoption has reached a tipping point with 1.2 billion mobile subscriptions, the growth of the mobile Internet ecosystem is in the availability of more powerful devices at affordable price points. Third-generation data services usage grew by 78 percent and 2G by 47 percent, which led to a growth of 54 percent in mobile data traffic in the country in the first half of this calendar year. 3G subscriber numbers are projected to cross 107 million by 2015 growing at a CAGR of 190 percent between 2011 and 2015. Further, 3G penetration is expected to reach 13 percent by 2015.

Initially, the uptake of mobile broadband services is expected to be exclusively in urban India; however, rural subscribers are likely to comprise 24 percent of overall 3G subscriber base in 2015. Total revenue from 3G subscribers is expected to reach `26,400 crore by 2015 growing at a CAGR of 150 percent of which `10,200 crore would be from data services. Mobile broadband services will generate incremental revenue of `94,000 crore in 2015 for telecom industry as a whole, constituting roughly 1.5 percent of India's real projected GDP in 2015.

Opportunities. There has been a fresh effort by the government to promote broadband Internet throughout the country; after a period in which broadband development languished, there was new hope for a serious expansion phase in this segment of the market. By mid-2012, there were around 14 million fixed broadband subscribers - a low penetration of slightly more than one percent. The impact of mobile broadband was finally starting to filter through the market and in the medium term this was expected to lift broadband penetration significantly.

India faces challenges for broadband market penetration due to low PC ownership and affordability issues. According to National Telecom Policy 2012, the Indian government has set a target of increasing rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 percent, to 70 percent by 2017 and 100 percent by 2020. This is a picture of huge growth potential in a country, which still has relatively low penetration and urgent economic needs for greater broadband availability. Mobile broadband challenges also arise due to low data rates indoors, not enough spectrum, and concerns over emission levels. Mobile communications is expected to play a key role in monitoring and ensuring reliability and sustainability of urban infrastructure like energy, transportation, and water.

LTE at the Forefront

Mobile networks are struggling with 3G/UMTS technology to encounter the needs of the new data hungry generation. Of late, networks of most operators are witnessing an unprecedented rise in data traffic, which is a resultant effect of the increasing consumer demand to access bandwidth intensive content on-the-go and the proliferation of a plethora of mobile devices. This trend is exerting extremely high pressure on the capacity constrained network of operators. Faced with this challenge, wireless providers are undergoing the pressing need to upgrade their network infrastructure in order to keep up with data traffic volumes and deliver bits more cost-effectively. LTE provides operators with a technically superior and cost-effective solution to deliver a real mobile broadband experience. While 3G network serves well for moderate-to-high rates of data transfer, consumer's growing demand for high-speed wireless connection becomes the key motivator in the development of LTE wireless access technology. It has evolved to cater to the user requirement of high quality of services and experience, with advanced features and speed of data connection.

Although the LTE ecosystem has not completely evolved so far and an upgradation involves significant capital investment, operators can still reap significant benefit by implementing the right migration strategy. Having realized its potential, several operators across the globe have already deployed LTE commercially and many more are in the fray.

Ongoing developments. With LTE technology offering lower operating costs for mobile data transfer, operators are progressively committing themselves to LTE network deployments as a path for moving toward 4G services. LTE being backward-compatible with existing GSM and HSPA networks allows seamless service for the mobile subscribers across LTE and existing deployed networks. CDMA operators also have multiple options to migrate to LTE.

The mobile operators in India are gearing up for time-division LTE-TDD, with trials and deployments already underway. The initial launch of 4G LTE service was done in 2012 with Reliance, Aircel, and Bharti Airtel announcing their firm commitment for the same. Although, the service launch was limited to only a few metros and major cities, the nationwide rollouts are expected to happen in 2013-14.

LTE subscribers in the country are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 258.9 percent in the next five to seven years. LTE revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 220.5 percent over the same period.

