TRAI on Wednesday announced a new broadband consultation paper.
The Indian telecom regulator said that despite having a license for providing broadband services, the majority of the service providers are either unwilling or unable to penetrate into the market and the market is still dominated by a few players only.
Top ten broadband service providers account for about 97 percent of subscriber base and the top 5 service providers alone hold 83 percent market share. State owned companies viz. BSNL and MTNL together have about 74.9 percent market share for wireline broadband and 30.5 percent for overall broadband subscriptions.
Missed targets
As per National Telecom Policy 2012, India had a target to offer affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by 2015 and achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
The NTP 2012 also targeted to provide high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations by 2020.
“Against a target of achieving 175 million broadband connections by 2017, only 60.87 million have been achieved. The country is nowhere near meeting the target for a service which is considered almost a basic necessity in many developed countries,” TRAI said in its consultation paper.
TRAI noted that the entry level tariff for broadband services has come down from Rs 1,500 per month in 2004 to around Rs 500 a month in 2014.
Most service providers charge a monthly rental between Rs 200 to Rs 1,600 for a broadband connection and providing various packages for data transfer.
Focus of TRAI consultation paper on broadband
Immediate measures required to promote wireline technologies in access networks
The cost per line for various wireline technologies and how can this cost be minimized?
Impediments to the deployment of wireless technologies in the access network and how can these deployments be made faster?
Issues which need to be addressed to ensure availability of sufficient Microwave backhaul capacity for the growth of broadband in the country?
Issues related to Domestic Leased Circuits (DLC)
Specific reasons that ISPs are proactively not connecting with NIXI and measures are required so that all ISPs are connected to the NIXI?
Would the hosting of content within the country help in reduction of the cost of broadband to a subscriber?
Measures to encourage content service providers to host content in the data centre situated within India
Are PSUs ideal choices for implementing the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project?
Should awarding of EPC turnkey contracts to private sector parties through International Competitive Bidding (ICB) be considered for NOFN project?
How to reduce infrastructure development costs
Is it possible to piggyback on the existing private sector access networks so as to minimize costs in reaching remote rural locations?
What can the private sector do to reduce delivery costs?
Major issues and solutions in obtaining right of way for laying optical fibre
Should the Government consider framing guidelines to mandate compulsory deployment of duct space for fibre / telecommunications cables and space for telecommunication towers in all major physical infrastructure construction projects such as building or upgrading highways, inner-city metros, railways or sewer networks?
Impediments and suggestions in implementing broadband by cable operators
Measures to reduce the cost and create a proper eco system for deployment of FTTH in the access network
Are there any regulatory issues in providing internet facility through Wi-Fi Hotspots? What are the reasons that installation of Wi-Fi hotspots has not picked up in the country? What type of business model needs to be adopted to create more Wi-Fi hotspots?
What are other spectrum bands which can be unlicensed for usage of Wi-Fi technology or any other technology for provision of broadband?
How much spectrum will be required in the immediate future and in the long term to meet the target of broadband penetration? What initiatives are required to make available the required spectrum?
What are the measures required to encourage Government agencies to surrender spectrum occupied by them in IMT bands?
What should be the time frame for auctioning the spectrum in 700 MHz band?
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
