Goa launches super broadband network

PANAJI (GOA): Goa has unveiled plans for a super-ambitious broadband network project to build a state that's "enabled by IT to be efficient and accountable with a global thinking approach".

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the Goa Broadband Network (GBBN) on Friday amid both expectations and apprehensions as to how exactly the project will work and at what cost.

Official statements here said the broadband network, earlier christened Goa Net, would provide privileges to the citizen that include information services on education, healthcare, agriculture, welfare, entertainment and interactive services like IP telephony, video conferencing.

In addition, transactional services will be provided like e-governance services and B2C (business-to-citizen) services.

GBBN connectivity will be given to around 280 government offices, including municipalities, collectorate and state secretariat, promising their enhanced efficiency.

Lauding the project, the prime minister said, "This pioneering project is an important milestone in the use of modern telecommunications and IT capabilities for improving public services and also the quality of lives."

Singh praised the private-public partnership to build this project, saying it was based on a "viable business model".

"Investment in knowledge and in knowledge tools is therefore going to be the key success factor for individuals or regions or nations. I am happy that a state like Goa has realised the significance of this. The Goa Broadband Network is a first step in positioning your state for the future," Singh said.

"As the program scales up from the 10 Citizen Service Centres today to over 200 by the end of next year, it will generate substantial revenues which will meet a major portion of the costs," Singh said.

But others are more sceptical. Samir Kelekar, a US-educated engineer now based in Bangalore, said: "I am hosting internet servers in the US which promise a 10Mbs pipe for $70 (Rs.2,700) a month. It has limits on how much bytes can be transferred. Now, if I can get (as promised) a 10 Mbps pipe at Rs.250 a month, I could host things in Goa. Am I missing something?"

Goa had earlier attempted to build a project of Mahiti Ghars, offering access to government data through private intermediaries. While the government has claimed a success over these, questions were raised over how the partners were selected and whether these brought in the promised benefits.

Source : EconomicTimes

Goa goes Broadband with PM's click

PANAJI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday inaugurated the Goa government-sponsored broadband network — the first of its kind in the country that looks to integrate all state - and taluka-level departments and all households through optic fibre cables. “Knowledge is the key success factor to find gainful employment in new emerging sectors.

We need to invest in technology and its related tools, we need to invest in knowledge capabilities,” he pointed out during the question answer session with localites from the various talukas, who were connected to the main venue via broadband.

And while the economist in him urged people to accept industrialisation and growth of services sector, as a ‘common trend that takes place in all nations’; the PM also laid emphasis on developing agriculture. “We must diversify and focus on horticulture, animal husbandry that creates employment and generates income. This can grow simultaneously along with other sectors,” he said.

The PM laid heavy emphasis on creating BPOs, call centres and other IT enabled online services in Goa, in addition to boosting tourism. According to him, a state with a high literacy rate and good English speaking crowd shows high potential in developing human resource and therefore must focus on service sector. “This broadband network will hopefully open doors to knowledge economy to Goans,” he adds.

The Goa Broadband Network Project will connect households with a bandwidth of 2-10 Mbps; and can be used to access various schemes and projects. The network will provide internet-based services like e-governance, education, healthcare, video conferencing and IP telephony services.

“Our aim is to create a single window clearance system, which offers all government services in one single portal,” said IT minister Dayanand Narvekar. The state government also has plans to use this high bandwidth connectivity to create ‘work from home’ facility through initiatives like tele-education, tele-medicine and also tele-agriculture.

In the first phase of the project which was inaugurated on Thursday, all district and taluka level headquarters have been brought under 10 Gbps connectivity. The second phase will connect all Panchayats with 1 Gbps connectivity to taluka headquarters by March 2008, while in the third phase 2-10 Mbps connectivity by December 31, 2008.

The fourth phase will be wireless connectivity. The Rs 125-crore project is being developed on a Public Private Partnership model.

Meanwhile, Mr Singh promised full co-operation to create world class infrastructure in Goa. The Centre is also to provide an additional sum Rs 150 crore, along with Rs 1,500 crore to upgrade Panjim, besides assisting Goa in hosting the 2011 national Games, adds PM Singh.

Source : EconomicTimes

Broadband growth for the month of November 2007

Broadband (≥ 256 Kbps download) Growth: Total Broadband subscribers base has reached 2.87 million by the end of November 2007 as compared to 2.69 million by the end of October 2007.

The broadband subscriber's growth is tabulated below:



Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/519/pr24dec07no104.pdf

VSNL Partners With Marshall Media For VOD

While several video content firms are busy tying up with local content providers, our very own VSNL has gone one step ahead and decided to deliver HD quality ‘American Infotainment’. VSNL, which claims to have a 500,000 broadband and Internet customer base, has tied up with Marshall Media to deliver content such as “Road to the American Dream” (no pun intended) alongside other programs such as healthcare seminars and comedies. Delivery will be through buffered streaming pushed via Windows Media player. Marshall Media is also planning to broadcast HD events with the help of VSNL’s INMARSAT satellite services. No word on the projected base they are looking at nor what the end user price is going to be.

High definition video even at 720p are a strain to render on most systems. Furthermore, the very size of the file would make it manic to distribute with our 256k broadband connections...it’s hard enough even on 320x240 without a Content Delivery Network. While it sounds great as a bouquet service, I seriously doubt the feasibility of the service. Considering its Windows Media player, it will be riddled with DRM issues as well. As a ray of hope, this is a good sign of non-traditional content, albeit kicking, choking and trashing its way through the network, coming through new pipes.

Source:contentSutra

I-Cube Report 2007: Cyber Cafes Remain Favorites!

The  Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International have jointly published the I-Cube Internet In India Report 2007. The IAMAI and IMRB have jointly researched the report through a survey in more than 65000 households across India. The cities covered are namely:

Mumbai, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Pune, Ahmedabad, Patna, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Surat, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Durg, Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Trichy, Jalgaon, Panipat, Trisshur, and Bellary.

The analysis according to the report:

According to the I-Cube report, the number of active internet users in India is just 16.8 million in India.

Out of that, the report says that the number of internet users accessing the internet from home was 30 %, higher than as compared to the percentage of people accessing it from offices which is 25%.

Moreover, nearly 36% of the total 16.8 million active internet users are accessing the internet from cyber cafes.

The report states that the access point preferences were based upon the individuals age and professional background. For instance, the report also states that:

1. Aproximmately, 57 per cent of students preferred to access the internet from cyber cafes.
   
   


2. Approximately, 46 per cent of non-working women prefered to access the internet from home.
   
   


3. Approximately, 45 per cent of older men mostly preferred to access the internet from office.

Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, was quoted as saying:

“Access from cyber cafes are being discouraged due to a host of regulatory issues which are discouraging entrepreneurs to set up cyber cafes, while access from schools is being inhibited by a negative mindset about internet; these pose a challenge to the faster growth and adoption of internet.”

