ITU Telecom World 2003

October 6, 2003
Midas providing golden touch

CHENNAI -- Affordability of telecom services is one of the key factors responsible for low teledensity in emerging markets. For an investment in a telecom line, an operator needs to recover at least 35 percent of the infrastructure cost per line on an annual basis. The use of conventional wireline technologies puts this beyond the reach of most users in emerging markets on account of the high infrastructure costs.

The telecom network consists of a backbone network and an access network. The cost of backbone has come down significantly over the last decade due to technological advancements. Presently, over 70 percent of per line infrastructure cost are concentrated in the access network. Significant cost reductions in this part of the network through innovation are required to expand telephony in the emerging markets to about 500 million lines. A country like India alone could reach 200 million telephones and Internet connections. The Telecom and Networking group (TeNeT) of IIT Madras (IIT-M), set on a mission to develop a cost effective access network technology targeted at improving teledensity in the emerging markets. The group conceptualised corDECT as a wireless access system in the early 90s, to fulfill this objective.

To further develop the technology to meet customer needs and to commercialise the same, a corporate entity was considered crucial. Midas Communication Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Midas) was established in 1994, to fulfill this role. The company was founded by a group of IIT-M alumni.

Midas shares a special relationship with the TeNeT group, IIT-M having been incubated by it. It continues to leverage IIT-M's intellectual resources for R&D for the development of new access technologies. It also has a close relationship with Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), the global semiconductor company, which it partnered for the development of ICs for corDECT equipment.

corDECT access network: With the Internet becoming an essential part of a communication system, the corDECT wireless access system was designed to provide simultaneous voice and medium rate Internet connectivity at homes and offices. The simplistic corDECT access network consists of a DECT interface unit (DIU) and a compact base station (CBS), which together form the access center of the network, and a wallset, which acts as the subscriber unit.

Some salient features of the corDECT wireless access system include toll-quality voice using 32Kbps ADPCM, simultaneous voice and dedicated Internet access of up to 70Kbps, support all of the features provided by local exchange, such as caller ID, call forwarding, call transfer, etc. The system also supports voice-band fax up to 9.6Kbps. It provides comprehensive coverage by leveraging corDECT's subsystems.

Midas offers corDECT as a complete access network solution -- from network elements, interfaces with the PSTN, Internet connectivity and the network management software. These benefits have resulted in Midas being chosen by all operators providing basic services for deployment in substantial numbers. Having established partnerships with manufacturing companies, which have relationships in the telecom business to sell corDECT, the company has licensed this technology to Himachal Futuristic Communication Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Electronics Corp. of India Ltd., Shyam Telecom and Indian Telephone Industries Ltd.

Internationally, Midas has licensed the technology to Omniacom (Tunisia) and BBS Access Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) - two value added partners. Omniacom focuses on the North and Central African markets, while BBS focuses on the South-East Asian market and some CIS countries. The company's vision is to become a "best in class" communication technology company delivering advanced and economically compelling telecom solutions to the underserved telecom markets. The company is headquartered at Chennai, India and the facility houses the R&D center as well as a small assembly unit. The India sales office is in Delhi. Midas has a subsidiary company in Brazil for business development and a branch office in Singapore.

Dense urban areas have a high requirement for bandwidth. Most access networks in these areas have copper but this has limitations in terms on bandwidth enhancement. Therefore, optical fiber-based access networks are being rolled out in such areas to service the growing bandwidth needs.

Optima: Midas has recently launched the optiMA-200, an access solution for the typical urban area, that requires higher bandwidth and enhanced features. An optical fiber-based access system, the optiMA-200 is a digital loop carrier (DLC) and extends services from the exchanges to the subscribers.

The system delivers voice and data services to customers and scales up cost effectively. Its typical configuration includes a central office terminal (COT) co-located with the local exchange (LE) and supporting multiple remote terminals (RTs) on an STM-1 ring. The optiMA-200 supports fiber-in-local-loop, and can be used in a variety of deployment options to carry fiber closer to the subscriber. In addition, the ITU-T compliant services include POTS, ISDN, 64Kbps leased line, fast Ethernet and XDSL.

Other deployment options available include deployment with a remotely located COT (taking advantage of optiMA's ability to interoperate with any off-the-shelf transmission equipment with E-1 interface) and deployment without COT (taking advantage of the remote terminals ability to interoperate with any off-the-shelf transmission equipment with E-1 interface). The alternate deployment options enable the system to support multiple fiber loops from the main loop and a corDECT loop from the main fiber loop.