The telecom industry in India is at the cusp of a transition that is unlike anything ever seen before. Today, there is an urgent need for creating a superior Indian digital highway. UTStarcom with its robust portfolio of advanced yet affordable telecom infrastructure solutions is ready to support this cause. William Wong, CEO & Director, UTStarcom, talks to VARINDIA as to how the company perceives the Indian market
UTStarcom has been in India since 2001. The market has always been an important part of its business globally and historically India accounts for one-third of UTSTarcom’s overall global business. “We are a global telecom equipment provider and so we specifically target operators we believe are in good strategic regions and are positioned for strong growth. This year, we have identified three key markets that will be the focus for the company – first and foremost is India, then is Japan where we have historically been very strong and will continue to be a dominant player and the third is United States,†says a jubilant William Wong, CEO & Director, UTStarcom.
UTStarcom and India…
Why UT has chosen India is due to the fact that for the last 6–9 months the company has seen a tremendous change in the business environment. In some ways, it has been a lot more conducive for doing business. At the same time, a number of other factors are coming together for India to start the major take-off of becoming a dominant player. “We now see the momentum in the new government initiatives, namely the NoFN, Smart City and the Digital India programs. It fits into exactly where UTStarcom is working. It is our belief that we can bring our global experience and expertise into a market where we have had a good penetration. We have 35% share of the broadband market in India and we look forward to leveraging the opportunities to ride with the growth we are seeing,†Wong assures.
The one most important area which UT believes will bring in a lot of revolution is SDN, something which the company has been working on for two years. Its principle is simple – to provide simple network and operations. In addition, India has a very strong software industry. According to Wong, “SDN will play a major role into that as well. Since the future of networking relies more on software, it is trying to make it very simple by extracting a lot of intelligence from the network into software. It makes it very easily configurable and that being the case, the ability to configure the network for deployment of a lot of new services would also be simpler. There is a lot of requirement coming in from network infrastructure. We have already deployed a few POCs (Proof of Concepts) and the solution is ready which we have utilized it in Japan. In India we see a very unique opportunity for the fact that NoFN is all about creating the infrastructure and we are looking at providing the best affordable connectivity for building a very extensive architecture of networking elements that will support this infrastructure,†Wong says.
This will also play very well into the Smart City program. UT would be entering into a lot of new services involving a smart city that it has never thought of before, whether it is e-govt, e-education, e-energy or so on.
While the company is moving from hardware to software, it is also looking at some of the low-cost boxes. Hence supporting the Make-in-India initiative, UTStarcom is also exploring the possibilities of building its own units along the line. “That is the area we are considering at the moment and so are toying with different plans at this point of time,†Wong says.
UTStarcom – Then and now…
Historically, UTStarcom has been an infrastructure company shipping hardware boxes, but two years ago it has embarked on the SDN architecture. Regionally, it was aimed at a lot of developed countries from where they started this initiative. “We are migrating and you will see us more in play in software products and services. We want to stay one step ahead of the demands coming from the customers,†Wong says.
Talking about IPTV, UT has transformed it and has deployed it across the globe. The response has been strong and the company is anticipating the same here in India. “After NoFN is deployed, a lot of video services and video on demand will come significantly. Video is going to be the key driver for broadband in the coming times,†Wong observes.
Carrier-grade Wi-Fi is another area which forms one of its strong suites. Remarkably, it has deployed two years ago half a million hotspots in Japan. Besides providing multiple benefits to customers, the foremost is the network coverage. It also tries to bring in a lot of economic benefits to the operator and subsequently to the end-users as well. “This is how we see UTStarcom could play from the software, hardware boxes, wireline and wireless solutions that we provide in the Indian market,†sums up Wong. This, he feels, will be a perfect fit for the NoFN program and the other initiatives that India is eyeing at present. And this is where UTStarcom sees its starting point.