Meanwhile, the number of active internet users in India is supposed to be much higher than the number of 16.9 million, probably between 16.9 million and 46 million users which is the total number of internet users according to the report. Moreover, 41 % of the total internet users seem to be accessing the internet from small towns/cities which have less than 1 million people residing within it. There are many other organisations such as NASSCOM, CII, MAIT and others such as ORG-MARG who also conduct a detailed research on the internet trends in India. Thus, readers should not base their conclusion based on anyone report is what I had like to suggest. It is indeed special to see the internet growth story rising on a higher curve as the rise of the internet story has immense influence on India economic development and growth story. Here’s the report. Keep Watching For MORE! ;-)

Source : WATBlog.com

Smart homes may become a reality soon

KOLKATA: Remember all those stories about remote-controlled gadgets at home. These have remained dreams for Indians. Not any more. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is all set to install and test a killer application that will offer broadband speeds of at least 500 mbps (250 time the current speed) to homes through fibre optics network in Kolkata. Such speeds will be the basic enabler for these dream technologies.

Currently, BSNL offers a broadband speed of 2 mbps that can be stretched to 16 mbps allowing limited internet-based value added services like gaming and steaming video. Mbps is the speed at which a certain volume of data travels every second. Faster speeds help run more intelligent applications.

BSNL is currently working on two technologies. One that will offer speeds of 100 mbps and the other that will allow at least 500 mbps. The 100 mbps project will allow users to make his/her entire house a local area network on which all gadgets like TV, refrigerator, washing machine, micro-wave, gizzard, water filter or the lock at the main door and the gate will be connected. All these can be controlled remotely through a wireless gadget like the cell phone or any other handheld devices.

“These kind of applications require at least 100mbps speeds, termed FTTP (fibre to the premises). Once this speed is achieved a few additional instruments at the users end will enable wireless gadgets to control almost all electronic and electrical devises from remote locations. We are in advanced stage of rolling out this service. It has already been tested and will initially be offered to clusters of housing or large residential campuses. We will roll it out over the next two years,” BSNL’s chief general manager (Calcutta telephones) S K Chakravarti said.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on telecom organised by Merchant Chamber of Commerce. The 100mbps technology will be based on a combination of fiber optics and ethernet — a kind of a wire currently used in offices to connect PCs on a LAN. “We will supply fibre optics from our exchanges to the premises of a housing complex. A special installation at the base of building will then carry internet (data) to individual flats through ethernet at 100 mbps,” Mr Chakravarti said.

He added: “The second project involves supplying direct fibre optics to individual houses. This technology is technically termed passive optical network (PON) and allows speeds of 500 mbps. A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises, typically 32. PON does not require those installations necessary for FTTP.” “We have decided to install and test this technology. The project will be initiated next month and will be rolled out as demand for faster broadband rises,” he said.

The broadband technology that offers 2mpbs requires fibre optics to the exchanges. Rest is through copper wire. FTTP is through supply of fibre optics to premises and PON is supply of fibre optics to individual homes. All these will be offered in stages. Interestingly, price of fibre optics have declined by as much as 20% every year over the last three years making these technologies affordable.

“Possibilities are immense. PON will allow video conferencing from home. Professors and teachers will be able to hold virtual classes while doctors will be able to examine their patients from home through a very high resolution image transfer process. It will open a new world of possibilities,” the CGM explained.

Source:EconomicTimes

VSNL's WiMAX broadband services by Jan

NEW DELHI: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), a Tata Group company, plans to launch wireless broadband service on the WiMAX platform by January. The company is also mulling a new brand identity, similar to that of Tata Indicom for its WiMAX services. VSNL presently provides broadband services on the Tata Indicom platform only.

“VSNL’s corporate identity would change to Tata Communications from next year, but for retail business we want to have a different brand name,” VSNL senior vice-president Srinivasa Addepalli told ET. He, however, said that there is a possibility that the company may initially ride on the back of Tata Indicom to launch its WiMAX broadband services.

“In the next 2-3 weeks, we will take a decision on the matter,” Mr Addepalli said.

WiMAX is a telecom technology that enables high data output. The technology would be very helpful in extending the broadband penetration across the country, especially in the rural areas. The government is already in the process of allocating 700 MHz spectrum for WiMAX users.

VSNL estimates an investment of about $500-600 million for rolling out WiMAX services in 35 cities across the country over the next three years. It would launch the service in Bangalore and then cover other major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in the first phase. In the second phase, the company plans to reach to customers in about 35 cities across the country — mainly consisting of all the state capitals.

While the company is planning to have a full-fledged presence in 35 cities only, it has also started working towards spreading its wings to about 125 towns. In rest of the centres the services would be available only for corporate clients. VSNL plans to establish 1700 sale centres for its broadband operations. VSNL would be the first company to launch broadband services on the WiMAX platform for retail consumers in India.

Earlier the company was offering the service to only corporate consumers but the potential in the retail market has attracted the company towards launching it on a mass scale. The Tata Group company has tied up with Telsima of US to procure equipment for the WiMAX service. For spreading its services in the tier-II centres, the company will use Tata Teleservices towers.

It is also looking for short-term lease of BSNL towers in areas where Tata Tele towers may not be available. The company has put a target of 7-9 million subscribers or 25-30% of the total broadband market by 2012.

Source:economictimes.com

Insights on Mobile Internet in India

According to the latest TRAI (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India)figures, the number of Indians using their mobiles to login to the internet has almost doubled from 16 million to 38 million just last year. This includes both CDMA and GSM users logging on to the Internet to surf, check email etc.  The number of ‘active’ Internet users in India currently stands at 32.2 million. In my post on the real internet ‘user’ I pointed out the problem with the word ‘active’ and other things that may be painting a picture that’s less than accurate with respect to the number of Internet users in India.  

 

If the figures of the TRAI are to be believed, then it seems like mobile internet is overtaking broadband in a big way. Again the question is how often are people logging in? How much time are they spending? What is their use experience like? What are the capabilities of the Internet vis mobile? 

 

Here are a few reasons as to why the mobile internet phenomenon is likely to be more sustainable than the Internet revolution:

- There are low start up costs and low barriers to entry. A mobile phone is relatively cheaper than a computer. So it is more accessible than a computer.

 - A mobile phone is with a person most of the time. Well a laptop can be with a person as well but the real mobility factor inherent in a laptop is minimal – especially while travelling in crowded spaces which is what a lot of our country’s socio demographic spatial scenario is like.

- Currently, Internet on the go is not available by any players other than telecom players. They use a GPRS or a CDMA format. So there is technically no high quality broadband on the go currently available. So in a sense, the same speeds for the internet on a laptop and the internet on a mobile are technically available. One has to also keep in mind that there are higher start up costs to use the same internet that is available on a mobile phone on a laptop. It costs around Rs. 3000 to buy a USB stick which gives you access via CDMA from Reliance or Tata Indicomm. For the Airtel GPRS enabled USB’s, the cost is slightly higher. So there are obvious cost advantages for the mobile as well.  

