Time to think of Communication as Public Goods 

Growth of Broadband Infrastructure in the 5G Era can be viewed with the lens of a co-opetition model – as this panel debates

At TLF 2023, an interesting spectrum of experts got together in a huddle where they discussed the changing needs of businesses and end-user, the impact of technology change including enhanced Mobile Broadband, laying the infrastructure for 5G and broadband, driving the rural broadband market – with a new perspective.

Moderator Rajat Mukarji, Director-General, BIF spurred these minds well by asking about how to improve the quality of broadband and how to accelerate transformation across the country.

Broadband- Stop looking at it narrowly

The first aspect that matters here is how the infrastructure is connected. Instead of customers getting connected to an Exchange, an ISP and content delivery networks like Google get connected, explained Anil Jain, CEO, NIXI. This has two advantages – reduction of latency of information to end-customer. Also, cost savings for infrastructure providers happen- and these can be passed back to the customer. 

Jain stressed on digital education and health to be available in remote corners of India- and for that a data superhighway is crucial. “That way every citizen can take advantage of digital growth in the country.”

Without mincing any words, Pankaj Kitchlu, Systems Engineering Director, Juniper Networks addressed the elephant in the room – “There is a culture of free discounts and cashbacks in India – let’s stop it. As to socio-economic impetus of broadband – the recent times of economic flux and geo-political situation have fast-tracked the need for digitalisation. How do we make the network of future today? And as technologists we should not sway from the centre of what the customer actually wants. If we could blend customer experience, assurance with software or AI-driven thought-leadership- we can get to what we are looking for. These are not easy things to be done.” He noted how Broadband has kept up with new data size and demands. “Broadband is a utility. We should take it seriously.”

With that argument, the panel moved into a deeper discussion on the ‘utility’ aspect of communication.

Telco and Water – In The Same Bucket

The proliferation of content in today’s era is also driving broadband in a new way. Dr. S N Gupta, Chairman of the Board, Bluetown India & BIMSTEC, South Asia sifted through some priorities for broadband evolution- restoration of financial health, incentivisation of pan-Indian fiberisation, roll-out of public wifi hotspots, speeding up of right-of-way clearances and conferring an infrastructure status to the Telco industry. “All of them are important. Fiberisation, for instance, started in 2011. It is yet to be delivered well. Just setting priorities will not help. Execution is more important. Getting it done is very vital.”

The experts were vocal and objective about granting of infrastructure status to Telco industry. And they offered new ways of looking at this idea. “That does not solve everything. It’s a peanut contribution in interest rates and loan prioritisation. Just calling it infrastructure won’t help. Public Digital Goods – is a better approach. Then every state and user has ownership. Everyone controls it. Like water. We should be advocating this in a strong way. Once we call it a ‘public digital good’, everything from data centres to tower to Wi-fi can be pooled and upgraded in a co-operative manner. Users can be owners too in this scenario. ” Dr. Gupta unlocked a new window of possibilities here. He underlined how the political will is right at this hour to make this concept work.

Umang Das, Chairman, FIIF & Advisor, RANext helped to quantitatively understand the infrastructure requirements and investment side of these shifts. “The buzzword is implementation. And not by being at loggerheads with each other but with co-operation. If we define digital infrastructure in a new way, we have about five lakh towers and four lakh wi-fi hotspots. If we look at national broadband mission, the intent is to make fibres double to 50 lakh kilometres and same for towers and hotspots. We need to accelerate in a massive way and it’s a huge task ahead for us- this needs a lot of investment too. From 1995 to now, telecom sector has been largely driven by private sector. We should understand that digital infrastructure is the bedrock of the New India vision. Infrastructure and service layers should be separated. A National Fibre authority can monitor this development along with a national portal for roll-outs etc.” He advised.  He also suggested setting up of a National Digital Infrastructure Funding entity. “We also have several funding models. International sources and PPP models can be considered here as well.” 

Costs and affordability – The last mile matters

Many other topics were touched upon during the panel. Like – how a data super highway will not just bring infrastructure but also make it affordable for everyone. Internet protocol addresses are also crucial for this ecosystem. The adoption of IPV6 was also discussed in the panel.

Rashim Kapoor, Head Core and Hub CTO, Airtel dissected areas like reducing the cost of infra development. “Use of green energy helps to reduce both cost and carbon footprint. Technology intervention, automation and operational measures are key pillars to reduce costs. SDN, technology for spectrum efficiencies, infrastructure-sharing on fibre side, last mile optimisation, self-healing networks, virtualisation etc. are some ways that are helping us to reduce costs. Overall costs will never reduce but cost-per-GB reduction can help a lot.”

The panel experts also argued about buckets like desirable experience to customers and social impact. 

If infrastructure has to grow, then a symbiotic relationships between efficient use of technology, development of a financial model and creation of a regulatory framework- would be the way to go forward in these directions, concluded Mukarji.