NEW DELHI: The debate over Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum auctions and internet telephony comes at a time when international organizations and analysts are painting a starkly contrasting picture of the Indian telecom and IT sectors.
Recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data reveals that the success of India's telecom revolution is restricted to mobile voice with very little to showcase in fixed line and internet access, or high-speed broadband.
For a country that is the global IT and ITeS capital or the world's back office, its own internet penetration remains one of the lowest in the world. Forecasts are equally uninspiring, projecting high-speed internet access to remain abysmal till 2012.
Internet broadband penetration will limp along to eventually reach a measly 3.9 connections for every 100 citizens by 2012. Even though internet users may be multiple times higher, actual broadband penetration will not exceed 18.1 million at the beginning of the next decade.
In contrast, mobile telephony will add as many as 350 million subscribers during this five-year period to end at roughly 615 million by mid 2012.
These forecasts fall short of the government's conservative target of 20 million high-speed internet subscribers by 2010-end. India's broadband penetration is roughly 4.5 million subscribers. Even with a 300% growth rate over the next five years, the sector will fall short of the 50 million mark by 2012.
"The weak numbers can be attributed to a slew of policy failures including inadequacy of fixed line infrastructure, a barely profitable ISP (internet service provider) business, and low domestic PC penetration", says Rajesh Chharia, president, ISP Association of India. It is learnt that ISPs are actively considering a strong representation to the government on these issues.
Weak broadband penetration could severely slow down overall telecom growth, crippling India's ISPs in the process. It will also hurt ambitious government programmes, such as e-governance, e-commerce, telemedicine and e-education all of which are dependent on high-speed broadband internet access.
This gloomy environment has prompted telecom regulator TRAI to recommend internet telephony for ISPs as it believes this has the potential of becoming the killer application that will kickstart growth.
However, the uncertainty of DoT accepting TRAI's recommendations or succumbing to the interests of existing mobile operators to slap an additional entry fee for ISPs is a shadow over the sector.
DoT officials have been confusing, vacillating between welcoming TRAI's recommendations and airing level playing field concerns. "A policy overhaul to include concepts like shared PCs, enhanced scope of services and expanding e-governance applications is critical for the growth of the sector," says Naresh Ajwani, president, Sify Ltd.
Source : EconomicTimes
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
BSNL seeks franchisees for WiMax rollout
NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which has got spectrum for pan-India rollout of wireless broadband and WiMax services, will soon float expression of interest (EoI) for identifying potential franchisees for launching these services in 16 circles. BSNL will continue with the franchisee model for WiMax rollout in the country.
As first reported by ET, BSNL had already chosen US-based mobile WiMax systems provider Soma Networks as a franchisee to rollout WiMax services in three states including, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The alliance is expected to provide broadband data and voice services to more than 200 million people.
The deployment process in these states has already surpassed the deadline of August 15 this year, due to frequency issue, a BSNL source told ET. The current franchisee model has a revenue sharing structure of 70:30, with 70% of revenue reserved for the franchisee. This structure will differ from circle to circle, from state to state, according to the franchisee and the framework for bids, the BSNL executive added.
BSNL is also keen on following the franchisee model for rural WiMax deployment. It has floated a tender for 1,000 base transceiver station (BTS) and is expected to shortlist a potential player for deployment of 1 BTS by end of September this year. The operator expects to set up 500 BTSs by March 2009. BSNL has rights to 1,000 blocks.
With a rapidly growing middle class and highly educated population, India is seen as a country that will have enormous potential for broadband services. By deploying end-to-end mobile WiMax solution through franchisee model, BSNL will bring a full range of multimedia services to the entire country. India has 4.38 million broadband internet users as of June 2008, as per the latest report from telecom regulator Trai.
Source : EconomicTimes
As first reported by ET, BSNL had already chosen US-based mobile WiMax systems provider Soma Networks as a franchisee to rollout WiMax services in three states including, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The alliance is expected to provide broadband data and voice services to more than 200 million people.
The deployment process in these states has already surpassed the deadline of August 15 this year, due to frequency issue, a BSNL source told ET. The current franchisee model has a revenue sharing structure of 70:30, with 70% of revenue reserved for the franchisee. This structure will differ from circle to circle, from state to state, according to the franchisee and the framework for bids, the BSNL executive added.