 

 

 

One of the key learning’s from the mobile Voice revolution in India is that simplicity is the key to success. With a large population, that’s not extremely literate, success initially comes if a device offers obvious benefits that are simple and easy to access.   In developed countries the name of the game is ‘feature richness’. That phase will come to India as well – but maybe a few years later. Initially its all about getting individuals roped in to a technological phenomenal where there are no or low ‘perceived’ barriers to entry. The access to the internet via mobile must not ‘appear’ elitist. If it does the entire brand of ‘mobile internet in India’ will have an intimidating feel which is never a good thing because operators can make revenues only if they rope in more people and have them using the Internet via the mobile often.   In terms of allaying such fears of the Internet being elitist I do not see much in terms of communication happening. A heartening case study in terms of a brand that’s doing a lot of good to the mobile internet scenario in India is Tata Indicomm.  

 

Tata Indicomm’s cheapest mobile internet phones cost around Rs. 2, 300. They have reasonable browsing capabilities and have been taken on by consumers in a big way.   Apart from offering low cost phones, Tata Indicomm now offers internet packages that are extremely reasonable. 99 Rs/- a month unlimited access. Such pricing strategies will go a long way in accelerating the growth of mobile internet in India. For mobile Internet, pricing is the key element of the marketing mix that will probably allay fears of mass users. I don’t see any other operators doing enough. Some of the plans on Airtel and Vodafone are ridiculously expensive. On the GSM operators, one can pay a monthly fee of about Rs. 500 for unlimited access. For those not willing to pay those kind of fees, the cost is about 10 paise per 10 KB. On standard mobile browsers, a site may take up to 100 KB to load. So that model, even though it seems cheap, really isn’t.  

 

 

 

This takes me to my next point – the mobile internet browser.  One of the other innovations that may aid the spread of mobile internet in India is the mobile internet web browser. On a normal mobile web browser, as stated earlier, it may take about 100 KB to load a website. So generic web browsers are taking up a lot of bandwidth that’s not necessary and also time, which makes the use experience less effective.

 

Apple has gone a step ahead by releasing Safari Mini. There is also Opera Mini. Both these browsers are extremely effective in the sense that a page takes about 15 KB to load.  The problem with these browsers is that they are not effective when it comes to the installing of mobile applications which have to be installed only through the generic mobile browsers. I see this problem being resolved very soon as phone companies will probably buy out technologies that will make the use experience better for their customers or integrate their services with these web browsers.  

 

 Specific specialized web browsers are also really effective when it comes to the arranging of content on the mobile screen. In a sense this is one more thing that probably hook the users on and give them an incentive to browse again.

 

  

 

Infrastructure to provide high speed internet over mobile phones still remains a problem which will have to be solved soon in order to maximize the capabilities of mobile Internet. A lot of phones are now available with Wi – Fi capabilities. In the future one may see 802.16 Wi Max enabled phones as well. That’s where the real action is going to be. High speed low cost internet over mobiles.  This week, a premier operator (Vodafone) experienced a failure of its voice services. Click here to read more on that.  If the infrastructure problem is not solved, and if there is no reinvestment into latest technologies by telecom operators, one can try and optimize the use experience and the prize of handsets as much as possible – the real fruits of internet over mobile can be enjoyed only with an infrastructure that’s superior.

Source : WATBlog.com

IT superpower India not a hot spot for Wi-Fi

NEW DELHI: IT superpower India ranks at the bottom in the world Wi-Fi index with only 454 public Wi-Fi hotspots. US leads the Wi-Fi hotspot index with 64,670 public hotspots followed by UK (30,613), Germany (21,236) and France (22,799) hotspots. Significantly, all nine of the top 10 Wi-Fi countries also rank in the top 30 in the 2007 UN Human Development Index.

Realising the same, the Delhi government has finalised seven bidders to set up four Wi-Fi hotspots in the national capital. In Delhi, players like Net4 India, Spectranet, Tulip IT Services, MTNL, Microsense have emerged as the front runners to set up Wi-Fi zones in Nehru Place, South Extension and Connaught Place.

Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a technology which allows wireless internet access through laptop, mobile or palmtop or PC. Interestingly, while Delhi makes a start with four public Wi-Fi spots, other metropolises like New York and London have already become the Wi-Fi capitals with 3,483 and 3,195 public Wi-Fi spots, respectively, according to JiWire, a public Wi-Fi registry.

The Delhi government plans to extend Wi-Fi to most areas in Delhi before the Commonwealth Games 2010. According to sources, the usage of Wi-Fi for an initial few minutes will be free of charge followed by attractive schemes for longer usage for both citizens and tourists.

The reason for low Wi-Fi penetration in India is the high cost of laptops (compared to per capita income), low internet penetration and lack of e-governance services in many states.

The initiatives such as `unwire’ Pune and Delhi to make main areas in these cities Wi-Fi enabled for citizens will increase broadband penetration and lead India faster towards wireless internet adoption. India’s technology state Karnataka has about 300 public Wi-Fi hotspots compared to California with 10,700 Wi-Fi spots and Florida which has 4,098 hotspots.

London beats most European capitals (except Berlin) with 3,195 Wi-Fi hotspots. Even small counties and twins in England like Norwich and Newcastle Upon Tyne have over 200 Wi-Fi hotspots. Germans however seem to be most tech savvy with the states of Baden-Wurttemberg (2,353 hotspots) and Nordrhein-Westfalen (4,229 hot spots). The states however have a population much less than Delhi’s population of over 13 million. India, on a whole has about 454 WiFi hotspots, according to Jiwire, a Wi-Fi registry.

All 24 Wi-Fi networks in Delhi are located inside cafes, hospitals or luxury hotels. The only residential colony Wi-Fi hotspot in New Delhi is located in Sujan Singh Park Area in Lutyens Delhi. Currently, all Café Coffee Day outlets in Kamla Nagar, South Delhi and Barista Espresso Bars in Connaught Place, Janak Puri and South Delhi are Wi-Fi enabled.

All Delhi Wi-Fi spots are working on 802.11g Wi-Fi technology - standard for local wireless networks. But the Wi-Fi technology offers internet access only when you are stationary in a network. On the other hand, the advanced 802.16e standard of WiMax offers internet access from your laptop on the move.

On the other hand, Bangalore has over 253 Wi-Fi hotspots, including all Café Coffee Day, Sify I-way and Casa Picola outlets, Whitefield, Luncheon Café Iceware and Freeware, at JP Nagar and Brigade Road are free Wi-Fi zones. Many roads and public parks near Airport Road, WhiteField and Brigade Road are also WiFi enabled.

Pune has about 16 public Wi-Fi zones. The airport is however fully Wi-Fi enabled. The PMC (Pune Municipal Corp) and Microsense have tied up to roll out India’s first city-wide WiMax network spanning a 25 kms radius. It will offer speed of 256 kbps at the rate of only Rs 250 per month.

Mumbai has about 29 hotspots, mostly in coffee bars and luxury hotels and Hyderabad has nine of them. Other Asian cities have already taken a lead with Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo having 2,751, 2,500 and 2.370 Wi-Fi hotspots.

