At a time when there is a phenomenal explosion in creation of data, as a global telecom equipment manufacturer, Nokia is heavily focusing towards helping operators, ‘manage and monetize this data growth’, Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com spoke with Amit Marwah, Head of Technology, India Region (CTO), Nokia India about the company’s innovations and the best technological roadmap for operators.
How can operators increase Capacity of the networks, while utilizing the existing infrastructure?
India loves Mobile Broadband and as a result of this phenomenon, here the Mobile Data (2G+3G) grew at 87% in 2013. India’s 3G growth rate surpassed world’s average! And on an average, consumption on 3G (532MB/month/user) grew by ~100 MB y-o-y.
So, we can surely see that there is exponential growth in data but this growth in data needs to be monetized and this is where operators need to work now.
This is a big area where we are focusing on. Nokia Single RAN Advanced solution is helping operators get 10x performance with their existing GSM spectrum with the help of re-farming of spectrum.
As we know that spectrum is a valuable resource, our liquid radio software suite can drive operators to utilize 35% less spectrum for existing GSM services while maintaining network quality. This is how we are helping operators growth their top-line at the same time reducing their costs.
What are some of the innovations that Nokia is bringing to the market today?
We are focusing towards helping operators monetize data growth through innovative transformation in the way they manage their network.
In today’s data intensive environment, OTT services are showing strong growth across all categories and in many cases, OTT services are becoming the primary choice for consumers and in this scenario, it is even more important for operators to look at avenues of monetizing this growth in data.
This can be done through customer aware and responsive network management. We have our Customer Experience Management CEM solution that can drive customer centricity for an operator’s network and create opportunities to monetize this growth in data.
We are also bringing in a lot of innovation in ‘Managed Services’ to prevent degradations before these affect the subscriber. This is helping operators deliver a unique customer experience for their users.
As a result of this data explosion, we have a scenario where there is more data being generated in past 2 years than past 50 years combined together. Data is coming in from multiple devices and from every direction, this is what big data is all about. But this data needs to be channelized in order to provide credible information.
What if we could use this data to influence the future with 95% accuracy? Our objective is to predict network and service issues, 2 days in advance and as a result there will be at least 15 per cent growth in quality of service. This is a very big predictive analytics driven innovation from our side.
What is your opinion on India’s march towards 4G LTE? When do we see LTE being launched in every circle of the country?
While India is moving towards embracing the next generation communications technology, operators need to optimally plan their rollout strategy. I think, initially we will see selective launch of 4G LTE in India by operators, wherein they will offer high speed connectivity to customers who want it. And by 2015/16 we should see further deployment of 4G in India.
What should be the best backhaul strategy for operators in India?
Backhaul is an integral part of the overall network strategy for any operator and even though fiber is the best choice for backhauling of data, there are many places where there is little fiber and this is where microware should be utilized. Then there is IPfication of backhaul and IPfication holds great potential to help operators overcome the challenge of backhaul bottleneck.
What is your opinion the Carrier grade Ethernet in India?
Carrier grade Ethernet is surely a preferred technology and has great potential for a country like India. Operators can look at this especially while serving the needs of their enterprise customers.
Today a lot of operators are looking at WiFi offloading to get away from backhaul bottleneck scenario. What do you think about WiFi offloading?
Yes, there are many operators trying to utilize the WiFi spectrum for offloading of data. This is a great way to solve their data challenge. But there are certain misconceptions about WiFi. We usually believe that there are a huge number of devices that support WiFi. This is not true, the scenario is that only 10 to 15 per cent of handsets actually support WiFi.
As a technology WiFi carries interference and is not considered to be a secured technology, so it has its positives and negatives.
