Developments in Indian Telecommunication Infrastructure A Perspective

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Developments in Indian Telecommunication
InfrastructureA Perspective

• Dr. Prakash D. VYAVAHARE,
• Professor and Head,
• Department of Electronics and Telecomm Engg.,
• S. G. S. Institute of Technology and Science,
• 23 Park Road, Indore, INDIA
• prakash_at_sgsits.ac.in, pvyavahare_at_hotmail.com
• Associate of ICTP
• 13 February 2003

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• Historical Perspective of Indian Telecomm.
• Indian Satellite Programs
• National Telecommunication policy 1994
• New Telecommunication policy 1999
• Telecommunication status in 2002
• Problems of Universal access affordability
• Possible solutions
• Summary

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Historical PerspectiveTelecommunication
Technology Development (Chronology)

• Telecommunication with Morse Code 1845-1847
• First Telegraph office in India (Calcutta) 1852
• ITU established with 20 European countries 1865
• Trans-Atlantic cable US - France 1866
• 
  London - Bombay 1870
• Invention of Telephone by Bell 1876
• First manual exchange in India (50 lines, Cal.)
  1882
• Indian Telegraph act 1885
• J. C. Bose transmits wireless In lab. 1895
• Marconi demonstrates wireless tx. UK-France
  1899
• Indian wireless act 1933

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• Electronic Switching 1955
• First artificial satellite (USSR Sputnik) 1957
• STD started in India (Kanpur - Lucknow) 1960
• First Indian artificial satellite for expt.
  (Aryabhatta) 1974
• Cellular telephony in Tokyo 1979
• India decides to phase out Strowger excg. 1984
• GSM in 13 European countries 1988
• Tim Burner Lee (CERN) proposes www html 1990
• Commercial impact of www felt in world 1992
• Indian Telecomm. Policy opens for pvt. Sector
  1994
• Internet service launched in India 1995
• Telecom. Reg. Authority of India set-up 1997
• Indian engg. Education opens for pvt.
  Institutions 1998
• First private landline service in India (Indore)
  1998

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• Long distance telephony opened for competition
  1999
• Lucent, Motorola, TI opens design offices in
  India 1997-1999
• Information Technology Ministry set-up with IT
  bill 2000
• Dept. of IT merged with Ministry of Comm.
  2001
• WLL makes presence in India 2001
• VoIP permitted in India April 2002
• WLL makes its wide spread impact in India Jan
  2003
• Price reduction and competition between POTS,
  WLL and GSM Feb. 2003
• India producing 300,000 Engineers in 2000 engg.
  colleges (50 percent of them in Elx, Comp,
  Instru and IT) 2001 -2003

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Indian Satellite Program An overview

• Establishment of TERLS as sounding rockets
  launching station at magnetic
  equator (Trivendrum - India) 1963
• TERLS dedicated to UN 1968
• ISRO established under DAE 1969
• Dept. of Space established 1972
• First Indian satellite (Aryabhatta) launched
  for radio astronomy and remote sensing 1975
• Satellite Instructional TV expt. (SITE) and
  Satellite Telecom. Expt. Project (STEP)
  1975-1977
• First development model of Satellite launch
  vehicle SLV-3 launched with RS-D1 satellite
  1981
• Arian Passenger pay-load Expt. (APPLE)
  an exptal GSO comm. Satellite launched
  by ESA rocket from Kourou, French Guyana 1981

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• Multi-purpose Indian Satellite (INSAT -1A)
  launched 1982 (with 1B, 1C etc to follow and
  ASLV program)
• INSAT - 1D launched 1990
• INSAT - 2A, the first satellite of indigenously
  built II generation INSAT series
  1992 (with lot of learning experience from 2B,
  2C, 2D, PSLV, IRS etc)
• PSLV - DIII places IRS - D3 in sun-sync. Polar
  orbit 1996
• INSAT 2E (last of multi-purpose INSAT 2 series
  launched using Arian) 1999
• PSLV-C2 launched with IRS-D4, Korean
  Kitsat-3 and Greman DLR-TUBSAT 1999
• INSAT - 3B launched using Arian 2000
• GSLV tested with experimental satellite GSAT-1
  2001
• PSLV-C3 puts Belgium PROBA and German
  BIRD satellite in polar orbit. 2001
• INSAT - 3C launched (74 E) 2002

