BANGALORE, INDIA: According to Yatish Pathak, CEO and founder, SOMA Networks, India's dire need today is to increase broadband penetration as an economic driver, so as to enable communication, entertainment, commerce and community. In an interview to CIOL, he sheds light on the company's outlook on the WiMAX space in India and the trends thereof. Excerpts:

CIOL: How do you look at the WiMAX space in India?

Yatish Pathak: Most WiMAX vendors came to India after a rebound, when they had found that the technology did not work in developed countries. Whereas, Soma has spent four years in the India market to get a good understanding of the usage, applications, geography, and demographics. Soma uses 802.16e; we are focused on WiMAX as a DSL alternative. While others strive to force fit WiMAX with mobile broadband, Soma does not see mobility business case for WiMAX.

CIOL: What are your plans for Indian wireless broadband segment?

YP: The Indian customers have evolved from a nascent creed of vanilla browsing to a mature content-centric diaspora. They are using it for various purposes – from peer-to-peer networking, to social networking, videos, music, movies downloads etc. It is no longer limited to organic search and mail access. All of this demands high-speed connectivity and delivery of data in real time.

Our goal is to make broadband not just a connection, but a lifestyle solution for our customers, enabling them to do much more whether it’s work or entertainment or communications.

Over the next few months, BSNL–Soma will launch a host of broadband-enabled interactive services for customers. These new services will transform lifestyles with e-commerce applications like online shopping, banking and bill-payment; enable social networking through photo sharing, voice and video chats, and infotainment content news, music, movies, e-learning, etc.

Market expectations include high speed, high reliability, secure and fully wireless infrastructure that could provide the possibility of having immediate access to content for end-users by the way of information, entertainment, and commerce.
 
CIOL: How will Soma tap cloud for broadband services?

YP: Cloud computing itself, as a service – as a combination of computing and storage cloud – is a game changer for the broadband industry. Broadband access alone will turn into a commodity market, unless broadband service is offered as a solution.

Cloud computing enables telcos to do just that. It will forge partnerships among solution providers, managed services providers and telcos for a win-win game to provide an integrated offering to the end-user. Soma will be unique in this respect as it also offers a device, which will enable us to add a level of optimization that would enhance the user experience.

CIOL: How has the company fared with regard to WiMAX deployments?

YP: We have seen tremendous customer momentum so far. In Gujarat, where we launched services in February 2009, we have already got over 2,500 customers. This includes enterprise and retail customers. Among our key enterprise customers we have Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, and Goa Industrial Development Corporate SESA Goa, India’s largest exporter of iron ore in the private sector.

In Maharashtra, we are targeting approximately 25,000-30,000 customers by the end of the calendar year. And in Andhra Pradesh we are targeting approximately 20,000 subscribers by the end of the calendar year. 

In Gujarat our target is to achieve approximately 50,000 subscribers by the end of this fiscal.

CIOL: Do you think that high prices of devices as well as services would prevent a larger adoption of WiMAX?

YP: The slow rate of adoption of WiMAX is primarily due to the pace and scale of deployments, which do not offer the numbers to beat down the CPE prices, which, in turn, affects the business case of the WiMAX operator.

The first reason for this is spectrum standardization and allocation process of each country; in many countries it is necessary to vacate the spectrum to make it available for WiMAX. In some cases, as in India, time taken to conduct tests to check interference with satellite transmission, can stall the mass deployment process due to uncertainties involved.

The second reason is the pace of certification of WiMAX equipment, which is critical for an ecosystem with multi-vendor products that can interoperate. These are typical teething troubles of an industry that is maturing, but WiMAX forum is planning to add an Indian certification lab to its existing network this year to stay ahead of the demand for products in this region.

This year, particularly, may suffer the impact of the recessionary trends across the globe that may stagger the growth potential also. But in general, the outlook is very positive as the user acceptability is quite high where service is available, particularly in underserved areas that are starved of Internet connectivity due to shortage of wired infrastructure.

CIOL: What are the trends emerging in the wireless broadband space?

YP: Broadband in India is going through a phase of significant development. There has been an exponential growth in demand for the services that need broadband capabilities. As the race for unbundling the last mile picks up momentum, interesting trends are emerging from various segments of consumers.

The urban market users are searching for high-speed connectivity to enhance their broadband experience from simple browsing and downloading to high-speed data transfer, gaming, entertainment, and education.

On the other hand, in rural areas, the spotlight is on to provide health, general education, entrepreneurship skills, medicine, and high-end technical guidance through the help of various broadband applications such as videoconferencing, e-commerce, etc.

India’s leaders recognize that health, education, and economic prosperity are linked to the ability of Indians to readily access the Internet, voice networks, and other telecommunication services. Broadband access enables distant learning, telemedicine, e-governance, and countless applications that foster better education, health, and general welfare. 

As such, broadband connectivity and personal computing are no longer seen as luxuries, but as primary needs of the nation. Though the challenges of fulfilling these needs are significant, recent technological advances combined with innovative business models reveal that a solution is within grasp.