The communications industry and services has been globally recognized as an important contributor to the socio-economic development of a nation. Telecom is one of the most important support services which forms the backbone of modernization of various sectors of the economy and provide rapid growth. Indian telecom sector has also witnessed a phenomenal growth and complete transformation during the last decade. It is all set to continue with the upward trend and with the advent of latest technological changes and government policy initiatives; it is set to take a giant leap in near future.
Current Status of Indian Telecom Industry
India has done remarkably well in the past decade and currently poised to be the second largest country in terms of subscriber base. However, the internet penetration is currently as low as nearly 8% in a population of over 1.15 billion. Also according to various rankings on average broadband speeds, India fares quite poorly in global arena. While most of the developed nations have achieved average broadband speed of around 5.1 Mbps, and developing nations around 1.5 Mbps, service providers in India are still struggling to provide an average of 512Kbps or above. So, there is utmost need for India to boost its broadband penetration as well as improve on the broadband speeds.
WiMAX v/s LTE in India
With reference to the pioneering targets set by Indian government in its telecom policy and consequently auction for 3G and BWA spectrum, the war has begun among the telecom operators for faster roll out of services using latest technology innovation and provide customers ultimate broadband experience at competitive tariffs. In order to achieve so, the operators are considering deployment of mobile broadband services through two primary technology options— 3G and WiMAX.
Due to delay in the BWA spectrum auctions, India is one of a few large countries in the world that has yet to see wide-scale 3G deployment. The delay in 3G roll out on a PAN India basis, has given incubation period for advanced LTE (Long term evolution) technology as a more viable choice. However, India is way behind as far as actual LTE roll out is considered.
Now the questions arise, “WiMAX or LTE: Which is a better choice?”
Well, the answer is very dubious. Both WiMAX and LTE are front runners in the next level of mobile broadband technology. Both pledge to provide high speed and enhanced user experience, so which is going to be a better choice?
WiMAX v/s LTE: A technical comparison
- LTE and its Potential :
LTE (Long term evolution), often marketed as 4G, is a 3GPP project (Third generation partnership) developed with latest standard in mobile technology which produced the GSM/EDGE and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) technologies. It is purely a packet based technology with capabilities built on 3GPP standard, which is basically advancement over existing 2G and 3G standards. LTE uses the latest Orthogonal Frequency Multiple Access (OFDMA) technique which allows frequency-dependent link adaptation for dynamic resources allocation.
Potential advantages of LTE include:
· Scalable bandwidth from 1.25 MHz up to 20 MHz
· With Multiple input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, peak data rates up to 100 Mbits/s in downlink and 50 Mbits/s in uplink (for 20 MHz bandwidth) can be achieved
· Two to four times the spectrum efficiency as compared to the current 3G technology
· Reduced latency of 10 to 20 ms, which is a substantial improvement over the latency of 40 to 60 ms offered by 3G, to provide better customer experience
· Cost effective with lower data access cost per megabyte to deliver the most popular services to large numbers of people
· Backward compatibility over 2G and 3G network
WiMAX and its Potential :
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) or IEEE 802.16 is a recent wireless broadband standard that provides high bandwidth over long-range transmission. It has been developed by IEEE, the custodians of Wi-Fi technology. It uses adaptive antenna system (AAS) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technologies to improve coverage. Similar to LTE, it uses the Orthogonal Frequency Multiple Access (OFDMA) multiplexing technique.
Potential advantages of LTE include:
· It offers peak wireless data speeds of up to 6 Mbps on the downstream and 1 Mbps for sending data upstream
· Interoperability of certified equipment, resulting in large economy of scale and assurance for service providers
· MIMO technology provides excellent coverage, wider areas, better predictability of coverage
· Lower cost due to fewer base stations and backhaul, simple RF planning, shorter towers and faster CPE install times
· Delivers higher spectral efficiency and therefore higher data rate and overall system capacity
WiMAX or LTE adoption in India: Techno-Economical comparison
The cost factor for WiMAX remains as main hindrance for its true scale up. While still there is ambiguity over the actual ease of LTE rollout over 3G, it is well know that LTE offers superior performance at lower cost and unlike WiMAX, it promises a more evolved ecosystem and backward compatibility with 2G and 3G. Also, LTE is cost-effective because it has evolved from current 3GPP-based standard, so previously deployed network resources can be reused. It is beneficial from the India point of view, where licences have just been granted and networks are still to roll out now on a very large scale. As LTE has emerged as the technology of choice for the future for many major operators worldwide, it is expected to draw on a much more sophisticated ecosystem than WiMAX.
Industry Opinion
When BSNL launched its WiMAX services at the end of 2009, this was the technology which all the major operators were banking upon for the high speed mobile broadband telephony in India, until global giant Qualcomm entered into the BWA spectrum fray, for LTE. Following Qualcomm, were major equipment vendors like Cisco, Nokia – Siemens and Alcatel Lucent which withdraw from the WiMAX front. These developments in US and European market adversely affected the Indian telecom scenario also.
According to C S Rao, Honorary Chairman, WIMAX Forum, India Chapter, “LTE will spoil chances and prospects of WiMAX growth in India.”
But the question is “LTE is still 2-3 years away in India and that WiMAX is the technology available today, isn't it a bit too early to bet on relatively newer technology like LTE?”
With major US telecoms carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, having pledged allegiance to LTE, Cisco seems to have realized that there would be an increasingly small market for WiMAX, especially in its domestic market and developing countries, where the LTE is still under nascent stages. More ever Intel, which announced the next version for WiMAX, the 802.16m replacing 802.16e; positioned to be ready for deployment in 2012, will boost the morale of WiMAX fraternity.
Conclusion
Both are promising Fourth generation technologies, one upcoming - LTE and the other already out - WiMAX. Moment while LTE is gaining momentum due strong back up from promoters and larger base, WiMAX is losing ground in absence of substantial roll out plans owing to cost. Even if, there is 2-3 years delay in LTE roll out in India, LTE proves to be an attractive technology to launch on BWA spectrum, and it offers a very viable alternative to WiMAX, given its compatibility with GSM/3G technology and the promise of a more mature ecosystem. However, Indian operators need to be careful when considering their LTE deployment timeline, because LTE is still a relatively new technology.
In the long run, which one will win, still remains a million dollar question to be answered as of today.
By- Saurabh Nayak
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