“We are building capabilities in the software area nowâ€
Amidst all the meetings and appointments, we also happened to meet with Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom, who shared several insights about the Indian market
“UTStarcom is very actively monitoring the Indian market. So, on the one hand, while it is working on the deployment of broadband infrastructure, on the other it will be bringing in video services. For the time being, SDN and NoFN will be keeping UT very busy, but as soon as it sees a better broadband environment, the company will start actively positioning its Internet TV services. This will be its proposition to the partners and customers in India. “We have the # 1 market share in India when we talk of IPTV. We have customers like Bharti Airtel with whom we have positioned our IPTV products. We have been in dialogue with operators to find out how broadband can be a success and this eventually helps us to position our video services,†says Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom.
UT has done deployments with 400,000 subscribers across the world in places like Thailand, Columbia, Mexico and the UK and so on. Since its technology has been there for two years, UT has been doing a lot of refinement and innovativeness along the line. It has been working with almost every service provider in India and has been in discussions with them for a lot of things like SDN and more particularly the Carrier-grade Wi-fi. In the SDN area too, UT is going to look for partnerships with a lot of small software players.
However, UT’s transformation from hardware to a software player is necessitated by the general trend that is seen globally. “We see major vendors coming up with data centers and critical operations and functionalities moving up on to the cloud. We see the same thing happening in the telecom industry too. We have been pushing boxes all these while, but now we are building our capabilities and efforts in the software area. As reiterated earlier, software is becoming very crucial in the overall system. We have been doing a lot in the Network Function Virtualization area and have extracted a lot of those expertises into software,†shares Shalin.
UT is excited about the Indian market and has been able to support a large number of tier-1 customers. Reliance, BSNL and Airtel are some of its tier-1 customers, while small cable operators serve as its tier-2 customers. Its major focus hence will be on the tier-1 and -2 customers not only in India but across the globe. “The telecom sector has gone through many ups and downs, but our experience in this market is going to be the key in keeping UT ahead of the competition. As the market develops and customization is needed, we might also plan to have our R&D unit here,†says Shalin.
There is, indeed, a strong reinforcement coming from its customers for its India strategy.
Rahul Pandey, Director – Sales & Marketing, SAARC
“We have outlined our roadmap for the Indian telecom industry. We are dedicated to develop technology that will serve the rapidly-growing demand in the market for bandwidth from Cloud-based services, mobile, streaming and other applications. The company aims to contribute towards the changes and development in the telecom industry and provide pertinent infrastructure support to telecommunication carriers for proficiently servicing the speedily growing demand of an advanced ‘Indian Digital Highway’.â€
New plans to support government initiatives
UTStarcom has underlined the company’s plans to support government initiatives like Smart Cities, NOFN and Wi-Fi deployments with UTStarcom advanced telecom products and technologies and has announced the aggressive strategy on Carrier Wi-Fi solutions.
“We are closely following various initiatives of the Government of India, including the Smart City, the optical NOFN Program deployment plans and Public Wi-Fi deployments. We work with Indian telecom operators, system integrators and the government, and we plan to extend our efforts significantly in the year 2015 in order to make sure that our products and solutions are the best answer to the needs of the government initiatives. UTStarcom is ready with our transport, aggregation and access networking solutions that may fit into virtually any area of the government initiatives in the telecom area, providing an efficient and reliable access and transport telecom infrastructure throughout India,†said William Wong, CEO & Director, UTStarcom.
Speaking on the opportunities in Carrier Wi-Fi business, Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom, said, “Wi-Fi has been demonstrating a continuous growth since 2007. Wi-Fi equipment market is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2017. With the tremendous growth in mobile traffic, smartphone consumer base and strapping internet penetration, Wi-Fi is going to play an increasingly important role in the future telecom industry. We are going to proactively promote and educate the market about our Carrier Wi-Fi product line about its unique combination of features and benefits that it offers. We plan to work closely with major telecom operators, system integrators and the government. We will also evaluate opportunities in the enterprise market in India.â€
The importance of a Carrier-class Wi-Fi solution for the market was emphasized. This technology is going to help operators provide wider broadband coverage, higher data rates and better overall user experience to their customers using cost-effective and easy-to-deploy infrastructure based on licence-free spectrum.
