Rajesh Jain: Broadband blueprint

FUTURE TECH/ The TRAI's roadmap for broadband will have far-reaching implications

One of the most important documents for India's digital future has barely been discussed in the media.

What happens to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendations on broadband and the internet (http://www.trai.gov.in) which will have far-reaching implications for each of us in our personal and business lives, and we aren't even engaged in the debate.

First, the questions. What broadband? Why broadband? How broadband?

Broadband connectivity, as defined in the TRAI report, is always-on connectivity of 256 Kbps or higher. While one can argue about the connection speed, that is a big leap from what is advertised today (64-128 Kbps). Broadband is the end game for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries.

Besides making internet access faster, it can make possible a wide variety of applications.

For example, video conferencing can connect far-flung offices and also enable distance education; telemedicine can bring medical attention to remote areas, video on demand can time-shift entertainment to suit our convenience, voice over IP can bring telephony costs down even further, multi-player online gaming can now become a reality, and enterprises can access business applications centrally.

The two most common modes of broadband access are digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable. DSL works on regular telephone lines and is the most popular way to deliver broadband.

Cable companies can also provide broadband by virtue of the fact that they too have a wire coming into homes and enterprises. Other possibilities for providing broadband are via satellite and through wireless technologies.

The problem in India, as we have all experienced, is connectivity. TRAI has estimated that bandwidth in India costs 1,200 times more than in south Korea, which is the most wired nation today. The end result is that few in India have experienced the world of broadband.

While there is a lot of talk about building India's infrastructure in terms of its roads, ports and airports, we also need to act rapidly to build our digital infrastructure.

From education to healthcare, and entertainment to e-commerce, the world of broadband can also lay the foundation for booting up the domestic IT industry and help improve productivity in India's industrial sector.

This is the context of the TRAI recommendations. TRAI has sought to address 11 hurdles that hinder broadband growth in India: price, access to the customer (lack of access to the incumbent's copper for DSL, low quality of cable TV infrastructure and lack of organisation, the high costs of direct to home and VSAT, policies that prevent wireless solutions from spreading, clearances for right of way), costs of backhaul networks (lack of effective competition in "within city" networks, the high costs of international bandwidth, the ineffective implementation of National Internet Exchange of India), fiscal policies (high taxes and duties, and lack of incentives for faster growth), and content and applications (lack of locally relevant content and the absence of a "change agent" to drive growth).

TRAI hopes that the implementation of its recommendations will boost the number of internet users from last year's four million to 40 million by 2010, along with a hundred-fold increase in the broadband user base to 20 million.

One of the most important TRAI recommendations is that of local loop unbundling. In simple words, this means that the incumbent telcos (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd) need to open up access on their last mile to others for an appropriate fee.

This way, others do not need to replicate what is an expensive last-mile infrastructure. While the concept is sound, this is a non-trivial decision for the government-owned telcos. The interests of a few are likely to supersede those of many.

What India needs is a complete unshackling of all regulation to ensure that every Indian household and enterprise has access to affordable broadband by 2010. We need to think five to 10 times the estimates of TRAI.

To make that happen, we need to think disruptively. India needs to become a hotbed for next-generation wireless and other technologies which can deliver broadband to homes and enterprises rapidly. It does not matter if others have done it or not. We need to lead the way, just like south Korea did a few years ago.

Let us set a goal of providing a "whole solution" of hardware (access device), software, broadband connectivity and tech support for Rs 700 per user per month.

Of this, broadband access (512 Kbps or higher) should cost no more than Rs 250 a month. Let us work backwards and figure out what we need to make this happen. If we can imagine 100 million users in five years, this is a market of Rs 30,000 crore per annum for broadband service providers to fight over. The world of "computing" as a utility would have arrived. For once, let us hope TRAI is wrong with its estimates.

Rajesh Jain is managing director of Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd. His weblog is http/www.emergic.org. He can be contacted at rajesh@netcore.co.in.