Projecting State as high bandwidth destination

By Roy Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 2. The IT Kerala 2000, the promotional extravaganza being planned by the State Government in November, will project Kerala as a high bandwidth destination.

The decision has been taken in view of international broad band connectivity becoming available in Kochi.

The Government is planning an investor's meet, road shows and other programmes besides the IT Kerala 2000 exhibition to promote the new destination. The IT Kerala 2000 is also intended to serve as a launching pad for the Indian Institute of Information Technology coming up at the Technopark. The President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan, is to inaugurate the institute on November 23.

The Industries Department has drawn up a detailed plan for promotional campaign in four major cities in the country as a prelude to the IT Kerala 2000. The investment possibilities in the State would be highlighted with relative advantages of the State. However, it will be an uphill task to project a credible image of the State as a high bandwidth destination.

As it stands, three submarine cable lines have either reached or are reaching Kochi. The Segment 4 of French Telecom's submarine network, See-Me-We II is touching Mumbai and Kochi. This is the world's largest undersea cable network. FLAG is already there, and the VSNL, which is acting as the intermediary, has announced that high bandwidths could be given within 90 days on demand. Another company, Excite@Home, is also laying its cable in Kochi and Mumbai.

However, there is a distance between the cup and the lip. Private companies needs permission from the State Government for laying the fibre optic cable through the State's roads. While the Centre and other States have announced their right of way policies, the Kerala Government is yet to do so. It has sat on the proposals for more than an Internet year. (An Internet year is now reckoned as 55 days. In other words, it means that investments in Internet related areas would depreciate to less than 25 per cent of the value in two years). In the absence of such a policy, the bandwidth would not actually become available to users. Efforts are on to get the policy before the IT Kerala 2000 gets under way. Official sources said that the policy would be placed before the Cabinet at its next meeting for approval. However, the sources were saying the same thing for the past two months. As it stands now, even the engineering colleges in the State have a T1 connection, not to speak of higher bandwidths.

Kerala propose to tap the bandwidth availability in Kochi to develop an IT corridor along between Kochi and Munnar. However, the only institution in Munnar now is a fledgling engineering college. There is a general lack of absorption capacity in the State as core facilities and institutions were not developed during the past three years. Unless institutions are developed along the proposed corridor and companies canvassed to set up shop fast, other States would be taking away the larger chunk of connectivity becoming available at Kochi. (The submarine cable companies are targeting other Southern States too and much of the capacity would go to Bangalore). The Government is proposing to establish a number of research and development institutions here to act as a hub for IT-related activities. However, much of these proposals are only on the drawing board while connectivity is at close quarters. Kerala has to be fast-paced to catch the next wave of Information Technology.

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Section  : Southern States
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