"WiFi is not a technology for India"

How did it all begin for you at

Unifiedgateways?


Unifiedgateways was incubated in Indian

Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) in 1999-2000. It is a

five-member product company. It all began with the idea that we

should have no more than one cable attached to our televisions, no

matter where we watch it from. We tried WiFi during 1999-2000;

however, it too failed because of bandwidth constrictions and issues

such as that WiFi can not cross walls.

However, today we have technologies

such as beamforming from Ruckus or even Cisco, so signals do not get

blocked because of walls...


I agree Ruckus works; however, at what

price? You get an access point at a feasible price. However, in order

to convert a non-WiFi board to a WiFi board is very expensive for any

business.

So when did you think powerline

could be an alternative?


When we saw even WiFi did not deliver

the way we actually thought it to be, we thought of going for the

concept of data over powerline. However, back then the powerline

technology was not very evolved and could cater to only three to four

Mbps. So, a few years later, when powerline

technology started giving a throughput of 14 to 85Mbps, we decided to

take the plunge and came out with our first product, capable of

200Mbps data speed for both Ethernet and WiFi.

Can you tell us more about your

products?


Today, we hold a global patent for the

concept of sending television signals over powerline. We have been

trying it with various DTH providers. With our technology we can

provide 10 times more definition than what is being provided today.

Though Tata was not ready to believe us, we are still pursuing them. We

are also in talks with Airtel for

the past one year. We have come across many digital signage TVs,

which have a complete set of PCs and TVs. These PCs have a

configuration of 340 GB HD, 3GB RAM, windows XP and they cost Rs

48,000. However, what it does is dumb job of converting Ethernet

signals to TV compatible signals.

We also have a patent for another

product, which railways can use for data transfer over 23kb line.

Railways need not lay additional fiber in order to go wireless. As of

now, we are trying this product with both the Malaysian and Indian

Railways, for about four to five km range. We also have products with

500 Mbps at 1GB for both Ethernet and WiFi.

Why Ethernet and WiFi, when you talk

of powerline?


Powerline will co-exist with WiFi.

Today, whichever device you take, whether it is a laptop or a PC, it

is either going to be on a Cat 5 connection, ie Ethernet, or WiFi.

Today my customers want a WiFi

connection as well. So, though we send data over powerline, we have

to be compatible with existing systems. So we give powerline in and

WiFi out. So, ultimately you will have a DSL line coming into home or

apartment. However, this DSL cannot be available at every point at

home. Therefore, what we do is put a DSL line and take it on the

powerline. Now that you have put it on the

powerline, you need to convert it to something compatible with PC or

laptop, ie Ethernet or WiFi. So, we have powerline to Ethernet and

powerline to WiFi converters for this. With powerline you can deploy it

in the

existing cable itself in less time. It saves time, copper and money

(our product deployment amount ranges from Rs 2000 to Rs 8000).

So far, there is no much traction

for BPL technology in India. How do you look at this?


The powerline technology did not have a

standard till 2008. There will be more traction in future as we see

an increased level of interest among businesses to try this out. We

have already 28 customers across India, including Prestige Gold

Share, Spar Hypermarket, Gopalan Mall, Total Mall in Bangalore,

Central Power Institute in Hyderabad, two clients in Pune, and one in

Tanzania.

Lots have been written on BPL that

it is a dead technology. What is yout take on this?


Yes, it is called a dead technology in

Australia, the US, and in many other places too. In the US powerline

has always been looked at as an access technology. That means you

have an access point, which is usually a transformer, from where

signals are passed to the end point. Every transformer should have

aggregator box, which will cost close to $10,000. In the US they have

only four or five customers per transformer. That is why the cost per

consumer is very high, at $250. Whereas in Europe or India, we have

close to 120 customers per transformer, so the cost will be

comparatively less.


However, even today Indian

technologists believe that anything that does not work in the US will

not work anywhere else. But this is not the case always. So the

notion that BPL would not work in India is prevalent in India as

well. WiFi works very well in the US conditions, as they have wooden

walls, whereas in India it does not. WiFi is not a technology for

India.

We should have our own technology that

works for us. The Chinese Government has passed a regulation, a year

back, making BPL a de facto technology, for energy meters.

How is the data carried over

powerline or transformers?


Data is carried over a typical 50 Hz or

60 Hz (hertz) cables. Even today there is no technology that can

transfer data through a transformer. Transformer is a DC block, so

one has to bypass the transformer by either laying an Ethernet cable

or WiFi link around the transformer, which makes it even more

expensive for the US conditions.


Moreover, Access BPL is yet to be

ratified. We expect it to be ratified in 2011 and once it is, we

might get into it as well. We are into the in-home BPL space, which

has been ratified in 2009, IEEE P1901 and ITU-T Ghn.

To what extent can the BPL signals

pass through a powerline?


Theoretically 200 meters, assuming that

there will be a lot of load and noise over the line. It can even go

up to 400 to 500 m in ideal conditions.

What is the difference between

Access and in-home BPL?


In-home BPL is something that can be

used within a closed area, such as a campus, home, mall or even a

street (200 m). Whereas, as I said, you have a substation for Access

technology, from where the signal travels to the end user, such as in

WiMAX, or GSM technologies.

How secure are these powerlines?


For an average hacker it will take at

least a year to hack the data. So far, we have seen only 64-bit

encryption in any wireless technology. Although WiFi is now coming

out with 128 bit encryption, we already provide 128-bit encryption,

be it either on AES link encryption or Network Membership Key (NMK).

We have also patents in it.

Does this technology work in all

voltage situations?


We have tested our products for 80 to

300 V and it works. We have also tested them for 7,000 V

successfully. We have both CE and SSE certified products. You can

work it in the US (110 Kb) as well as Indian systems (230 Kb). We

have chipsets close to 15 million nodes.

What is the main challenge that you

see in the market today?


The major challenges are lack of

acceptance and awareness. Businesses are generally not aware of the

existence of powerline technology. Although it has been there since

2009, no one used it. A decade back technologists have discouraged

WiFi, saying it would not survive. However, WiFi is very popular

today. Similarly, people are very averse to this new technology. We

had even gone to the extent of explaining things from the scrap and

today wherever we have deployed our solutions, we seeing a trend of

acceptance.

What is your target for the next

couple of years?


Although we are yet to make our first

million, we are targeting Rs 100 to 150 million business in the next

five to six years. The addressable market is so huge that even if

there are competitors in future, we will have our piece of the cake.

Right now we prefer to be a B2B

company, because being a start-up we will not be able to cater to the

consumer market as of now. Somewhere down the line we might move to

the B2C as well. Today, we rather believe in making India depend on

our intellectual property rather than building on someone else's IP.