Developments in Indian Telecommunication Infrastructure A Perspective

1. 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@sgsits.ac.in, pvyavahare@hotmail.com Associate of ICTP 13 February 2003

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 expt’al GSO comm. Satellite launched by ESA rocket from Kourou, French Guyana : 1981

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. INSAT System Satellite Parameters C and Ext-C band EIRP > 38 dBW G/T better than -5 dB/deg K Coverage India and wide Ku band EIRP > 46 dBW G/T better than -2 dB/deg K Coverage India S-Band EIRP > 42 dBW G/T better than -5 dB/deg K Coverage India and neighbouring countries

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. National Telecom Policy 1994 Need Analysis • New Economic Policy of GoI aims at Improving India’s 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

17. 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

18. 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)

19. 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.)

20. 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)

21. Telecom Expansion Status - last 10 Years 1992 7.0 Million Fixed Phones 1994 10.05 Million 1997 15.8 Million 2002 40 Million

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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)

26. 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

27. 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 country’s 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

28. Objectives of NTP 1999 cont…. • Strengthen educational and R&D 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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)

32. 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)

33. 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.

34. 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. ?

35. Yearly house % of house-holds affordability monthlyhold income exp. On comm affordability> 5000 $ 1.6 % > 350 $ > 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 %

36. 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)

37. 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

38. 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)

39. 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

40. 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 )

41. 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.

42. 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

43. Some universally valid quotations • There is enough on the earth to meet everybody’s need but not sufficient to meet anybody’s 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.

44. THANK YOU