Configuring India's Digital Ecosystem

Policies must favour consortiums of local players - for operators with a government stake, and for manufacturers/system integrators with market access conforming to WTO rules.

Shyam Ponappa    |   August 6, 2020 

Two developments highlight the need for government to sponsor consortiums to build India’s digital ecosystem:

• Facebook’s announcement in April to invest $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio was momentous. In a slowing economy, Reliance Industries raised an incredible $20 billion with a cascade of foreign investments combined with a rights issue. This “consortium” makes Reliance debt-free, besides providing the capital and capacity to dominate communications in India.
• India’s digital ecosystem’s dependence on China and on increasing imports underlines the imperative for corporate India to come together in a national endeavour that must succeed.

The Jio factor

Overwhelming dominance rarely benefits the public interest, even if the pricing starts incredibly low. Developed markets frown on monopolistic dominance, despite there being giants such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.1

Discounting tall talk, India’s communications sector now has these upbeat expectations, along with a slew of old negatives, particularly the debt- and tax-burdened, fragmented other operators together with recalcitrant policies. Government-imposed charges and tax battles burden our operators, rendering them unable to compete.

How have Jio’s moves affected the public interest? With both benefits and detriments. The negative fallout from sectoral debt from auctions and crippling government levies, and a price war, has been unsustainably low tariffs. A positive effect is that data traffic increased greatly because of the low tariffs. Yet, the results are damaging: For service providers because of insufficient profits, for the market because it constrains quality and growth, and, therefore, for consumers in the short and long run. Service levels are compromised by resource constraints (dropped calls, slow speeds), and because of under-served customers — both in existing and the unserved markets in India. Data traffic may have increased simply because more people watch more rubbish in video form, whereas service providers need the wherewithal to invest, to improve and extend coverage, as well as to design constructive educational, skill-building, medical services, and other enhanced interactive services for users’ genuine benefit. In that sense, traffic as a measure of user benefits can cut both ways.

Apart from data, two other aspects merit consideration: Operator revenues, and government collections (licence fees, auction charges, and taxes). Operator revenues grew strongly from mid-2003 through FY2012, flattened for five years (FY2013-17), then declined after FY2017 (see Chart 1).

Barring additional charges, government revenues reflect this decline, leaving these lingering questions:

• Does the declining trend serve the public interest?
• What is the opportunity cost of disruption and deprivation of services?

A third issue requires action: How do we improve our digital prospects? Note that government collections from licence fees and spectrum charges rose steadily from FY2004, so that cumulative revenues far exceeded auction fees foregone (Chart 2). Corporate taxes were in addition to this.

Thereafter, government collections flattened, then declined (barring retrospective charges), as did taxes. This calls for policy intervention to enhance services, thereby increasing revenues and government collections. Straightforward adoption of global norms for wireless in 60GHz, 70-80GHz (V-band and E-band) and unused UHF (500-700MHz) restricted to operator use will help.2 So will giving up the farce of reviving BSNL/MTNL, including the hopelessly snaggled VRS, and the botched tenders (‘Most of it to Huawei?’ ‘No, Ericsson and Nokia.’ ‘Alright, 10 per cent to domestic suppliers.’ ‘No, all of it to domestic suppliers…’).

Competition for Services

A way to nurture balanced competition in services is for the government to create a consortium with a minority anchor, bringing financial, technological, and delivery capability to compete with Jio’s dominant platform.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani calls for doing away with 2G; Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal calls for supportive policies, and repudiating old battles such as contention over the adjusted gross revenue (a 15-year battle won in lower courts, lost in the Supreme Court), and reducing exorbitant charges. The government can change policies to achieve these. It can stop predatory practices, and facilitate this consortium. BSNL/MTNL can be genuinely supported to be the government anchor in the consortium with a minority stake, with golden-share national security, public- and minority-interest responsibilities through appropriate legislation. Airtel could be the lead, with others participating, including foreign players.

Equipment Consortium

Fragmented suppliers and system integrators also need a consortium for collaboration. While multinational vendors dominate, dependence on imports and China is untenable for our increasing and strategic requirements. Absent enabling policies, Indian manufacturers have to succeed offshore to sell within the country. Why do such things happen? Many reasons, starting with the holdover of colonial mindsets even of those who want to rewrite history, which treat the government — whoever is in power — as the colonial/feudal overlord, and the people as serfs with a vote, whose weaknesses can be pandered to for electoral victory. This imposes a zero-sum framework—the government versus the rest (Us versus Them).

In reality, the situation need not be zero-sum, as evidenced by past service growth and government collections through revenue sharing, compared with what might have been if auction fees were enforced: Bankruptcies and no services.

The prerequisites are (a) policies framed to provide access to local manufacturers and service providers conforming to WTO requirements; (b) their market access through continuing orders; (c) their collaboration to supply, install, and facilitate operations and maintenance of requisite equipment.