BSNL is also keen on following the franchisee model for rural WiMax deployment. It has floated a tender for 1,000 base transceiver station (BTS) and is expected to shortlist a potential player for deployment of 1 BTS by end of September this year. The operator expects to set up 500 BTSs by March 2009. BSNL has rights to 1,000 blocks.
With a rapidly growing middle class and highly educated population, India is seen as a country that will have enormous potential for broadband services. By deploying end-to-end mobile WiMax solution through franchisee model, BSNL will bring a full range of multimedia services to the entire country. India has 4.38 million broadband internet users as of June 2008, as per the latest report from telecom regulator Trai.
Source : EconomicTimes
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Government to connect 5,000 blocks with broadband
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said it would connect 5,000 blocks through wireless broadband soon after the allocation of the third generation spectrum.
In a statement, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said this will be done with support from DoT's Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) after allocation of spectrum through an auction later this year.
Private players contribute five percent of their earnings to the USOF, which is aimed at promoting rural telephony.
The villages that come in the radius of 10 kilometres of the block headquarters will be connected, DoT said.
With this step, schools, public health centres, village panchayats and the community service centres (CSCs) meant to provide e-governance and data services to rural areas would be benefited.
Currently, the state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) provides broadband to 1,000 blocks out of around 6,000 in the country.
Similarly, about 50,000 out of a proposed 100,000 CSCs are covered by BSNL broadband. DoT's new initiative is likely to cover the remaining blocks and all CSCs.
Besides, DoT also proposes to support wireline broadband by USOF wherever feasible, the statement added.
The government has held discussions with technology providers, telecom operators and Internet service providers for meeting its wireless broadband plan and to formalise the tender procedures, specifications and deliverable formulation, and benchmarks.
Source : EconomicTimes
In a statement, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said this will be done with support from DoT's Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) after allocation of spectrum through an auction later this year.
Private players contribute five percent of their earnings to the USOF, which is aimed at promoting rural telephony.
The villages that come in the radius of 10 kilometres of the block headquarters will be connected, DoT said.
With this step, schools, public health centres, village panchayats and the community service centres (CSCs) meant to provide e-governance and data services to rural areas would be benefited.
Currently, the state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) provides broadband to 1,000 blocks out of around 6,000 in the country.
Similarly, about 50,000 out of a proposed 100,000 CSCs are covered by BSNL broadband. DoT's new initiative is likely to cover the remaining blocks and all CSCs.
Besides, DoT also proposes to support wireline broadband by USOF wherever feasible, the statement added.
The government has held discussions with technology providers, telecom operators and Internet service providers for meeting its wireless broadband plan and to formalise the tender procedures, specifications and deliverable formulation, and benchmarks.
Source : EconomicTimes
Sunday, August 31, 2008
World Phone forays into cable broadband internet services
NEW DELHI: World Phone Internet Services Pvt Ltd, India’s premier VoIP solutions provider, on Thursday announced its foray into cable broadband internet services for Delhi and the national capital region. Along with the launch of this new service, World Phone also announced the lowest tariff of Rs 95 per month for its potential users.
“With the launch of our new service with an affordable tag, we would be tapping the population in Delhi & NCR. We hope that with this price tag and the quality of service we will be able to garner at least 5000 subscriber in the first three months,” said Aditya Ahluwalia, chairman, World Phone Internet Services Pvt Ltd. “Lower monthly commitment would be a strong and bold step by World Phone for enhancing broadband penetration in masses,” he added.
World Phone has entered into agreement with the television cable operators across Delhi & NCR for providing this service. Customers subscribing to World Phone’s new monthly internet service tariff of Rs 95 will get a speed of up to 256 kbps with a 200 MB data download limit. As of now the services would be available in select areas only. After Delhi, World Phone plans to launch broadband in Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata in the coming months. It also has other plans like unlimited plan, hourly plan and data limit based plan to suit different requirements of internet users.
Another first from World Phone will be its pre-paid service, wherein one could buy recharge vouchers from the cable operator and start surfing.
Last year, World Phone became the first Indian internet service provider to announce the lowest possible tariff for its international call rates to the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
Source : EconomicTimes
“With the launch of our new service with an affordable tag, we would be tapping the population in Delhi & NCR. We hope that with this price tag and the quality of service we will be able to garner at least 5000 subscriber in the first three months,” said Aditya Ahluwalia, chairman, World Phone Internet Services Pvt Ltd. “Lower monthly commitment would be a strong and bold step by World Phone for enhancing broadband penetration in masses,” he added.
