The growth of broadband in India is very slow. Even though it is proven that societies which quickly evolve into users of broadband would gain significantly in terms of competitive edge
Internet and communication technologies have brought about unprecedented changes in the way people communicate and conduct businesses. The evolution of technologies and applications has made the lives of people better and more comfortable in myriad ways. The business models keep changing as industry processes set new business chains.
Broadband is a key contributor toward this change and when fully absorbed, will change people’s behavior and will drive much more intense and productive use of information and communication technologies (ICT), online contents, applications, and services. It is widely believed that societies that adopt, adapt, and absorb the benefits of broadband enabled ICT services and applications quickly and deeply, achieve significant benefits in terms of productivity, innovation, growth, and quality of life, as well as earn significant competitive advantages over societies that don’t.
The power of the Internet has brought greater awareness of skills and resources helping Indian markets reach a diverse global audience. It has played a major role in opening up various untapped markets of the country and bestowed the benefits of globalization on the Indian people. The exploitation of broadband enabled ICT, content, applications, and services has helped India become a truly competitive knowledge based economy and leverage Indian citizens to become better educated and more engaged in their community and society. But this has been confined mainly to major cities and a small group of the population.
The growth of broadband in India is comparatively slow. After the announcement of the broadband policy in October 2004 we had just 3.13 mn broadband connections at the end of December 2007-while China adds 3.32 mn broadband connections in a quarter, we have added only 0.08 mn in the last quarter. A recent report of organizations for economic cooperation and development (OECD), in which countries have been ranked based on the broadband penetration, has placed India at the bottom of thirty-four countries. India is not only below developed countries like the US and the UK, but also far below some smaller countries like Denmark and Iceland. Although, the future technology projections indicate that microprocessors will run one thousand times as many computations as are being done today, which means enormous gain in productivity and efficiency, giving people unimaginable power to access, organize, and transform information.
Broadband access can be provided using various technologies.
Digital Subscriber Line: Existing PSTN infrastructure having copper loops up to the subscriber provides the most cost effective option for broadband delivery. Digital subscriber line (DSL) has become an important technological option for provisioning broadband services through the copper loop of public switched telephone network (PSTN). DSL speeds are influenced by the distance between the subscriber and the local exchange, the gauge of the phone wire, and the type of DSL technology. This technology offers a dedicated amount of bandwidth that does not vary with the number of subscribers logged on, in an area.
The fixed wireline subscribers in India have been accounted to a population of around 39 mn (14 mn in rural areas and 25 mn in urban areas) and are mainly owned by BSNL and MTNL. The existing cable networks need to be suitably upgraded and then around 50-60% of the cable network can be used for providing broadband services with varying speeds depending upon the length of the copper cable. The challenge before BSNL/MTNL is to make use of these copper cables quickly for broadband services, to have a commanding position in the market and to achieve this, they will have to device various innovative ways.
Cable TV: New technological developments in cable TV networks have made it possible to send data in both directions via usage of different channels on separate blocks of 6 Mhz frequencies, making Internet access over cable TV a viable solution. Presently, there are 71 mn Cable TV subscribers in India, hence one can assume that this last mile infrastructure reaches more people than even the copper loop infrastructure (40 mn) and can be leveraged in providing cable operators with a new business model while giving a stimulus to broadband penetration. However, this cable TV network requires lot of up-gradation, and, in turn, added cost. In the US and Canada, the cable TV network is a dominant form of access for broadband services.
Direct to Home: DTH is another technology that could be used for providing broadband services. At present, it is being used for TV transmission only, however, it can be utilized as the downlink path for providing broadband connections. Uplink (connectivity to the ISP equipment/node) shall have to be through independent connections, may be, through dial up/GPRS/EDGE, but the cost of the uplink is the main issue to determine success and popularity of this option.
Satellite: The provision for broadband using satellite is another option but the cost of such a network is extremely high. Hence, satellite can at best be used in remote and inaccessible hilly areas but it might not be the most appropriate option where other technologies can provide cheaper broadband service.
Fiber Optics: The fiber optics technology can provide unlimited bandwidth and the national long distance network has major deployment of this technology. This technology has also replaced the copper network in the intra-city backbone network. The fiber-based models are capable of providing a huge amount of bandwidth in the last mile, as well as, provide a true IP and converged network that can deliver high quality voice, data, and video. Fiber to the curb (FTTC) and fiber to the home (FTTH) networks make use of fiber cable into the last mile. Such a network is quite suitable for providing high-speed broadband services. Some operators have implemented overlay optical fiber networks in big towns for providing large bandwidths to industrial and big commercial organizations. However, their initial deployment cost is very high, mainly due to the high cost of laying the cable.
Wireless Technology: Wireless network is another option to provide wider broadband access solutions. Initially, wireless networks were considered a solution for providing telecom facilities to harsh landscapes and lightly populated areas where it was difficult to provide conventional wire-line networks, as the cost of wireless networks were comparatively higher.
