Enabling India using Telecom Technologies

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Enabling India using Telecom Technologies

• Dreams of TeNeT Group

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai,
India ashok_at_tenet.res.in
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TeNeT Group

• An interdisciplinary group of 15 faculty members
  at IITM
• started in 1994 with a dream of enabling India
  have 100 million telephone connections
• when India barely had 8 million connections
• target revised somewhere along the way to 200
  million telephone and Internet Connections
• worked on technology, policy and operations level
• India today has 90 million connections
• but more important, the stage is set to get the
  200 million target

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India with a billion people is a large market,
but60 of Urban households can spend less than
7 per month on Telecom
Monthly telecom expenditure (assuming 4 income
can be spent on telecom) 4 7.2
10.4 14.4 20.8 33.6
52 144
65 million Urban homes
India needs Telecom CAPEX to go down to 165 per
line requires disruptive technologies
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TeNeT Group at IITM took up the challenge

• Incubated/ supported a dozen plus product
  companies and worked with operators to drive down
  CAPEX
• Midas Communications Banyan Networks
• NMSWorks Tejas Networks
• Nilgiri Networks Chennai Kavigal
• OOPS NeuroSynaptic
• Jataayu Nextge Systems
• Benchmark Systems Indus technolgies
• Vortex Technologies iSofTech - Blooma
• Capex per line down from 1000 per line seven
  years ago to270 per line
• Telecom is booming in India
• India will add 150 million lines in the next 7
  years as CAPEX is driven below 165

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corDECT Wireless in Local Loop
IITM - Midas

• 35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone
• 165 per line price
• 2 million lines in 03-04

Fibre in the Loop Last meters on copper
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DIAS (DSL on copper)
IITM-Banyan

• Always ON Internet connection on
  not-so-good-quality existing copper lines
• providing 128 kbps connection in 90 cities at 16
  per month

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Multi-lingual Office Package CK Shakti
IITM - Chennai Kavigal
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IITM-NMSWorks
Tejas Networks

• Next-Generation SDH Transport
• cost-effective transport network for voice as
  well as Internet traffic preferably on Ethernet
• Advanced software for easy management of networks
  and providing bandwidth-on-demand
• Advanced software features such as auto-discovery
  and point-and-click provisioning

• Network Management System
• A must with distributed deployment of Intelligent
  nodes
• Convergence of Telecom and Internet management
• Manage traffic, subscribers, subscriber equipment
  and network health from management centers

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• Softswitch Technology
• Full suite of 100 J2EE powered, Communications
  Convergence Infrastructure
• Packet-Switching technology in Carrier Grade
  Enterprise Grade
• H.323 Stack and H.323 Gatekeeper
• SIP Stack and SIP Proxy

• Enabling wireless Internet
• SMS, MMS, WAP, SYNCand IM
• handset software
• WAP2 browser, MMS client, Sync client, IM Client,
  IOTA client
• Gateways on infrastructure
• SIM Platform, IM Server, OTA provisioning server

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iSoftTech does a Bloomba an innovative email
client
Seamless integration with SAProxy, the leading
spam control software
Powerful address auto-complete feature
Get the search results in a jiffy
Search conveniently from the main window
Group emails By threads
Get news through RSS feeds
Group your Subscriptions For easy access
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Going Forward

• TeNeT Group dreams
• provide Internet connection to every village of
  India and use it to drive Rural economy
• can we double the per capita rural GDP in ten
  years?
• Drive Broadband Internet Connectivity to homes,
  small and medium offices and IT enable them
• Drive to create a couple of a billion dollar IT
  and Telecom PRODUCT company from India
• Become world leaders in a couple of technology
  areas (wireless could be one)

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Center for Excellence inWireless Technology

• 4G Technology innovation
• Test bed demonstration
• Creation of IPR portfolio and licensing
• engagement with standards activities worldwide
  (ITU, TIA/ETSI, IEEE) to include Indian IPRs in
  standard
• Standardization and Licensing
• standardisation and driving the regulatory
  aspects (along with the supporting technical
  work)
• Orchestration of value creation for India
• trial of 4G technology demonstrator by operators
• launch of commercial 4G systems
• applications development

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The (Un)Affordability ofComputing

• IT Tipping Point
• Software costs more than Hardware (Dana
  Blankenhorn)
• USD 484 for white box
• USD 546 for MS-Windows and Office
• Piracy is not the solution
• (90 piracy levels in India in key verticals)...
• .....and neither is non-consumption
• Alternatives TVSTB, Cell-phones...? Really?
• Broadband Growth depends on Computer Growth!

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What do we need

• TCO for Computing with Broadband Internet
• 50 to 70 per month
• not affordable to more than10 million families
• We need TCO of 10 to 15 per month
• to target 100 million Indian homes
• low cost thin clients
• Broadband connectivity

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Dream of enabling Creation ofRural Wealth
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Rural India has700 million people

• represents average of developing economies in
  terms of Population Vs Income
• in 600,000 villages in India (about 1000
  people per village with per-capita income of
  0.40 per day)

• Can technologies make a significant difference in
  life of such people?
• Can it bring to them health Education
• Can it significantly enhance their incomes?

