‘We have begun an exciting journey and have a long way to go’
You are a strong believer in broadbanding India and that’s the reason you formed Tikona Digital Networks. How has been the journey so far?
The journey has been full of challenges in terms of taming the technology to deliver better than wireline quality and capacity over unlicenced wireless network and building a strong technical support for the ever-demanding internet customers.
But I look back with satisfaction that Tikona has built a strong foundation for growth and successfully accomplished an audacious and unprecedented task.
In the last 3 years of commercial operations the company has rolled out wireless broadband network in 25 top cities with a capacity of 1.6 mn fixed broadband users on a network of 40H000 base stations making it one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world.
Tikona now delivers 2 Mbps and 4
Armed with the vision of making it big in the wireless broadband arena, Prakash Bajpai launched Tikona Digital Networks in 2008. While everyone was scrambling for voice spectrum, Bajpai vouched for wireless broadband and in a span of 4.5 years, the company expanded in 25 cities, with a capacity of 1.6 mn fixed broadband users.
Of course Bajpai’s rich IT and telecom experience and his stint with IBM, Phillips, Tata Telecom, AT&T Network Systems, Tata Lucent Technologies among others helped him to spearhead the company. But challenges for the man, who pioneered India’s first integrated broadband network in Maharashtra and Goa in Hughes Telecom, were many.
And now, with investment of ` 1,000 crore in the pipeline for LTE, one thing is certain, that there is no looking back for him.
Recently, Tikona Digital Networks was awarded the emerging company of the year by VOICE&DATA magazine. In an interview with the publication, Bajpai speaks about his journey, network coverage, investment, and LTE plans. Excerpts—
—Prakash Bajpai founder, MD & CEO, Tikona Digital Networks
Mbps wireless broadband connections in the market. We have recently launched 10 Mbps services to select premium buildings by invitation.
What were the thoughts going through your mind when you started Tikona?
I was fortunate to be in the middle of an exciting telecom revolution of the last decade. When mobile telephony and its phenomenal success established India as one of the biggest telecom markets in the world I had
sensed that as the headroom for growth of voice telephony narrows down, there is going to be much bigger opportunity in the wireless data growth as the broadband penetration in India continues to remain low.
Mue to lack of wireline infrastructure, maximum growth would be derived from wireless as compared to traditional capital intensive wireline networks.
How did you manage to wade through the challenges?
We were confronted with questions like: How to build a large retail broadband data capacity equivalent to fiber based wireline networks? How to build lowest cost data
The company plans to build 4G LTE mobile broadband network in all 5 circles, with plans to invest ` 1,000 crore in the next 3-4 years
factory to produce affordable retail prices for home and SMB segment? How to create full mobility broadband architecture at a fractional cost to enable hundreds of millions of smartphone users, which are likely to grow exponentially, and perhaps make India the biggest mobile data market in this decade?
But then, team Tikona conceived of an unprecedented and innovative model to meet the above challenges by using both unlicenced Wi-Fi band as well as licenced 4G LTE spectrum. This unique strategy to leverage 4G LTE and Wi-Fi combination allowed Tikona to offer end-to-end suite of fixed and mobile broadband services, including fixed broadband for multiple users as well as LTE dongles, smartphones for full mobility applications.
Are you planning to pump in more money in the next 2-3 years?
We have invested over ` 600 crore in the wireless broadband network and has additionally acquired 4G BWA spectrum in 5 circles, covering a population of 300 mn. The company plans to build 4G LTE mobile broadband network in all 5 circles, with plans to invest ` 1H000 crore in the next 3-4 years.
Can you give us a detailed picture of your network, coverage, total customers, ARPU?
Tikona wireless broadband network offers coverage in top 25 cities with 40H000 outdoor Wi-Fi base stations, equipped with smart antenna and beam steering 4G technologies.
Core network comprises of over 700 fiber nodes which can scale up to STM-64 capacity to meet the future growth of internet I data traffic. The unique micro-cell architecture provides a strong RF penetration which is very essential for providing high-speed internet connections.
Conventional large macro-cell located on mobile towers would not achieve even a fraction of Tikona network performance.
Tikona has not only built this unique and innovative high capacity network architecture (large data factory), but has managed to bring down the cost structure to a fraction of conventional mobile data networks.
Consequently, we offer broadband capacity at a very affordable band of 2 paisa to 5 paisa per MB. Average Tikona customer consumes about 12 GB of internet data every month. Tikona has over 2H75 H000 retail and SMB customers, besides over 400 large enterprise customers.
ARPU for retail home customer is ` ` 500-550 per month. SMB and enterprise customer range varies from ` ` 1H200 to ` ` 10H000 per month.
Everybody was hoping that Tikona will be the first operator to launch 4G services in the country. What went wrong?
LTE is already the technology of choice globally to build 4G networks and its eco-system is fast developing on the back of contemporary investments by all leading global telcos. Fortunately, countries like China, India, Australia and several others have finalized on LTE-TMM standards and will be investing in 2H300 MHz spectrum bandH which will lead to availability of LTE devices at a very affordable price points in the near term.
Tikona remains enthusiastic about LTE’s role in spearheading internet revolution in India and will invest in LTE network from 2013 onwards as the eco-system gets ready.
As an industry leader, what do you think are the missing links in the Indian telecom ecosystem?
As I mentioned the device eco-system is very crucial. Large telcos in India have committed to 2H300 MHz band and LTE-TMM standard. My sense is that 20 MHz licenced spectrum is going to be woefully short to meet the exploding data traffic future demands in terms of capacity and licenced spectrum would be too expensive to build affordable retail capacity. Therefore, there is a need to identify more spectrum bands which can be de-licenced which will allow service operators to build macro and micro cell architecture to build coverage and capacity and cost points low enough to trigger the inflexion point. Combination of LTE and Wi-Fi shall be the most effective strategy.
On a personal note, how do spend your leisure time?
Relax with family but somehow thoughts of Tikona do not fade away completely.
What are your future plans with respect to Tikona Digital Networks?
Build a role model of a service company and achieve customer service excellence. Unlike prepaid mobile service internet and data networking services require a lot of technical handholding, while supporting the clients.
Customers expect a seamless experience and will demand speed, service, security and savings—4SH Tikona model of service excellence. We have begun an exciting journey and have a long way to go.