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.

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