India to have 20mn broadband connections by 2010

NEW DELHI INDIA: According to G.S. Grover, member Services, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications & IT, the broadband revolution, which has already started, will lead India into its next phase of economic growth. Grover added that each year, over 10,000 villages, schools, hospitals and other public places would have broadband access.

Today, the country has about 2.7 million connections and by the year 2010 the number is likely to cross 20 million broadband connections. Grover was speaking at the 4th Broadband Tech India 2007, organized by Bharat Exhibitions.

He said: "Last time, when the government reduced the entry fee and revenue share for international long distance (ILD) license, the number of service providers jumped from four to 31, resulting in intense competition and lower costs to the users. The same situation is about to happen in this segment also."

Grover added that the international call rates will drop down to the level of domestic calls rates in the near future due VoIP. The major issue slowing growth in this segment was speed. India should offer bandwidth of not just 2Mbps or 4Mbps, but 20Mbps to 40Mbps as in Korea and Japan.

"Among all technology options for rural connectivity, advanced wireless systems are the best suited. Among the various AWS options available, the one with minimal disruptions is the most preferred On this course CDMA 1XEVDO is the front runner," said B.V. Raman, country head CDG India.

While delivering his keynote, Vijay Yadav, managing director for South Asia, UT Starcom, said that soon we would be able to have access to broadband of 2Mbps or above speed anywhere in India at zero or near zero cost. According to him, this could touch off a new revolution in the country. Connecting over six lakh villages with broadband connectivity will help introduce the power of IPTV as an enabling tool that could eventually bring BPOs to locate in India’s villages.

To make broadband a success story in India, 2Mbps and above connected needs to be made free or near free, and be charged only on the basis of usage of content. "Providing free access for connecting to villages across the country and also enabling villagers to connect with government from their villages. High bandwidth would touch off high usage in distant education, e-medicine, distance health care and entertainment. The commercial houses would find openings to a huge consumer market through this connectivity,” added Yadav.

"We can call it a 'button revolution' as Indian villagers would respond more to video, rather than to data, and to the flicking of a button, rather than working with a keypad," he said.

Adding to this, Kuldip Singh, director (Technical), MTNL, said: "On our part, we are already giving 2.5Mbps broadband connectivity as a part of new telephone connection free. The customer will be billed for usage only."

The service provider for the Delhi and Mumbai metros has strengthened its network with MPLS, so that all broadband users get basic 2Mbps bandwidth without fail.

According to Rajendra Singh, BSNL's director, BSNL was planning a widespread rollout of broadband connectivity across the country. To begin with, BSNL is planning to provide broadband connectivity over wireline to 25,000 villages and another 25,000 villages through WiMAX to begin with, while the inaccessible interior would be connected using satellites.

While delivering his keynote, Lav Gupta, TRAI’s principal adviser, pointed out that 90 percent of the present 2.7 million connections were getting only 256Kbps bandwidth. According to him, the challenges before broadband service providers were that the costs of providing the service and the content was becoming costly.

Ms Usha Rajeev, leader, Infocom Practice, PricewaterCooper, suggested that the involvement of all stakeholders in getting a low cost network is of utmost importance.

Shankar Halder, Bharti Airtel's chief of strategy, cautioned the service providers to first ensure that there were compelling reasons for users to go for broadband through effective content. "Otherwise, they will not use it," he added.