BIF backs TRAI, calls for early adoption of public Wi-Fi recommendations

India’s telecom sector think-tank Broadband India Forum (BIF) has called upon the Department of Telecom (DoT) to accept the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) recommendations on the Proliferation of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks.

Hailing TRAI’s 5 June 2020 response to the DoT Back Reference to its earlier recommendations, BIF stated that its implementation will enable the government to realize its “Broadband for All” and “Digital India” objectives, and also help meet the current requirement of “Work from Anywhere”.

It further backed TRAI’s vision of opening up the sector for the provision of broadband services through a plethora of smaller players, via a simple process of registration using the unbundled and distributed service model, in contrast to the existing vertically integrated service-based model.

“It will result in explosive growth in business and employment opportunities for small local or village-level entrepreneurs, the kirana stores, tea shops, and the likes, besides providing affordable broadband for all,” BIF stated in a press release.

The think-tank also pointed out that going by the by World Bank’s 2009 report that a 10% increase in broadband penetration leads to a 1.38% increase in GDP growth for low-income countries like India, “the country could have suffered a large and irretrievable loss” during “the four years that these recommendations remained unactioned”.

Quoting a 2017 report of ICRIER that highlighted that a 10% increase in total internet traffic in India leads to a humungous 3.3% increase in GDP, BIF said, “If these TRAI recommendations had been accepted back then, the common man, the economy and the nation as a whole would have reaped rich and wondrous benefits.”

Pointing out that liberalization of the broadband sector will unleash immeasurable benefits to the citizens of India, the economy and the entire nation, BIF President TV Ramachandran said that the move will encourage village-level entrepreneurship and provide large employment opportunities at local levels, especially in rural areas, thus propelling socioeconomic development and inclusion, as well as rural digital connectivity.

India’s broadband penetration is currently less than 50% if one reckons the unique subscribers, although according to TRAI, there are approximately 686 million total broadband connections, a majority of whom are in urban areas and have multiple SIMs. However, the percentage of users accessing broadband via public WiFi hotspots are minimal due to the lack of availability.

According to CISCO Annual Internet Report, 2018-2023, India has 0.1 million hotspots (as per TRAI) as compared to the global availability of 169 million hotspots. The report also predicts that by 2023 there will be nearly 628 million hotspots globally.

“If we go strictly with the above projections and the size of the Indian telecom market (having about one-sixth of the total telecom subscribers in the world) by 2023, at least 100 million public Wi-Fi hotspots should be there in the country,” BIF stated, adding that according to the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 India is supposed to have five million hotspots by the end of 2020 and 10 million by the end of 2022.

The industry body also stressed that TRAI’s recommendations were in perfect alignment with the objectives of the universally-lauded NDCP 2018, "which clearly states that the policy aims to pursue regulatory reforms to ensure that the regulatory structures and processes remain relevant, transparent, accountable, and forward-looking.”

Shubhendu Parth

shubhendup@cybermedia.co.in