The Hindu Business Line : Bandwidth glut plagues telecom sector

New Delhi June 11 Even as the wireless communication service providers are facing a crunch in spectrum, the country's telecom sector seems to be witnessing a glut in long distance bandwidth. More than 50 per cent of the domestic long distance capacity available is still lying unused. The situation is worse in the international segment, where only 15 per cent of the bandwidth capacity is being currently utilised.

Domestic and international bandwidth is the key telecommunication resource used by various operators, corporates and individuals for data, voice, video and Internet connectivity. Almost all the telecom service providers from mobile operators to Internet service providers use leased lines. At present, 6.6 lakh route km of optical fibre cable have been rolled out by various operators across the country. While BSNL accounts for 4.5 lakh km, there are 15 other companies including Reliance Communication, Bharti, VSNL and Railtel, which account for the balance. The private operators together have equipped domestic capacity of 24.8 lakh Mbps, of which only 15.1 Mbps is being used. While the telecom regulator had last year brought down the price of domestic bandwidth in a bid to increase usage, analysts pointed out that the slow uptake of broadband and data services in the country is keeping the demand static.

In the international segment, while the total lit capacity can accommodate 655 Gbps, the total utilised capacity is only 102 Gbps. According to the telecom regulator, the low usage is due to control of international capacities and cable landing stations by only few operators, which is delaying entry of new operators. The TRAI has therefore recently made it mandatory for cable landing station owners to give access to all operators in a non-discriminatory manner.

Market watchers also point out that the number of international bandwidth providers in the country is also less compared to others. While countries such as the UK and the US have more than 30 operators offering international bandwidth, in India there are less than five. India also lags behind when it comes to ownership of landing cables. While in the US, 22 cable landing stations are owned by 17 different companies, in India three companies control the five cable landing stations. Lack of access to cable landing stations has created a bottleneck problem for bandwidth seekers in the country. For instance, in the US, since access to landing station is not an issue, there are over 30 international cables landing within that country, in India there are only 8 cables touching the shores. This reduces the options for bandwidth users.

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