NASSCOM earlier this month submitted its response to the consultation paper issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on ‘Roadmap to Promote Broadband Connectivity and Enhanced Broadband Speed’. In our response, we recommended the need to redefine the definition of Broadband and the need to improve the telecom infrastructure to meet the growing demand of the internet connectivity in the country.
We mentioned that universal broadband internet access should be treated as a public service in the lines of other infrastructure services such as highways and roads, railways, water and electricity etc. where the State should proactively encourage and facilitate penetration and universal availability.
We further suggested Government should also give priority in enhancing the fixed line connections at a certain speed with the sole aim of improving the scope to enhance fixed line broadband access, which clearly has been the leading technology for broadband penetration in India. This in turn will also result in increased use of optical fibre in the access network to meet the requirement of high bandwidth demands. We also suggested that Government should undertake necessary measures to achieve the outcomes and deliverables outlined in the National Broadband Mission 2019, as provided below:
- to institutionalize public private partnership for leveraging optical fiber network and to provide last mile connectivity by utilizing appropriate technologies including optical giber, radio network and satellite for providing broadband access to all villages by 2022;
- to provide infrastructure capable of delivering high broadband speeds
- to accelerate fiberization and work with state/ UTs to (a) have their Right of Way policy aligned with the RoW Rules (as defined below), (b) for supporting viable financial model for common duct;
- to create Broadband Readiness Index;
- to enhance connectivity and Quality of Services (“QoS”) by increasing tower density and add more 5G telecom towers;
- to increase fiberization of telecom towers and to facilitate telecom towers to have robust backhaul in order to cater to high volume data requirement and for better QoS;
- to create a Geographic Information System based tool for accurate town planning for new networks and to set up a National Fiber Grid for keeping record of the entire optical fiber network in the country.
- to facilitate rollout of 5G network and strengthen the existing 4G network by identifying gaps required in infrastructure; and
- to promote Make in India and incentivize homegrown broadband products in the network through large scale trials and deployment.
Our detailed submission is enclosed for your kind reference.
Kindly write to us at deepak@nasscom.in and indrajeet@nasscom.in in case you have any feedback.
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