Vendors

Huawei. Since May 2012, Bharti Airtel has partnered with Huawei for planning, designing, supplying, and now managing Bharti's 4G network in Karnataka. The vendor has been planning, financing, engineering, supplying, installing, testing, commissioning, and maintaining BSNL's GSM/UMTS/LTE-based cellular mobile network in the east zone.

Aircel and Huawei jointly conducted one of the first GSM/UMTS/LTE-TDD trials on Aircel's existing GSM/UMTS network in India using devices that are based on Qualcomm's MDM9600 multimode chipset in August 2011. The success of this trial is a key milestone for the development of LTE-TDD ecosystem. During this trial, Huawei and Qualcomm jointly executed Inter-RAT-related cases covering multiple live handover scenarios across GSM/UMTS/LTE technologies.

Nokia Siemens Network. NSN partners with Bharti Airtel, since 2012, for planning, designing, supplying, and later on managing Bharti's LTE-TDD (4G network) in Maharashtra.

ZTE Corporation. The vendor has been planning, designing, supplying, and deploying Bharti Airtel's LTE-TDD (4G network) in Kolkata, subsequent to partnering in April 2012.

ZTE is supporting 10.15 million lines on BSNL's GSM/UMTS/LTE-based cellular mobile network, since February 2012. The vendor is involved in planning, engineering, supply, installation and testing, commissioning and annual maintenance of the GSM lines. The procurement of these lines for expansion of 2G and 3G services will cover all BSNL telecom circles in the northern and southern zones.

Ensuring that interoperability issues are minimized that requires comprehensive end-to-end testing across the frequency bands used in different regions. Therefore, providing interoperability is essential for launching commercial LTE services. To overcome these challenges, it is necessary to carry out tests and measurements for the whole LTE lifecycle.

Service Providers

Bharti Airtel. With the acquisition of 49 percent stake in Qualcomm Inc.'s broadband wireless access business in India for an initial investment of `907 crore (USD 165 million), Airtel has become a key player in the 4G-LTE market, with a presence in 8 of the 22 circles in the country. The acquisition of Qualcomm's license will give Bharti an entry into four key circles, viz., Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana, and Kerala. Under the agreement, Bharti is expected to acquire the 13 percent each held by Global Holding Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (part of the GTL Group) and Tulip Telecom Ltd. to whom it is paying around `140 crore each. Bharti Airtel has launched postpaid 4G services in Pune, thus becoming the first in Maharashtra to bring the 4G experience for its customers.

With super fast access to HD video streaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos, rich content, Bharti Airtel plans to roll out India's first multi-mode LTE-TDD smart phone along with partners Qualcomm and Huawei, thus making voice telephony a reality for 4G users in India.

Aircel. The company has paved the way to be among the early service providers to offer 4G LTE services to customers. Its range of services includes location connectivity solutions; Internet leased lines, managed hosting, data centers, managed services, collaboration services, software as a service (SaaS), and enterprise mobility solutions.

Reliance Industries Limited. RIL is expected to become the operator to roll out 4G services nationally in 2013 and their entry is likely to strengthen the 4G user segment. The company is keen on launching three-in-one telecom towers that will operate as streetlights and have video cameras for street surveillance. These towers will have lightning equipment attached with them, enabling them to cater to multiple functions. The company is already discussing with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) about its setting up of around 8000 such three-in-one telecom towers in the metros. Following this pilot testing, it may reach out to other parts of the country. It is also seeking support from varied IITs and other institutions for garnering technical knowledge about the same.

Videocon Mobile Services. The company won spectrum in six circles of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (east and west), Bihar, and Jharkhand in the recently-concluded auctions would be using these airwaves to launch 4G services at rates that are less than the present 2G and 3G data tariffs.

Tikona Digital Networks. TDN is engaged in building the next-generation wireless broadband services for home and enterprise customers in India. TDN has an all India Class-A ISP license granted by the Ministry of Communications, Government of India, for this purpose. TDN envisions a powerful broadband-enabled India and will make all possible contribution to make this happen.

