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Huawei Communicate
Tata Indicom
takes a firm step forward
By Wu Yanning & Cai Huihan
O
n June 9, 2008, the India-based Tata Group
announced its successful acquisition of Ford
Motor’s two luxury motor brands: Jaguar
and Land Rover. This news thrusts Tata
into the limelight once again in the context of India’s
meteoric economic rise.
Presently synonymous with the image of a leading
brand, the word “Tata”can be traced back to the mid19th century. Tata’s founder, Jamsetji, was accustomed to
saying “Tata” (meaning “goodbye”) after each successful
munitions supply to the British army. As time went
on, Tata became the family name of India’s largest
consortium. The unadorned origin of this family name
exhibits the principles that the word Tata has carried
forward for over 100 years: integrity, understanding,
excellence, unity, and responsibility.
In 1996, the Tata group and its 98 subsidiaries shifted
their attention to the emerging mobile communications
industry. Driven by the mission to serve the common
Indian populace and provide universal communication
services, Tata spearheaded the introduction of the
CDMA standard to expedite mobile communication
network construction. Ten years’ unrelenting effort
rewarded Tata Indicom with rapid growth within a
booming mobile communications market and India’s
quickly developing 21st century economy.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI) advocates a completely open market and
full competition, which gives rise to an especially fierce
competitive arena in the mobile field. TRAI’s policies
have ensured that service charges decline continuously,
which in turn has catalyzed the Indian mobile
communications market to a degree that mirrors China’s
communications miracle. Honed over a century, Tata has
wasted no time in applying its legacy skills to exploit the
nascent commercial opportunities, surpass its rivals, and
rise to the top in the burgeoning mobile field.
Diwali means opportunities
External opportunities mean nothing if an enterprise
lacks the necessary core strengths. In this context, Tata
Indicom was fully aware of its own shortcomings.
Tata Indicom began to construct its CDMA network
during the mid-1990s. Restricted by the prevailing
technologies, the network was based on time division
multiplexing (TDM). The explosive growth in user
requirements immediately created problems for the
TDM networking platform given its multiple network
layers, route complexity, low single-office capacity,
and excessive number of offices. Additionally, network
expansion greatly increased topological complexity, and
both expansion and O&M costs rose geometrically as
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COVER STORY
Tata Indicom takes a firm step forward
opposed to linearly. Thus, the viability of the TDM
network was seriously limited.
With a population of almost 1.15 billion, India is
the world’s second most populous nation. Culturally,
Diwali denotes a key Indian religious festival relating
to Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. During each
Diwali, complicated religious rituals and extravagant
celebrations result in elevated communication modes.
Generally, people gather at temples to complete
religious rituals and in squares or streets to celebrate
with friends and family. Therefore, the impact of
peak traffic on mobile networks is comparable to the
world’s two other extreme traffic-generating events:
Spring Festival in China and Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Major cities such as New Delhi, therefore, can
experience network-paralyzing congestion in such
an environment. Thus Tata Indicom realized that
uninterrupted service coverage during the Diwali
period would decisively augment its brand image.
In the face of explosive subscriber growth,
providing reduced prices coupled with a quality
network experience are only the beginning. If an
operator intends to attract and retain subscribers,
it must also be able to commercially deploy new
network services earlier than its competitors.
However, India’s natural conditions and external
environment form a restrictive ceiling; infrastructure
construction can take several years.
CN answers the question
A century of development has given Tata a
clear insight into the strength that technological
milestones deliver. The company has consistently
sought to overcome its weaknesses through technical
innovations, an integral part of which has been
to secure an innovative and experienced partner.
To gain a more solid foothold in All-IP and ICT
convergence, Tata Indicom planned the construction
of a highly competitive network capable of meeting
long-term strategic requirements via network
topology optimization, network cost reductions,
and enhancements to network efficiency. In order to
achieve its goal, Tata Indicom selected Huawei as its
partner to realize the IP transformation of its CDMA
core networks (CNs), including those covering
India’s three largest cities: New Delhi, Bombay, and
Calcutta.
The CNs deployed for Tata Indicom utilize an AllIP softswitch distributed networking architecture.
This not only optimizes network structure, but
also affords considerable savings in transmission
resources, which is especially beneficial to Tata
Indicom, which leases long-distance transmission
resources in great quantities. The All-IP network is
simple and convenient to manage; its centralized
and intuitive maintenance mechanism minimizes
total cost of ownership (TCO) because the O&M
process requires fewer maintenance personnel and
management expense.