If these were made possible, domestic suppliers could meet a significant share of India’s communications needs. This requires emulating the Huawei model — easier said than done!3

The Union and state governments need to understand these components, and execute them from a national perspective, without bombastic rhetoric, politicking, fund-raising for elections, and so on. Policies must incentivise coordinated action; orders have to be winnable by including criteria for development of domestic capacity to conform to the World Trade Organization rules; and execution has to be first rate (on time, high quality). Digital communications will drive many aspects of all sectors. Our policy-makers must stop dithering and help us prepare effectively.

---

Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com

1. For issues about competition laws in India, see: Amber Sinha & Arindrajit Basu, April 30, 2020:
"Analysis: Reliance Jio-Facebook deal highlights India’s need to revisit competition regulations"

https://scroll.in/article/960676/analysis-reliance-jio-facebook-deal-highlights-indias-need-to-revisit-competition-regulations

2. https://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2020/03/indias-self-goal-in-telecom.html

3. http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-huawei-­­pointer.html

Matching Realities and Aspirations

Leaving aside fixing the 'mountains' such as land acquisition, NPAs, etc., here are some thoughts on systemic focus and action.

Shyam Ponappa    |   February 1, 2018

There’s an upbeat sense from the annual Economic Survey, and indicators such as soaring stocks and official statements.Yet, the ground realities don’t match because of gritty facts such as not being able to pay electronic tolls on a national highway near Delhi though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) controls local administration1, Korean steel giant Posco abandoning a huge investment last year after struggling for over a decade, two public sector divestments, Bharat Aluminium Company and Hindustan Zinc, mired in difficulties2, or the hobbling state of services such as electricity and telecommunications despite short-term consumer benefits from lower prices, and so on. Another aspect is that so many college graduates, including engineers, law students and MBAs, compete for low-end government jobs such as peons in state governments. Clearly, something beyond talkfests and episodic discussions is needed. Leaving aside fixing the “mountains” — the land acquisition act, non-performing assets (NPAs), high component taxes — here are some thoughts on systemic focus and action.
Fix infrastructureWith rare exceptions, our governments do not appear to recognise a clear priority to fix infrastructural deficiencies. After national security and maintaining law and order, correcting critical deficiencies of infrastructure in all its forms needs to be an all-out priority. This is a basic requirement for citizens to function effectively and live well. Without infrastructure one cannot function anywhere near full capacity, because of having to spend time, energy and resources dealing with problems of living and hygiene arising from the non-availability of adequate water and sanitation, inefficient travel and logistics for employment, education or health care, communications, dysfunctional equipment because of power shortages, and so on.Instead, some misconceptions in policies and practices appear to be broadly accepted as driving factors not only in the government, but also to some extent in the public perception. One is that all foreign direct investment (FDI) is a panacea for our ills and aspirations. The second is the idea that for services such as water, electricity and communications, the public interest is best served by the lowest consumer prices for those who get such services, regardless of sustainability. Issues such as access to services for half the population living outside urban areas, high and consistent quality, sustainability, and minimising environmental impact appear to be less important criteria.

The Panacea of FDI?There’s no question about the need for foreign investment, but uncontrolled FDI, particularly at our stage of development, is inadvisable. One wonders where these forms of the erstwhile East India Company and/or winner-take-all might lead. And does it matter, as long as consumers enjoy good living, defined as access to material comforts at low prices? To see why it does matter, consider these parodied scenarios, with apologies to Jonathan Swift’s satirical A Modest Proposal3.A Modest Proposal for 100% FDI — A ParodyImagine how well all consumers could do, this time without leaving the other half out, if we invite the likes of (indicative list, in alphabetic order) Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft (with guarantees of compensation if there are sudden policy reversals, which we are prone to) to use all unsold and unused spectrum to provide connectivity and digital services pronto. They could put in so much investment to get to year five on day one a couple of years or so out, even Reliance Jio might pale.Don’t want Americans? Why not invite the Chinese and Huawei? We might get even better deals in digital services from the world leader in 4G and beyond.

Not to mention the attendant benefits from associated companies to keep consumers happy with smartphones, air conditioners, refrigerators, air purifiers, TV sets, cars, two-wheelers, and so on. There will also be power plants, aircraft, and trains, fixing all three sectors with one swipe. Some impediments would have to be removed of course, such as allowing power plants to come up, electricity lines to be laid out, spectrum to be used, land acquired, changes in labour laws, and so on. As for employment, there could be plenty of local assembly, manufacturing and distribution from all of the above, provided we willingly submit to some regimentation in our lives.

Alternative: Fix The Basics & Do It Ourselves

We have to fix the basics to help ourselves and make FDI succeed in our interests. We need priorities in objectives, as everything cannot have the highest priority. Even more difficult is getting experts and practitioners to work out detailed process plans, evaluating alternatives with realistic simulations, and so on. It takes time, energy, understanding and competence, and patience, to get beyond seat-of-pants discussions. Apply all these from a systems perspective, map the distilled ideas to action plans for each set of interrelated processes, and the upshot could be those process plans. We may get end-to-end strategies leading to convergent results to improve our infrastructure, which will enable agricultural and manufacturing production, services, and trade, with resulting jobs, while limiting negative environmental impact.Goals such as increasing jobs and farm income are desirable. To get on a higher long-term growth trajectory beyond a cyclical recovery, in addition to skilling, there need to be initiatives and investments that fit with the circumstances. An excellent example is the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016, now in its second 10-year cycle, which resulted in India becoming a preferred automobile assembly location with 32 million jobs in FY16. Similar approaches could be worked out for connectivity, electricity, and the rest, that address the needs/opportunities/markets, the products/services, how delivery will be organised, what the resources are and where they will be sourced from, how they will be organised and when, i.e., the detailed strategy, process plans and flow charts.Also, effective corporate practices such as facilitation for catalysing group decisions could be used if they are not already, to help administrators, experts, and practitioners arrive at sound, practical decisions.4 Another area is simulation and modelling of alternatives and scenarios. A third is overall strategy.

