Industry welcomes Broadband policy, but wants more

While the industry has welcomed the broadband policy announced by Union

Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, experts feel that the

government has not done enough on the local loop front. Interestingly, however,

instead of unbundling the copper loop, the policy has permitted access providers

to enter into mutually agreed commercial arrangements for utilization of

available copper loop for expansion of broadband services.

According to the policy document, the owner of the local loop shall, however,

be free to decide the areas in which investment is to be made to upgrade the

infrastructure for Broadband services. The policy also directs Bharat Sanchar

Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) as well as

other access providers to aggressively use their copper loop infrastructure for

providing Broadband services through this technology.

The only other significant decision taken as part of the new policy is to

permit use of Wi-Fi on the 2.4 GHz band in outdoor locations against the present

regime of restricting it to a closed area. The move will enable consumers to

access the Internet even while they are traveling in a car or train similar to

what they can do with mobile phones.

Welcoming the broadband policy announced by the government, TV Ramachandran,

director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that this

policy is likely to trigger a growth in Wi-Fi usage within the country.

"The government has opened the 2.4 GHz for the outdoor usage, this will

increase the WiFi penetration within the country. We welcome the overall

broadband policy by the government and it has come at the right time," he

added.

When asked about the unbundling of local loop he said that there are many

aspects to the whole issue of unbundling and the government has taken the right

approach. "There is a lot of infrastructure sharing that has already

started happening between BSNL and other operators. So there are a lot of

synergies that they share. This whole issue of unbundling of local loop is quite

complicated and the government has taken the right decision," Ramachandran

said.

Echoing same overtones, ISPAI has welcomed the Broadband Policy as well.

According to its secretary Deepak Maheshwari, the recognition of broadband as

the basic infrastructure would give much needed impetus to e-governance,

distance learning and tele-medicine, while taking care of urban congestion and

job creation for the world's largest young population segment.

Talking about the unbundling issue he said that unbundling of the phone lines

has been a major trigger for spurring broadband in almost all countries, and

despite a comparatively smaller penetration of fixed lines, early unbundling

would have accelerated the penetration of broadband in the nation.

Meanwhile, in a press statement, MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta said,

"Broadband will usher in a whole new set of services including gaming,

entertainment, education and other interactive public utility services, which

will give further impetus to PC consumption. Further, this would throw open a

vast opportunity for the IT and electronics manufacturers as deployment of

various 'boxes' to create infrastructure for delivery of broad band services

would be needed."

"Delicensing of 2.4-2.8 GHz frequency for outdoor usage; 802.11b and

802.11g for indoor usage, and the proposed delicensing of frequencies in the 5

GHz band for both indoor and outdoor use are extremely positive steps and will

fuel the growth of mobility products by enabling convenience of access.

Deregulation of wireless frequencies had been a long-standing demand of the

industry. Keeping the policy flexible to include newer technologies, as and when

they happen, is indeed a welcome step", he said.

In other measures, the government has opened up the 5.15 Ghz band for indoor

use of low power Wi-Fi systems. Procedures for obtaining clearance for radio

frequency usage have also been simplified for VSAT operators. Broadband

operators will also be able to use the cable TV network as franchisees. With

regard to the proposed fiscal incentives for the broadband service providers,

the DoT has started consultation with the Ministry of Finance, and a package

will soon be announced. According to policy estimates, by end-2005, the country

will have 3 mn Broadband subscribers and 6 mn Internet subscribers, to go up to

9 mn 18 mn respectively by 2007, targetting 20 mn Broadband and 40 mn Internet

subscribers by 2010.