Bangalore is the ‘second’ global headquarters of Cisco Systems after San Jose, with a fifth of its leadership parked. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco India & Saarc, spoke to DNA about the importance of local manufacturing and also the network equipment giant’s new investments in cable digitisation and 4G.
What are some of the innovations to come out of this centre that have helped Cisco in India and worldwide?
Some of the products that we have developed here include the BE 3000, a new unified communications solution for small- and mid-sized businesses and the ASR 901, a router aimed at helping operators reduce backhaul operating costs and supporting a variety of mobile network technologies such as GSM, CDMA, UMTS and WiMax. Cisco has also been chosen for a cable digitisation project across Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, for which we have tied up with Gujarat Telelinks. As part of this digitisation programme, Gujarat Telelinks will deploy more than 300,000 next-generation digital set-top boxes from Cisco over the next 12 months in these markets. We are seeing good demand for these products both in India and across other developed markets.
How many patents has the Indian operations generated for Cisco since inception?
Cisco has filed for 645 patents as part of its India operations so far, and it has received 396 since 1998, and these have been contributed by Indian techies.
What are the deals you are doing with Reliance Communications?
We recently completed a new mobile network for Reliance Communications, which will cover 100,000 square kilometres — the largest pan-India 3G deployment. RCom’s complete 3G network, from the cell sites to the data centre, is supported by Cisco technology. This network, based on Cisco’s MOVE architecture, will enable RCom to develop and deliver, on a large scale, highly personalised and customised mobile multimedia services with superior quality and reliability. This architecture empowers mobile operators to better manage, enhance and take financial advantage of the rapidly growing volume of mobile data traffic. With this new network, which is now live, RCom’s customers are able to experience high-quality video telephony and high-speed mobile data, along with enhanced music downloads, instant messaging and online gaming.
You deploy both 3G and 4G networks. How different are the two? What can a consumer gain from 4G that he can’t from 3G?
Mobile operators are deploying broadband network technologies such as 3G, enhanced 3G and now the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) to meet user expectations of speed in an increasingly mobile, wireless environment. Designated as 4G, or fourth generation, LTE is expected to provide multi-megabit bandwidth, more efficient use of the radio network, latency reduction and improved mobility. This is expected to enhance subscriber interaction with the network and further drive the demand for mobile multimedia services. 4G is designed to enable high-speed internet anytime, anywhere. It will facilitate higher bandwidth, higher data rate, and will support a higher level of user-level customisation. With wireless broadband, people can access internet services such as online television, blogging, social networking, and interactive gaming easily on the go. 4G will also allow users to stream mobile multimedia with speeds of up to 10 times that of 3G technology. Cisco has 4G-ready technology for the Indian market and we are currently in talks with RIL and a few others to roll out these services in the next six months.
Your earlier attempts to sell set-top boxes in India did not succeed. What happened and what’s the plan now as cable TV digitises?
We are working closely with leading cable service providers across India to enable them to digitise their networks, such as with You Telecom in the Mumbai area. We have also earlier announced our engagement with Gujarat Telelinks to facilitate digitisation across the four above-mentioned states.
What about your stuff for small enterprises?
There has been a clear change in the attitude of small businesses who now view IT investment as a strategic decision enabling them to fulfil their business needs. Small business is a key focus area for us and it has consistently grown to contribute a significant portion to our business in the country. Cisco has a total of over 2,000 partners in India, with about 1,200 catering to the small and medium business market. Cisco’s revenues from small business have increased four-fold over the last two years. We have also invested heavily to develop products that are designed to meet their needs and also offer flexibility to scale up when required.
What’s Cisco’s plan for this year?
We are confident that despite global challenges, enterprises in India will continue to invest in IT. Next year, we expect to gain increased momentum in areas such as enterprise and public sector by expanding our coverage to Tier II and III cities. Also, as the network increasingly becomes a platform to deliver a variety of services, opportunities are opening up for us in non-traditional sectors such as oil & gas and manufacturing. Additionally, we expect our commercial (SMB) business to see continued growth. For telecom, we plan to drive broadband in the country from a service provider’s perspective and integrate video and data into the same.
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