The C-DoT Story – Recollections of the early days

At that time, globally, there was an oligopoly of MNC telecom suppliers (esp. for the telephone exchanges) and, as, in the case of IBM, in respect of computers earlier, they needed to be challenged

It was in the 1970s. Those were the sleepy electro-mechanical switching-exchange days.

Strowger - switch https://www.yourdictionary.com/strowger-switch, exchanges and a nominal percent of Crossbar exchanges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbar_switch.

Waiting time to get telephone connections ran into years. Indian Telegraph Service (ITS) cadre engineers, functioning under the structure of the department of a ministry (Telecom) of the Government of India, were managing them with technical support staff, often taking criticism despite their best efforts.

The scene had begun to change steadily abroad, initially with electronic exchanges making their foray, soon to be followed by Digital exchanges whose heart was in fact computers, though dedicated to the job of setting up connections and routes. This reduced noise, cost, made the switches programmable and fast and extended their life, besides increasing their longevity and providing new features.

AT&T was the first, major and pre-eminent telephone service provider in USA, what they called regulated monopoly, much like how we view ‘discoms’ today in India in Electrical power distribution to residences in metros. They had a fancy name called ‘natural monopoly’, because underground cable laying in an area was not amenable to competitive offering.

First promise of C-DoT was 36 crores, 36 months, 10,000-line Max exchange - domestic design and domestic manufacture of fully digital exchanges. In the event, it met or exceeded almost all the above near-impossible promises, except for some delay in delivery of 10,000-line exchanges. However, it did build a world-class institution, created a production infrastructure in the country and built core sub-systems for manufacture as PAX, PABX and RAX products, which were taken up for licensed production within that period which would help penetration of telephony and its access nationwide – even in rural areas.

First promise of C-DoT was 36 crores, 36 months, 10,000 line Max exchanges. They did not fully meet it. But built a world-class institution, created production infra and built core sub-systems for manufacture as PAX and PABX products.

Also, investments took place for component manufacture to enable in-depth manufacture of C-DoT products. Another benefit of one of their most successful and popular 512 lines RAX (Rural Automatic eXchange) was that it got installed in rural areas, no a/c needed, easy to install and maintain (boards were hot-swappable), enabled last mile connection of rural telephones to be shorter and helped telephony reach far and deep into hinterland. Private sector - including the reputed company of Mr. Deodhar who later became Chairman, Electronics Commission, manufactured fancy STD/ISD instruments/ booths. It was a big hit with the people.

Later, Telecom Commission was created on the DoT (the user) side to reform the moribund British time set-up, which was not ready to respond to introduction of modern technologies into the network rapidly and had the potential of acting as a barrier to introduction of C-DoT exchanges and other indigenous products in an efficient and friendly manner. ‘Sam’ Pitroda (Satyan Gangadararan Pitroda) became the first Telecom Commission Chairman, against all resistance (he surrendered his US citizenship) and took only Rs. 1/- as his salary.

There were 5-6 positions as Members of Telecom Commission (TC) - all created at Secretary level (GoI parlance), including that of Chairman, TC. They, the ITS officers - many of whom were also part of the group which initially opposed the efforts of Sam and C-DoT products but became his supporters much later, benefited from the setting up of TC. Other than Sam, other members were mostly ITS officers, except, perhaps, Member, Finance, who was a nominee of Ministry of Finance.

The story dates back to Sam’s presentation to the then PM, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, in 1981 that India can build its own telephone exchanges (called Central Offices abroad), that too the most modern, and have them manufactured cost effectively (because, amoung other things, the key component, the software, will be indigenously developed) within India itself.

At that time, globally, there was an oligopoly of MNC telecom suppliers (esp. for the telephone exchanges) and, as, in the case of IBM, in respect of computers earlier, they needed to be challenged. The moment Rajiv Gandhi came to power (1984), this was one of the first decisions he took - to set up C-DoT with Sam under the driver’s seat with full freedom. Sam had done his homework and put together his initial, founding team – Mr. Meemamsi, Dr. M.V. Pitke, their teams and a few more, much like how a startup founder goes about it.

Meemamsi (who had built a 10,000-line trial electronic exchange at Rajouri garden) was the first one to join CDoT, as he and his team were serious and eager techies and were insiders to the system, though not that influential.