Tikona rolled out of its new marketing program broadband, completely centered on speed, savings, security, and services for net users. The campaign will be piloted across 36 cities in India and promises broadband users to first experience and then pay for the services.

Technology Trends

Devising a high bandwidth potential enabled by a flat, all-IP architecture and next-generation radio frequency technologies, LTE increases the capacity and speed of wireless data networks using new digital signal processing techniques and modulations - an extended goal being the redesign and simplification of the network architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer latency compared to the 3G architecture.

The technical advantages of LTE, which render significant benefits over other wireless technologies, can be attributed to its superior access and antenna technologies. IP technology is designed in a way that enables a radically different environment for service development, innovation, and competition when it comes to infrastructure platforms and service development platforms. The widespread success of the Internet is based on four important characteristics - separation between network technology and services, end-to-end architecture, scalability, distributed design, and decentralized control.

These characteristics of the technology create good conditions for development and competition where several factors can be involved in service creation and provision. IP networks are being established and utilized for both corporate and residential services, and the future of communication platforms like the next-generation network architecture is based mainly on IP technology. However, when it comes to NGN, the level of competition or monopolistic characteristics depends heavily on the chosen architecture for the deployment of NGN.

Challenges. Although LTE provides wireless operators with a more efficient, future proof, and cost-effective long-term solution for upgrading their networks, the road toward LTE is not without its challenges. Despite a global technical standard, LTE deployments lack regulatory consensus on a standard frequency band globally. This poses a real challenge and increases complexity for operators, device manufacturers, and chipset vendors in terms of factors such as roaming difficulties and multi-band support for devices and chipsets.

LTE technology puts a severe strain on the chipmakers with respect to specific technologies to be supported and the R&D budget allocation. Supporting too many different configurations pushes up the price of the chipsets, thereby affecting adoption. Owing their use of technologies like.

One of the biggest challenges for an operator is to justify the return on these high investments in LTE network deployment. Migration to LTE technology entails high CapEx investments when compared to HSPA or HSPA+, as a result of the high spectrum costs and required upgrades in network infrastructure. Providing the access channel for provisioning content and various multimedia services on a large number of mobile devices, wireless carriers today hardly earn any share of the revenue pie. A lion's share of the revenues on such services is taken away by content developers and over-the-top players. For that reason, one of the key challenges for the operator is to strike a balance between innovative services and competitive pricing while leveraging their advanced LTE network capabilities.

In India, existing regulations do not allow 4G operators to provide voice call facilities, but under the new telecom policy, which is slated to come into effect from 2013, companies can offer all forms of communication services after migrating to a unified license.

Lower cost of deployment, spectrum flexibility, support for high mobility, and superior quality of services are some of the factors that make LTE ideal for high-speed, high-quality mobile broadband services. LTE is poised to boost the demand for data intensive services like mobile TV and mobile videoconferencing, which in turn, is expected to increase telecom operators' revenues, while enriching the overall end-user experience as well.

Next-Generation Access Services

Next-generation services encompass seamless communication and media consumption experience for the customer through leveraging high-speed broadband networks, smart devices, and media rich content irrespective of whether the communication network is fixed, wireless, or mobile. mHealth, mCommerce, machine-to machine, and service in the cloud are all aspects of the value-added services for the next generation that communication service providers are launching.

Recent advances in information, telecommunication, and Internet technologies have been causing greater disruptions to the communications, media, and entertainment industries compared with the slow and evolutionary changes of the past. However, use of traditional metrics, such as average revenue per user (ARPU), Minutes of Use (MoU), count of sustomers, and churn seem to be the norm with little emphasis on sophisticated customer experience measures across fixed-mobile networks conformant with the transformation that is taking place simultaneously in fixed, mobile, broadband, and media entertainment services.

As a result of attractiveness of the content provided by the ISPs enabled by the freedom of the Internet, customer behavior is expected to transcend a network controlled by the operators (to the unmanaged Internet also known as over-the-top. Such a customer behavior can be described by the concepts of time shifting, place shifting, and media mobility or device shifting. As a consequence of the changes in customer behavior, customers are more likely to churn.