Source : economictimes.com

Broadband Penetration to sky-rocket soon

The Indian government is planning to introduce ‘broadband-over-power-lines’ (BPL) or powerband in order to boost broadband penetration and internet connectivity within residential areas throughout the country. This technology will enable fast-paced broadband internet access at residential homes.

 

The Indian Government’s Department of Information Technology has a separate broadband development wing and it has been in the news that the wing is making efforts to cut down the need for installing a transmitter every three meters and is scaling up the process so as to install only one transmitter every 300 to 500 meters. The DIT has received a proposal from the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) in this regard.

 

Justifying the same, a DIT official said:

 

“We have received proposals from some of the leading technical institutions in the country in this regard and the department would allocate some funds to the institutes for carrying out the research and development work to promote broadband penetration,”

 

Broadband penetration through BPL lines will increase internet connectivity drastically as internet access will be now possible through ordinary power lines. The only requirement will be to plug a BPL modem within the building to be able to use broadband internet access at home.

 

The step taken by the government of India to spread the availability of the internet to every nook and corner of the country is extremely possible as it would definitely aid in infrastructure creation, solving of logistical problems and bottle necks, increased interaction and communication between different parts of the country which may affect business and hence directly aid economic growth.

 

A few things that the Government may have overlooked and needs to ensure are that:

 

Even if the Internet is available across the country, will there be a device available to access it on? Maybe the government should look at players like Novaltium who aim to increase PC penetration by lowering overall costs (which they plan to do by having network based CPU’s).

 

The government also needs to consider what kind of data transfer speeds and bandwidth speeds can be supported by BPL.

 

One also needs to consider the constancy of power cuts in our country and whether these power cuts would result in ‘Internet cuts’ as well (my guess is that they probably will think about this first).

 

The Department of Information Technology (DIT) needs to consider a few questions before they go ahead with the plan:

 

While using the existing infrastructure to help boost internet penetration is a commendable idea, the DIT can also look at other alternatives such as Wi – Max which has a point to point range of up to 400 km. To then make wi – max accessible (as most PC’s today do not have Wi – Max cards), the Wi – Max waves can be converted to Wi – Fi at the point of usage. Granted that there are a few concerns about the stability of Wi – Max, it is quite clear that it is the technology of the future with respect to Wireless Networking. One may even find that as the technology matures, it would become more cost effective than the plan that the DIT currently wishes to pursue.

Broadband Growth for Oct. 2007

Broadband (≥ 256 Kbps download) Growth: Total Broadband subscribers base reaches 2.69 million by the end of October 2007 as against 2.67 million by the end of September 2007.
The broadband subscribers growth is shown below:




Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/511/pr22nov07no96.pdf

Broadband hurdle for spectrum-seekers

NEW DELHI: Companies wanting a piece of the telecom spectrum pie may have an additional conditionality to deal with. The department of telecommunications (DoT) is planning to include the broadband consumer base of a service provider as a criterion for allocating spectrum. This is being done to help the country achieve the target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010.

“Under the new conditions, existing broadband service providers may be required to increase the number of their subscribers by a certain limit apart from improving the condition of their services,” a government source said. He, however, added that the modalities have not yet been finalised.

The government had set a target of achieving nine million broadband connections by the end of 2007 but it was missed by a big margin. At present, the number of broadband connections in the country is hovering at about three million. In fact, there has been a slowdown in the number of new consumer additions. The addition during the April-September period this year was only 3.3 lakh as compared to 4.7 lakh during the same period last year, according to data available with the Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI).

The government is also planning to release additional spectrum for services like WiMax which is expected to play a key role in boosting broadband penetration and providing services such as e-governance, e-health and e-education in India. The technology would also help increase the penetration of mobile voice and video services as these services are mostly dependent on broadband wireless technologies such as WiMax.

Additional spectrum is also required for the effective implementation of the next generation network (NGN) programme announced by the tlecommunication Minister A Raja last month. NGN aims at achieving seamless convergence of voice, video and data by deploying Internet Protocol-based packet switched networks, which would be capable of providing new services at affordable prices.

If DoT makes it a criteria to increase broadband penetration, chances of new players getting spectrum allocation would become even more weak. The Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has also suggested that the existing players should get a preference in spectrum allocation.

There are around 40 applicants who have applied for spectrum allocation including newcomers like DLF, Unitech and Indiabulls.

BSNL to float Rs 4k-cr tenders for WiMax

KOLKATA: Telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is all set to float two tenders with cumulative value of Rs 4,000 crore for rolling out WiMax in the country within two months. While the first tender of Rs 2,000 crore for launching WiMax in rural India will be floated next week, the one for urban India will be floated within two months.

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMax in short, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways. It allows a user to browse the internet on a laptop computer without physically connecting the laptop to a router, hub or switch via an ethernet cable.

Confirming the development, BSNL chief general manager (Calcutta) SK Chakravarti said, “The project for setting up WiMax in rural India will be funded out of the Universal Service Obligation fund and it will initially cover 25,000 villages. The project includes offering broadband connection through this WiMax network in 40,000-odd primary and secondary schools by 2008. Additionally, BSNL will set up 50,000 WiMax kiosks. The entire set of service will at least be on 2.5G technology.”

“The second tender valued at Rs 2,000 crore will cover 70 cities including Kolkata and it will be floated within the next two months. Equipment for setting up network in the cities will, however, be funded by BSNL itself. We hope to start offering the service in cities by the end of 2008,” he said. Digressing to broadband speed, Mr Chakravarti said,

“BSNL is also working on a project to offer at least 100 mbps of broadband speed for all. Currently, it is about 2 mbps. This will be done in stages where in the first stage fibre lines to the nodes will be converted to fibre optics.

In the second stage, the plan is to offer fibre to premises and this will allow 100 mbps. We hope to achieve this in the next two and half years.”

Talking about the current waiting list for new broadband connections, Mr Chakravarti said: “There are about 9,000 applicants waiting currently. We hope to bring down the waiting period from three months to about two weeks soon. The delay was the result of exhausted capacity for 1.5 lakh connections.”

Currently, we are in the process of installing additional capacity and the waiting list will come down”.

Source:economictimes.com

Airtel changes name of broadband & telephone services unitAirtel changes name of broadband & telephone services unit

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, the country's biggest telecom player, has changed the name of its broadband and telephone services unit to 'Telemedia Services' as it gears to launch internet television and DTH operations.

"The change of name is in line with our strategic intent to change the face of this business with the advent of media and SMB solutions," Bharti Airtel CEO and President Manoj Kohli said in a statement.

This name change is in line with Bharti Airtel's growing focus on new media solutions and its foray into IPTV and DTH businesses. The Direct-To-Home (DTH) business, broadband and voice business among others would now form the clear thrust areas for telemedia services.

With this move, Bharti Airtel is poised to play on all the three screens mobile, PC and TV. The soon-to-be launched IPTV and DTH initiatives will help the organisation fortify its offerings in the infotainment domain, the statement said.

