It’s unlikely to beat spirit of evils surrounding Telecom India these days. But amid gloom, the latest recommendations by TRAI on National Broadband Plan, proposing the way forward, may bring smile on few faces. Let’s dissect the proposed recos in short.
First, those of you aware of National Broadband Policy-2004, are knowing how miserably the policy failed to reach mark of 20 million broadband sub base in India by 2010. According to one estimate, at present, India has just more than 10 million broadband subscribers, which amounts to less than 1{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} penetration of broadband. And according to TRAI, new set of recos may push the penetration up…at least it looks promising.
In the recos, TRAI has proposed to set up National Optical Fiber Authority (NOFA), a central agency & a State Optical Fiber Authority (SOFA). These authorities will drive the proposed roll out of $13 bn National Broadband Network, which will cover 63 large cities, 4315 towns, & will lay more than 25 million km of fiber. According to estimates, TRAI’s plans would target 75 million broadband connections by 2012 and 160 million broadband connections by 2014. On revenue front, TRAI estimates that, once fully operational, NBN would generate annual revenue of $5.8bn. But is it all that easy to go back & rely entirely on wired broadband infra, when country itself is looking forward to more advanced mobile technologies like 3G & LTE?
Perhaps no! India has 36 million ( Apr-2010) wire-line sub base as compared to more than 700 million ( Sep-2010) wireless ( mobile) sub base, which amounts to more than 50{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} tele-density ( wireless) as opposed to mere 3{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} in wired case. Then why TRAI is more focused on developing wired broadband?
One reason could be shortage of radio spectrum for future/present mobile technologies as well as not so good reputation of India on awarding spectrum by auction way. Moreover, TRAI latest recos look to leverage existing laid optical fiber in short term only, while it encourages setting up entirely new fiber network to avoid short term bandwidth pitfalls. It also proposes to wave off certain duties on finished products used in broadband such as modems, which may result in cheaper broadband access to some extent, but will it help in widespread adoption of broadband is the real question.
According to one view, put forward by Ovum, TRAI could have taken fixed-mobile integrated approach than just relying on fixed. The view also emphasizes on the fact that, laying high speed fiber requires huge funding, so mobile broadband is going to be key in widespread adoption of broadband in India. TRAI should better manage spectrum & avoid loopholes in spectrum policy. That would be better than completely avoid mobile route for broadband access.