savramesh 37 Report post Posted March 25, 2010 Source NEW DELHI: The Centre should involve its agencies to build a wireless broadband network to bring internet to the masses, rather than laying an optical fibre network, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has suggested. The proposal, which will give a fillip to WiMAX technological platform in the country, envisages formation of an infrastructure company under BSNL, which in collaboration with other PSUs such as Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and RailTel, could execute the project. Earlier, an inter-ministerial panel comprising telecom, HRD, rural development, economic affairs, panchayati raj and information technology ministries and the Planning Commission, had drawn up a Rs 18,000-crore plan to lay a five lakh km optic fibre cable (OFC) using resources from the Universal Service Obligation Fund. All telcos contribute 5% of their annual revenues to the USOF, which is used to support communications services in areas considered commercially unviable. DoT cites two main disadvantages for an OFC-based network: delay and higher costs. Laying an OFC cable of the size envisaged may take more than 10-years and rollout of broadband services cannot wait that long, DoT says. Also, OFC lacks the speed of deployment and feasibility available on wireless, while being a costlier option. On the contrary, DoT says, wireless is an intelligent pipe stream, on which bandwidth allocation can be apportioned among different uses dynamically at a nominal cost. “OFC is a dumb pipe, while managed OFC is very expensive. Wireless backhaul would be quicker and faster in deployment, reliable and easy to maintain and will be scaleable at low costs when demands initially are perceived to be low,” the DoT note said. The department said that by the time the fibre backhaul becomes operational, operators would have already put in place “complete wireless backhaul up to the block level”. According to Trai data, India had only about 8 million broadband users, compared with 546 million mobile users at January end. While mobile growth has exceeded all targets and projections, the country is unlikely to achieve even 50% of its target of having 20 million broadband connections by 2010-end. India’s broadband penetration is less than 1%, while mobile penetration is about 45%. But, with 11 players lining up for broadband wireless spectrum auction and with only two slots of airwaves available for sale, the bidding process is expected to be highly competitive. Successful bidders are also expected to immediately launch services, providing the much needed thrust to increase broadband penetration. DoT estimates that with three WiMAX operators, it can provide 300 mbps data connectivity to 12,000 subscribers with 256 kbps minimum speed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted March 25, 2010 rail tel can play major role, as it is govt, and having presence in many interior location Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