The creation of Telemedia Services will support Bharti Airtel's transition towards high customer-focus by its alignment along product, customer and functional verticals, it said.

Source:economictimes.com

India To Auction Wireless Broadband Spectrum

The Indian government is not very pleased with the allegation that the government is ignoring broadband in India. Telecom minister A.Raja said that releasing spectrum for broadband wireless access might help bridge the gulf between the governments promise of 20 million subs by 2010, and the woeful situation of not even 3 million subs as 2007 (ironically, the Year of Broadband) draws to a close. The government has issued guidelines for BWA services, looking to address the lack of broadband in rural areas:

Spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band is going to be auctioned, limited, however to only Category A ISPs, state owned telcos BSNL and MTNL, and Universal Access Service Licence holders (mostly, private telecom operators). The base price of the auction will be 25 percent of amount for 3G spectrum, and there’s annual charge of 0.5 percent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), which may be revised to 1 percent after 3 years. There are rollout obligations, no mergers or reselling of spectrum is permitted. [release]

Frankly, broadband is not 3G or akin the same as mobile telephony, so a similar set of guidelines should not have been set. While prevention of hoarding of spectrum (and licences) is welcome, broadband is a business most operators are struggling with. Rollout obligations - particularly in case of a costly rural rollout - coupled with a price discovery mechanism like auctions, might not find many takers, apart from large telecom operators who are willing to take a punt on wireless broadband.

Broadband Pipedream: 2 yrs, 2.3m connections & hardly counting

India’s experience with broadband is a bit like the cricket team. Both look better on paper. Both have more potential than performance. And both have enormous money riding on them. This year may have been declared the year of broadband by the government, but in every other way, the targets look as distant now as they have been in past two years. Consider this: in 2005, the government announced a broadband subscriber target of 3 million. Two years on, it’s still a target.

According to the latest figures, India has just 2.3 million broadband subscribers. That translates into a 0.2% broadband penetration compared to 19.6% in the US, 20% in the UK and 32% in smaller countries such as Denmark and Iceland. Significantly, India has 39.5 million wireline telephone subscribers compared to Denmark’s little over 3 million. But broadband rollout — now a popular economic indicator — continues to be negligible.

If that sounds damning, there’s more. India stands right at the bottom on a list of 34 countries published by OECD. The list ranks countries in terms of the number of broadband subscribers per 100 people. This, despite all the noise around telecom and IT growth in India.



So, has broadband not taken off in India? The reasons are many — from the high cost of PCs to the lack of content to the failure to make BSNL share its copper infrastructure with others. But the biggest bottleneck is the total lack of vision on part of the department of telecom (DoT).

Despite having over 100 million PCs, 40 million Internet users and 70 million cable and satellite homes, broadband reaches only 2.3 million users in India.

Understandably, industry insiders pin the blame on a variety of reasons. “The unbundling of BSNL’s nationwide local loop has not happened. This is the primary need for broadband in India,” says IAMAI president Subho Ray. “The second biggest need is to make sure the universal service obligation fund (USOF) is allocated to all private operators, including ISPs,” he adds.

Currently, MTNL and BSNL are the only beneficiaries of USOF. Deeper broadband penetration can spiral India’s GDP growth and empower consumers beyond the metro cities.

The high cost of PCs and the lack of killer applications/content is another problem. The government’s current move to bar ISPs with a net worth of under Rs 100 crore from offering IP telephony goes against broadband penetration. Also, the current ban on allowing STD calls through net telephony is another deterrent. “Infrastructure (BSNL local loop) is not being unbundled, the regulations are so hard and the applications which can drive broadband growth don’t exist,” says Internet Service Providers Association of India president Rajesh Chharia.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Under_the_spell_of_Dell/Broadband_Pipedream_2_yrs_23m_connections__hardly_counting/articleshow/2503890.cms

Not Yet a Wireless Internet Revolution

A report here, at Businessweek - titled A Wireless Revolution in India, about the fact that the number of Indian users accessing the Internet via the mobile has doubled to 38 million, quoting the TRAI as a source. How much of that access is really open access to the Internet, and not to operator walled gardens like “Airtel Live” and “Reliance Mobile World”? From what I gather - a majority. All-access GPRS users in the country are pegged at between 7-9 million, and even that fell a couple of months ago after an operator repaired a hack that allowed users to access the Internet via GPRS for free. Having GPRS compatible handsets doesn’t mean that it will be used - so all those expecting a gold-rush in mobile Internet in India...hold your horses. SMS is still big. The story appears to be a follow up on another fisk-worthy story earlier at Businessweek about why number of Internet (dialup) subscribers are falling - something we’d reported as well. Same “mobile Internet” logic there. However, I remain more bullish on wireless Internet than wireline because of serious service quality issues.

Source: contentSutra.com

Wireless Broadband Roundup : Indicom-NTT; RCOM-Verizon

-- Tata Indicom has tied up with Japan based NTT to allow NTT subscribers to use Indicom’s WiFi network in India. Indicom already provides a similar service to roaming subscribers of Singapore based Starhub. Indicom has over 350 WiFi hotspots in India, and has plans to increase that number to 1000. One can only hope that their WiFi works better than their broadband or their data card service. [via release]

-- Reliance Communications has tied up with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to allow subscribers access to the Internet while traveling in the US. The company plans to expand services to Canada and Latin America, followed by Japan, South Korea and China. [via ToI]

Broadband Growth

Total Broadband subscribers base reaches 2.67 million by the end of September 2007. During September 2007 there is an addition of 0.11 million Broadband connections. The addition during six months (from April to September) in 2007 is 0.33 million as compared to 0.47 million during the corresponding period in the previous year.



Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/506/pr22oct07no91.pdf

Presentation on Spectrum

Click here to view the presentation.

BSNL WiMax Network + Motorola

While BSNL is planning to use the WiMax network for its ambitious 50,000 kiosk project, Motorola is planning to make a comeback as wirless giant in the US. BSNL is a truly government organization with several layers of fat making it difficult to move briskly. BSNL has the largest network in India and can very easily use to build broadband kiosks rather then waiting for policies and floating tenders around. Latest, feedback about Reliance WiMax is not very encouraging. [On the Forum, their seems to be a problem with DHCP servers and Reliance folks for some reason don’t fix it and consumers are down with internet for more than week]

Om Malik has an interview with P. Warrior, CTO of Motorola on the road ahead for WiMax. Though WiMax can deliver higher speeds than other wireless technologies, it is unable to keep the same throughput when tested under mobility. Voice over WiMax may be a distant dream.

Broadband loses speed

A consumer recently complained that his broadband speed continues to be lower than claimed in the plan and brochures. He opted for it in February. “Everytime I lodge a complaint with the customer service staff, the same is closed without resolution,’’ he says. Another consumer says his broadband works less than 5% of the time. Yet another has not got his connection in the first place- he’s been waiting for almost a year.