An example of the advantages of All-IP softswitches
is the situation in New Delhi. If the network in
New Delhi was expanded using the architecture
of the legacy seven TDM mobile switch centers
(MSCs), additional MSC nodes would have been
required. Network topology would have increased in
complexity, and the cost of associated facilities would
To tackle the atypical traffic peaks
during Diwali, Tata Indicom selected
a solution based on a highly reliable
mobile softswitch complemented by
professional core network service.
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Huawei Communicate
have skyrocketed, including equipment
room construction and O&M, and power
supply and cooling systems.
Tata Indicom’s New Delhi network was
greatly simplified with just four softswitch
MSCs. Doing so significantly decreased
construction costs and per line CAPEX,
and curtailed the other expenditures
mentioned above. High-density main
equipment and streamlined accessory
facilities can further lower equipment costs
and power consumption. The high rents
and unstable power supply which plagues
Delhi means that savings are maximized if
marginal costs are accurately calculated.
To tackle the atypical traffic peaks during
Diwali, Tata Indicom selected a solution
based on a highly reliable mobile softswitch
complemented by professional CN service.
The Huawei softswitch can deliver an
availability that reaches 99.99953%, which
exceeds carrier-class requirements. The
high-density mobile softswitch needs only 3
cabinets to support 3 million users, enabling
the network to easily respond to the Diwali
peak, during which over 1 billion Indians
celebrate the festival.
In terms of methodology, the Tata
Indicom/Huawei Network Planning
Team rigorously assessed Diwali’s traffic
features. Based on the complicated user
behavior during the festival, an advanced
automatic computer model was adopted
for network optimization. Various hidden
network hazards were removed by using
professional O&M tools and network
resource adjustment strategies.
To address India’s unique problems
and enable rapid response and delivery,
Huawei customized the entire process of
design planning, supply chain, logistics,
engineering, installation, and system
commissioning. This yielded a highquality CN delivery solution suitable for
overhauling the Tata Indicom network.
Despite the unfavorable conditions,
Huawei employed its experience and
capabilities to deliver a superior solution in
a shorter time compared with the common
industry-wide practice.
A kick start for the future
Currently, Tata Indicom has set up
a high quality, stable, and cost-effective
CDMA mobile communications network
that runs normally despite a steadily
increasing user-base, and that has required
neither new offices nor new equipment
rooms. Tata Indicom sits poised to meet
user requirements over the next 5 years
by simply expanding the capacity in its 3
central equipment rooms.
The company remains impressed by
Huawei’s swift All-IP CN delivery and
construction completion within a mere
matter of months, as opposed to the
previous standard of several years. This
rapid delivery time won Tata Indicom
sufficient time to overtake its competitors.
In just 7 months after the network was
commercially available, subscriber numbers
increased by 5.2 million and the Answer
Seizure Ratio (ASR) exceeded 97.5%.
Network services ran uninterrupted during
the Diwali traffic peak in November 2007,
ratifying Tata Indicom’s short-term goals
of achieving All-IP transformation, a highquality expansion scheme, and the clear
enhancement of its brand image.
From a cost perspective, Tata Indicom
has benefited greatly from the All-IP
network. On average, equipment room
space has been reduced by 55% and
power consumption by 60%. O&M
expenses, including equipment room
rental, power consumption, and standby
power supply depreciation is over 50%
less. Tata Indicom has revised its original
maintenance mechanism, helping to reduce
management costs. In New Delhi, for
example, the former layered management
architecture is replaced by a new flat
O&M solution, in which all maintenance
personnel work at a CN maintenance
center, improving management efficiency
and maintenance quality.
Brij Mathur, the General Manager
at Tata Indicom, reflected that: “Tata’s
business objective is to attract 100 million
subscribers by 2011. This means that our
network needs to accommodate the rapidly
increasing traffic volume. Fortunately,
Huawei can help us realize this objective as
planned.”
Tata Indicom is proceeding with an
agressive All-IP network transformation
for all its networks across the nation.
With the help of a cost-efficient All-IP
network, Tata Indicom plans to further
develop and deploy new value-added
services to explore the revenue potential
of current and potential subscribers. Just
as Tata Steel, Tata Power, and Tata Motors
all lead their respective industries, Tata
Indicom is also striving to be the leading
enterprise in the communications industry.
The strategic partnership between Tata
Indicom and Huawei results in a win-win
development for both companies in India’s
communications market.
Editor: Xu Peng [email protected]
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