One of the greatest challenges of the Information Age is to harness the expanding power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and deliver it in support of telecommunications: providing access to reliable, affordable telephony services and bridging the digital divide to offer Internet and many value-added services to the rural inhabitants. There is no denying the fact that telecommunications has transformed the world. But, in the rural areas, businesses, farms, and residents alike are still waiting for decent telephone and Internet services. Thousands of people in the remote areas are simply beyond the reach of terrestrial infrastructure.
Mostly, the economics of DSL costs prevents telecom operators from deploying rural telephony. Other consumers, small businesses, local branches of large corporations and remote government offices rely on an outdated analog infrastructure that cannot deliver Internet, or does so at a very low speed.In the remote areas where the infrastructure is scarce and expensive, the teledensity is pathetic and the costs of deploying wired-line solutions are simply enormous.
The Packet Shaper Technologies’ approach for proliferating Internet telephony by deploying Soft Switch and WiMAX technology is an ideal cost-effective solution for the full range of modern rural telephony needs. Why Soft Switch and WiMAX technologies? First and foremost, the Soft Switch brings switching from the telecom domain to the “data” domain on a standard platform with bundled advantages, of a big NO to hard constraints of traditional switches and large-scale expensive deployments and with an ease in application development and maintenance.
While WiMAX technology provides a right mix of bandwidth and economies of scale, WiMAX base stations are optimized for low-density deployment, particularly in the rural areas where it is the most cost-effective solution to fill in coverage holes in DSL and cable networks.The projected model replaces the expensive Hard Switches with extremely inexpensive Soft Switches and harnesses the expanding power of wireless networks (WiMAX Radio); evident VoIP Technology to create always up communication networks and to provide over these networks a range of value-added services. This will enable rural residents to be a part of the burgeoning VoIP drive and save money by converging voice and data networks.This Next-Generation Networks will provide the most advanced telecommunications features and services (IP-IP Communication, IPLocal PSTN Number, IP-International Number and PSTN-IP Calls) on a common IP/Packet network, moving all functions to a software platform that can easily be maintained and upgraded in support of the growing rural needs, whenever required. Just imagine how difficult and expensive this was in the case of the traditional analog networks.
Some of the key benefits evolved through the model are spelled out as follows:
Widespread provision of basic telephony services, no matter how remote the locations.
*Provision of Class 5 features like Call Conference, forward, transfer, follow me, music on hold, IVR, Audio and Video Conference on Soft Switch.
*Combined phone, fax and Internet connections, where needed.
*Better delivery of government services to citizens. (The Government of Assam has connected all its districts by using Soft Switch for e-Governance Services.)
*Cost savings on telephony solutions that are quick and easy to install. In Bhutan, deployment of Soft Switch has been done for last mile, while for connectivity VSAT on Trunk and WiMAX has been used.
*Better return on investment for telephony operators.
*Reliable, state-of-the-art equipment designed especially for the rural environment.
To conclude, the Packet Shaper’s affordable, effective rural telephony solutions accelerate rural businesses and residents into the new economy and the modern world, providing Internet-enabled services, phone and fax services in one bundle.
Packet Shaper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has in-depth experience in rolling out Broadband Networks using wireless technologies and has rolled out the largest Radio and Ethernet network covering 20,000 broadband subscribers in Delhi/NCR (Hotwire). In addition, they have rolled out Rural Telephony projects by using WiMAX in Bhutan and Ghana, apart from e-Governance in Assam.
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