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India Updates
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FORTY Gbps OF DOMESTIC BANDWIDTH LIKELY TO BE OPERATIVE BY 2002 SHRI TAPAN SIKDAR ADDRESSES US-INDIA BUSINESS COUNCIL MEETING AT WASHINGTON
New Delhi ~ June 21 2001
A 40 Giga bits per second (Gbps) Dense Wave Digital Multiplexing (DWDM) system of domestic bandwidth is planned to be installed in the country. The system is likely to be operative by the year 2002. This was stated by the Minister of State for Communications Shri Tapan Sikdar while addressing the US-India Business Council (USIBC) meeting at Washington today. Shri Sikdar said that a Synchronous Transmission Multiplexer-16 (STM-16) system under the Sanchar Sagar Phase-I project of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) with a capacity of 2.5 Gbps has been commissioned connecting 33 major cities. The installation of the STM 16 rings under the Sanchar Sagar Phase-II is under progress which is likely to be completed shortly. With Sanchar Sagar Phase-I project and Plesiochronous Digital Heirachy (PDH) system already available the country shall have 3 Gbps connectivity available between the four metros. With Sanchar Sagar Phase-II this would become 5.5 Gbps. The Minister said that the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited(VSNL) has made available international bandwidth ahead of demand and as on date VSNL has about 1 Gbps bandwidth available of which 75% has been utilised. Shri Tapan Sikdar stated that a number of initiatives have been taken in the Indian telecom sector since the last USIBC meeting at San Francisco and said that the country has corporatised the state owned telecom services as on 1st October 2000
six month ahead of the commitment in the New Telecom Policy-1999 (NTP'99). The Regulator has been strengthened by giving it wide ranging additional functions and has set up of a new Telecom Appellate Tribunal. The Minister said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) ceilings in most telecom services have been substantially enhanced. 100% FDI is now permitted in Internet Service Providers (ISPs) without International Gateway
Infrastructure Providers (Category-I) providing dark, fibres, ducts e-mail and voice mail. 74% FDI is permitted in ISPs with International Gateway
Infrastructure Provider (Category-II) providing end-to-end bandwidth and radio paging. He said that already 100% FDI is permitted in telecom manufacturing and 49% in all other telecom services. The Minister stated that the domestic long distance voice telephony has been opened for private sector participation and the international voice telephony is being opened up from 1st April 2002 two years ahead of schedule. Shri Sikdar said that spectrum management is being made fully transparent and more efficient and a new Convergence Act is being formulated which shall
replace the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 to take care of the issues relating to convergence both carriage and content. The Minister stated that we are laying greater emphasis on reducing the digital divide by covering all the villages with affordable telecom facilities by 2002 by providing reliable media. He said that our vision for telecom sector is "Communication Anywhere Anytime To Anyone" which would mean availability of all type of modern telecom services on demand at affordable prices by 2002. This would also include availability of bandwidth on demand
gearing ourselves to meet the requirement of R&D and human resources developing the manufacturing base to
meet rapidly growing requirements and exporting telecom equipment and services etc. Shri Sikdar urged the US-India Business Council to coordinate among various business partnering models to allow companies to assess opportunities on both sides that will help in
bridging the telecom divide in both countries through the exchange of technologies between the companies. In this connection
the Minister also referred to the Supercomm Asia-2002 to be held in New Delhi in February 2002 which shall provide unique opportunity to the US companies to participate and showcase their capabilities in the Indian market. The Minister also had meetings with major telecom companies of the USA including Motorola
MCI Worldcomm and Cable & Wireless. Shri Sikdar also visited the Point of Presence (POP) of Cable & Wireless. During the meeting discussions were held on latest technologies relevant to Indian conditions and the interest of these companies in expansion of their plans in India.
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