Broadband helps enterprises to centralize storage

Enterprises, especially in India, are increasingly adopting broadband as an effective business tool. One such interesting application of braoadband is the 'centralized storage' model which helps businesses to cut down cost and increase productivity. I had a discussion with Praveen Ganapathy, director- business development, consumer & automotive corporate business development, Texas Instruments India about,

The factors that push the growth of broadband among enterprises

PG: I think the key drive of broadband among enterprises itself is the coming out of lots of high bandwidth applications. People use more bandwidth hungry applications like video conferencing, high definition, U-Tube etc

At the same time, in countries like India, enterprises are fast adopting a thin client work model where the storage and applications are on the server.High bandwidth connection helps to centralize your storage and bandwidth hu8ngry applications and thus reduce cost. It also gives people the flexibility of working from home. It also allows them to work on the move. This in turn helps improve productivity.I think, primarily, broadband helps reduction in infrastructure cost through the model of centralized application and storage.

India has more than 2 million broadband users. The Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, has declared 2007 as year broadband and to hit a goal of 9 million users by this year-end. This is going to push broadband further in India. Apart from that, upcoming technologies like Wimax are helping to accelerate the growth of broadband.

The technology options for broadband and upcoming technologies

PG: The dominating technologies in the broadband arena are DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) and cable modems. While in US, cable modems remain the major technology; UK and India depend mainly on DSL. US is also deploying technologies like 'Fibre To The Home (FTTH)'which can give much higher level of bandwidth. Wimax is emerging as a viable option especially in India where the infrastructure for wired connection is still very poor.

So, technology adoption is purely regional. TI believes that that over time, DSL and cable modems are going to shift to FTTH. TI is also working on technologies like ADSL2, cable modems and Wimax.

Trends in the Indian broadband industry

PG: We are more bullish about wireless technologies in driving the broadband adoption especially in countries like India. Compelling services can actually drive broadband growth. Today customers are demanding more than data through broadband. Once the operators start delivering new services like Video, IPTV etc, broadband will become a basic necessity.

But, I still feel that two million connections is a very small number, in a country of this size. And the target of 9 million connections by the end of this year seems to be a tough task. We really need huge investment to boost the broadband industry in India. Broadband has wider scope in rural areas especially in the areas of healthcare and education. The government has plans to deploy broadband right from the Panchayath level. It's a very positive trend.

Since infrastructure is going to be a problem, wireless may be a better option for rural connectivity. So, lots of industry players are betting on one or the other sort of wireless technology for India. I would say, technically wireless is more feasible for India.

A comparison of the Indian market with other countries' markets

PG: I would say India is pretty slow in adopting broadband. In US they have almost 200 million broadband connections. In India we are still talking about hitting nine million. But, in one way, it's a positive trend. It's going to be more painful for developed countries to shift to emerging wireless technologies like Wimax, because they have already spend enough money on the installed infrastructure.

But in India, the investment so far has been very low. So we can actually skip some intermediate steps in broadband technology adoption and directly implement wireless technologies.

The other major difference is in the demand of customers. In India, the demand is still for data. In developed countries, the demand is more for high definition video content and other such services. In India, of course, we have voice, IPTV etc coming in a larger way. Online gaming is other such potential application, which is likely to drive the need for broadband in India.

The issues to be addressed immediately and in a long run

PG: For the customers, the only thing that matters is the content being delivered through broadband. You are not going to pay for the water pipe, you pay only for the water. In fact, in future, the operators are going to give free broadband connection. BSNL has already declared that they will give 2Mbps connection free by 2009. Later on, services like voice, video on demand, online gaming etc are likely to be delivered free of cost and the operators will be able to address the ARPU (average revenue per user) concerns.

The only key issue, which delays the adoption of broadband in India, is the lack of a right business model. I believe the revenue is going to come from value added services. And we need to find answers for- 'who's going to provide content? How do we ensure content security? What is the revenue model?' etc. for example, we have already started seeing trails on IPTV.

But, there is no content aggregator in India for IPTV. In the West, there are for combining content from everywhere and put it together. So the ecosystem for value added service needs to be evolved in India. And we need to have clarity on regulatory issues. We also need to ensure the quality of services being delivered through broadband. The customers are already used to some experience. So the broadband players need to deliver something better than that to make them happy.

The other challenge, in India is the cost. People want high bandwidth connection in lower cost. We need to really reduce the cost.

New services that have got greater demand among broadband customers

PG: Apart from standard broadcast TV, VoIP, video on demand, there is an emerging need for home security applications. Now, broadband customers can actually place camera in their homes and get alerts on their mobile phone if something goes wrong. Video conferencing is another future application.

As I mentioned, centralizing storage and application is the emerging trend among enterprises. A lot of revenue can be made from reality shows, MMS etc. So telecom industry has got a big role to play in driving the broadband adoption.I believe, high bandwidth secured connection is really what broadband is all about. It can enable a lot of applications like entertainment, education and healthcare. So the content is the key and the customers need to like that content. So ultimately, customer is the kingmaker.