Roundtable

January 13, 2005
Fixed-mobile integration: threat or opportunity?

Geetanjali Wadhwa & Pradeep Chakraborty

BANGALORE AND NEW DELHI -- With the fixed and mobile networks converging, rather, integrating, are players looking at this as a threat or an opportunity? Even VoIP service is commercially viable, and improvements in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc., allow these technologies to carry both voice and data. Hence, there is an interest in fixed-mobile integration. Experts in the wireless space comment whether this is a threat or an opportunity in real terms. The participant in this roundtable is P.T. Venkatesan, business development manager, IndTeleSoft.

Convergence*plus: Do you perceive fixed-mobile integration as a threat or an opportunity?

Venkatesan: It is certainly an opportunity for service providers to increase their ARPU and those who have implemented fixed-mobile integration on their network are generating more revenue.

Convergence*plus: What are the regulatory issues involved and how would these be overcome?

Venkatesan: There is no clear idea on the regulatory issues as such. However, there are separate regulations for fixed and mobile networks in every country. The regulatory authorities need to amend the norm and enable operators to provide fixed-mobile services to the end users.

Convergence*plus: What are the security issues and what can be done to reduce the impact?

Venkatesan: Both, fixed and mobile networks have their own proven security mechanisms. If a single service provider were to offer integrated solutions (fixed and mobile networks) to end users, there are likely to be fewer security issues compared with two independent service providers who form fixed-mobile integration.

Convergence*plus: How do you estimate the potential of fixed-mobile integration globally, and in the Indian context?

Venkatesan: The potential of fixed-mobile integration is likely to soon grow globally. Service providers and infrastructure vendors are sincerely working on the revenue sharing and roaming agreements. In India, Reliance Infocomm is already providing integrated fixed-mobile services to major corporate houses, and other leading operators such as Bharti and Tata Indicom provide fixed-mobile integration services as well.

Convergence*plus: Given that VoIP is commercially available, and Bluetooth and WiFi have improved, when can we see such integrated services?

Venkatesan: Integrated services are already available in the European and Asia Pacific countries. These are likely to be available soon in the remaining parts of the globe.

Convergence*plus: How will such services allow operators to generate revenue?

Venkatesan: For mobile operators, fixed-mobile integration offers a real chance to target enterprise customers by offering a 'converged' bundle of services that would give the user the best of both mobile and fixed network worlds.

With data traffic set to lead telecom growth well into the next decade, mobile operators are looking for a piece of that action. While they are working hard to enhance the data-carrying capabilities of their own systems through technologies like GPRS and 3G systems, they want the right to offer customers access to the kinds of faster, fixed-line services that will support high-speed access to online games, e-commerce, entertainment services, location-based services, etc.

Convergence*plus: Are there any such integrated devices available as well?

Venkatesan: Yes, integrated devices are available in the market. For example Nokia 9500 supports WLAN access (Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11b, 2.4GHz), Bluetooth, high-speed data connectivity with E-GPRS (EDGE) and tri-band operation. Other OEMs are also likely to introduce their integrated devices on the market soon.