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• INSAT being largest domestic communication
  satellite system in Asia-Pacific region with
  INSAT-2C, 2DT, 2E, 3B and 3C in operation
• The capacity to indigenously design, develop,
  and test GSO satellite completely developed
• Antrix as a commercial out-let of ISRO in
  operation
• PSLV commercially available
• GSLV in final development state
• The complete program is for peaceful use and the
  whole of ISRO is administered by civil
  (non-military) officials.

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• Transponder 2C 2DT 3E 3B 3C Total
• payloads
• C-band 12 25 12 - 24 73
• Ext. C-Band 6 - 5 12 6 29
• Ku-band 3 - - 3 - 06
• S-band 1 1 - - 2 4
• S-MSS 1 - - 1 1 3
• VHRR - - 1 - - 1
• CCD - - 1 - - 1
• Payloads on INSAT Satellites in service

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INSAT Services
1. Telecommunications a. 550 telecom terminals
of various sizes and capacity providing more
than 5000 2-way speech circuits (140 fixed and
captive, 20 transportable, 358 VSAT) b. 800
micro terminals connecting all district HQ of
India for National Informatics Centre Network
(NIC Net) c. 260 VSATs for remote area business
management network d. 34 Mbps (2 Nos.) Digital
Network between Metros
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2. Mobile Satellite Services a. Low bit rate,
encoded voice, data and fax services (called
INSAT mobile telephony) using demand assigned
SCPC channels with mobile terminals ( Emergency
services ) b. One Way messaging system (INSAT
reporting system) using shared channels at low
bit rate 3. Television a. 33 TV channels
operational through C-band transponders of INSAT
for national networking services (DD-1), Metro
Service (DD-2) and Digital Satellite news
gathering, Regional language service etc b.
Educational TV (Gyandarshan) and syllabus based
programmes for students (IGNoU) 4. Radio
Networking (RN-AIR) with 45 regional channels 5.
Tele-medicine (VSAT), meteorology, satellite
aided search and rescue (406 MHz), standard time
and frequency transmission etc.
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INSAT System Satellite Parameters C and Ext-C
band EIRP gt 38 dBW G/T better than -5
dB/deg K Coverage India and wide Ku
band EIRP gt 46 dBW G/T better than -2
dB/deg K Coverage India S-Band EIRP gt 42
dBW G/T better than -5 dB/deg
K Coverage India and neighbouring countries
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New INSAT Services (Plans) 1. Development of
Communication Services Educational TV
Services Tele-medicine Experiments Social
Development Services 2. Engineering
Services Multimedia and Broadband
Services ISP Connectivity Satellite
Navigation Services
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Expected Growth of Transponders and VSATs in
INSAT Year No. Of Transponders No. of
VSATs 2001 77 16,000 2004 195 20,000
2007 251 30,000 (17,000 for VPT) Only
Government can invest money in such long term
programmes
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INSAT Services 1. All Telecom services of
BSNL/DOT including VPT ( Dakiya Phone Laya
i.e. postman brings cell phone to village ) 2.
All TV channels of DD 3. Digital RN carriers of
AIR 4. VSAT Services Data Relay Transponder
Service of INSAT 1. Meteorological Data
collection (Temperature, Humidity etc.) (Balloon
launching data collection platform) 2. Rainfall
Data collections 3. 406 MHz Transponder for
search and rescue beacons
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National Telecom Policy 1994
Need Analysis