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To Scale to all the villages in India

• One needs
• Technology
• Sustainable Business Model
• Organisation which thinks and acts Rural

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Innovative Technology to connect Rural India

• BSNL (state owned incumbent) has fibre
  connectivity to most county headquarters (taluka)
  
• CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed at IITM,
  India
• provides a telephone line and Internet connection
  in a 30 Km radius
• can connect 85 of Indian villages
• start-up costs very low

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Business ModelUse Local Entrepreneurs to drive
ICT

• Entrepreneur-driven operator assisted telephone
  booths (STD PCOs) introduced in India in 1987
• Today in urban areas
• 950,000 such PCOs covering every street of
  smallest town
• generate 25 of total telecom income
• 300 million people use these PCOs
• Lesson for Rural
• To serve Rural people with incomesless than
  1/day, aggregate demandand let Entrepreneurs
  drive it

Aid/ Grant does not scale Successful Enterprises
can scale to all villages
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Innovative Business Models

• n-Logue A Rural Service Provider
• aggregate demand into a kiosk
• owned driven by a local entrepreneur
• 1000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing
  telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with
  web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC
• plus Indian language software, video conferencing
  software, training and maintenance
• set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of
  urban PCOs
• provides telephone, stand-alone Computer and
  Internet services
• needs 75 per month to break even (7cents per
  person per month)

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The Kiosk Owner

• Should have studied up to Class 10
• Need have no prior computer Training
• Should be able to communicate to the people in
  the village

Top Suganya from Madurai Dist,TN Left
Anishaben from Banaskanatha Dist,Guj
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Kiosk Bouquet of Services (besides telephony)

• Learning typing
• Computer education
• Photography
• movies on CD
• DTP work
• Email/voice video mail
• E-Government
• Video conferencing providing
• Tele-medicine
• Vet Care
• E-learning
• E-Agriculture

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The Vet is on the Net ...
Rural Magic The next few slides contain true
stories which have magically impacted the
lives of people in Indian villages .
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Saving Crops and Agri-consultancy
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Remote Eye Care
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An Online Clinic
Dr Mala Fenn is a leading Gynecologist in Madurai
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Web- Durbar DM talks to multiple villages on
video
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(No Transcript)
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Rural Children create computer drawings for
greeting cards
All drawn on a PC
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• Technologies that makes this possible

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Technologies that makes this possible

• corDECT WiLL Midas
• will enable 100/200 dedicated and2 Mbps shared
  connection next year
• RAS Router Banyan
• Minnow ISP in a box Nilgiri
• Billing System Nilgiri
• Network Management NMSWorks
• Indian Language Office package CK

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Office package in Indian Languages
IITM - Chennai Kavigal
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Major New Initiatives

• Multi-party multi-rate video conferencing OOPS
• Live Lecture OOPS
• Rural ATM Machine Vortex
• Finger print detection HP-IITM
• Medical Diagnostic kit Neurosynaptics
• LCD projection system TeNeT
• Web Terminal MeTeL Midas
• Entertainment Terminal TeNeT
• Rural Banking SW TeNeT
• On-line eye-testing HP-IITM
• Sparse Area Comm System TeNeT
• TeNeT faculty and 10 companies incubated by it
  (1000 engineers) working to make the dream true

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Low bit-rate multi-party Video Conferencing
(audio video chat at 20 kbps onwards)On-line
lecturing at low bit-rates
IITM - OOPS
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Financial Services with ICICI Bank
IITM-Vortex

• Kiosk operators to have Credit cards
• Collect cash from villager and pay online
• Govt. payments, Telephone bills
• Kiosk operator to be an agent for
• agri-crop loans
• Rural Insurance, Health and Crop
• Rural low cost ATMs at kiosks
• Works along with the PC already existing
• Breakthrough pricing envisaged of 800

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IITM - NeuroSynaptic

• Remote Monitoring of patients health using
  wireless
• A kit consisting of BP, Temperature, ECG
  measurement and Stethoscope for 200

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Sparse Area Communications where there is no
fibre backbone
IITM - ISRO

• 8-10 voice channels 64/128 kbps Internet
  satellite backhaul
• Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2
  Mbps download
• 150 corDECT 200 backhaul cost per
  connection

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• Internet Connectivity is only a beginning

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Tomorrows kiosk

• Tomorrow the kiosk should become
• a communication hub providing 50 telephone and
  Internet connections in a village
• a center for virtual university / training center
• technology support center
• a support center for Entrepreneurship
• a banking outlet
• micro-finance outlet
• a trading outlet
• agri-support center
• a medical support center
• and more

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Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth Creators

• Micro-enterprises need
• Finance
• Knowledge and Training
• Buying Selling
• Insurance
• Can Communications Enable these ?

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The Dream

• Current Rural GDP in India 150 Billion
• For a Population 700 million people
• GDP / Person 200 per year

Rural Prosperity
DOUBLING per-capita Rural GDP
400 per person per year
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To Sum Up

• Technologies can impact lives provided there is a
  big enough Dream behind it

• Dream of Doubling per capita Rural GDP
• Finance, Commerce, Training Information are key
• Driving Education, Health and Entrepreneurship
  isthe means
• Power Supply will be key bottleneck
• Entrepreneur sets up (20-50KVA) back-up power
  plant and distribute in the village
• initially with diesel, later with bio-diesel
• Large number of innovative technologies and
  applications need to be developed catering
  specifically to Rural areas