Monday 13 August 2007

The Way To Go Ahead

Broadband technology has a great potential in
India but how to go ahead?
 ASSOCHAM held a conference in New Delhi to discuss Broadband issues in India and suggest solution for speedy penetration. The conference was organized with Frost and Sullivan as the knowledge partner. Development of a nation largely depends upon the proliferation of technologies and utilization by the people. Though the telecom penetration in India has been rapid but the Internet and Broadband penetration has been significantly low. However, now Internet & Broadband are being given top priority in India so that the society grows faster.

In India there is lot of enthusiasm for Internet usage in urban areas. Around 60 percent of users regularly use Internet through cybercafes. But there is reluctance when we talk about high-speed broadband access and thus, the rate of broadband adoption is low. Typically TRAI has defined a broadband service as an internet connection having a speed of more than 256 kbps download. 
Apart from BSNL & MTNL there are other players also in the broadband business. We have companies like VSNL Broadband, Bharti Airtel. & Reliance Comm. Ltd. who are offering multiple choices to the customers. Broadband, these days is preferably being delivered through DSL. Among those providing DSL connectivity are BSNL, MTNL & Bharti Airtel. In India threshold of broadband speed has been kept as 256 kbps. Comparatively this is very low if we intend in giving services like IPTV, VOIP and video conferencing. 
Broadband Market
The Indian Broadband Market is still at a nascent stage. The end of 2006 saw 2.1 million subscribers where the penetration rate was even lower than 1 percent. The target of 9 million customer base by 2007 set by DoT seems to remains a dream. India has the lowest broadband subscriber base among all the Asian Countries. However, through policy measures & Govt. initiatives to promote broadband, the market is expected to increase to 30 million subscribers by end of 2013. 
The broadband industry is facing various challenges in its path towards growth. In order to make the country broadband rich, the main determinants are:-lower costs, bringing together people & markets, goods using broadband for e-trade & most importantly for the selection of prime movers/application. In order to make broadband common among masses, the user experience of broadband usage needs to be enhanced. 
Broadband Growth is mainly determined by 3 factors:-
(a) Infrastructure Currently, DSL is dominating the market scene for providing broadband access. Apart from DSL and fiber optic, other technologies available for broadband access are Cable, VSAT, and DTH. Fiber is a preferred medium to deliver high-quality voice data & video. BSNL/MTNL have already laid 0.5 million km of optic fibre. However, the private players have laid around 0.3 million km. fibre. Most of the infrastructure is mainly in urban & semi-urban areas. Rural area hardly enjoys any such infrastructure. 
(b) Access Device- Another major constraint for Broadband penetration is the low penetration of computers. The current PC penetration in India is just 2 per cent in 2006. While PC penetration in urban India is increasing considerably, its penetration in rural area is very slow. The cost of broadband access devices & language of operating system play a major role in spread of internet in rural areas. 
(c) Content Content developers & service providers have come together to provide Live TV, Webcasts, telecommuting, streaming audio/video applications, gaming, software on demand, remote education, telemedicine, entertainment etc. Such content pull new customers & migrate the existing ones from narrowband to broadband. 
Emerging Technologies
In 2006, around 83% broadband subscribers were on DSL technology and rest 17% accessed broadband through Cable modem, Ethernet LAN, Fiber and Radio. Wired technology like DSL can reach only up to 5 kilometers from the central office. Absence of comprehensive wired infrastructure in India makes wired broadband expensive and unrealistic option for rural areas. 
For broadband to have a reach all over the country, the service providers will have to look into various emerging technologies especially wireless. Some of the emerging technologies that are expected to make huge impact in future have been discussed below. 
1) Wi-Fi is the Wireless LAN based on the 802.11 standards. This technology has gained tremendous acceptance for providing wireless broadband connectivity in local area of approximately 100 feet and is mainly used to create hot-spots in commercial complexes, hotels, airports, etc. Wi-Fi has been quite successful in developed countries but its adoption is still not significant in developing counties, the category under which India also comes. The biggest problem with Wi-Fi is in its ability to scale to become a wide area network. 
2) Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave access (WiMax) is a wireless system based on the IEEE 802.16 standards. WiMax provides wireless access over long distances delivering point to point links to full mobile cellular type access. This technology is especially important for India as the wireless infrastructure is not as wide spread as in developed countries especially in rural areas. WiMax is also expected to take care of the last mile issues in future. Bharti, BSNL, VSNL, Reliance and Sify have acquired the required WiMax license and are currently conducting trials. 
3) 3G (EVDO/WCDMA/HSPA) - 3rd Generation is the latest mobile technology which provides considerably higher download speed (minimum transmission rate of 144 kbps in mobile and up to 2 mbps in fixed environment) than the existing 2G/2.5G (GSM/CDMA 2000) technologies. This technology has been widely and successfully applied across the globe (launched in more than 100 countries). Excellent applications such as music downloads have been driving the adoption of 3G services in developed countries like Japan. In India, the allocation of spectrum license for this technology is in process with expectations to be completed in next few months. 3G technology could help in making broadband available to masses in India as each subscriber would automatically be a broadband enabled subscriber. Moreover, 3G infrastructure could be easily and quickly deployed due to its 2G underlay and could be affordable not only to the rich class but also to the masses. 
