Internet

RajIV, an Andhra Pradesh government undertaking, has received a private sector fillip following tie-ups with companies like ICICI, Hutch, Naukri.com et al. in bringing broadband connectivity to villages across the state.

"There are around 20 other companies, including seeds and fertiliser companies, that are looking at expanding their reach through Internet as well as physically through our kiosks," Myneni said. This apart, there are some organisations that are looking at tying up with the consortium to provide weather information, etc, to farmers as well.

As reported previously, the SEA-ME-WE-4 undersea cable linking 14 countries across Asia, Africa and Europe has gone live as scheduled. Both VSNL and Bharti have a stake in this joint venture. VSNL will also function as the primary network administrator of the venture.

India is now officially a bandwidth surplus country, and international bandwidth prices are expected to fall steadily as a result of this development.

At the Broadband Tech India 2005 conference yesterday:

TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal: BSNL should share its network with other operators to promote broadband connectivity. Not doing so will only promote other private players.

BSNL director (finance) SD Saxena: BSNL can not share its network just because it has one. It will not be able to bear the loss incurred by sharing its network with others.

Reliance Infocomm have announced a 60% cut on their IPLC tarrifs. The move will bring their offerings in line with prescribed TRAI norms.

These aggresive tarrif cuts apply on both domestic and international circuits, and will very likely cause VSNL et al. to sit up and take notice. Reliance Infocomm currently control about 8% of the market.

The SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable network has been completed and is ready to be commissioned. However, Indian 'security agencies' apparently need to provide the go-ahead before this can happen. Upon commissioning, India's external bandwidth (via submarine networks) will jump up to about 540 Gbps. The SMW-4 cable will eventually be upgraded to provide a capacity of 1.2 Tbps.

The cable runs through 14 countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy and France.

In a bid to avoid duplication of common infrastructure thereby promoting growth in the sector, the DoT has proposed that independent infrastructure providers be allowed to set up base in the country and lease their networks to all operators.

This practice is common in the international market, where a large number of optic fibre cable (OFC) operators and international long-distance submarine cable operators lease their infrastructure to consortiums of telecom operators.

Considering the poor uptake of broadband in India, the TRAI is now pushing DTH providers to enter the broadband segment. There are apparently close to 1 million DTH users in India primarily in rural/remote areas, who will benefit from this service.

However, considering that this is a one-way service, wherein the satellite only provides the downstream, it is unclear how these providers are planning on managing the upstream transfer. Dial-up will very likely be prohibitively expensive and inevitably unreliable.

VSNL's appeal to block the TRAI's proposed bandwidth rate cuts has been dismissed. The TDSAT upheld the TRAI's directive after the data that formed the basis for the recommended bandwidth price ceilings were produced.

Full story: Sify.

Aiming to promote growth in the telecom sector, the DoT is apparently considering implementing a Baby Bell-like split of BSNL into four regional arms - North, South, East and West.

According to the proposal, the North and Western arms would merge with MTNL's Delhi and Mumbai operations respectively. All four arms along with a mobile unit - BSNL Mobile, and an infrastructure unit - BSNL Infrastructure would operate under the aegis of a parent company - BSNL Holdings.