• New Economic Policy of GoI aims at Improving
  Indias Competitiveness in global market to
  promote exports.
• Attract direct foreign investments and stimulate
  domestic investments in the field of
  telecommunication
• Highest priority in developing telecom services
  in the country

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Objectives of NTP 1994

• Telecom within reach to all and phones on demand
  as fast as possible
• Basic Telecom services to all villages as early
  as possible at reasonable price
• To provide telecom service of world standard,
  fast settlement of complaints and dispute
  resolution
• Setup major manufacturing base and export of
  telecom equipment
• Protect Security interests of India

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Status of Indian Telecommunication - 1994

• Tele-density 0.8 per 100
• (World average 10 per 100)
• 8 Million fixed telephone lines with 2.5 Million
  in waiting
• Out of 600,000 villages only 140,000 have phones
• 100,000 STD-PCOs in country (i.e. 1 per 2000,
  mostly in urban area)

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Targets of NTP - 1994

• Telephone on demand by 1997
• All villages to be covered by 1997
• PCO for every 500 people in urban area by
  1997 (share and care concept)
• value added services by 1996
• (E-mail, voice mail, radio paging, cellular phone
  etc.)

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Criteria for selection of Private Company

• 10 years track record of the company
• Compatibility of technology
• Usefulness of Technology for future development
• Protection of National Security Interest
• Ability to Give best QoS at competitive cost
• Attractiveness of commercial terms to
  DOT (license fee)
• Balance of coverage between urban and rural areas
• Based on beauty contest criterion (presentation)

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Telecom Expansion Status - last 10 Years
1992 7.0 Million Fixed Phones 1994 10.05
Million 1997 15.8 Million 2002 40 Million
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New Telecom Policy 1999
Need Analysis

• GoI recognizes the need of world class
  telecommunication infrastructure and information
  as key for
• Rapid economic and social development of the
  country
• Wide spread advantage spreading of this growth
  throughout the nation
• Major part of the GDP of the country in future to
  be contributed by and depends on the
  telecommunication
• Telecommunication is not a luxury but basic need
  of Indian Economy

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Review of NTP 1994 in 1999
Targets of NTP-1994 Status in 1999 1 PCO per
500 in city 1 PCO per 522 Coverage to 0.6 M
villages coverage to 0.3 M villages 7.5 M
telephone lines 8.7 M telephone lines
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Learning lessons of NTP-1994 Review

• Government alone cannot provide resources to meet
  the targets set
• Investment and involvement of private sector is
  needed to bridge the resource gap
• In 1993 Government permitted only value added
  services (paging, cellular) to private operators.
  
• Need to Extend privatization in all sectors of
  telecommunication

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Status of TelCos in 1999

• 8 CMTS operators in 4 metros
• 14 CMTS operators in 18 state circles (only 9
  operational)
• 6 BTS operators in 6 state circles (with
  obligation to cover rural areas)
• 6 paging operators in 27 cities and in 18 state
  circles
• VSAT service liberalize for private data services
  to closed user groups (banks, LIC, stock
  exchange)

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Lessons from NTP 1994

• Result of privatization - not entirely
  satisfactory in terms of fulfilling rural telecom
  commitment
• CMTS has 1 M subscriber (1999) but
• actual revenue realized far short of projections
• operators unable to arrange finance for expansion
• BTS commenced only in 2 out of 6 state circles
• the NTP 1994 must be modified to avoid wrong
  signals going to private operators
• Due to convergence the policy of separate
  licenses for basic, cellular, ISP, satellite and
  cable TV need to be reviewed

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Objectives of NTP 1999

• Access to telecommunication is most important to
  achieve national, social and economic growth
• Affordable and effective communication for all
  urban and rural citizen
• Balance between universal services to all
  uncovered areas and provision of high level
  services meeting needs of countrys economy
• Encourage and enforce deployment of telecom
  facilities in rural, hilly and tribal areas
• Modern and efficient telecom infrastructure
  taking into account convergence of IT (SW), media
  (news), telecom and consumer electronics and
  strive to become IT superpower by 2020

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Objectives of NTP 1999 cont.