Despite Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) quality of service regulations, complaints of this nature keep pouring in. TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra admits, “There is tremendous scope for improvement in broadband services to consumers.’’

As Pritee Shah of Ahmedabad’s Consumer Education & Research Centre, who herself faced a broadband breakdown during a weekend, says, “Broadband providers don’t give a guarantee for speed in writing. This needs to be questioned.’’

On its part, TRAI has mandated service providers to give a testing link in their websites where a customer can test the speed. “It must be (at least) 80% of the prescribed limit,’’ says a TRAI official.

The official and Rajesh Chharia, president at Internet Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI), however, add that speed also depends on the PC, modem and the visited sites. They advise consumers to check whether their PC is virus-free. Shah though says, “These are standard answers.’’

The TRAI official draws attention to the fact that while bandwidth utilisation should not cross 90% of the total capacity, some have reached 92-94%. “Service providers have promised to improve it in the coming quarter.’’

To gauge consumer satisfaction, Consumer Voice of Delhi is independently conducting its own mobile and internet quality of service survey in the four metros. Its report will be ready in the next two months. “Broadband will penetrate very fast. And once that happens, the quality of service (issue) will have to be addressed,’’ says Voice’s Sri Ram Khanna.

TRAI’s Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006, specify that a connection must be activated within 15 working days, subject to technical feasibility. In case a service provider expects delay in activation, Chharia says, the applicant must be immediately informed.

If the consumer has already paid for the connection and yet the activation gets delayed, TRAI guidelines state, “A credit at the rate of Rs 10 per day, subject to a maximum installation charge or equivalent usage allowance shall be given to the customer, at the time of issue of first bill.”

Fault repair and restoration time must not cross three working days. Faults pending for 15 days would draw a rebate equivalent to one month of minimum monthly charge or equivalent usage allowance. The regulations also state that billing complaints should be under 2% per 100 bills and all resolutions must happen within four weeks. Refund of deposit after closure must take place within 60 days. Yet, the above-mentioned cases remain unresolved.

Delhi To Try WiFi Mesh Network

The Delhi government is planning to install a WiFi mesh network for providing wireless internet connectivity in Delhi, reports CIOL. They’re considering public-private partnerships for shops, marketplaces offices etc in Rajiv Chowk (Connought Place), South Extension and the computer peripherals hub - Nehru Place. The WiFi Zones will be established though public-private partnership. Not that it’s going to happen anytime soon. Last year, there was a story in ET, as per which Connought Place was to be WiFi’ed with free access by Jan 1 2007. That’s the story of broadband in India—all talk very little implementation. WiFi mesh networks have been installed successfully in the hilly town of Dharamsala by a voluntary organization - Air Jaldi. One criticism of mesh networks that I’ve heard is that they’re likely to be far less reliable in a city environment. The spectrum, however, is free.
Do check out the WiFi in India report.

OLPC being piloted in India with Reliance-ADA Group; XO Priced At $220

This comes as a bit of a surprise: the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) project has been launched in India, after reports of having been rejected by the Indian government last year. The first pilot of the XO laptop is supposed to be in tribal village at Khairat (near Karjat, Maharashtra), and by March 2008, the project intends to cover more than 25,000 towns and 60,000 villages. Readers should remember that though the XO laptop has been spoken about as the “$100 laptop”, that pricing is based on large orders. Currently, it’s priced at $220 (around Rs. 8,800).

This time around, instead of approaching the government, the OLPC project has got the support of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), which is providing Internet connectivity for the laptop, and - more importantly - has taken on the mandate of involving governments for creating a successful ecosystem for the project. It is crucial for the OLPC project to get large orders from governments in order to achieve the scale for bringing the price of the laptop down to $100...this pilot appears to be an attempt to woo the Indian government. For the Internet industry in India, anything that gets more Indian eyeballs online is a welcome - whether the OLPC project or Novatium’s NetPC. Mobile still seems to be the pervasive solution, if you ask me.

Source:contentSutra.com

Broadband in India : Press Interested

Here is the text of the email published in The Hindu (one of the lousiest commie pinko newspapers) under the heading “Bye Bye Tata”.

Another entry in the Slimes of India where they have highlighted the broadband woes.

Is it a proof that the mainstream press has woken up to the menace of the ISP’s? Would we see more and more coverage in the mainstream press regarding the pathetic state of affairs? My crystal glass is hazy. These morons would buckle under the lure of advertising money from the associated companies and/or the industry association. They have big bucks and treat the media like a discarded whore. Sadly, media is happy about being in that state.

Source : BroadbandBlog.in

ByCell To Invest $509 Mln On Infrastructure, Targets Eastern India

Swiss firm ByCell, which has applied for licence to provide telecom services throughout India, plans to invest $509 million on initial infrastructure, according to this Reuters article.

The company, which is 74 percent owned by Switzerland’s ByCell Holding AG and 26 percent by India’s Bitcorp Pvt Ltd, is focusing on less developed telecom circles of Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, West Bengal and plans to provide wireless phone, broadband and Internet protocol television services in India. ByCell aims to keep costs low by sharing infrastructure such as telecom towers and improving availability of cheap handsets at 1,000 rupees.

Airtel Launches 8Mbps Broadband Service

Airtel will launch an 8 Mbps broadband service first in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and the NCR with plans to introduce it to Mumbai and Hyderabad users in the next few weeks, reports Economic Times.

With current speeds ranging from 256 KBps to 4Mbps, Airtel will become the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed broadband service. The financial daily quotes P V V Srinivas Rao, Airtel’s Chief Marketing Officer, as saying that users will be able to download a 5 Mb music file in five seconds, compared to 160 seconds on a 256 kbps connection.

The price point could be around Rs 2,000 for a download of 7-8 Gbs. Tariff plans and product offerings are also being worked out to enable customers, who do not want a 24-hour eight mpbs speed but want them for certain applications or a short duration of time, to avail the new offering.

Fight against the ISP's

This is a mail from the broadbandforum and I am reproducing it here for everyone else’s benefit.

Dear Members,

On this forum, we ask each others’ help to solve our technical issues, we also vent our anger at the poor services the ISPs provide, we even philosophize about what we could and should have to make surfing the net a better and quicker experience…

… that said, we all know that the attitudes at ISPs towards us consumers need to change and their services desperately need to improve!

We are a large platform of more than 1000 active members who can all help make a difference.

I recommend watching this one man’s experience with TATA-indicom (VSNL) on CNN-IBN this Saturday (06.10.2007) at 6:30 PM. The show is called “All about money!” Ajoy Eric Lal ( ajoyericlal AT gmail DOT com ) has taken his case all the way up. It is now with TRAI and even an RTI application has been handed in demanding answers. He plans to take it even higher in his fight to improve things for all of us.

Let that episode inspire you to also start approaching your ISP formally and escalating your story up to TRAI, let it inspire you to form user groups that will take on ISPs and demand better services and let it inspire you all to help each other where it really matters.

