CANADA-INDIA IN RURAL TELECOM - RURAL INDIA MAY SOON COME ONLINE
Industry Canada's MILTON provides Internet access without using telephone lines

September 13, 2005
Source: Danny Bradbury, Financial Post

Most of us have had problems with Internet access at one time or another, but before you complain too loudly, consider conditions in India. Broadband access is available on a limited basis in large cities, but rural India is often not connected at all, and even dial-up links are patchy.

However, a technology alliance between Industry Canada's Communications Research Centre and the Indian government's Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), could change that. At the start of this year, the organizations signed an agreement to work on a wireless broadband system that will bring high-speed Internet access to areas of India without having to upgrade old telephone lines. Called a microwave light organized network, or MILTON, the technology aims to deliver a Gigabit of data every second, divided among hundreds of homes and businesses up to five kilometres away.

Originally developed to service remote communities in Canada, the technology is being tested in Bangalore from an antenna atop the C-DOT building, says Gerry Chan, vice president of terrestrial wireless systems at Canada's CRC. "The work we do together will generate intellectual property, which we both share. Should we commercialize the technology and transfer it to the private sector, both labs will be able to benefit from the profits," Mr. Chan says. But technology doesn't stand still. MILTON, which was conceived some time ago, has been joined by WIMAX, a long-distance high-capacity networking technology being heavily pushed by chip manufacturer Intel. WIMAX also is being tested in India, putting MILTON under pressure.

Mr. Chan says he believes MILTON has advantages over its rival, including the ability to increase capacity by connecting antennas together in a mesh configuration. Nevertheless, the industry standardization of WIMAX has prompted the CRC to modify the MILTON technology to enable it to work with WIMAX equipment, which is expected to be ready within a year, Mr. Chan says. The CRC is working with Dorval, Que.-based Wavesat, which makes electronic components used by equipment that enables PCs to connect to WIMAX links.

Michel Guay, chief executive of Wavesat, also is working with C-DOT to make its implementation of the MILTON technology compatible with his WIMAX equipment. Mr. Guay has already sold a reference design to C-DOT that allows them to test and build trial systems. He hopes the agency will use the reference design as a springboard to build equipment quickly, licensing his designs to private companies locally to get broadband access into rural areas. "If that materializes, it means that we will sell thousands or millions of chips to them," he says. His expectations are for the percentage of his revenues coming from the Indian market to rise to 15% from 10%.

The conditions seem right for such investments. According to the Confederation of Indian industry, the country has just 2.8 telephone lines per 100 people, compared with a global average of 11 per 100 people, and a U.S. density of 50 for every 100 people. The Indian Ministry of Communications and Infrastructure Technology estimates 20 million people in India will have broadband access by 2010. In a country with a population of more than one billion, the second largest in the world after China, that leaves a lot of breathing space.

"The first phase of deployment within the next year will be rural, because there is nothing else they can use," Mr. Guay says. "That will allow us to ramp up revenue and volume, and when the volume goes up the price goes down." That will make it possible to provide WIMAX connections at a similar cost to conventional telephone based broadband connections, he says, which opens up opportunities for urban deployments.

Nevertheless, rolling out wireless communications to rural areas presents unique challenges. For one, ethnographers from Intel's laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., who have studied working practices in India, suggest villages tend to share equipment to reduce costs, using community PCs in kiosks. Mr. Guay counters that more rural workers are commuting to cities, increasing disposable income and creating a market for personal computers in villages.

Another challenge is that power supply to villages is notoriously poor, and can often fail for hours at a time. Mr. Guay says antennas will likely be fitted with backup batteries to keep them working in the event of an outage. Emerging markets represent social and technical challenges that are difficult to anticipate, but businesses are starting to embrace these challenges. The result could be an accelerated modernization of developing economies as they leapfrog existing analog systems, diving headlong into the digital age.

INDIA SUMMIT
Government involvement can be a big help when forging technology alliances between countries. Next week, Industrial Trade Canada is organizing its 11th Summit to focus on developing science and technology links between Canada and India. The Canadian government is providing exhibition spaces at its pavilion in New Delhi to help with networking opportunities.

"This initiative presents a key opportunity for Canada to demonstrate its serious commitment to promoting the Canada-India S&T relationship. The ultimate goal is the commercialization of research and development," says Andrew Hannan, a spokesman for the event. Themes will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, sustainable energy and rural connectivity. The Communications Research Centre will have someone on hand to discuss the microwave light organized network, or MILTON, technology. The federal government's 2005 budget allocated $20-million for five years to support such alliances with India and other countries.

For more on the summit go to www.infoexport.gc.ca/science/india_techsummit-en.htm