The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : BROADBAND AND BOTTLENECKS

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Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

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BROADBAND AND BOTTLENECKS

BROADBAND CONNECTS OVER 120 million Internet users worldwide to an online universe of rich content. A broadband policy that would help India make up for lost time in joining other wired societies was keenly awaited and the Centre has now unveiled such a framework. The policy takes several welcome steps towards the goal of greater broadband use — but not a giant leap to open up competition and connectivity. The major recommendation made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on `unbundling' the millions of copper telephone lines owned by MTNL and BSNL to enable Internet Service Providers (ISP) to use them for broadband services, has apparently not found favour with the Centre. The ISPs must now negotiate contractual arrangements with the dominant telephone companies so that part of some seven million technically feasible lines can be utilised for a franchised version of broadband using the universally popular Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. As TRAI has noted, the experience of several countries indicates that broadband growth could be slow and the service expensive if dominant telephone networks resisted the unbundling of telephone lines. Britain's regulator, Ofcom, had to bring pressure on British Telecom to meet its obligations to make its lines available to ISPs and also reduce its rates, since high user costs for broadband were affecting penetration; a similar experience has been reported in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. In the newly unveiled policy, other options for broadband access, such as satellite-based connections and wireless have made some progress, with the Centre expressing its readiness to consider relaxing legal restrictions. The question of fiscal incentives for operators, however, is yet to be resolved.

Always-on Internet access at high bandwidth creates new possibilities to develop multimedia content for information, entertainment, and data processing. In several countries broadband growth has outpaced mobile telephony. The boom is fuelled by software downloads, online gaming, and e-commerce. In the Indian context, affordable high-speed networks can facilitate deployment of Information and Communication Technology for development. Telecommunication experts like Sam Pitroda have forecast a meaningful future for broadband in India if it can be used widely to add the e-dimension to governance, health, learning, and employment. E-governance is an area that has made unsatisfactory progress because of the difficulty in data exchange with places that have poor telecom links. Today, there is a large base of educational and research institutions in different States that can develop multimedia packages for agriculture extension, vocational training, distance education, and basic literacy. Wireless technologies combined with available telephone lines can cater to the requirements. Some encouraging models have emerged, notably West Bengal's telemedicine project, which exploits the potential of ordinary copper telephone cables.

Convergence of technologies makes it possible to combine the Internet with many other services such as video and telephony. The United States, which has been overtaken in recent years by Korea, Japan, and China in broadband connectivity, has made universal broadband by 2007 a policy goal. Active policy support is cited as a key reason for Korea's pre-eminence in this area. If broadband in India must largely depend on BSNL, lessons must be drawn from the rollout of dial-up Internet and the experience of subscribers in small cities and towns who have had to put up with a poor browsing experience simply because they had no alternative. The well-connected metros and major cities are likely to get a variety of broadband products next year, but the responsibility of ensuring quality access for much of India's interior lies with BSNL.

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