BROADBAND : Power to the People

Internet and communication technologies have brought about unprecedented
changes in the way people communicate and conduct businesses. The evolution of
technologies and applications has made the lives of people better and more
comfortable in myriad ways. The business models keep changing as industry
processes set new business chains.

Broadband is a key contributor toward this change and when fully absorbed,
will change people's behavior and will drive much more intense and productive
use of information and communication technologies (ICT), online contents,
applications, and services. It is widely believed that societies that adopt,
adapt, and absorb the benefits of broadband enabled ICT services and
applications quickly and deeply, achieve significant benefits in terms of
productivity, innovation, growth, and quality of life, as well as earn
significant competitive advantages over societies that don't.

The power of the Internet has brought greater awareness of skills and
resources helping Indian markets reach a diverse global audience. It has played
a major role in opening up various untapped markets of the country and bestowed
the benefits of globalization on the Indian people. The exploitation of
broadband enabled ICT, content, applications, and services has helped India
become a truly competitive knowledge based economy and leverage Indian citizens
to become better educated and more engaged in their community and society. But
this has been confined mainly to major cities and a small group of the
population.

The growth of broadband in India is comparatively slow. After the
announcement of the broadband policy in October 2004 we had just 3.13 mn
broadband connections at the end of December 2007-while China adds 3.32 mn
broadband connections in a quarter, we have added only 0.08 mn in the last
quarter. A recent report of organizations for economic cooperation and
development (OECD), in which countries have been ranked based on the broadband
penetration, has placed India at the bottom of thirty-four countries. India is
not only below developed countries like the US and the UK, but also far below
some smaller countries like Denmark and Iceland. Although, the future technology
projections indicate that microprocessors will run one thousand times as many
computations as are being done today, which means enormous gain in productivity
and efficiency, giving people unimaginable power to access, organize, and
transform information.

Broadband access can be provided using various technologies.

Digital Subscriber Line: Existing PSTN infrastructure having copper loops up
to the subscriber provides the most cost effective option for broadband
delivery. Digital subscriber line (DSL) has become an important technological
option for provisioning broadband services through the copper loop of public
switched telephone network (PSTN). DSL speeds are influenced by the distance
between the subscriber and the local exchange, the gauge of the phone wire, and
the type of DSL technology. This technology offers a dedicated amount of
bandwidth that does not vary with the number of subscribers logged on, in an
area.

The fixed wireline subscribers in India have been accounted to a population
of around 39 mn (14 mn in rural areas and 25 mn in urban areas) and are mainly
owned by BSNL and MTNL. The existing cable networks need to be suitably upgraded
and then around 50-60% of the cable network can be used for providing broadband
services with varying speeds depending upon the length of the copper cable. The
challenge before BSNL/MTNL is to make use of these copper cables quickly for
broadband services, to have a commanding position in the market and to achieve
this, they will have to device various innovative ways.

Cable TV: New technological developments in cable TV networks have made it
possible to send data in both directions via usage of different channels on
separate blocks of 6 Mhz frequencies, making Internet access over cable TV a
viable solution. Presently, there are 71 mn Cable TV subscribers in India, hence
one can assume that this last mile infrastructure reaches more people than even
the copper loop infrastructure (40 mn) and can be leveraged in providing cable
operators with a new business model while giving a stimulus to broadband
penetration. However, this cable TV network requires lot of up-gradation, and,
in turn, added cost. In the US and Canada, the cable TV network is a dominant
form of access for broadband services.

Direct to Home: DTH is another technology that could be used for providing
broadband services. At present, it is being used for TV transmission only,
however, it can be utilized as the downlink path for providing broadband
connections. Uplink (connectivity to the ISP equipment/node) shall have to be
through independent connections, may be, through dial up/GPRS/EDGE, but the cost
of the uplink is the main issue to determine success and popularity of this
option.

Satellite: The provision for broadband using satellite is another option but
the cost of such a network is extremely high. Hence, satellite can at best be
used in remote and inaccessible hilly areas but it might not be the most
appropriate option where other technologies can provide cheaper broadband
service.

Fiber Optics: The fiber optics technology can provide unlimited bandwidth and
the national long distance network has major deployment of this technology. This
technology has also replaced the copper network in the intra-city backbone
network. The fiber-based models are capable of providing a huge amount of
bandwidth in the last mile, as well as, provide a true IP and converged network
that can deliver high quality voice, data, and video. Fiber to the curb (FTTC)
and fiber to the home (FTTH) networks make use of fiber cable into the last
mile. Such a network is quite suitable for providing high-speed broadband
services. Some operators have implemented overlay optical fiber networks in big
towns for providing large bandwidths to industrial and big commercial
organizations. However, their initial deployment cost is very high, mainly due
to the high cost of laying the cable.

Wireless Technology: Wireless network is another option to provide wider
broadband access solutions. Initially, wireless networks were considered a
solution for providing telecom facilities to harsh landscapes and lightly
populated areas where it was difficult to provide conventional wire-line
networks, as the cost of wireless networks were comparatively higher.

Technological developments in the wireless facility during the last
one-decade have completely changed the telecom scenario. Mobile services have
taken over the fixed line network on account of reduction in the cost of the
equipment, ease of installation, operation and maintenance, flexibility for
service providers, and convenience to end users. Wherever the penetration of
copper loops is not widely spread, the laying of new copper cables and optical
fiber cables is an expensive option due to high cost of right-of-way and high
operational cost. Therefore, wireless-based access is an ideal solutions for
widespread last mile coverage through a combination of different technologies
like WiMax, Wi-Fi, etc. These technologies have the added advantage of
interoperability and economy of scale due to international standardization.
However, for the deployment of any wireless technology, suitable and sufficient
spectrum availability and its efficient utilization is a must.

Wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a term used for a certain type of wireless local
area networks. Wireless LANs are most commonly used in the last mile to provide
coverage for few hundred meters as diffusers of a broadband connection. This can
be used in the office environment for providing connectivity to portable devices
such as laptops, and commercial hotspot solutions for wireless connectivity for
the Internet. For implementing Wi-Fi access networks, a backhaul network is
required, this can be copper cable, optical fiber, or WiMax. Wi-Fi can operate
in unlicensed 2.4 Ghz band and 5 Ghz band depending upon its version in the
802.11 family.

WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) is a high-speed
wireless technology that supports fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile access.
It is claimed that WiMax can provide speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and is likely to
support much higher speeds with further advancement. Due to the support for
higher speeds, wider coverage and ease of installation, WiMax is considered one
of the most promising technologies to provide high-speed Internet.

Third generation (3G) is a term used to describe the latest generation of
mobile services that provide advanced voice communications and high-speed data
connectivity, including access to the Internet, mobile data applications, and
multimedia content. IMT-2000 is the name given to third-generation (3G) wireless
mobile standards defined in the International Telecommunication Union's
Radio-communication Sector (ITU-R) recommendation. The two most widely deployed
standards are based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology and are
referred to as CDMA-direct spread (CDMA-DS), also known as WCDMA; and CDMA
multi-carrier (CDMA-MC), known as CDMA2000. Both have the capability to support
voice and broadband data traffic, with newer revisions providing even greater
data rates.

Globally, WCDMA networks have been deployed in 2.1 GHz and 850 Mhz bands, and
developments are in progress for 900 MHz deployments, as well. EV-DO systems
have been deployed in the 800 and 1900 MHz bands; though some deployments in 450
MHz, 1700 MHz, and 2100 MHz also exist.

Security is a major concern for wireless networks, since individuals can
easily intercept radio signals traveling through the open atmosphere; strong
customer management (user ID and password) and encryption management are
necessary for operation of successful wireless networks.

International Scenario

As per the world broadband statistics report for the third quarter of 2007,
mainly three technologies (DSL, cable modem, and FTTX) are being used for
providing broadband connectivity, with DSL leading as the most popular of the
three with a 66% share of the broadband market. This represents a subscriber
base totaling 217.14 mn in Q3, 2007. Cable modem follows with 71.1 mn
subscribers or a 21.65% market share. FTTX technology represents a 10.75% market
share with a subscriber base totaling 35.29 mn. The other technologies share is
1.6%. The 3G technology, HSPA currently has around 11.5 mn subscribers globally
as per the UMTS forum. This technology is stated to dominate the mobile
broadband market. Broadband over powerline (BPL) has also been emerging steadily
over the past several years for in-home networking, access/utility company
applications.

What India Needs

Internet and broadband has helped people across continents to find the best
jobs in the market. Electronic commercial transaction is another area that is
likely to use broadband in a big way for facilities such as e-commerce,
e-banking, e-education, and e-health.

CII in its recent report on broadband growth has re-emphasized the urgency to
increase broadband penetration. The report states that connectivity and service
innovations, if designed appropriately and implemented effectively, can be a key
driver for several socio-economic gains including economic growth and employment
generation. The important aspect of the CII report is that most initiatives are
proposed to be industry driven and don't require any investment by the
government. The broadband economy could attract investment of over $2,600 mn by
2008 and $5,350 mn by 2010.

In our country, it is not economical to lay new copper cables and optical
fiber cables for providing broadband services on account of high cost of
right-of-way and high cost of maintenance of the network, particularly in rural
areas. We should try to make best use of the existing copper cables and optical
fiber networks. Another alternative for increasing broadband penetration at an
affordable cost is the wireless network. The major hurdle in the roll out of
wireless broadband services is availability of spectrum.

Unless a spectrum is allocated, the broadband growth, especially in rural and
remote areas, will be slow and may have adverse impact on growth. One of the
factors constraining the wireless technology is that, as the number of
subscribers using data services increase, the effective data speed available
shall reduce unless the availability of spectrum is increased.

The position regarding availability of spectrum for WiMax and 3G services is
not very clear at the moment. It is quite difficult to give the time frame by
which sufficient spectrum will be available to both access as well as Internet
service providers to service large number of subscribers for high speed data
services. Therefore, the Indian industry may have to work out a hybrid model
consisting of optical fiber network and wireless network for increasing the
penetration of broadband services in urban and rural areas.

Our country should focus on exploiting the available resources to optimum
level for increasing broadband penetration. The incumbent operators should use
copper cable for broadband or unbundle this to private operators. The state
governments may take steps to reduce the cost of right-of-way so that optical
fiber cables can be laid in local networks.

The central government is taking steps in getting the spectrum released from
the defense department and other organizations for 3G and WiMax technologies. In
addition, if the fruit of broadband has to reach the common masses, various
applications and contents have to be developed to suit their requirements. All
service providers and content providers will have to take initiatives for speedy
growth of broadband in the times to come, as it will not only provide them a
business model but also boost economic development of the country, create
knowledge based society, and above all provide a tool to compete in the
converged telecom era.

RN Prabhakar

The author is a member of TRAI

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in