‘Our focus is to understand operators’ problems at a deeper level’

Shriraj Gaglani, Head, Global Business Development Organization for Broadcom, is responsible for partnering and managing the relationships with carriers and stakeholders involved in the ICT ecosystem. In a candid chat with Voice&Data, he speaks in length about India plans and factors that will propel growth in the country.

Voice&Data: How much important is it for telecom operators today to upgrade their backhaul network?
Shriraj Gaglani: It is very important for somebody interested in the problem of broadband access over cellular networks to understand that it’s not only spectral efficiency of 2G versus 3G or 3G versus 4G. But it is also very important that the backhaul network from a cellular base station to the core of the internet is speed match to accommodate faster spectral speeds.
So, you could upgrade to 4G but if your backhaul network is not upgraded from 2G designed network the user is not going to get the benefit of the higher spectral efficiency.
The demand for voice is so much than the demand for data that everybody runs around spectrum just to handle voice calls. So, they get the 3G spectrum and allocate that to where the demand is higher which is voice while a person may optimize it for data as well.
So again, I think people like to view India as 1.2-billion market but all 1.2 billion don’t want the data, use the data or can pay for the data as a result, the the service providers have to optimize their infrastructure spends and align with where they see the demand.

Voice&Data: What type of plans do you have for India?
Shriraj Gaglani: We are very active in India for the last 10-12 years. We have very large R&D center in India and then we have been growing our sales, marketing as well as customer support in the country.
Our focus is to understand at a deep level the kind of problems operators have in India, the desires their customer may have and then come up with the right technical solutions and provide these operators with the right channel partners so that they can bring a solution that is tailor-made for the Indian market.

Voice&Data: What type of solutions do you offer at this point of time?
Shriraj Gaglani: We provide a lot of service provider, network technology that are used in Indian networks today. Things like optical fiber networks, etc. We have the largest footprint of DSL ports shipped in India at present. Set-top box is a huge focus area for us and we are the leaders in the set-top box space globally.
And then in the near term over the next 12-24 months, we want focus heavily on last mile technologies because we believe that an investment to build a robust core network in India is already underway but the problems are going to occur in connecting all these users and million and billions of things to the internet and it’s the last mile that’s going to be the problem.
So, finding innovative ways by leveraging our wireless portfolio, by leveraging our fiber portfolio, by leveraging our small cell portfolio, by leveraging our DSL portfolio and tailoring it to solve India’s last mile problem is the key focus area for us.
Innovations on the cards...
For rural India, we are experimenting with a long distance Wi-Fi solution that allows you to run the Wi-Fi in kms instead of few hundred meters. We are working with local partners to design solutions that would enable that.
I think this would be very important to keep cost down but we need to make sure that access density is maintained in rural India otherwise you may get access around the gram panchayat building but the other dwellings may not get it because you don’t have the reach.

Voice&Data: Who are the operators you are currently working with in India?
Shriraj Gaglani: I think it would be premature to discuss the ongoing relationship with them but we know there are many operators who are building national optical networks, who are building large scale cellular networks, backhaul networks etc.
We are working with all of them and all of them will able to enjoy this innovation that we are working on as we propose solutions as per the feedback we receive from the market.

Voice&Data: What’s your take on the ‘Make in India’ campaign of the government?
Shriraj Gaglani: Broadcom is very supportive of the ‘Make in India’ policy. There are local manufacturers who want to take advantage of our technology portfolio and the knowhow we have about the local requirements.
And then provide the solutions, provide the business, provide the service to these operators and the end users and we are very happy to support them.

Voice&Data: How was the Consumers Electronics Show (CES) this year?
Shriraj Gaglani: CES was very interesting this year. Nobody was talking about smartphones, which indicates that major innovations in smartphones are probably behind us now. And now innovations that would happen in smartphones would be very incremental. I believe we are in the age of optimization as far as smartphone technology is concerned. The entire focus was on automotive and Internet of Things.

Voice&Data: What are the factors that would drive growth in India?
Shriraj Gaglani: We don’t do lot of direct business in India. The areas that will see major growth for Broadcom in India are:
1. Last mile technologies both for wired and wireless because you cannot have all solution fit all cases. So that’s a major growth area for us.
2. The other growth area is 4G and the effect it will have on other operators. At some point, operators like Rjio and Airtel will deploy it and when they deploy it, I believe they are likely to come up with some disruptive business models to enter the market and the rest of the market, the incumbents today will also be motivated to start upgrading their capabilities in order to stay competitive. So, we see 4G as the key to our long plans here.
3. I want to highlight one more area that is key to Broadcom’s growth and that is trying to create this micro or cottage industry of IoT in India.
We have developed very simple platform called Wiced for that. The Wiced platform allows to quickly turn any device into an internet connected device.
Voice&Data: What are the problems related to cable digitization in India?
Shriraj Gaglani: The cable market today is dominated by many small businesses who find it difficult to position themselves to new technology.
They have technical challenges, they have financial challenges, and so because of that it’s taking a little bit longer time than the industry had anticipated for digitization.

Voice&Data: What types of challenges are there when it comes to doing business in India?
Shriraj Gaglani: The big challenge is that India is viewed as a single market but it’s not a single market but it’s a segmented market. It’s segmented by price points, regional preferences; it’s segmented often by regulations which are different in different places. The challenge is to understand these segments and position the business appropriately for these segments.