Nortel and India's Chhattisgarh State Enhance State - Wide Communications With WiMAX

RAIPUR, India - Nortel is teaming with the Chhattisgarh State Government to modernize its communications infrastructure through a new, high-bandwidth State Wide Area Network (SWAN) which will - for the first time - connect all the departments of the state. The Chhattisgarh SWAN (CG SWAN) is a hybrid network with a mix of wireless and wireline access supporting voice, data and video traffic. It will be one of the largest fixed WiMAX deployments in the country for e-government, providing access to 3,000 locations in the State.

The CGSWAN will also serve as the backbone for various state departments to deploy IT-related applications for the public. Central to the Government of India's National e-Governance Plan are Common Services Centers (CSCs) set up in easily accessible areas to enable people to conduct all their government-related work. The various citizen-facing services under all the departments of the State are made available under one roof in such centers, providing easy access to services such as applying for birth certificates, land use records or business certification while also allowing people to track the status of their application online.

The SWAN will provide intra-department as well as inter-department connectivity and access to all departments under the State Government. For example, not only will the Regional Transport Offices (RTO) be connected across the State, but they can also be connected to the Police department. If there is a vehicle used in a crime, the police department can instantly access the details of the owner of the vehicle, residing within the RTO, resulting in swift action against the offender.

Improved data sharing among different departments of the government enabled by SWAN will lead to better monitoring and evaluation of Government programs as well as a more effective, efficient and transparent administration. e-Government for citizens will also be greatly improved through real-time access to information reducing the needs for multiple visits and time consuming, paper-based approvals.

"With SWAN, we will be able to connect our offices not just at the headquarters level, but right down to the local administration levels even in remote, inaccessible areas," says Aman Singh, chief executive officer, Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS). CHiPS is a division of the Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Chhattisgarh.

CHiPS selected Nortel's WiMAX-based last-mile connectivity over competing WLAN solutions as the most cost-effective and simple to deploy high-performance solution available. "WiMAX is a proven technology for providing reliable communications and access across rough terrains and remote areas that are difficult to serve with conventional wireless or wireline technologies. We estimate we will save close to 30 percent over five years compared to a WLAN solution," says Singh. "WiMAX is also based on open standards, which is key to the government's e-governance vision to implement platforms that offer interoperability."
Nortel's wireless network ensures faster roll out in the State which has thick forest cover and other inaccessible locations. The wireless network doesn't require laying expensive cables with extensive digging. The network will cover all the locations in the state for the last mile through fewer cell sites which means the rollout will be faster with WiMAX while ensuring lower total cost of ownership.

"CHiPS was impressed by Nortel's successful WiMAX implementation in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura which faced some of the same problems of providing high-bandwidth access to the government offices across large and rough terrains where wired network is not an option," says Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India. "We will do the same for CHiPS with a network implementation that will transform the process of Government communications for the roughly 20 million citizens of the state."

The new network will deliver high speed access to remote locations which currently lack any Internet connectivity. The solution for CGSWAN consists of Nortel's Communication Server 1000 (CS1000) for IP Telephony, Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 8600s , 5500s and 2500s , Business Access Points (BAP) 120 and Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 1060 and ProST from the WiMAX portfolio .

WiMAX is the better answer for unpaired spectrum (TDD); LTE applies most of the same technology (and then some) to paired spectrum (FDD). LTE is thus a better fit for the voice-oriented mobile networks; they have a lot of money, and are preparing for a big move to LTE starting with trials next year or so. WiMAX will remain a niche market, mostly for data applications, often fixed or nomadic rather than mobile. That's smaller and has less money behind it, so it is not worth Nortel's time being a small player. It doesn't mean that WiMAX is dead; it's just not going to be huge.

WiMAX and LTE are 4G cousins. The only diference is that mobile WiMAX has been successful in Korea, and fixed WiMAX is prevalent in mountainous Asian countries, while LTE seems to hit the market in 2012. There is no comparison between a baby born (WiMAX) and a fetus(LTE). Over 85% is overlapped in both technologies, and chances are LTE may be merged into WiMAX later on. That's why technology giants, like Nokia, Samsung, LG are supportive of both. Simply put, companies behind LTE are defering 4G until 2012 or looking for a timely chance to switch to WiMAX. Over 500 firms are behind WiMAX, while it is yet to be known how many are behind LTE.

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