Technological developments in the wireless facility during the last one-decade have completely changed the telecom scenario. Mobile services have taken over the fixed line network on account of reduction in the cost of the equipment, ease of installation, operation and maintenance, flexibility for service providers, and convenience to end users. Wherever the penetration of copper loops is not widely spread, the laying of new copper cables and optical fiber cables is an expensive option due to high cost of right-of-way and high operational cost. Therefore, wireless-based access is an ideal solutions for widespread last mile coverage through a combination of different technologies like WiMax, Wi-Fi, etc. These technologies have the added advantage of interoperability and economy of scale due to international standardization. However, for the deployment of any wireless technology, suitable and sufficient spectrum availability and its efficient utilization is a must.
Wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a term used for a certain type of wireless local area networks. Wireless LANs are most commonly used in the last mile to provide coverage for few hundred meters as diffusers of a broadband connection. This can be used in the office environment for providing connectivity to portable devices such as laptops, and commercial hotspot solutions for wireless connectivity for the Internet. For implementing Wi-Fi access networks, a backhaul network is required, this can be copper cable, optical fiber, or WiMax. Wi-Fi can operate in unlicensed 2.4 Ghz band and 5 Ghz band depending upon its version in the 802.11 family.
WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a high-speed wireless technology that supports fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile access. It is claimed that WiMax can provide speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and is likely to support much higher speeds with further advancement. Due to the support for higher speeds, wider coverage and ease of installation, WiMax is considered one of the most promising technologies to provide high-speed Internet.
Third generation (3G) is a term used to describe the latest generation of mobile services that provide advanced voice communications and high-speed data connectivity, including access to the Internet, mobile data applications, and multimedia content. IMT-2000 is the name given to third-generation (3G) wireless mobile standards defined in the International Telecommunication Union’s Radio-communication Sector (ITU-R) recommendation. The two most widely deployed standards are based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology and are referred to as CDMA-direct spread (CDMA-DS), also known as WCDMA; and CDMA multi-carrier (CDMA-MC), known as CDMA2000. Both have the capability to support voice and broadband data traffic, with newer revisions providing even greater data rates.
Globally, WCDMA networks have been deployed in 2.1 GHz and 850 Mhz bands, and developments are in progress for 900 MHz deployments, as well. EV-DO systems have been deployed in the 800 and 1900 MHz bands; though some deployments in 450 MHz, 1700 MHz, and 2100 MHz also exist.
Security is a major concern for wireless networks, since individuals can easily intercept radio signals traveling through the open atmosphere; strong customer management (user ID and password) and encryption management are necessary for operation of successful wireless networks.
International Scenario
As per the world broadband statistics report for the third quarter of 2007, mainly three technologies (DSL, cable modem, and FTTX) are being used for providing broadband connectivity, with DSL leading as the most popular of the three with a 66% share of the broadband market. This represents a subscriber base totaling 217.14 mn in Q3, 2007. Cable modem follows with 71.1 mn subscribers or a 21.65% market share. FTTX technology represents a 10.75% market share with a subscriber base totaling 35.29 mn. The other technologies share is 1.6%. The 3G technology, HSPA currently has around 11.5 mn subscribers globally as per the UMTS forum. This technology is stated to dominate the mobile broadband market. Broadband over powerline (BPL) has also been emerging steadily over the past several years for in-home networking, access/utility company applications.
What India Needs
Internet and broadband has helped people across continents to find the best jobs in the market. Electronic commercial transaction is another area that is likely to use broadband in a big way for facilities such as e-commerce, e-banking, e-education, and e-health.
CII in its recent report on broadband growth has re-emphasized the urgency to increase broadband penetration. The report states that connectivity and service innovations, if designed appropriately and implemented effectively, can be a key driver for several socio-economic gains including economic growth and employment generation. The important aspect of the CII report is that most initiatives are proposed to be industry driven and don’t require any investment by the government. The broadband economy could attract investment of over $2,600 mn by 2008 and $5,350 mn by 2010.
In our country, it is not economical to lay new copper cables and optical fiber cables for providing broadband services on account of high cost of right-of-way and high cost of maintenance of the network, particularly in rural areas. We should try to make best use of the existing copper cables and optical fiber networks. Another alternative for increasing broadband penetration at an affordable cost is the wireless network. The major hurdle in the roll out of wireless broadband services is availability of spectrum.
Unless a spectrum is allocated, the broadband growth, especially in rural and remote areas, will be slow and may have adverse impact on growth. One of the factors constraining the wireless technology is that, as the number of subscribers using data services increase, the effective data speed available shall reduce unless the availability of spectrum is increased.
The position regarding availability of spectrum for WiMax and 3G services is not very clear at the moment. It is quite difficult to give the time frame by which sufficient spectrum will be available to both access as well as Internet service providers to service large number of subscribers for high speed data services. Therefore, the Indian industry may have to work out a hybrid model consisting of optical fiber network and wireless network for increasing the penetration of broadband services in urban and rural areas.
Our country should focus on exploiting the available resources to optimum level for increasing broadband penetration. The incumbent operators should use copper cable for broadband or unbundle this to private operators. The state governments may take steps to reduce the cost of right-of-way so that optical fiber cables can be laid in local networks.
The central government is taking steps in getting the spectrum released from the defense department and other organizations for 3G and WiMax technologies. In addition, if the fruit of broadband has to reach the common masses, various applications and contents have to be developed to suit their requirements. All service providers and content providers will have to take initiatives for speedy growth of broadband in the times to come, as it will not only provide them a business model but also boost economic development of the country, create knowledge based society, and above all provide a tool to compete in the converged telecom era.
