Expert View

May 12, 2005
Success of eSeva, e-Choupal testify opportunities for satellite broadband

NEW DELHI -- Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd. (HECL) is a joint venture between Hughes Network Systems (HNS), the world's largest multinational satellite communications company and Escorts Ltd. HECL charted a mission to become a leader in providing turnkey networking solutions for corporate enterprises in India across satellite and terrestrial media. It provides satellite and terrestrial bandwidth services, VPN services, data center, Internet access and managed network services. Convergence*Plus recently met with Shivaji Chatterjee, senior director, sales and marketing, HECL, to learn more about the emerging standards in satellite communication and prospects for satellite broadband. Excerpts from the interview.

Convergence Plus: How has the advancement and standardisation of satellite transmission technology created new opportunities for delivery of IP-based services?

Shivaji Chatterjee: To compete in today's world, businesses must have broadband access, while consumer demand for broadband is a worldwide phenomenon. Since terrestrial broadband services will never be available everywhere, satellite broadband access is an essential part of the broadband infrastructure of the US, and globally.

Historically, satellite network and service providers built their systems on their own proprietary technology. This led to systems that do not easily talk to each other. It made it difficult for developers and technology providers to create software, hardware, and services that easily operate across many different proprietary satellite-based systems. Commonly accepted standards will give developers the confidence and market assurance to invest in these new technologies, encourage competition in the marketplace and thereby expand satellite's addressable markets worldwide. A set of satellite, networking, application, software and IT companies got together in 2002 to create the Internet Protocol over Satellite (IPoS) standard - the definitive standard for broadband-via-satellite, approved by TIA and ETSI.

The IPoS standard is the most engineered, tested, and widely worldwide with over 400,000 installations. By making IPoS available for all, HNS is encouraging application developers and systems and service providers to expand their offerings and market opportunities in the satellite industry. Hence, there will be new opportunities in areas of broadband growth like VoIP, IP-based videoconferencing, collaborative working, telecommuter, e-commerce and Wi-fi.

CP: Are enterprise satellite providers offering services and applications that really hold value? What are the prospects for satellite broadband?

SC: Yes, absolutely! If you look at the magnitude of applications and services that VSATs enable today, it's astounding. VSAT's are expanding the base of customers from providing vanilla services and up-sell to existing customers through a variety of new offerings. These services are essentially pure-play terrestrial services and in some cases hybrid solutions. Some of these services include NMS, VPN services or even disaster management.

Also, new verticals such as lottery, retail, oil and gas, manufacturing, extended enterprise, digital cinema and auto are emerging as a big opportunity for service providers.

Hughes offers a host of customised solutions catering to the need of these vertical markets. In terms of new customer acquisitions, HECL garnered 42 new enterprise customers and 225 SME customers in 2004. The travel industry was another lucrative sector with HECL setting up a network for Galileo.

Additionally, the potential of VSATs is now being felt even at the end-user level. The success of distance education and citizen facing initiatives such as eSeva or ITC e-Choupal is a testimony of the huge potential opportunity that exists for satellite broadband in India. Hughes partnered with several corporates and state government bodies to deliver these services.

Other notable customer wins for HECL include ITC´s e-choupal connecting 2,400 locations; e-government project for Orissa government connecting all the districts; and the Mandi project for MP government called 'MP Mandi'.

CP: How can satellite broadband Internet become a weapon for bridging digital divide?

SC: Satellite broadband Internet has the biggest advantage of being able to provide accessibility in areas that are not within the reach of terrestrial connectivity. This can be used effectively in a large number of initiatives, but the two most prominent areas where this will help bridge the digital divide are distance education and e-governance. Hughes is an active player in these categories.

e-governance
IT plays a vital role in the government transactions. By establishing the right mix of IT, the government can create a charter to gather and deliver various information and services. For example, information portals of state and central government departments can revolutionise the whole experience. Such initiative will help citizens know about various policies, processes and help lines.

The governments of Singapore, Canada and Switzerland have implemented such portals and created benchmarks. The government shall process the citizen to government transaction and vice-versa for applications such as filing of returns and taxes, death and birth registration, land records, etc. and can create e-governance platforms.

The government of India is taking appreciable interest in the application of IT in e-governance. It is also gaining experience from the other countries in creating infrastructure for facilitation of e-governance. The state governments are drawing references from international projects as well the likes of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in India. They are in the process of developing models that suit their respective needs. Several government-to-government and government-to-cusomer projects have been executed by some states by creating SWANs and CICs. However, a lot more needs to be done! Only 15-20 percent of the states are active and others have to take the lead forward.

Andhra Pradesh took the lead while others like Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand are following the suit. Even revenue collection department is in the process of using IT for its various applications like income tax, collection, etc. Agriculture, Power and Education are the other fields where the government can explore IT in providing services to its citizen. Thus, It can really help the government to overcome the drawbacks in existing systems by bridging in the gap with its citizen with direct and closer contact.

Hughes is committed to the development of e-governance at all levels. By virtue of its experience and knowledge, we would like to play a role of a consultant, solution provider and executer. We are initiating partnerships with application and content providers so that an overall IT solution can be offered to central/state government initiatives. HECL would like to play a larger role in execution of such projects.

Distance education
DiRECWAY Global Education (DWGE) started with a single studio -- four classrooms in four cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai), one Institute tie-up (AUGE) and 20 students. Today, DWGE has grown to five studios, 40 classrooms in 32 cities, 10 Institutes (IIMB, IIMC, IIMK, IIFT, XLRI, NMIMS, Loyola Institute of Business Administration, MAHE, AUGE and Cornell) with the numbers increasing rapidly, and over 4,000 students. The success and exponential growth of all aspects of the business clearly endorses the platform and the business model.

Using a very powerful interface, DWGE enables a student to have highly interactive sessions with students and instructors all over the country, using video, voice and data. With increasing time constraints and need for greater cost control, interactive learning platforms such as DirecWay are bound to find increased adoption.

CP: What are the emerging standards in satellite communications today and where is it all heading?

SC: Internet Protocol over Satellite (IPoS) is the latest and most recent standard which is being accepted globally.

IPoS is based on a proven scalable air interface that is already operational in nearly 300,000 terminals worldwide. It has more applications, and the support of more application developers than any other standard worldwide.

IPoS has three principle advantages:

• It is extensively field proven;
• It takes advantage of current state-of-the-art technology that allows for the development of the lowest cost satellite terminals; and
• It the only standard with demonstrated scalability to a large number of users.

From an engineering standpoint, IPoS creates a logical separation between the user interface and satellite interface, which means that optimised end-user applications and value-added services will work effectively in all systems incorporating this SI-SAP (Satellite Independent-Service Access Point) interface. This will eliminate potential development duplication and facilitate multi-vendor networks and future platform migration.