• Strengthen educational and RD activities in the
  country
• Achieve efficiency and transparency in spectrum
  management
• Protect defense and security interest of the
  country
• Enable Indian Telecom Companies to become truly
  global player

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Targets of NTP - 1999

• Telephone on demand by 2002
• Tele-density of 7 by 2005 (70 M phones)
• 15 by 2010 (150 M phones)
• Encourage Deployment of telecommunication in
  rural areas with suitable tariff structure and
  Rural communication mandatory to all fixed
  service providers (0.29 M villages uncovered in
  1999)
• Increase rural tele-density form 0.4 to 4 by 2010
• Reliable transmission media to all exchanges by
  2002 and subsequently to all villages
• provide internet access to all district HQ by
  2002
• provide high speed data transmission capabilities
  to all towns with population more than 200,000 by
  2002

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New class of operators NTP - 1999

• Access providers CMSP, FSP and cable TV service
  providers
• Radio paging service providers
• Public mobile radio truncking service providers
• National long distance operators
• International long distance operators
• Global mobile personal communication by satellite
  service providers
• VSAT based service providers
• Sharing of infrastructure in any other service
  provider permitted and license given for 12 years

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Targets achieved by Dec 2002

• 1000 M people with 180 M households
• 40 M fixed lines ( 6 M in 1990)
• 8 M mobile phones
• 2 M internet connections
• Revised target with reference to NTP 1999
• 100 M phone lines by 2005 - 70 (NTP-1999
  projection)
• 200 M phone lines by 2010 - 150 (NTP-1999
  projection)

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Presence of TelCos in 2002

• Fixed lines and IS 95 based WLL
• BSNL 38 M lines (out of 40 M lines)
• Reliance Telecom Aggressive startup
• Bharati (TouchTel-AirTel), Tata, MTNL, HFCL,
  Shyam etc.
• Cellular operators
• Bharati, Tata, Hutchitson and some regional
  entrants
• BSNL, MTNL (new entrants) - economic national
  roaming (CellOne)
• Internet Service Providers
• More than 100
• VSNL,Satyam being dominant (vsnl.com, satyam.com)

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Confidence level of Operators

• Telecomm. Industry confident of meeting 100 M
  target (2005) with major regulatory bottlenecks
  removed
• Public confidence and usage increases as
• Long distance call reduce from 0.6 per minute
  to 0.18 per minute
• 0.09 per minute between 9 pm and 6 am
• International call charges reduced by 40
• VoIP market grows rapidly
• Charges are expected to go further down
• VCC cards and VPT in all villages
• mobile charges falling rapidly
• Cable operators providing internet connectivity
• Short-term goals being achieved and primary
  bottlnecks being removed, what will be the long
  term goal achieving scenario.

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Affordability will be the major issue

• Telephone infra-structure costs 650 per line
• The cost of back-bone component is reducing
  (fiber-optic)
• Access n/w cost, which is the two-third of the
  total cost is same
• Access part of the network requires maximum
  service, dedicated link and contributes to the
  most of the operation and maintenance cost
• Access network needs focus of attention for cost
  reduction
• Break-even point for TelCos
• Finance charges 15 (Commercial loan int.
  rate)
• Depreciation 10 (10 year span of excg.)
• Operation and maintenance cost 10
• 35 of 650 (225 ) is the required yearly
  revenue for break even
• What percentage of Indian household can afford
  telephone bill of 20 month assuming that a
  house-hold can afford 7 of income for comm. ?

