Speeding Up Broadband

A panel discussion on “Speeding Broadband Penetration” was held on the second
day of the CEO Conclave at Kathmandu, Nepal. The discussion was moderated by
Kasturi Bhattacharjee, senior principal consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
India.

The discussion covered topics like the status of broadband penetration in the
SAARC countries; which technologies can optimize broadband expansion: DSL, ADSL,
WiMax, Wi-Fi, 3G, Metro Ethernet, etc in the SAARC region; what killer apps
(country specific) are needed for enabling broadband expansion; and what are the
regulatory hurdles and how can they be overcome.

Sharing her views on broadband, Ruzan Khambatta,
director, E Comm Opportunities said penetration of broadband can
definitely increase but the efforts have to be put in two ways. One is through
improvement in the speed of broadband and second is infrastructure development.
According to her, despite the considerable interest in the Internet in India,
the ISP market has been in disarray. Lack of infrastructure is a major challenge
ISPs face in rolling out services in an efficient manner. She also emphasized on
taking into account different topographies while rolling out services.

According to her, one way to increase the penetration rate is laying emphasis
on infrastructure sharing among providers so that the cost of service comes down
and services are offered to consumers at an affordable price. Consequently, the
issues of poor local-content availability in India should get resolved as bigger
broadband subscription numbers are likely to encourage more content providers.

Panel discussion on 'Speeding Broadband Penetration' was attended by (from L-R): Brajesh Jain, CEO, ISP Division, Spectranet; Amitabh Singhal, director, Telexcess Consulting; Vinayak Rajanhally, regional director, iBasis; Rajesh Chharia, president, ISPAI; Kasturi Bhatacharjee, head, National Practice, PriceWatersHouseCoopers; Ruzan Khambatta, director, E Comm Opportunities; AK Srivastava, GM, MTNL; YL Aggarwal, director, HFCL; and Ahmed Maumoon, manager, Marketing, Dhiragu Telecom

Amitabh Singhal, replying to Khambatta's
query, said India and the other SAARC countries are going wireless. He said that
the wireless broadband market is poised to take off in a big way in India.
Though both wireline and wireless broadband will grow rapidly, the latter will
grow faster in comparison to wireline. The biggest difference between the two is
that a wireless broadband network can be deployed faster and is less expensive
to maintain. Additionally, the time required and the cost of laying a wire line
network is higher than that incurred while setting up a wireless network. We can
set up a wireless network for a given area in six months, but setting up a wire
line network for the same area will take more than a year and this is also the
answer for providing connectivity to difficult topologies.

Brajesh C Jain, CEO, Spectra Net raised
the issue of pricing. He said one needs to seriously look at the price points
because today's customers want to know what they would be getting for the price
they are paying. He further said fiber should be used for backhaul purpose as
handling them can be a tough task. He said our ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam had
said that people in rural India needed video, as a result there us a huge
potential that awaits for broadband in rural India.

Jain further added that the majority of semi-urban and rural areas do not
have appropriate wire line network for data connectivity. Setting up a wired
communication network across the country would not be feasible, as it would
require huge Capex and a considerable amount of time. The most feasible way to
provide broadband access would be through wireless technologies. Affordable
connectivity to empower rural consumers is critical for the country's economic
growth.

Kasturi Bhattacharjee, senior principal
consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India, while adding a SAARC angle
to the discussion, asked the panelists to throw some light on the broadband
scenario in the SAARC countries.

Ahmed Maumoon, marketing manager, Broadband
and Fixed, Dhiraagu, said Maldives was the ideal topology for rolling out
broadband services on wireless network. He said affordability of laptops and
computers had to increase if some headway was to be made in broadband
penetration. He said Wi-Fi is already being provided in Maldives but its usage
has still a long way to go before it reaches its optimum capacity. The primary
reason for the sorry state is the pricing of laptops and desktops.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD, One97 Communications, has a query

Sharing his views, AK Srivastava said we have to look at the penetration of
broadband in totality. One has to look at it from the points of view of
customers, operators, regulators, and technology. According to him, hybrid
networks are best suited to provide high speed, however, political will is the
basic requisite, and literacy will be the driving factor for broadband
penetration. He further added that low penetration of PCs in India is one of the
major constraints for broadband penetration. While the PC penetration in urban
areas is increasing considerably with every passing year, the penetration in
rural areas has been very low. The cost of PCs and the language of operating
system play a major role in the spreading of the Internet to rural areas.

Rajesh Chharia, president, ISPAI, said
small ISPs are not able to sustain because regulators are tough on them. He said
a liberal regulatory regime that permits free entry and exit has been the
hallmark of almost all major countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, and
virtually all members of the European Union. But, such a liberal regulatory
regime is absent in India. He further added that most government targets for the
Internet and broadband access remain unmet.

Of the 350 ISP license holders, only about 150 are operational, raising
questions about the reasons for such a poor performance in the Internet services
while other services have become widespread and affordable. He also said that
power supply is a major concern for penetration of broadband in rural India.

Commenting on the sorry state of broadband penetration, Agarwal said more and
more states are looking to provide broadband in rural areas to provide triple
play. But the catch is that governments don't want to invest in it, instead they
want to have a public-private partnership. He further said around 50,000-60,000
km of network is required for rural expansion and a wireless network is the best
option to provide connectivity over there.

He also said that for RoI from broadband, one has to look at alternative
sources like entertainment and cable TV. Regarding VoIP, he said it has a huge
potential and a serious look at it is needed. On SAARC, he said a minimum speed
of 2/10 Mbps should be made mandatory.

Commenting on VoIP, Vinayak Rajanahally,
regional director, Indian Subcontinent, iBasis said it is a great
application and it will act as a driver for increasing penetration of personal
computers and broadband in India. He felt that wireless will be a widely
accepted technology in the coming years.

Commenting on consumers' point of view, Singhal said the consumer's major
interest lies in the quality of service. He was of the opinion that VoIP will
continue to make inroads, as business is not only about voice and data, but is
also about killer application.

Bhattacharjee concluded the discussion by saying that majority of the
panelists were of the opinion that for increasing broadband penetration,
wireless is the most viable option and educating the masses will act as a
catalyst for speeding up the broadband penetration in rural India.

Sandeep Budki

Sandeepb@cybermedia.co.in