The Hindu Business Line : India speeding on telecom superhighway

ONE phenomenon impressing everybody the world over is the rapidity with which traditional telecommunication networks are morphing into electronic-photonic transportation systems for storing and carrying information.

Till the 1980s, telecommunications had been the monopoly of either the government, as in Europe, or the private sector as in North America. Monopolies became unsustainable when computers became inexpensive and small.

In addition, revolutionary developments in the use of the radio frequency spectrum enabled the same frequency or bandwidth to be used again at different spaces.

Even earlier there were major developments at leading research laboratories, such as Bell Labs in the US and NEC in Japan, but as long as telecommunications remained a monopoly, there was no incentive to bring the technology quickly to the market and bring down the prices.

Hence, for telecommunications to be a mass product prices had to come down for which new technologies needed to be adopted. This could be achieved only by abolishing monopoly. In 1984, the US, Japan and the UK abolished not only monopolies but also started privatising state-owned telecommunications companies. It was competition as also the state becoming a regulator rather than a service provider that overcame another bottleneck — investment. Earlier a government department or a single company had to find the funds. As governments became strapped for funds and engaged more in welfare, there was not much scope for telecom to grow. In India, pre-liberalisation, the Government could not find the funds to provide even normal telephones, and there were thousands of people waiting to get one.

Telecom liberalisation — that is, the move away from the permit-licence-quota regime — began early in the 1990s. Telecom was thrown open to the private sector but the entry and interconnection process was to be the monopoly of the government.

There were many problems and been painfully but progressively corrected. India can now boast of an infrastructure that is comparable to the best in the world. The major achievements in the decade since the adoption of the first National Telecom Policy 1994 are:

Scores of private companies brought in their enterprise and capital by way of domestic and foreign equity and debt. About Rs 40,000 crore have, thus, come into this sector.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been restructured into a corporation.

While a decade ago India was adding less than a million telephones every year (only wired ones), now it is adding 18 million mobile telephones and about 7 million fixed telephones taking the total to about 65 million.

In the mid-1990s, it was estimated that 10-15 years after the introduction of mobile telephony, it would plateau at about 50 per cent of the fixed telephones. Already, India has some 25 million mobile phones, which is nearly about 60 per cent of the 40 million fixed ones. In Delhi and Chandigarh (and very soon Mumbai), there are more mobile telephones than fixed ones.

The prices have come down by as much as 80 per cent for leased circuits, domestic long-distance and international calls. If IP telephony is allowed, as is likely very soon, the prices will come down further. It is this continuous fall in the prices of cellular telephones that is making everyone go in for mobile connections.

If the mobile telephone network is really extended to cover the rural areas, very few people will opt for a fixed line connection.

The idea that one should communicate for work, and commute, that is, travel only for pleasure is being realised. This is because of optical fibre cables, a pair of which can sustain crores of telephone conversations simultaneously. In the last five-six years, 5,00,000 km of optical fibre systems have been deployed by the numerous telecom majors in India. Not only the 5,000 tehsil towns but also thousands of villages have been connected by the optical fibre system. It is this connectivity that is helping rural India open up to economic activity and prosperity.

Roads cost some Rs 150 lakh per km while an optical fibre cable system is just around Rs 3 lakh per km. Hence, it is far cheaper to connect villages through the optical fibre system than roads. Also, once the optical fibre network is set up, it will be possible for people to work from homes. Thus, telecommunications now has the potential to arrest and also reverse the migration of people from the rural areas to towns and cities. These developments are transforming the nature and process of business, commerce, governance and education. The government, being responsible for the nation's financial resources, has to be accountable, and is moving towards e-governance.

Today, about six crore mails are sent on the Internet everyday. The Internet and mobile telephones are cutting into the normal snail mail. This development is a challenge to the traditional post office, which is now responding well to it.

Such applications as distance education and tele-medicine are being implemented in India and other countries. Classrooms across the country are connected through the electronic-photonic system. Vidya Vahini connects 5,000 high schools in seven districts. It provides real time audio and video interactivity — lectures can be conducted in 5,000 schools simultaneously. Similarly, the linking of hundreds of hospitals is taking the benefit of specialist doctors from cities to small towns.

India will benefit greatly if IT and telecommunications are fully leveraged for the election process. Today, the the expense incurred by any candidate to fight an election is several times the admissible amount. If citizens are required to register as voters by appearing before a PC fitted with a camera in the full view of representatives of all parties who can question the genuineness of the registrant, his photo, including biometric identity, can be taken and an identity number and card issued immediately.

On election day, the voters only have to appear before a camera which compares the current image with the picture that is already stored in the PC and registers the vote. The results of the polls can be known five minutes after the closure. In the US, the primaries for picking up a presidential candidate by partymen and propositions (for taxes and so on) are being voted electronically on the Internet. What happens in the US will take only a few more weeks or months to be implemented elsewhere.

In India, where there are many problems and differences the new technology can be used to everybody's benefit. To achieve this goal, the highest priority must be given to the spread of education and computer use. It is true that IT and telecommunications cannot solve all problems, but the solution to many problems can become less expensive and faster. All technologies are tools. They can be used for self-destruction or for individual as well as social progress. The wise in the society evangelise the good uses of technology.

Without technology and its extensive availability and affordability, no country has ever prospered nor has it become powerful. The leadership in India and other developing countries must be wise enough to understand the full potential of telecommunications and IT. Further developments such as the privatisation of Bharat Sanchar Nigam and MTNL and the facilitation of mergers of the several private telephone companies into three, all-India multi-service companies as also the dissolution of the purposeless (in the current context) Telecom Commission, have to be carried out to realise the full and growing benefits of technologies. India has a long way to go, but it is on the right path.

(The author is Information Technology Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh.)

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