The next wave in telecom

BANGALORE: For too long, mobile companies have ignored the Indian rural hinterland. Since 1995, when mobile telephony came into the country, all the mobile operators have been going hammer and tongs on the big metros.

After tapping the urban India with their operations, service providers are now looking at expanding connectivity in rural areas as a prime focus. The next big wave in the telecommunications industry is reaching the rural mass. The reason? Well, commerce again.

The big metros are saturated and there is more or less stagnant growth in terms of absolute volumes. Little wonder, service providers as well as infrastructure provider started taking bold initiatives to tap rural market.

A head start
Bharti Airtel has announced that it will collaborate with the Gujarat government in the prestigious eGRAM Connectivity Infrastructure Project. Under this project, Bharti Airtel will set up telecom infrastructure to connect 13,716 village panchayats and common service centers in the state.

Once connected, the panchayat offices/eGRAMs are expected to form a socio-economic network supporting information dissemination and facilitating e-Governance initiatives in the state.

Commenting on this significant partnership, Manoj Kohli, president & CEO, Bharti Airtel says, "It is a great opportunity to partner with the Gujarat government in the innovative and novel project of empowering its citizens. This partnership reiterates Airtel's endeavor to collaborate with the government's e-Governance plans and efforts to bridge the "digital divide" by providing connectivity to the rural masses. The e-enabling of the state is an important step as the country moves into the next phase of economic growth."

Bharti has designed a VSAT-based solution to provide last mile connectivity to these villages. The project rollout is expected to be completed in March 2008. The project aims at providing high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data services in the areas of agriculture, e-Governance, health, and education in village panchayats.

The connectivity will also facilitate point-to-point and point-to-multipoint video conferencing services, VoIP services and both intra and Internet services from these village panchayats and common service centers.

Nokia Siemens Networks has announced a tie up with Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) to deploy broadband access across 7,000 Indian villages. The new access network's high bandwidth will allow BSNL to deliver high data and triple play services such as video on-demand, video multi cast, IPTV, video conferencing, VPN among others to its customers.

The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to Community Service Center (CSC) and other e-Governance locations. Kuldeep Goyal, chairman & MD, BSNL, says, "BSNL rural broadband project will bridge the digital divide and connect 20,000 villages in India."

The two-year agreement includes supply, installation and commissioning, training, and annual maintenance contract for five years. As part of the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks is deploying its Gigabit Ethernet capable IP DSLAMs (digital subscriber line access multiplexers) Surpass hiX5625 and the chassis-based access switch (Surpass hiD6615). Nokia Siemens will also supply end user devices that will enable BSNL to provide speed of up to 24 Mbps for ADSL2+ subscribers over its existing copper infrastructure.

This is the second rural broadband access tender that BSNL has awarded to Nokia Siemens Networks. There is parallel deployment by the company in the urban broadband access for BSNL across 15 circles. The first phase of that rollout is in its advance stages of completion for 800,000 ports.

In the loop
A similar move has been initiated by Ericsson to take up the challenge for providing wireless broadband connectivity to rural areas. Ericsson has launched the Gramjyoti Rural broadband project, an initiative to introduce the benefits of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology in rural areas of the country and connect the unconnected.

The initiative would be a welcome relief for the rural mass. Speaking on the launch P Balaji, VP, Marketing & Strategy, Ericsson India, says, "This initiative is mainly to increase the Internet penetration into the rural areas. Once the Internet connectivity is provided in these areas, the developments would follow by nurturing growth and we could make wonders."

The initiative of Ericsson combined with partners like Apollo Hospitals, Hand in Hand, eDutune, One97, CNN, is going to benefit the rural mass. They will benefit from the HSPA technology as they reach where the fiber optic cables could not make it.

For the first time in India, the 3G technology would be used for the purpose of providing broadband. "This initiative would bring a major difference in the technology where we could save up to 20-30%, compared to the 2G technology. It would give us 14.1 Mbps bandwidth with 3.84 Mbps uploading speed," said Bo Ribbing, head, 3G Group, Ericsson India.

Earlier, Ericsson launched a pilot project in a rural village, Vadakkampadi, Tamil Nadu, using the HSPA technology. The pilot project covers a tele-medicine program through which a person in the village could be monitored by a doctor who is not physically present; and an e-learning process, and e-Governance project through which birth and death certificates would be provided through print outs in the community center located in the village. "We could try and do out things, and expect it to get replicated in the future, everywhere in the country," says Ribbing.

Aiming higher
"This pilot project is currently running in eighteen villages and fifteen towns within the Kanchipuram district (Tamil Nadu), through which thousands are reaping benefits. We want more people to benefit out of this," said Balaji. "Currently, we are getting the service from BSNL, Aircel, Bharti, ISDN and utilize the 3G technology in the test spectrum provided by the government. We are looking forward for the spectrum allocation to be passed by the government," Balaji adds.

"We are expect to receive 2.1 Ghz frequency spectrum once the ongoing spectrum confusions are solved. We would then be able to stabilize the pilot project and start our work of providing connectivity to more rural areas. Since we carry operations through the GSM service, the existing towers available here made our job smooth.

Otherwise, we would have to build a GSM network tower and then carry out the operations, which would add up to the costs. There lies the challenge for Ericsson when it endeavors to penetrate into more rural areas around the globe," says Ribbing.

Apart from India, this connectivity program is also being carried out in the sub-Sahara region, where the rural masses need upliftment. On asking about investments, both Balaji and Ribbing were reluctant on revealing the investment pumped in for the project. There are around 750 mn people in rural India. If spectrum allocation is carried out soon, then this initiative by Ericsson would be a boon for the people in rural areas.