World Phone has entered into agreement with the television cable operators across Delhi & NCR for providing this service. Customers subscribing to World Phone’s new monthly internet service tariff of Rs 95 will get a speed of up to 256 kbps with a 200 MB data download limit. As of now the services would be available in select areas only. After Delhi, World Phone plans to launch broadband in Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata in the coming months. It also has other plans like unlimited plan, hourly plan and data limit based plan to suit different requirements of internet users.
Another first from World Phone will be its pre-paid service, wherein one could buy recharge vouchers from the cable operator and start surfing.
Last year, World Phone became the first Indian internet service provider to announce the lowest possible tariff for its international call rates to the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
Source : EconomicTimes
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Mobile Services on WIMAX - Internet Telephony to lift off in a big way!
Get ready to dial a new set of numbers in near future. WiMAX industry in the country received a major boost as the DoT has reportedly modified its policy on wireless broadband technologies including WiMAX services. For long, this medium stayed in the wings as mobile danced its way to glory in India. The earlier announced guidelines had specified that spectrum for broadband wireless can be used only for data services. However, the Telecom Commission, in its meeting on August 21 has taken a decision to remove the restriction.
Unfortunately, the new boost comes at a cost of increased reserve price for WiMAX spectrum in the auctioning process. The Commission now wants the base price to be 50 percent of the 3G base price as compared to earlier 25 percent. A pan-India WiMAX licence may now come at an estimated price of Rs 1010 crore.
It seems that such a decision did not go well with the existing GSM operators. A GSM industry representative echoed,
“The WiMax lobby had argued that reserve price should be lower to enable them to make broadband services affordable. If they are allowed to offer voice services also they should be treated at par with existing mobile operators bidding for 3G spectrum.”
Internet telephony will mean convergence of broadband for voice (calls), data (web surfing) and video (cable TV) for the masses. It will not only be a low cost option, but also a medium that can do much more than just web.
At present, telephony predominantly remains the main source of inter-business consultations and is widely considered a fundamental component in the on-going growth of effective customer service. The Internet today is changing every industry, with telephony being no exception. Traditional telephony is now being accompanied by IP based telephony in order to primarily reduce the cost of telecommunications and effectively provide more communication options.
Benefits of voice services over the internet :
The main advantage of Internet telephony is in the lowering of the costs. The only costs involved are in the setting up of the computer and the operating costs of a data network connection. And once this is in place, there is no additional charge for using it, unless of course the destination of the call is outside the IP network.
The integration of data network and voice can also reduce the number of lines needed to access both services.
Since voice and data can now share the same transfer channel, they can be combined, hence providing real-time applications such as interactive meetings, long-distance learning, and white-boarding. Multimedia applications can now be incorporated into commercial service more readily.
Wireless VoIP would mean that customers would have a single device for communication, unlike at present where we have a mobile, home phone and office handsets etc.
Well, it’s not all hunky dory for voice enabled WIMAX services. Here’s Why :
If you are using the Internet to make calls, then you cannot call up the emergency numbers since their location cannot be determined. For a user, this is one area that cannot be ignored - so this aspect is a major drawback of Internet telephony. Although emergency numbers are hardly as much regarded as in the west, it does provide a drawback.
Moreover, VoIP telephone services are mostly powered by mains electricity and shall turn to a brick in cases of load sheddings, just the way it is for cordless telephones.
Even though Internet Telephony is rapidly progressing, it still has some major issues with reliability and indeed sound quality to battle. These problems are primarily attributed to bandwidth limitation and current compression technology.
Security is obviously a major factor that has to be addressed. All the security problems we have faced with the internet would have to be faced again with VoIP. If it becomes more widely used it will become more attractive for hackers to attack Hackers could eavesdrop on conversations, interfere with audio streams, or disconnect, reroute or even answer other people’s phone calls.
Nonetheless, the decision of allowing voice telephony over the WIMAX networks is a very important step taken by the Department of Telecom in the direction of increased internet penetration and cheaper call rates which are already the cheapest in the world.
Source : WatBlog
Unfortunately, the new boost comes at a cost of increased reserve price for WiMAX spectrum in the auctioning process. The Commission now wants the base price to be 50 percent of the 3G base price as compared to earlier 25 percent. A pan-India WiMAX licence may now come at an estimated price of Rs 1010 crore.