Operators are looking forward to retain and grow their customers by investing in next-generation technologies and rich media content partnerships. Operators can also provide seamless customer experience across fixed and mobile networks by means of analytics on customer behavior to provide relevant content and services that are perceived as valuable to them. The way that people access the Internet has changed dramatically in recent years.

Copper-based telecom network. To establish a copper-based network demands substantial long-term investments in particular in the access network. Existing copper-based networks have gradually been expanded during several decades and their architectures are not optimized with regard to use of current technologies. If an entirely new network were to be built today, it would not be based on use of copper-based technologies, and the design would therefore be very different from those of today's copper-based networks operated by the incumbent operators.

One problem is that networks are designed mainly for carrying POTS, while a growing share of the traffic is based on IP or other data communication protocols, and in some areas there are problems with capacity and quality-of-service. Network costs depend on the kind of network design applied. The most recent detailed cost analyses are those made for calculation of interconnection charges using forward-looking cost accounting methods, such as long run average incremental costs, used within the EU or total element long run incremental costs, which are used in the United States. These types of cost analyses are to a certain extent based on existing basic network designs, but with use of the most recent transmission technologies. It should be noted that the outcome of such analyses highly depends on the assumptions made, and very different results may be obtained for different network architectures and geo-types.

Implementation of next generation network access technologies will reduce transmission costs even further. Altogether these trends imply that the cost of the copper-based access network constitutes a still larger share of the total network costs. However, technological advances are also taking in this part of the network. As discussed in other sub-sections, alternative access networks offering lower costs or higher capacity have been developed, but in areas where investments in copper-based access networks have already been made, the development of technologies offering more capacity on existing access facilities is aso important.

Fiber-to-the-Home

The next-generation broadband, which is used to describe broadband delivered over advanced copper wires and fiber-optic cables, offers maximum choice and flexibility. Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) networks constitute a fundamental telecom segment with the required potential to match the huge capacity of transport networks with the new user communication demand. Huge investments in access network infrastructure are expected for the next decade, with many initiatives already launched in the country recently, driven by the new broadband service demands and the necessity by operators to deploy a future-proof infrastructure in the field.

Dense FTTH passive optical networks (PONs) is a cost-efficient way to build fiber access, and international standards (G/E-PON) have been already launched, leading to a new set of telecom products for mass deployment. These systems only make use of less than 1 percent of the optical bandwidth; thus, relevant research is taking place to maximize the capacity of these systems, with the latest opto-electronic technologies, demonstrating that the huge bandwidth available through fiber access can be exploited in a cost-efficient and reliable manner.

Global scenario. Global revenues from DSL broadband services have seen incremental growth in service revenue to reach Rs 540,600 crore (USD 106 billion) with a CAGR growth of 14 percent in the last five years, according to ABI Research. Asia-Pacific is the growth region for DSL broadband with China playing a dominant role accounting for 33 percent of the worldwide subscribers in 2011. Copper networks are a cash cow for telephone companies, delivering broadband over DSL to more than 367 million subscribers worldwide in 2011. FTTH technologies bring ten times the bandwidth compared to advanced DSL technologies. However, upgrades to advanced forms of DSL require a fraction of the investment of upgrades to FTTH.

Financial instability in the advanced economies of Western Europe and lack of innovative internet video services force Telcos to look into the cost to value proposition delivered by making large-scale investments into FTTH. Strong government initiatives to develop fiber infrastructure have in most cases been a necessary prerequisite to fund FTTH or fiber to the building (FTTB) deployments.

Indian market dynamics. India has acknowledged the importance of FTTH/B for service delivery and has announced several projects in this regard. However, the deployment rate has been very low. This is an era of fiber-to-the-everything, where fiber connectivity is required to support services on smartphones and in homes and offices. The convergence of various devices and media to provide a seamless experience has resulted in the any stream to any screen phenomenon, which is driving FTTH deployments in India.