Dr. M.V. Pitke, of TIFR, was the second one to join alongwith his deputy, Chandrasekhar (who was later located at Bengaluru, the focal place for electronics manufacturing even in those days, thanks to PSU majors BEL, ITI and HAL and design labs). They had built AES - Automatic Electronic Switch (an all-digital exchange for Army) for manufacture by ITI. It was a competitive development project for Plan AREN of Army - with the competitor being LRDE (with BEL as the manufacturer).

The TIFR development was funded by DoE/MeitY and I was overseeing it. It was a superior product compared to the other one, but eventually lost out because of preference to LRDE-BEL - being part of the user family itself, namely MoD. That left Pitke and his team free and keen to take up C-DoT mission and merge their team with C-DOT core, initial team.

Same thing happened with Meemamsi’s team, who were better versed with DoT specs and were better aligned to MNC competitors’ specs. They also had initial intelligence of global competitors.

Sam made use of all these latent talents to stitch together the founding team. So, ‘The Team’ put together the initial specs, design, and production blue-print and a time-bound delivery plan and strategy.

By the end of the second year the 512 line RAX, was ready and got licensed for the first time. Progressively, these got integrated in the DoT network. These did not need air conditioning and could be placed closer to the rural user. This captured the imagination of people and there were tens of licensees for manufacture.

The standout cultural transformation brought in by Sam (unbelievable in those days) was openness, transparency, accountability and straight, business-like approach to running institutions and delivering on promises; use of a language everyone can understand - crisp, 1,2,.3 way of saying anything, never exceeding five points so that people can use their fingers to remember and recall. He laid emphasis on autonomy with accountability, laying down processes and an atmosphere of openness for everyone to adhere to – which was a big hit with youngsters who joined with idealism writ large on their eyes.

So, instead of making people wait for three years and ask for what (progress) has been made vis-a-vis promised deliverables, he conducted a big function at the end of one year at Vigyan Bhavan main hall inviting the Prime Minister and made ‘a presentation to the nation’.

PABX, containing the same set of line cards that were going to be used in the final 10,000-line switch was presented with display of actual product and documentation which potential takers of technology for volume manufacturing can take a look at. Indeed, for sure, these were later licensed for manufacture, for the first time in India.

Similar events were held at the end of second and third years demonstrating 512-line RAX – which again got licensed for the first time, even as the 10,000-line exchanges were getting ready for field trial. Progressively, these got integrated in the DoT network, making waves. These RAX-es did not need a/c and could be placed closer to the rural user, reducing the loss in last mile. This captured the imagination of people and, soon, there were many takers of licenses for manufacture of these products.

That motivated (electronic) component manufacturers, including relays and multi-layer PCBs to obtain license and start manufacturing components that go to service these and other products. The cut-over of 10,000/40,000 exchange at Bangalore was to wait for various reasons, including the very nature of increasing complexity of software, testing and integration to the functioning network. To add to that there was market competition from established foreign players, not too keen to see the success of C-DoT making large exchanges. (ITI had also tied up with CIT-Alcatel for local manufacture of large electronic exchanges at a factory in Gonda, U.P., in 1981-’82 though of an earlier generation of technology).

Though Sam was the brain behind the setting up of C-DoT and the motivator to all, officially he was Advisor, not in an Executive or Operating position in C-DoT, even during that impressionable period of early days of C-DoT from ‘84 to ‘89/’90. Mr. Meemamsi, wore the mantle of Executive Director, Dr. Pitke, the second Director and Mr. Mahajan, the third Director looking after Administration and HR.

However, after all the successes of C-DoT, Sam unfortunately had to undergo a major heart bi-pass surgery at Escorts hospital and, on his recovery, his wife urged him to take a break from his hectic schedule in India, and go back to USA to convalesce and recharge his battery.

C-DoT got its first major setback. But it would spring back and move on to make many more successes over the next 40 years. Even by mid to late ‘80s, it commanded a market share of close to 60% of exchange lines in the Indian network. The foundational days had not gone waste.

By Ramki (Srinivasan Ramakrishnan)

Formerly Founder Director, Education & Research Network (ERNET), Group Coordinator, MeitY and DG, C-DAC – worked closely with Sam Pitroda when in the Telecom Division of DOE (Dept. of Electronics).