It seems that such a decision did not go well with the existing GSM operators. A GSM industry representative echoed,
“The WiMax lobby had argued that reserve price should be lower to enable them to make broadband services affordable. If they are allowed to offer voice services also they should be treated at par with existing mobile operators bidding for 3G spectrum.”
Internet telephony will mean convergence of broadband for voice (calls), data (web surfing) and video (cable TV) for the masses. It will not only be a low cost option, but also a medium that can do much more than just web.
At present, telephony predominantly remains the main source of inter-business consultations and is widely considered a fundamental component in the on-going growth of effective customer service. The Internet today is changing every industry, with telephony being no exception. Traditional telephony is now being accompanied by IP based telephony in order to primarily reduce the cost of telecommunications and effectively provide more communication options.
Benefits of voice services over the internet :
The main advantage of Internet telephony is in the lowering of the costs. The only costs involved are in the setting up of the computer and the operating costs of a data network connection. And once this is in place, there is no additional charge for using it, unless of course the destination of the call is outside the IP network.
The integration of data network and voice can also reduce the number of lines needed to access both services.
Since voice and data can now share the same transfer channel, they can be combined, hence providing real-time applications such as interactive meetings, long-distance learning, and white-boarding. Multimedia applications can now be incorporated into commercial service more readily.
Wireless VoIP would mean that customers would have a single device for communication, unlike at present where we have a mobile, home phone and office handsets etc.
Well, it’s not all hunky dory for voice enabled WIMAX services. Here’s Why :
If you are using the Internet to make calls, then you cannot call up the emergency numbers since their location cannot be determined. For a user, this is one area that cannot be ignored - so this aspect is a major drawback of Internet telephony. Although emergency numbers are hardly as much regarded as in the west, it does provide a drawback.
Moreover, VoIP telephone services are mostly powered by mains electricity and shall turn to a brick in cases of load sheddings, just the way it is for cordless telephones.
Even though Internet Telephony is rapidly progressing, it still has some major issues with reliability and indeed sound quality to battle. These problems are primarily attributed to bandwidth limitation and current compression technology.
Security is obviously a major factor that has to be addressed. All the security problems we have faced with the internet would have to be faced again with VoIP. If it becomes more widely used it will become more attractive for hackers to attack Hackers could eavesdrop on conversations, interfere with audio streams, or disconnect, reroute or even answer other people’s phone calls.
Nonetheless, the decision of allowing voice telephony over the WIMAX networks is a very important step taken by the Department of Telecom in the direction of increased internet penetration and cheaper call rates which are already the cheapest in the world.
Source : WatBlog
Sify opens data centre in Mumbai
CHENNAI: Sify Technologies on Thursday opened a data centre at Airoli near Mumbai, eyeing higher demand for third-party server and storage service. A sum of Rs 150 crore will be pumped in for the new data centre, which is Sify’s fourth in the country. The investment was made through internal funding, company officials said.
“The demand for third-party service providers is going up as more companies want to outsource server and storage services. This is because maintaining servers is complex and heavy, so they prefer outsourcing such functions,” said PJ Nath, executive president, Sify Enterprise Services. Following the data centre near Mumbai, Sify will open two more, in Delhi and Bangalore, over the next couple of years.
Mr Nath further said that the Airoli data centre is part of the company’s strategy to create network and data centre infrastructure in India. This would enhance demand for services such as e-commerce, online banking and corporate ERP.
“The demand for third-party service providers is going up as more companies want to outsource server and storage services. This is because maintaining servers is complex and heavy, so they prefer outsourcing such functions,” said PJ Nath, executive president, Sify Enterprise Services. Following the data centre near Mumbai, Sify will open two more, in Delhi and Bangalore, over the next couple of years.
Mr Nath further said that the Airoli data centre is part of the company’s strategy to create network and data centre infrastructure in India. This would enhance demand for services such as e-commerce, online banking and corporate ERP.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Broadband (≥ 256 Kbps download) Growth for July' 08
Total Broadband subscribers base has reached 4.57 million by the end of July 2008 as compared to 4.38 million by the end of June 2008. Comparison table of broadband subscriber’s growth during corresponding periods of 2007 and 2008 is shown below:
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Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/597/pr25aug08no73.pdf
Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!Source : http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/597/pr25aug08no73.pdf
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