Advanced wireless technologies, like WiMax and 3G are expected to pace up the broadband growth in India. These technologies that have been successful in various parts of the world could be used in India as well to achieve the next level of telecom revolution. 
Rural Broadband 
Majority of semi-urban and rural areas do not have appropriate wire line network for data connectivity. As already discussed, since setting up a wired communication network across the country demands huge expenditure and considerable amount of time, therefore the most feasible way to provide broadband access would be through wireless technologies. Affordable connectivity to empower rural consumers is critical for country's economic growth. 
But for all this to be possible, PC penetration has to be increased in rural areas. The government should try making the PCs available at Rs10, 000. Along with this, basic IT education should be provided. Also, there should be substantial and relevant content for the diversified Indian population, without which the success rate of broadband in rural areas would probably be very low. The government should play a leading role in developing and deploying applications (e-governance, e-education, agricultural services, healthcare services, etc) that could be used by masses especially in rural areas. Apart from this, service providers should also be encouraged to develop rich local content. 
Various government projects and corporate initiatives would drive the requirement of broadband in rural India. Some of such projects/initiatives are: 
ITC E-choupal to connect 10 Million farmers in 100,000 villages 
HUL Project i-Shakti (7,500 villages) 
Project Saksham - Microsoft India project to set-up kiosks in around 200,000 villages
Golden quadrilateral project to create need for access kiosks Around 200 e-government projects in various states
VICTERS (Virtual classroom on EDUSAT for rural schools) 
Microfinance invigorates rural credit
HughesNet Fusion centers - Hughes is setting up 1,000 rural ICT kiosks
Kisan Soochna Kendras - Jai Kisan (an NGO set up to introduce rural IT technology in Uttaranchal) 
to put up over 3,000 kiosks State Bank of India is planning to set up 5,000 to 6,000 kiosks and has started a new rural initiative to encourage banking habits among the rural masses. 
Such projects by government as well as corporate would lead to higher adoption of broadband in rural India and generate huge employment opportunities in terms of running and maintaining these kiosks (on an average each kiosk provides employment to 3 persons), new opportunities through e-commerce, Rural BPO, etc. There are around 600,000 villages with an average of 250 to 300 households per village. A kiosk in each such village would lead to direct employment of around 1.8 million as kiosk operators and much more indirect employment by presenting new business opportunities. 
The Way Ahead
The penetration rate of broadband can be increased by laying emphasis on infrastructure sharing between providers so that the cost of service lowers and thereby becomes affordable for the consumers. Consequently, the issues of poor local-content availability in India should get resolved as bigger broadband subscription numbers are likely to encourage more content providers. 
The government should make sure that the required spectrum is released and made available for the quick roll out of services. Furthermore, it must encourage competition so that more players enter the market. 
There have been differences of opinion between the DoT and the TRAI. They must abandon their confrontationist attitude as it was only when DoT stepped back, the telecom sector flourished. The recommendations of the TRAI should be considered seriously. It has to be realized that profitability of service providers and customer welfare cannot go hand in hand. Indian customers are price and quality sensitive. So, the broadband boom in India would only happen with the timely and inexpensive deployment of broadband access technology. This would make the access to broadband much more feasible for the large masses similar to the mobile subscriber boom the country is currently experiencing. 
One area which remains unexploited is the huge connectivity of cable television networks in India. These 70 million cable homes are already broadband enabled as the co-axial cables going to these homes are capable of providing more than 2 Gbps speed. Even the rural areas have about 25 million cable connected homes. Most of the operators have laid miles of fibre optic cables to connect hundreds of villages. Agreed that all these connections may not be ready quality wise, but it will not take much effort to do so if the operators have the incentive of earning more. Another drawback brought out in the ASSOCHAM seminar was lack of two way connectivity of cable networks. Even this can be achieved with a little more investment. Government must provide enough incentives to these operators as well as telecom companies willing to use them for broadband so that these resources can be optimally utilised. 
Wide coverage, India specific Applications, cheaper access device and improved speed are the need of the hour to make broadband a huge success and to raise India at par with other advanced nations.

Source:
http://cablequest.org/articles/broadband/item/1277-the-way-to-go-ahead.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/articles/broadband/item/1277-the-way-to-go-ahead.html

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