New Delhi: Ajit Balakrishnan’s talk at the 8th Digital Summit organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) focused on the big questions that need to be answered when it comes to public policy for India’s Internet. Balakrishnan is the founder and CEO of Rediff, the Chairman Emeritus of IAMAI.
Balakrishnan spoke widely about what India needs to do about Internet policy, the cost of broadband, and the low penetration of Internet in India.
He began his talk by referring to the Facebook arrests in Mumbai where two girls who had posted on the site questioning the shut down of the city soon after the death of Shiv Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray were arrested by the police. He chose to place the question of Internet freedom within the context of the nation state.
“Nation states are befuddled by the Internet. At least with newspapers, states could restrict them, control them,” Balakrishnan said.
How would you explain to the police how to implement the IT act? There are over 25,000 police stations, he said.
The Rediff chief also argued for critical faculty when it comes to dealing with information that one sees online. “Information doesn’t always mean the truth. Who is editing, uploading on Wikipedia matters? Look at the page on the ancient Nalanda University. It claims that the university was ransacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji, and the books in the library burnt for several months. Where are the facts for this? None of this is true. So yes, it will matter who puts out what information on the Internet,” he explained.
The other key issue he raised was about the cost of broadband in India and why it would take some serious investments to bring it down. “Currently the model we have, the signal goes to the 3G towers, then it goes to the underground cable overseas and again comes back via the same route. We need our pan-India optical fibre network, to boost up the speed and bring the cost down. It is close to Rs 60,000 crore investment and of course the returns are slow.”
It should be noted that the National Optical Fibre Network in India is expected to be completed this year. However the project will manage to provide broadband connectivity to only over two lakh (200,000) gram panchayats in India.
Balakrishnan also pointed out that one of the reasons for Internet to remain expensive were the telcos themselves. “For market cap driven telcos, the optical fibre is a very expensive investment. Their stocks will take a beating if one of them announces that they will lay down massive optical fibre networks,” he argued.
However it should be noted that telcos have started investing in the fibre optic networks in India. RComm has a 1,20,000 km inter-city fiber optic network which is expanding. In addition BSNL, Railtel Corporation of India Ltd. and Power Grid Corp, have more than 670,000 route kilometers of fibre running along their national optical transport backbone networks.
But clearly none of this is enough when it comes to optical fibres for home. For instance even in a metro city like Mumbai, fibre cables are not available all across the city, which means most people still don’t have access to high-speed Internet.
However it should be noted that telcos have started investing in the fibre optic networks in India. For instance RComm has a 1,20,000 km inter-city fiber optic network which is expanding.
As far as the Indian households are concerned, broadband still remains very expensive. “If you look at the average incomes of Indian households, it’s not very high. The average managerial group households have an income of around Rs 13,000. This is around 30 million. You go lower than this and the income falls to 9000, 7000, 6000. For them, the average broadband cost can’t exceed more than Rs 100,” he said.
The other issue that Balakrishnan focused on was the low penetration of internet in India where the population is concerned. Currently India has close to 200 million Internet users and is expected to add the next 100 million in less than five years. But most of them are still on 2G, (according to research 80 percent of new users join the mobile internet on 2G) which is far too slow, given that the world is moving on to 4G.
In fact, as Rahul Khullar, chairman, of Telecom Regulatory Authority (Trai) pointed out in a candid admission in the opening address, India has failed on the issue of broadband connectivity. “We have done a terrible job in broadband. We are nowhere near to meeting target of NOFN and unless it is done, internet penetration cannot happen at the desired pace. Access and speed will determine penetration of smart-phones and Internet. Unless there is reasonable pricing of spectrum and making spectrum available, we will not succeed,” said Khullar.
Balakrishnan pointed out the bleak reality that where Internet penetration is concerned, it’s still only 10 percent in India. “The dominance of English, coupled with high cost and poor connectivity have made it worse,” he said.
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