One can see Ashok Jhunjhunwala in his professor?s room in the department of electrical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. The room and the building are both quite unprepossessing. But Jhunjunwala?s work and contribution to the Indian telecom industry is more than impressive. The Padmashri is just one of the many awards which have come his way. Among other things, he is a member of the Prime Miniser?s Scientific Advisory Committee. He is also on the board of innumerable companies, including Tata Telecom.
Jhunjhunwala leads the telecommunications and computer networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. This group works closely with the industry in the development of a number of telecommunications and computer network systems and has incubated quite a few technology companies to develop world class telecom access products. TeNet has also guided the incubation of firms that have developed wireless technologies for these next-generation networks.
When the government is still grappling with the issue of 3G spectrum, he feels the country should move on to 4G. ?We have a reasonable number of telecom operators. Some are very strong, and some are just about hanging in there. As the number of telecom subscribers is growing rapidly, the average revenue per user (Arpu) is going down in an equal proportion. By moving to 3G, a few more applications are available to a mobile user. However, you can?t call it a substantial improvement. But will it bring about significant revenue increase to the operator? In the West, 3G worked because the Arpu is higher. But in India, whether an Arpu of Rs 200 per month will be cost-effective, rem,ains to be seen. We can prolong 3G till the next five years. On the other hand, we can introduce 4G in the next two years, which is a major leap over 3G. While 3G is definitely a move forward, it should?t be used to slow down 4G,? says Jhunjhunwala.
Under his and Bhaskar Ramamurthy?s stewardship, the CeWit (Centre for Excellence in Wireless Technology) is working on creating patents and pushing them into standards for next generation products. Several inroads have been made into 4G technology. This rather low key operation (the telecom world knows all about it) started work three years ago. ?We wanted to create public private partnerships, IPRs, international standards and attract talent. We are a late entrant to the IPR scene. It was a slow beginning, but we have started making considerable headway?, says Jhunjunwala.
It is not easy to make a breakthrough in the world of highly lucrative telecom IPRs. That India is one of the world?s largest telecom markets has helped. All standard making bodies are driven by big MNCs like Ericson, Alcatel, Nokia, Quallcom, China?s Huawei, Samsung and chipmaker Intel. ?We made a beginning using our strength as a customer. We had been creating scientific linkages. We have moved step by step. The objective is to ensure that India does not have to pay any royalty for 4G wireless IPRs in the future to foreign players. ?
The other area the team is working on is mobile payment. According to Jhunjhunwala, this can make a huge difference .The cost of cash will come down and cash movement will be easily traceable. No payments are involved for the customer. ?We had to bring four players together, the telecom industry, banks and financial institutions, technology, and the government. It took us 18 months to bring all the four, who were at odds with each other, together. The Hyderabad-based IDRBT (RBI?s IT institution) took the initiative. Both the RBI and the government were interested in the rural angle.? There were RBI issues which had to be understood. Know your customer (KYC) is an important part of the operation. Mobile payment has to guard against money laundering, and provide sufficient protection for the final transaction.
?The project had to work with these considerations. Our efforts are yielding results,? says Jhunjhunwala, adding that, ?transferring money shouldn?t be any more complicated than making a call. May be we will have to add voice authentication. In any case we will be ready in 18 to 24 months.?
A couple of years ago, the TeNet group had branched of into yet another project, the RTBI (Rural Technology and Business Incubator). RTBI has already incubated over 20 companies, ten of which cater to the needs of rural technology. To give an example, one of the companies incubated by RTBI, DesiCrew, provides back office solutions through competent rural workforce. It has digitised18,75,000 pages, traced 1,00,000 kms of roads on maps and answered 20,000 mobile-user queries in its short existence. It has 80 resources, temporary staff strength of over 1500, services in 3 languages, 6 offices and 3 awards. TeNet and its offshoots see the future as an inclusive one, providing opportunities for the underprivileged and the rural young.