Motorola CTO bets on WiMax to connect the 'disconnected'

Padmasree Warrior, Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer of the $35-billion US telecom giant Motorola, is in India 'To Connect the Unconnected'. She believes a quarter of of the next billion people that would be connected over mobile networks would be from the emerging markets of India and China.

Rated as the one of the four most influential women executives in the world by both Fortune and Forbes magazines, Warrior is betting on 4G (short for fourth-generation, the successor wireless access technology to 3G that describes several different, but overlapping ideas) and WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access which is faster and covers a bigger distance than Wi-Fi) technologies to connect and empower India "� especially its rural segments.

She believes mobile phones will be the key drivers as their penetration is much higher than personal computers (PC). "Mobile phones will be the devices that most people will use to connect to the Net, rather than a PC, as the ratio of cell penetration is much higher. Over 80 per cent of lines in the world are for mobile services, while the PC penetration stands at only around 20 per cent," says Warrior.

It would be a mobile device that would bring Internet to the masses, rather than a wired device like the PC, she stresses, adding, wireless broadband access is where WiMax will play the role. Even though Wi-Fi can be used for providing connectivity in relatively smaller areas, for a wider area like the rural sector, WiMax is the most cost-effective. It uses a different kind of air-interface and is more spectra-efficient than 3G technologies.

Motorola has a proprietary wireless broadband solution, Canopy, and the company is now testing it in Rajasthan. "We are conducting WiMax tests and will have commercial systems in place by next year," she said. On the technology adoption in the country, Warrior feels that the traditional evolution of cellular technologies might be happen in the country, as there is every possibility of India leapfroging to 4G.

"There is a traditional evolution of cellular technology that is from 2G to 2.5G and 3G, or like GSM to CDMA to HSPDA and EvDO among others. However, for developing countries like India it makes sense to bypass 3G and move over to 4G," she said. The company is also planning to launch its Motofone series of handsets in India, targeting the mass market segment. The series, priced below Rs 2,000, will be launched by the end of this month or by the end of December.

On the future technologies, Warrior opines that a convergence of fixed and mobile telecom lines is in the offing. A hetrogenous network "� different protocols of network working on a single platform "� will emerge that will help in functioning of multi-mode, multi-functional devices. "I call this seamless mobility," she concludes.