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Yearly house of house-holds affordability month
lyhold income exp. On comm affordabilitygt
5000 1.6 gt 350 gt 30 2500 - 5000
6.3 175-350 15 - 30 2500 - 1000
23.3 70 - 175 6 - 15 500 - 1000
31.8 35 - 70 3 - 6 -----------------
--------------------------------------------------
-------------------- 60
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• In west
• 90 of house-holds can afford 30 per month on
  comm
• Hence, 1000 investment per line is viable in
  USA
• In India
• only 1.6 can afford such cost of communication
• 200 M people in India (middle class) have yearly
  income more than 1000 US
• they can afford 70 yearly bill (6 per month)
• To get this huge market, per line network cost in
  India should reduced by a factor by 3 or 4
• Challenge for Indian scientists and engineers to
  cut down on technology costs (and this experience
  can be useful to other developing countries)

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Some possible and tried solutions in India

• Local operations by self-employed persons.
• The operation cost of self-employed small
  business man/woman is 3 to 4 times less than that
  of an organized corporate sector
• STD-PCOs in India are some times run in small
  part of the house, with xerox machine, fax
  facility and computer for e-mail, typing (share
  and care the resources including the human
  resource)
• Local service provider (LSP) to provide access
  network to subscribers
• Cable TV network in India works in the same way
• Lower cost of operation, more market due to
  face-face relations
• Access Network can be made totally licensee free
  so that LSP can hook to back-bone network with
  revenue sharing
• This will encourage large number of LSPs who have
  small amount of money to invest

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• Access Network is the issue
• Public village telephones - 3 per village
• Post man comes with cell phone
• Wireless in Local Loop (CorDECT based) technology
  indigenously developed by IITM
• Access centers providing POTS, WLL and DSL
  services (DSL being most needed in developing
  countries)
• Fiber in local loop to the villages where the
  copper was never laid (advt. Of delayed tech)

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Summary

• Till 1984 personal telecommunication was
  considered as luxury and service needed by
  privileged business man or professionals and
  hence had low priority (Since telecomm. Is
  investment intensive, food, water, education had
  higher priority)
• Stress on mass education via satellite (wide
  spread country) thus satellite program got the
  boost (ISRO under civil control)
• 1984 Production and installation of digital
  excg. Started on wide spread, development of
  indigenous C-DOT rural exchanges
• Before 1993 telecomm was considered as national
  safety issue and a part of social service (like
  Indian Railways) with Govt. Support only
• NTP were formulated in 1994 and revised in 1999
  with increasing stress on privitization

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• NTP-1994 problem
• Very high license fee (total 0.35 b earned as
  fee) (same as 3G European market trend), since
  the return of revenue did not match the
  prediction therefore companies were on brink of
  bankruptcy
• NTP-1999
• Revenue sharing model being developed with more
  deregulations for long distance etc.
• Telecomm. Picks up
• Deployment of technologies suitable for Indian
  geographical, economical and social requirements
  (eg. One phone per family, STD-PCO model, VPT
  model )

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• Today all district HQ have reliable link (fiber),
  and satellite connection at the HQ office
• 40 M phones, 8 M mobile and 2 M internet and all
  the three services are available on demand in
  urban areas with improved QoS
• Information and Communication Ministries merged.
• Regional language softwares being developed
• Access at economical cost is the big issue with
  WLL as one possible soln.
• India has the capability, open policy has shown
  its advantages, more deregulation is the key
  issue.

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References

• BSNL annual report 2001 - 2002
• Department of space, GoI, annual report 2001-2002
• Perspective plan for telecommuncation services
  Ministry of Comm. And Info. Tech. GoI, 2000-2010
• www.trai.gov.in
• www.tenet.res.in (IIT Madras research group)
• www.nasscom.org
• www.dotindia.com
• www.mtnl.net.in
• www.bsnl.co.in
• www.goodnewsindia.com

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Some universally valid quotations

• There is enough on the earth to meet everybodys
  need but not sufficient to meet anybodys greed.
  - Mahatma Gandhi
• It is not the resources it is their utilization
  that matters
• - Nobel laureate C. V. Raman
• Governments are good planners, and industries are
  good executers but not necessarily the
  vice-versa.
• Internet, mobile and television can add or
  reduce your productivity depending upon how you
  use it.

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• THANK YOU