Speeding up broadband

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: The VOICE&DATA SAARC CEO Conclave, SAARC communication industry's discussion forum, held its sixth version at Kathmandu, the picturesque capital of Nepal, from October 25-28.

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.

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.

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.