Amidst all the meetings and appointments, we also happened to meet with Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom, who shared several insights about the Indian market
“UTStarcom is very actively monitoring the Indian market. So, on the one hand, while it is working on the deployment of broadband infrastructure, on the other it will be bringing in video services. For the time being, SDN and NoFN will be keeping UT very busy, but as soon as it sees a better broadband environment, the company will start actively positioning its Internet TV services. This will be its proposition to the partners and customers in India. “We have the # 1 market share in India when we talk of IPTV. We have customers like Bharti Airtel with whom we have positioned our IPTV products. We have been in dialogue with operators to find out how broadband can be a success and this eventually helps us to position our video services,†says Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom.
UT has done deployments with 400,000 subscribers across the world in places like Thailand, Columbia, Mexico and the UK and so on. Since its technology has been there for two years, UT has been doing a lot of refinement and innovativeness along the line. It has been working with almost every service provider in India and has been in discussions with them for a lot of things like SDN and more particularly the Carrier-grade Wi-fi. In the SDN area too, UT is going to look for partnerships with a lot of small software players.
However, UT’s transformation from hardware to a software player is necessitated by the general trend that is seen globally. “We see major vendors coming up with data centers and critical operations and functionalities moving up on to the cloud. We see the same thing happening in the telecom industry too. We have been pushing boxes all these while, but now we are building our capabilities and efforts in the software area. As reiterated earlier, software is becoming very crucial in the overall system. We have been doing a lot in the Network Function Virtualization area and have extracted a lot of those expertises into software,†shares Shalin.
UT is excited about the Indian market and has been able to support a large number of tier-1 customers. Reliance, BSNL and Airtel are some of its tier-1 customers, while small cable operators serve as its tier-2 customers. Its major focus hence will be on the tier-1 and -2 customers not only in India but across the globe. “The telecom sector has gone through many ups and downs, but our experience in this market is going to be the key in keeping UT ahead of the competition. As the market develops and customization is needed, we might also plan to have our R&D unit here,†says Shalin.
There is, indeed, a strong reinforcement coming from its customers for its India strategy.
Rahul Pandey, Director – Sales & Marketing, SAARC
“We have outlined our roadmap for the Indian telecom industry. We are dedicated to develop technology that will serve the rapidly-growing demand in the market for bandwidth from Cloud-based services, mobile, streaming and other applications. The company aims to contribute towards the changes and development in the telecom industry and provide pertinent infrastructure support to telecommunication carriers for proficiently servicing the speedily growing demand of an advanced ‘Indian Digital Highway’.â€
New plans to support government initiatives
UTStarcom has underlined the company’s plans to support government initiatives like Smart Cities, NOFN and Wi-Fi deployments with UTStarcom advanced telecom products and technologies and has announced the aggressive strategy on Carrier Wi-Fi solutions.
“We are closely following various initiatives of the Government of India, including the Smart City, the optical NOFN Program deployment plans and Public Wi-Fi deployments. We work with Indian telecom operators, system integrators and the government, and we plan to extend our efforts significantly in the year 2015 in order to make sure that our products and solutions are the best answer to the needs of the government initiatives. UTStarcom is ready with our transport, aggregation and access networking solutions that may fit into virtually any area of the government initiatives in the telecom area, providing an efficient and reliable access and transport telecom infrastructure throughout India,†said William Wong, CEO & Director, UTStarcom.
Speaking on the opportunities in Carrier Wi-Fi business, Shalin Shah, Co-GM, India Operation, UTStarcom, said, “Wi-Fi has been demonstrating a continuous growth since 2007. Wi-Fi equipment market is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2017. With the tremendous growth in mobile traffic, smartphone consumer base and strapping internet penetration, Wi-Fi is going to play an increasingly important role in the future telecom industry. We are going to proactively promote and educate the market about our Carrier Wi-Fi product line about its unique combination of features and benefits that it offers. We plan to work closely with major telecom operators, system integrators and the government. We will also evaluate opportunities in the enterprise market in India.â€
The importance of a Carrier-class Wi-Fi solution for the market was emphasized. This technology is going to help operators provide wider broadband coverage, higher data rates and better overall user experience to their customers using cost-effective and easy-to-deploy infrastructure based on licence-free spectrum.
