The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has
today issued its Recommendations on “Delivering Broadband Quickly: What
do we need to do?”.
The Authority issued the Consultation Paper on
“Delivering Broadband Quickly: What do we need to do?” on 24.09.2014 to discuss
issues contributing to broadband penetration in India and to solicit stakeholders’
views on action required to be taken both by the Government and the private
sector to accelerate the proliferation and use of broadband in the
country. The comments and counter-comments received from the stakeholders
were placed on the TRAI’s website. An Open House Discussion was held on
30.10.2014 in New Delhi with the stakeholders.
The Authority has noted with serious concern the slow
penetration and adoption of broadband in the country. Facts are:
·
India ranks 125th in
the world for fixed broadband penetration with only 1.2 per 100 inhabitants
having access to fixed broadband; the global average is 9.4 per 100
inhabitants.
·
In terms of household penetration
within developing countries, India is ranked 75th with a
penetration of 13%.
·
In the wireless broadband space too,
India is ranked 113th with a penetration of 3.2 per 100
inhabitants.
·
In terms of ‘ICT access, ICT use and
ICT skills’ India ranks 129th out of total 166 countries.
Indonesia (106), Sri Lanka (116), Sudan (122), Bhutan (123), Kenya (124) are
ranked above India.
·
India is categorized in the Least
Connected Countries Group of 42 countries that fall within the low IDI
group.
Some of the problems identified during the consultation
are as follows:
·
RoW charges were identified as single
biggest impediment to the adoption of wire line technology for access networks.
·
The lack of availability of a
sufficient quantum of globally harmonized spectrum in contiguous form is the
biggest impediment to the deployment of wireless technology in the access
network.
·
Another reason for poor quality of
broadband is non-availability of adequate bandwidth in the backhaul.
·
Civic authorities have imposed
stringent punishment on the erection of towers.
·
Procurement of satellite capacity on
foreign satellites through Department of Space (DoS) often results in long
delay and increase in prices due to some process flaws.
·
BBNL, the organization for
implementing National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) project, is a multi-layered
structure with the control vesting in the Government, the decision making
process is stymied by the normal bureaucratic process (red tape).
·
In BBNL, at the delivery and
implementation stage, the responsibilities are diffused with far too many
executing and supervising agencies.
·
There is a disconnect between the
agency (BBNL) for implementation of the project and stakeholders including
private operators who shall ultimately utilize the fiber for provision of
broadband to the consumer. This has practically rendered BBNL
dysfunctional, defeating the very purpose for which it was set up – to make
independent and quick decisions.
After considering the comments from the stakeholders and
further analysis, the Authority has come out with its Recommendations on
“Delivering Broadband Quickly: What do we need to do?”. The salient
features of the recommendations are as follows:
Institutional revamping
·
WPC should be converted into an
independent body by de-linking it from the present DoT hierarchy and either
converting it into a statutory body responsible to Parliament or transferring
it to an existing statutory body. Even in a more limited role of assigning
solely commercially available spectrum, there is a strong case for an
institutional overhaul of WPC to realize goals of institutional efficiency, transparency
in decision-making and full disclosure of decisions.
·
The multi-layered structure for
decision making for national project NOFN is just not suitable for a project
that needs to be executed in mission-mode. The structure needs
immediate overhaul.
Spectrum
·
Align spectrum bands with globally
harmonized bands to achieve interference-free coexistence and economies of
scale. Current availability
of spectrum in our LSAs is about 40% of that available in comparable countries
elsewhere. Clearly, there is a crying need forassignment of additional spectrum for commercial telecom
services.
·
There is a need to lay down a clear
roadmap for spectrum management which should state the requirement and
availability of spectrum for each LSA as well as for the whole country. This
roadmap should be made available publicly to ensure transparency.
·
There is an urgent need for audit by
an independent agency of all allocated spectrum both commercial as well as
spectrum allocated to various PSUs/Government organizations. This ought to be a
national priority and must be undertaken within 3 months.
Right of Way (RoW)
·
Single-window clearance is an
imperative for all (Right of Way) RoW proposals at the level of the States and
in the Central Government. All such clearances have to be time-bound so that
TSPs and infrastructure providers can move rapidly to project execution.
Ideally, single-window clearance should be administered online with a defined
turnaround time. The reasons for denial of RoW permission should be recorded in
writing.
·
There is a need for enunciating a
National RoW Policy to ensure uniformity in costs and processes.
NOFN
·
Project implementation on Centre
State Public-Private Partnership (CSPPP) mode by involving State Governments
and the private sector.
·
Award of EPC (turnkey) contracts by
BBNL to private parties through international competitive bidding needs to be
planned. Such contracts can be given region-wise with clear requirements for
interconnection with other networks, as well as infrastructure sharing with other
operators who would like to utilize this network. A commercial model around
this will need to be suitably deployed.
Towers
·
Single-window, time-bound clearance
should be encouraged for installation of towers to ensure the rapid development
of national networks.
·
Extensive consumer awareness and
education programmes should be organized so that consumers fully understand the
latest scientific information on EMF radiation and its potential impact on
health.
Fixed line BB
·
To promote fixed line BB, the license
fee on the revenues earned from fixed line BB should be exempted for at least 5
years.
·
The infrastructure of PSUs is
lying unutilized and thus they should be mandated to unbundle their network and
allow sharing of outside plant (OSP).
CATV
·
Cable operators should be allowed to
function as resellers of ISP license holders to enable them to take advantage
of their cable network to provide BB.
·
Implementation of digitization of
cable services to tier 2 and tier 3 cities in a time-bound manner.
Satellite
·
Separation of Licensor, Regulator and
Operator functions in the satellite space domain to conform to best
international practices of free markets.
·
The issue of coordination of
additional spectrum in the 2500-2690 MHz band with DoS needs to be addressed
urgently, so that this band can be optimally utilized for commercial as well as
strategic purposes.
Hosting of Content in India
·
The Government needs to encourage
local and foreign companies to build ‘Data Centre Parks’ on the lines of
industrial parks, SEZs etc. by providing them land, infrastructure and
uninterrupted power supply at affordable rates.
Universal Adoption
·
Governments, both Central and State
shall have to act as model users and anchor tenants through delivery of
e-Government services including e-education, e-governance, m-health, m-banking
and other such services.
·
Schools are the ideal and convenient
point for early initiation to BB services. Government schools in the rural
and remote areas can be provided subsidy from the USOF for BB connectivity.
·
Cost of CPE (desktop/laptop/tabs
etc.) are major barriers to the adoption of BB services. TSPs may be
allowed to offer CPE bundled tariff schemes. Revenues from such
offers ought to be exempted from the applicable license fee at least for a
certain number of years (say for three years).
In addition,
there are a large number of recommendations of the Authority on which decisions
of the Government are still awaited. The Government needs to act quickly on
these recommendations as we have already lost too much time. These include,
inter alia, on Spectrum Trading, Spectrum Sharing, Open Sky Policy,
Infrastructure Sharing, Microwave Access and Backbone Spectrum.
NNK/MD