The ability of FTTH networks to deliver high bandwidth has made investments in this infrastructure very important for operators. They are increasingly deploying FTTH technology to complement their wireless networks. Spectrum crunch is another major factor that has led operators to look for viable alternative mediums. Also, to achieve the broadband targets set by the government under the National Telecom Policy, it will be important to drive FTTH growth along with other technologies.

Challenges. Though the FTTH segment offers several opportunities, the roll-out of these networks by service providers in India has been slow. Operators face several challenges on the deployment front. The cost involved in FTTH deployments, especially for right-of-way, is a key concern. Very few vendors in the Indian market use indigenous equipment. Therefore, imports account for a significant part of overall costs. In addition, there are challenges associated with multiple approvals for laying fiber. The government's intervention in these issues can help in addressing these challenges. For instance, in Singapore, the government has made it mandatory for every household to allow access to operators for deploying fiber infrastructure.

The limited availability of skilled manpower is another issue, particularly for last mile fiber deployment. These challenges notwithstanding FTTH offer a major advantage in terms of allowing multiple services through a single channel. Moreover, the increasing compactness of equipment for FTTH deployment would reduce power requirements, thereby driving down the operational expenditure.

Outlook. Challenges notwithstanding a fiber connection from the service provider to a customer's premises are considered the ultimate future-proof access medium. Further, the majority of the data usage takes place within the customer premises and wireless technology does not provide the best indoor coverage as the speed provided by it depends on the signal strength. Thus, for users at home, high-speed broadband services can be best availed of either through Wi-Fi or FTTH.

In fact, industry analysts believe that the Indian FTTH market will be more successful than its global counterparts on account of the country's large population. While building new housing complexes, builders are now making a conscious effort to lay fiber instead of copper for providing cable television and telephone connectivity to each apartment. They are providing optical network terminals and optical line termination devices within the complex. Thus, the exponential growth in data uptake has made the adoption of FTTH crucial. Addressing the challenges facing the segment will strengthen its business case going forward.

Implementation Concerns

The deployment of NGN networks is expected to create a demand for new types of interconnection products offering interconnecting packet-switched services. These include interconnection between different types of networks and new types of unbundled network components. Separation of network facilities and service facilities will eventually allow for a complete separation of network and service interconnection. Measuring interconnection requirements in terms of minutes of traffic and leased lines will need to be replaced by measures of communication capacity, and regulators will need to foster this transition.

The introduction of next-generation-converged IP services by fixed operators creates a new set of challenges like managing newly deployed core and edge technologies, such as Ethernet and MPLS and high bandwidth triple and quad-play services; monitoring the impact of new and bundled services have on the infrastructure; tracking high value VIP customer activity and quality of experience; assuring availability and responsiveness of IP-based content delivery; and troubleshooting and isolating degradations in a connectionless environment

Operators need the ability spot trends in both service use and overall traffic volume for proactively identifying poor performance in parts of the network, particular services or for capacity planning. They need to provide early warning analysis to uncover real-time, key performance indicators with contextual drill downs into historical network and service performance flow trends that leverage a flexible and collaborative workflow from which to manage the service delivery environment

Effective competition among different infrastructures offering NGN requires a technology neutral licensing regime. Unified licensing will stimulate optimal use of technology options by operators and should be implemented at the earliest opportunity. Most universal service funding schemes will be rendered obsolete by the NGN.

As the NGN is based on Internet protocol, traditional quality-of-service (QoS) issues migrate from the former circuit-switched-related issues to Internet-related QoS issues. It will be important for regulators to monitor QoS on the NGN with a view to ensuring that consumers understand the QoS associated with different service offerings, and consumer interests are protected.

Advanced wireless technologies based on 4G wireless technology standards is set to become rampant on the broadband users radar. The ideal way to access all the tools and resources is by using a broadband with high-speed and secured Internet connection. With the market moving ahead from fixed broadband to GPRS on mobile, customers are now looking at new-age technology high-speed mobile or wireless broadband. The industry is waking up to a new reality of wireless broadband, which will satiate the new hunger for innovation.