India's broadband reckoning

India, though grappling with low-speed Internet, is sitting at a cusp of data revolution. The government's mammoth national optic fiber program envisages robust backbone infrastructure. The project, now delayed, aims to connect 100,000 village panchayats (blocks) by March 31, 2014 with a network that allows high-speed Internet with minimal energy needs.

The evolution of optic fiber is not new though. It facilitates high-bandwidth applications. The optic fiber that has been replacing copper wire in core networks, is a modern communications system, currently being deployed in many developed countries. India's last mile access, however remains murky while several nations have embarked on fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) initiative.

Australia plans more than 90 per cent fiber reach by June 2021, while China, Japan and South Korea deploys large FTTH networks. In the US, AT&T and Verizon Communications provides optic fiber to select territories, besides few local providers. India, adopting Singapore model, would allow fiber access to all TSPs and ISPs, and aims at delivering affordable100 Mbps speed.

In a rhetoric to facilitate social and financial inclusion of unconnected Indians, the government perceives fiber as a panacea to bridge digital divide. It plans to offer many citizen-centric programs and e-Governance initiatives besides e-education, e-health and e-agriculture services. Given the herculean task, the two departments- DoT and DeitY are working in synergy now. The latter is providing equipment in rural areas.

Even as the project comes up with full swing, the pain points such as low digital literacy, and unavailability of local content and apps prevail. Bharat Broadband CEO, N Ravi Shankar, had earlier admitted that PC penetration was low. "DoT is working together with DeitY to put infrastructure in government institutions such as schools and health centers that would trigger e-services," he told.

The ambitious national broadband project, albeit plagued with delays, is all set to usher multi-dimensional e-Services, while it's yet to woo private players. The government is currently evaluating bids for 400,000 kilometers of fiber, while it plans to procure Rs 11,000-crore worth GPON- a key equipment with 75 per cent indigenously-manufactured components.