Ulf Ewaldsson, vice-president and global head of product area radio, Ericsson, says the firm plans to bring two new technologies ? boomer cells and hybrid power base transceiver station ? to India to cater to requirements of telecom operators. In an exclusive interaction with Rachana Khanzode, he spoke about how Ericsson is firming up to capture the expected telecom equipment market expansion in India with 3G auctions. He also shares his view on the HSPA market and how the firm continues to invest into R&D operations. Excerpts: ?
How are you gearing up to support the telecom equipment demand after the 3G auctions?
Currently, we have a 40% market share in India. With the entrance of new players and 3G auctions expected to happen soon, there is going to be a massive 3G rollout in India. We are gearing up huge competency in this market and are working around the business, like introducing new applications, platforms, payment systems and other initiatives towards the operator market. The special focus is to bag big orders for the mobile broadband. We see huge opportunity developing in this market in the next five years. ???
Are there any specific solutions that you intend to launch in India with 3G auctions happening soon?
Yes, we intend to bring two new solutions into this market. We want to introduce the boomer cells that can bring connectivity up to 100 km and built good coverage. Bigger the cell, fewer the base station requirement to get seamless connectivity. We have implemented them in more matured markets like Australia. In India, it makes no business case for broadband without boomer cells. With boomer cells upgrade we expect at least 30% reduction in base station sites. ??
The second initiative is the power saving base transceiver station (BTS) that is run through software that maximises the use of diesel. The BTS needs to run at a certain speed in a bid to get a return on diesel and it could be modified for shorter durations. We expect 20% savings on diesel fuel. It is an important application because operators spend about 40% of their operational costs to support sites. Besides the hybrid power solutions, we are also looking at solutions to support the high-density urban markets. This could be by deploying more radio heads, apart from base stations, that built a high-capacity area.??
The government is cautious about Chinese vendors in India. Do you see getting more market share due to this?
We haven?t lost any market share to Chinese vendors in India. We continue to provide services to every operator with strong ground force and competency for pan-India coverage. We continue to invest into research and development despite the global slowdown. Last year, we invested about 15-20% of our Swedish pound 208 billion revenues.?
How do you see the HSPA (high speed packet access) market in India?
Globally, there are 15 million subscribers of HSPA and it has brought amazing changes in the US, China, south-east Asia and Indonesia and Africa. In India, we expect the local manufacturing to happen for HSPA.