If you feel that you can contribute to some decent service levels, escalate the matter straight to TRAI and complain about your ISP’s. The whole point is to make your ISP accountable and make them pay for the downtime, if any. Our fight for higher speeds would continue anyway. This movement should not slacken and I would request you all to forward this on the communities like facebook or orkut.

Cheers and it’s time to kick their sorry butts.

Source : broadbandblog.in

Will Voice Be The “Killer App” For Internet In India?

There seems to be a palpable change in outlook on the Internet in India over the past couple of months. Over the past year, we’ve seen a number of startups being launched, some of them being funded, and much excitement in the Internet domain. Reports have given numbers of between 24 to 47 million Internet users (with figures like “ever Internet users” to fuel interest and hype), and we’ve tried to do our bit by hosing down ”irrational exuberance”; been called sceptics and cynics (among other things), but that comes with the territory.

Everyone appears to be waiting for a watershed event in India for Internet to take off - some kind of a miracle that will spark an increase in usage. Internet adoption has been inordinately slow, plagued by relatively high costs, poor infrastructure and connectivity, dependancy on relatively expensive and immobile (pun intended) PCs, extremely poor quality of service, among other things...is it surprising that we’re only adding around 70,000-90,000 broadband connections a month, compared to 7-8 million mobile connections? I hope to be proven wrong, but I sense that growth in number of Internet users will continue to be painfully slow, with no sudden spurt in number of connections.

More in the extended entry.

One solution appeared to be the opening up of the last mile, but that doesn’t seem to be a priority. Even if the last mile is opened up, one can’t expact broadband to take off with poor connectivity and abysmal quality of service. As reader Mobstir had mentioned in one of the posts - where’s the content? Rather - where’s the use case? Matrimonial and job sites have provided a use case to one segment, and I’m wondering if voice will be a use case for a larger group. Mint reports today that around 40 ISPs are awaiting the governments nod for allowing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to terminate in Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) - i.e. landline and mobile. Currently, only telecom companies are allowed to do this, but have obviously not pushed the service since it impacts their mobile/landline revenues.

People won’t take to broadband just because of low cost calls, though they might do so for free calls. And mobile operators will oppose free VoIP calls. Another interesting segment in this domain includes those like Fring, which is a mobile IM which allows voice calls and chat over GPRS, 3G and WiFi. ISPs are already opposing the likes of Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Skype offering free VoIP calls, as will mobile operators once (if) Internet becomes more pervasive in India. That’s what happens when changes in technology threaten business built around expensive legacy infrastructure.

Govt Should Act On TRAI Proposals Within Time Frame, Else Pointless"

Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) keeps dishing out recommendations, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) seems to be sleeping on most of them. [via Mint] Apparently, of the 25 recommendations made in the last three years, the DoT has taken action on just 11.

“If the government has to take all the decisions, what is the point of (having) Trai,” asks Smita Jha, principal analyst for the media and broadcast industry with consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers in New Delhi. Vishal Malhotra, a New Delhi-based partner with consultant Ernst & Young, rightly points out for the need of a time frame. While the law spells out the amount of time—typically, two to three months—for Trai to make its recommendations, there is no such time frame for the government to spell out its stance on the regulator’s suggestions.

Here’s an example. Eighteen months after the recommendation was made, industry body Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi) is still “following up to now what has happened to the number portability recommendations”, says its secretary general S.C. Khanna. Auspi represents CDMA (short for code division multiple access) and private landline operators. The recommendation, which sought to allow users to retain their numbers if they switched operators, was issued by Trai in March 2006 and has been “kept in abeyance”, according to a recent statement by information technology and communications minister Andimuthu Raja. No other response or reaction has so far been given to Trai on the fate of the suggestions.

Tata Broadband : In Thick Soup

Tata Broadband has been taking it’s customers for a ride. Their customer care is pathetic and it’s difficult to make them act on your complaints. I write in about a person’s story who has been fighting the company since Feb 2006, all for 17 months! So far, there has been no response to the person’s emails / couriers to the company’s CMD and from TRAI who is supposed to be the “caretaker” of the customer’s interests.

Read More...

New press release from TRAI

Press Release: Extension of Last Date to Receive Comments on Draft Recommendations on Growth of Broadband.

Sify Broadband to Pay for Unfair Trade Practises

Delhi’s North-West District Consumer Forum has by its order dated 08 Nov ‘06 directed India’s ISP SIFY Ltd (SIFY Broadband) to pay compensation of Rs 8,200/- including refund of Rs 1,200 paid for two months internet connection to a consumer, Ankur Raheja, an IT lawyer by profession for indulging Unfair Trade Practices and deficiency in service.

The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited.

It has been regarded as a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a ‘deficiency in service’.

It has also been held that SIFY BroadBand has poor customer service that did not redress to Customer complaints and selling packages as ‘Unlimited Packages’ when there existed Hidden conditions, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of SIFY Limited and indulging into unfair trade practices.

The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure!

MTNL to deploy Novatium's $100 PC

Public sector telco MTNL will deploy Novatium’s thin client solution netPC in Delhi and Mumbai, reports the Economic Times. The PC will be priced at Rs. 4500 (around $115), and comes bundled with an Internet connection. I think this tie-up works rather well for both companies - MTNL has been trying to push it’s broadband connection as a means of maintaining revenues when fixed line revenues are dropping, and a low cost solution works to their advantage. At the same they have a number of local exchanges across Delhi, which will allow Novatium to host centralized servers for its thing clients. The only missing piece of the puzzle - the consumer. Then of course there’s the problem of MTNL’s lackadaisical and incompetent technicians (I’m a customer, so I know how bad it is when the connection goes down)...I wonder if Novatium will station execs at each exchange. This announcement comes shortly after Novatium announced funding by New Era Ventures. More on that here.

Source:contentSutra.com

ISPs slam TRAI stand on broadband

Regulator Silent On Unrestricted Net Telephony And Allowing ISPs To Offer IPTV

INTERNET service providers (ISPs) have slammed telecom regulator Trai’s draft recommendations for enabling broadband in India. ISPs feel Trai, while recommending a series of measures to improve broadband penetration in India, has, however, remained silent on two killer applications which will get customers to opt for high-speed internet - unrestricted internet telephony and allowing all ISPs to offer IPTV. ISPs have also pointed out that Trai must intervene to further reduce the cost of bandwidth as this accounted for 65% of the cost of providing broadband services.
Trai on Monday had said that the country needed a new policy to ensure broadband growth as only 0.47 million broadband subscribers were added in the first six months of 2007 which was far below the growth trend required to achieve broadband policy targets. While the government had set a target of 9 million broadband users by 2007, the country so far had not even been able to fulfil the 3-million target for 2005. The regulator, in its draft recommendations, has also pointed out that broadband uptake in the country was poor as many of its recommendations, including those on pricing of spectrum of 3G services and WiMax, were yet to be implemented by the government.

