Will it Die or Fight Back?
A few policy tweaks and upgradations can resuscitate this dying technology, which is quickly losing ground in the country
A few policy tweaks and upgradations can resuscitate this dying technology, which is quickly losing ground in the country
Ever since the emergence of wireless telephony, the Global System for Mobile (GSM) has dominated the mobile ecosystem, while its peer Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is always battling to create a niche for itself.
This is despite the fact that CDMA delivers better quality of experience and spectrally more efficient compared to GSM, the technology has failed to grab much attention in the industry.
Lately, the 2G re-auction for CDMA frequency band has also received a dismal response, raising doubts about its survival in the country. As the Indian telecommunications market gears up for the next phase of data revolution, the technology has been seen grappling to survive as it loses proposition in terms of economies of scale.
When Voice & Data tried to find out that what went wrong with the technology and its future in the country, it found that declining ARPUs, spectrum shortage are some of the factors bogging down its performance; but at the same time a few policy tweaks and upgradation can really buttress CDMA to sail through and make a mark for itself.
What Went Wrong?
The path for CDMA to strengthen its position in the Indian market and compete with GSM technology was not an easy task as the biggest challenge this segment faced was that of spectrum shortage.
The present policy offers a maximum of 15 MHz-20 MHz of airwaves per circle to GSM players, while the limit for CDMA players is 7.5 MHz.
Besides spectrum, CDMA was numbed by declining ARPUs, lack of clarity in spectrum allocation, regulatory discrimination, tough competition, and high prices.
According to Ashwani Ohillan, chief technology officer (CTO)–MTS India, “All telecom operators, including MTS and a number of industry analysts, have always maintained that the reserve price of CDMA spectrum in the recently concluded auctions was way too high and did not make any viable business sense. The same point was also vindicated when no bidders participated in the auctions of CDMA spectrum.”
He further added, “There is spirit within the plans of the Indian govern- ment about taking mobile telephony and internet to more and more people. The National Broadband Plan envisages provision of 160 million broadband connections, including 60 million wireless broadband connections, by the year 2014.
But taking a step back; one needs to understand that this requires additional spectrum, stable policy environment and moreover, investors’ trusts that have been shaken by the recent event.”
Meanwhile, Ashok Sud, secretary general, AUSPI, emphasized, “GSM offers abundant device options unlike CDMA; CDMA ecosystem should bring in more features to woo high-end mobile segment users. CDMA customers have no choice of choosing operators. It is difficult to replace handsets faster. Industry consensus that the Asian market and particularly the Indian market is more of inspirational and less of functional and this will be a huge challenge for CDMA technology in India. But data speed and data products have great potential to drive growth.”
Ohillan also added, “Reviving CDMA can grab a major pie in the market by catering to enterprise segment. The device ecosystem for CDMA has to evolve and offer high- end CDMA phones. CDMA consortium ought to perform a balancing act and push the technology from marketing and technical perspective, and there is a need of high quality dual SIM mobile phones i.e CDMA plus GSM.”
Government Must Dos
The government should release some more spectrum and it has to reduce the reserve price also to revive this technology.
There is less allocation of 3G spectrum for CDMA players. Rationalized and levelplaying fields on the spectrum allocation by the release of spectrum in 800, or 1,900 MHz will be of great help.
This will show some forward growth path to the operators, who have invested in this technology.
The pace of journey of CDMA technology has been bleak but it would certainly not end and it has a long way to go. The increase in the uptake of data services through 3G will aid CDMA players to penetrate more in the country; the future of CDMA is likely to be vivid and data would be the main differentiator in the near future.
The industry and government ought to work towards reviving the CDMA market in this transition phase where we are moving from voice to data, as CDMA is much more efficient than GPRSI NDGN.
Don’t Let CDMA Die
CDMA’s USP lies in the data communication and ease of connectivity, and this is what makes us re-think of this technology and not let it die.
It can drive affordability in the entire broadband and mobile broadband space. CDMA as a technology is well-equipped to migrate seamlessly to LTN and leading CDMA players around the world would be the first to launch LTN based services ahead of anybody else. In India, wireless broadband will propagate and bridge the digital divide.
It is a boon for heavy-internet-on-the-move users. CDMA is a much better technology with respect to its highly robust features than its counterparts, but due to its non-open source origin it has been limited to few carriers in some countries worldwide.
Some of the concepts from CDMA are more likely to be used for 4G networks. Code division turned out to be a more powerful and flexible technology, 3G GSM is actually a CDMA technology called WCDMA (wideband CDMA) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System).
WCDMA requires wider channels than older CDMA systems, but it has more data capacity.
CDMA systems based on spread spectrum techniques, which are a legacy of defense applications relating to the elimination of interference (anti-jamming), measures the distance (ranging) or encryption. These techniques are based on spread spectrum frequency of a signal at a bandwidth greater than the minimum required for transmission, a situation which is maintained throughout the transfer process. Later, when arriving at the receiver, the signal is recomposed to obtain the initial signal.
Thus, one can obtain a series of links that use the same frequency band simultaneously without generating interference. The underlying strength of CDMA include superior data capabilities, excellent voice quality, good coverage at lower costs, seamless packet data, greater capacity, and improved security as compared to GSM. It can accommodate more users per MHz of bandwidth–efficient use of spectrum; it is ideal for a spectrum-starved country like India.
CDMA has no built-in limit to the number of concurrent users. It is able to produce a reasonable call with lower signal (cell phone reception) levels – beneficial to rural users.
“CDMA also offers better coverage area – better for rural penetration. CDMA offers superior voice quality compared to GSM. CDMA has a well-defined path to higher data rates and increased cellular communications security. Also 3G from GSM players using 2,100 MHz spectrum requires around 3 times more BTS covering same area compared to 800 MHz CDMA spectrum used for offering NVDO service,” says Sud.
Some CDMA players have launched high speed internet via USB dongle (NVDO) for using with computers to capture wireless internet market first. Before 3G comes, NVDO data cards (speed 2.4 – 3.1MbitIs) were the only option for high speed wireless internet.
According to Ohillan, “One look at the global telecom industry will tell you that CDMA is a better suited technology for high speed data (HSD) services. Some of the biggest telecom operators worldwide, including Verizon and China telecom, run on CDMA. So it is not a question of one technology being better than the other.
In India, MTS has been committed to CDMA technology and in about three years of operations has secured more than 16 mn subscribers, including more than 1.8 mn HSD customers in over 450 towns across India. This clearly shows that CDMA is not a dying technology. However, there is no denying the fact that CDMA industry in India does face eco-system challenges including the availability and choice of devices.”