Get Ready To Lose Your Wires

With an ever-changing landscape and need for strong technological skillsets,
wireless opportunity continues to be a challenging, yet profitable segment for
solution providers. Some evident trends are that of partners deploying more WiFi
related projects and also service providers getting keener to set up WiFi zones.

Triggered by a need to be connected most of the time, individuals as well as
organizations are becoming more and more adaptive to wireless technology.
Introduction of new technologies and standards is a part of wireless game.
Undoubtedly, it is a profitable area for solution providers, if they address it
properly.

At present, there are hundreds of WiFi (for wireless fidelity, based on IEEE
802.11 short-range networking technology) hotspots, short for a public wireless
Internet access center dotting the Indian sub-continent at places like the
hotels, airports, coffee chains and even some railway stations. Hotspots are
usually located in major cities where wireless mobile users are likely to
congregate.

While Internet technology companies like Sify are involved in setting up WiFi
zones, solution providers or systems integrators can look at ways to enhance the
implementation part to provide overall wireless experience to a user.

What's in it for partners?

With WiFi becoming a standard feature in nearly every laptop, solution
providers are looking for ways to capitalize on this rapidly growing market. One
way is to create and integrate wireless applications that can be bundled either
with any mobile device.

As hot-spot locations grow, wireless networking has begun appealing to SOHO customers and smaller businesses, who are just reaching a comfort level with this technology

In many cases, independent operators collaborate with carriers and/or large
service providers or solution providers to provide mobile users with a
combination of universal access and local services. The technology's low-fuss,
low-cost installation and ease-of-use means hotspot locations enjoy a low entry
barrier.

WiFi is fast becoming the industry standard for wireless networking and is
being used in homes and businesses to unlock the immense potential of networks
and provide more flexibility to an organization's productivity chart. It has
been presented as opening up a number of interesting possibilities because of
the way this technology is designed to touch the end-customer.

"There are several ways where a wireless application-driven business
model can be used to generate revenue. Solution providers should start looking
towards integrating different applications at the wireless level,"
explained, Tanmoy Majumdar, Director of New Delhi-based Team Computers. The
company has clearly defined wireless as one of the key areas for its operations
in the near future and is already engaged in implementing and designing two
wireless-focused projects.

FMCG companies like HLL or ITC are already engaged in giving wireless wings
to different applications. Suddenly there is a lot of stuff happening with PDAs
as they are ready—to-use wireless devices. "PDAs are best in this case,
as they are being used in a lot of sales force automation applications. So these
kind of wireless packages are driving solution providers to further facilitate
wireless proliferation in this region," Tanmoy adds on.

WiFi at public places

In public places, WiFi provides consumers and business travelers with
wireless Internet access at broadband speeds. Its adoption is accelerating as
manufacturers such as HP, Intel, Sony, Toshiba and others are equipping laptops,
PDAs and other electronic devices for wireless network connections. There are
already millions of devices in a variety of different styles and formats-looking
for WiFi networks to latch on to.

Opportunity at the solution provider level arises in the form of implementing
wirelessly productive solutions for IT and even non-IT companies. With the
Indian FMCG sector opening up to IT, solution providers and systems integrators
can look forward to a lot of wireless action on this front.

WiFi also seems to be having a spin-off effect. As hot spot locations grow,
wireless networking is starting to appeal to consumers and smaller businesses,
who are just starting to reach a comfort level with the technology now.

Wimax: Mobility's next stop

Moving forward, Wimax proposes to be the next frontier as far as high-speed
mobility is concerned. With global majors like Intel betting high on the new
wireless broadband standard-the Wimax forum has aligned an excellent breed of
large and small companies. This will be a critical factor in the technology's
enduring success.

Even though there are a number of hurdles that must be overcome for mobile
Wimax to take off, the sheer excitement of wirelessly connecting far-flung areas
of the country has seen telecom majors like BSNL testing and running Wimax
technology at some of their strategically identified locations in India.

"Timing, pricing and scale will be critical to Wimax success. Vendors
must prove that Wimax can deliver much more than basic broadband. It does hold a
lot of potential when it comes to connecting far-off areas in a country like
India, but the standard is still not fully developed. So, it will take a while
before we see actual Wimax products," explains, Deepak Maheshwari, GM
Corporate Affairs at Sify.

Despite these obstacles, there are some interesting dynamics that could play
out to make service providers invest in mobile Wimax. As the war heats up
between telcos and cable companies, triple and quadruple play service bundles
are becoming critical. Solution providers and systems integrators can play a
vital role by developing key skill sets in these areas and in the way aligning
themselves with the telecom community.  

ZIA ASKARI