“We have experienced from developed countries that internet telephony is the cheapest voice solution available. India being very price sensitive market and to achieve the broadband target, we have to provide this cheap solution to the citizens. Even though the department of telecom had allowed access service providers (cellular operators) to offer this service from January 2006, till date only MTNL provides this facility. This is all the more reason why ISPs should be allowed to offer unrestricted internet telephony,” Internet Service Providers Association of India president Rajesh Chharya told ET.

While DoT, in its recent policy for internet services, permitted ISPs to offer IPTV, Mr Chharya pointed out that allowing only companies with a net worth of Rs 100 crore to offer this facility would act as a bottleneck. “When there is no such restrictions for cable operators, how can this be applied to ISPs,” he said. Trai in its recommendations had said that ISPs cannot provide internet telephony.

Source: Economic Times

Erricson Moves into Rural India with Broadband Project

Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) has launched a rural broadband project called Gramjyoti, which uses WCDMA/HSPA technology to connect rural communities to high-speed internet services for the first time. [via release] Launched in early September, the trial project will showcase the benefits of mobile broadband applications across 18 villages and 15 towns close to Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

The move will provide these communities with high- speed internet so they can access to services such as telemedicine; e-education; e-governance; online local information; voice and video call services; and live TV and entertainment. Othe supporters of this initiative include Apollo Hospitals, international adoption agency Hand In Hand, e-learning company Edurite, mobile value-added-services provider One97 Communications, CNN and Cartoon Network.

Global Broadband Cost Comparison

BSNL, MTNL may go to TDSAT on unblocking last mile network

NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL on Sunday said regulator TRAI's direction on opening up Domestic Leased Circuit (DLC) would lead to hoarding of last mile connections by the private sector, rendering the two PSUs uncompetitive.

The two PSUs have also not ruled out the possibility of challenging TRAI's order in the telecom dispute settlement tribunal TDSAT.

Sources said TRAI's latest regulation on DLC is nothing but a reversal of government's stated principle and policy of not unbundling the local loop (last mile of copper wires that connect individual homes/offices with local exchanges) and thus questioned the regulator's jurisdiction on the same.
BSNL and MTNL are the only operators who have laid maximum cable between the exchange and the subscribers' premises and attempts have been made earlier to unbundle this for the use by the private operators.

TRAI had earlier, under the chairmanship of Pradip Baijal, recommended this and the same was rejected both by the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and the two PSUs.

As per TRAI's regulation order, it mandates the service providers to confirm availability or otherwise to requesting service providers within 30 days.BSNL officials said unblocking of last mile network had been done through a commercial relationship so far, but now with this regulation this would become a mandate.

Asked what would be next step, they said there was no option but to challenge the order legally.Sources also said that the regulation would discourage rolling out wire line networks by the private service providers.When contacted S D Saxena, Director (Finance) and his MTNL counterpart Anita Soni said they would take an appropriate decision after examining the order.

TRAI had said that these regulations would benefit both the customers and the service providers as this is expected to enhance competition, allow consumers a wider choice of service providers and make DLCs available at a reasonable price.But the telecom PSUs are of the view that this would only help private operators to prevent BSNL and MTNL from growing and offer competition to private players.

Once BSNL and MTNL are prevented, the subscribers would be the main loser as only due to PSUs' aggressive strategies the tariffs of most of the telecom services have fallen over a period of time.

New Press Realeases from TRAI

Press Release : TRAI seeks stakeholders comments on draft recommendations on Growth of Broadband

Draft Recommendations On Growth of Broadband

TRAI: subsidise broadband services

NEW DELHI: Issuing draft recommendations on ‘Growth of broadband’ on Monday to solicit the comments of stakeholders, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has called for subsidising broadband services to increase its reach. It has also sought utilisation of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund to give subsidy for providing broadband services through satellite in remote and hilly areas.

TRAI has also recommended that the state-owned telecom companies — BSNL and MTNL — should be encouraged to appoint franchisees for providing broadband services to supplement their efforts, while the Government should ensure availability of more number of transponders to roll out broadband services through the Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform. To increase the competition to provide broadband in rural areas, at least two service providers seeking minimum subsidy should be identified, it added.

TRAI has also called for encouraging municipal committees to include a clause for making multiple dwelling units broadband-ready by adopting suitable internal wiring while giving clearance for the construction of all such buildings in future.

Besides encouraging Indian manufacturers to produce more customer premise equipment (CPE) to provide broadband using DSL technology, the Government should expedite decision on TRAI’s recommendations regarding mechanism and pricing of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access. Spectrum for 3G and WiMAX should be made available at the earliest to boost the deployment of broadband using these technologies, it added.

TRAI said the Government announced the Broadband Policy in 2004 and made certain projections for broadband subscribers’ growth. In order to facilitate growth of broadband, TRAI took certain regulatory initiatives from time to time. However, the authority observed that even after taking various initiatives, the growth is slow and below the expected level.

The Authority felt an urgent need to identify various impediments affecting the growth of broadband and adopted forward looking approach to address all such impediments in a time bound manner. While framing the draft recommendations, efforts have been made to identify all possible options to boost the broadband growth, TRAI added. Based on the feedback of stakeholders, the draft recommendations will be finalised and will be sent to the Government.

Tata Indicom Presents Mobile Internet 'Like Never Before'

Read more over here.

BSNL is going to launch Data Services on CDMA 2000 IX by using BSNL Internet Connect Card (ICC)

BSNL has decided to launch its Data Services on CDMA 2000 IX by using BSNL Internet Connect Card (ICC). The CDMA IX ICC will provide Internet Service @144kbps to computer users on their laptops as well as on desktops. This service will be available in all those locations wherever CDMA IX MSC based coverage is there. However, during roaming the said Internet connectivity will not work at present

Read More...

TRAI to make Bandwidth Cheaper

New Delhi, Sept 13: In a move that will make domestic bandwidth available at cheaper prices for internet service providers and other users such as BPOs and IT companies, TRAI today issued a regulation to boost competition and reduce price for end-customer.

These regulations would benefit both the customers and the service providers, is expected to enhance competition, allow consumers a wider choice of service providers and make domestic leased circuits (read bandwidth) available at a reasonable price.

For service providers, this regulation opens up the possibility of meeting customers' demand for end-to-end bandwidth from other service providers if such a need arises, TRAI said.

In 2005, TRAI had issued a ceiling for tariffs on domestic bandwidth prices. Some policy initiatives taken by the government have resulted in greater competition in domestic bandwidth market.

However, in markets where some service providers rely on essential facilities provided by others for delivery of their services, it is appropriate to establish a framework to ensure that the market functions effectively. This regulation is a step in this direction, TRAI said.

As per a conservative estimate, the aggregate DLC market (including VPN) would be Rs 3,000 crore by 2008 and grow to Rs 4,500 crore by 2010.

Bureau Report

Wat is this blog about?

Well, I'm Nipun Mohta. An Indian boy of about 15 years. I've started this blog to inform ppl abt the latest developments in the Indian Broadband sector. I will b posting news abt new developments over here. Hope u like this blog. Do give ur feedback.