DISHNET DSL: On the Broadband Wagon

Sridhar Subra—maniyan is a Net freak. He spends a minimum
of four hours everyday on the Net. But of the four hours, he spends most of the
time waiting for the page to download. Elsewhere, in a software development
center, there is chaos. The reason: their ISDN lines are choked because of
overloading. These are just examples that show the plight of the Indian Internet
user. Given the present state of infrastructure, the country not only needs a
technology that resolves basic connectivity problems, but one that can also be
easily adopted widely. Digital subscriber line (DSL), a technology being
aggressively promoted by Chennai-based Dishnet DSL, is gearing up to address
these issues.

According to a study conducted by Nasscom, the country will
require a bandwidth of around 300Gbps by 2005, while another survey done by
Fujitsu puts the bandwidth requirement at 210 Gbps for the same time. And
meeting such requirements would be an uphill task. With Dishnet’s
infrastructure and services already in place in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin and Coimbatore, the company hopes to capitalize on
its early mover edge. Says R Ganesh, vice president, field engineering, Dishnet
DSL, "We made a strategic decision to enter into the broadband arena and we
are the first company to introduce DSL in the country. To provide our services
to a wider audience, we are now on an expansion spree. To this end we have set
up around 350 DSL AMs (Access Multipliers) across the country, which will be
able to provide DSL connectivity to 40,000 users. As the demand for broadband
grows, we will extend the network substantially."

Market potential

The DSL market in India is still in a nascent stage, but the
company hopes to cash in on the increasing number of Internet users. In the last
few years, the country’s Internet subscriber base has increased from a meager
1.7 lakh in 1998 to over 2.3 million in 2001, says a Nasscom survey. Says Ganesh,
"Our DSL subscriber base is currently at about 15,000. Today there is a
pressing need for quality bandwidth and uninterrupted connectivity, which we can
provide."

Among the target segments are software development centers,
corporates, hospitality, SMEs, SOHO and the home segment. It is interesting to
note that 5% of the total Dishnet DSL connections are in the home segment,
clearly indicating that the segment has been an early adopter. Applications like
audio-video streaming, Web-enabled ERP, telemedicine, VPN etc call for faster
data transfer speeds and they will act as major drivers for DSL in the country.

Says Rustom Irani, CTO, Satyam Infoway, "When we look at
the Indian Internet scenario, the maximum cost is being paid by the subscriber
for the telephone connect charge incurred through dial-up connections. A
technology like DSL would be able to provide the always on connect without
consuming the telephone charges. This makes it attractive to the Internet
user." However there is a flip side, the cost of the DSL modem is
reasonably high and could act as a deterrent. Also, the telephone companies are
refusing to allow the co-location model of DSLAM, which is being used in some of
the developed countries. Irani of Sify points out, "The Indian market is
still not ready for this. While there is a lack of critical mass, DSL deployment
is also a very costly affair. Besides, the killer applications that demand
broadband are still not here."

Notwithstanding conflicting opinions, Dishnet is pitching
hard that this is a technology of the future. While leased lines are much
costlier, dial-ups and ISDNs don’t offer as much access speed. The company has
rolled out innovative schemes and packages to leverage its offerings to a wider
mass. In the US, DSL competes with Cable Internet, which is still in a fluid
stage in India. But in the absence of competition, it certainly has potential to
take off in the Net access market.

g Shrikanth in Chennai