Forget 3G, concentrate on 4G/ Negroponte
K Yatish Rajawat
December 28, 2001
INDIAN wireless telecom service providers should bypass the much hyped third generation technology and instead focus on fourth generation technology, according to Nicholas Negroponte, chairman Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In an exclusive interview with ET, Negroponte said: 'The current 3G technology will not be able to deliver the benefits or revenues for cellular operators. They should not invest in it and instead look at leapfrogging technology.'
In India, 2G networks are still being built and money has not been wasted in buying 3G licenses as a result of which upgradation to 3G is not required. Instead, Indian telecom companies should look at 4G as a solution, Negroponte says.
Fourth generation telecom networks are still in the R&D stage and even the standards for them has not been finalised.
According to Negorponte, 3G technology is incomplete in several ways. One, there are still too many competing 3G standards. Secondly, it is not completely based on internet protocol technology.
'It is not an IP based technology. Most of the 3G networks are still switched networks disguising themselves as packet networks,' he added.
Traditionally, telecom networks are called switched networks and this limits their use in the internet world as they are not flexible enough to andle the always on connectivity needed for the internet.
Low cost of usage and independence of time and distance for carrying data and voice is the hallmark of internet networks. This was supposed to be replicated in the 3G wireless network.
According to Negroponte, this has not happened so far. Moreover, because operators are pushing vendors to deliver the equipment faster as they need to amortize their license cost, it may not happen either.
'The 4G networks will need to have the following characteristics: pure IP network, software downloadable radios and broader bandwidth,' according to Negroponte.
Software downloadable radios are networks which are capable of downloading their standards into handsets. This will help in bypassing the problem of multiple standards of networks.
For instance, a roaming subscriber will download the network standard of the country it is in instead of changing the handset. This is expected to solve the problems of multiple network standards currently present in 3G technology.
According to Mr Negroponte, another crucial issue 4G will have to address are ethernet wireless standards. ' It has to be friendly to the ethernet wireless standards like 802.11 as they will become increasingly common in the coming years.'
An ethernet wireless standard called 802.11 has become very popular in the US and Europe as it uses unlicensed spectrum and provides broadband wireless connectivity. Currently, its range is limited but it can be extended with stronger radios.
According to Negroponte, ethernet wireless networks are coming up all over the developed countries. Sooner or later these networks will start overlapping and a continuous wireless broadband network will evolve.
'This is very interesting as it delivers almost everything that 3G claims but is still a data network,' he added
This technology has not been supported by the telecom operators as it is in the unlicensed spectrum. Even the 3G networks do not interface or talk to this network. This problem will be addressed only in the 4G networks.
Negorponte was bullish on ethernet being used by India to access remote or congested areas instead of using fibre optic network.
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