These steps will help improve our ability to achieve our aspirations.

---

Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com

1. ‘India’s road to digital highway’, Nivedita Mookerji, Business Standard: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-s-road-to-digital-highway-118012401544_1.html

2. ‘India as a ‘business partner’, Kanika Datta, Business Standard: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-as-a-business-partner-118012401599_1.html

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal;https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html4. https://www.centreforfacilitation.co.uk/files/public/What%20is%20process%20facilitation.pdf

The Buzz Around TV White Space

There's a war brewing around wireless broadband trials using TV white space in India

Shyam Ponappa  |  November 5, 2015

Large blocks of underused spectrum lie tantalizingly out of reach, waiting for enabling regulation, administration, and to some extent technology, to accelerate our move towards Digital India. One such category is unused/underused TV spectrum or "TV White Space" (TVWS). Despite growing demand, operators face bleak prospects as they struggle to deliver, starved of spectrum and infrastructure. Their dilemma is how to extend delivery capability without choking on buying spectrum so precious it's like an albatross around their necks, leaving little capital for densifying and extending their networks.

There's a war brewing around wireless broadband trials using TVWS in India, years after completion in other countries. These frequencies are most effective for long-range broadband. Mobile operators are watchful of developments such as Microsoft getting preferential access, triggered by announcements of its partnership with the Education and Research Network (ERNET) for countrywide rural broadband. Equipment suppliers also seem apprehensive of developments that could lead to swathes of spectrum being "unlicensed", reducing markets for their established products for licensed spectrum.

This article aims to clear some of the misinformation to facilitate policies for Digital India.

What is "TV White Space"?

There's confusion and disinformation about what TVWS is. Quite simply, TVWS is unused TV spectrum, or TV bands devoid of TV signals. The meaning derives from the areas on a page without print or pictures. Microsoft calls [the technology developed for] it "White-Fi", while some call [the technology developed for] it "super Wi-Fi".

Even bands broadcasting TV programs can have underutilised sections that can carry broadband, as pioneered by researchers at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice has a system that uses TV bands for both broadcasting as well as broadband.1 According to researchers, although the 400 to 700MHz band is used for broadcasting TV in many US cities, its capacity is largely underutilised because of alternative ways of accessing TV signals, such as through cable, satellite, or Internet TV. Therefore, incorporating Rice's technology in TV sets or remote equipment could significantly expand the urban reach of "super Wi-Fi", and not restrict it to rural areas.

Is there any TVWS in India? Some say there isn't!

Studies across the country show that over most of it, unused TV spectrum (white space) amounts to 85 to 95 per cent of TV spectrum.2,3,4 Studies excluding northern India show that in over a third of the area, a large band -- 470 to 585 MHz -- is available for alternate use.2,4

An odd controversy has been created about whether this is "white space" or not, precisely because the spectrum is largely unused.5 The convoluted semantics are mystifying, because white space is by definition unused broadcast spectrum. The National Frequency Allocation Plan already designates this band for fixed or mobile wireless, in addition to TV. In other words, without changes in allocation, operators can share TV spectrum on a secondary basis, as in the USA, the UK, and Singapore.

Regarding spectrum usage charges, as with any infrastructure, it is much more beneficial in the public interest to provide affordable services first and to collect government fees and taxes later, than to front-load auction fees and have no services at all (imagine road systems if up-front charges had to be paid for the right to build them). Overall benefits from Digital India, which is impossible in the foreseeable future without low-cost wireless broadband connections to the NOFN and other backbone networks like ERNET, will far exceed cash collections from auctions.

Proponents of auctions suggest that TVWS be reallocated as cellular spectrum and auctioned. Their reasons: (a) The transfer of public property to private operators; (b) Transparency and fairness; and (c) Government collections. This reasoning is false and misleading, because: (a) No transfer is required, as all operators can get secondary access equitably through a consortium approach; (b) This ensures transparency and fairness; and (c) Government collections from productive use will far exceed any auction collections, as evidenced by licence fees: in 2005, estimated auction fees lost until March 2007 were Rs 20,000 crore, whereas actual collections were double, at Rs 40,000 crore; collections by March 2010 were Rs 80,000 crore, in addition to the public benefits of better services.

Should TVWS be used only for 3G & 4G?

Another negative argument is the insistence that TVWS should be auctioned for 3G and 4G. Whereas Digital India needs low-cost wireless broadband, especially for long-distance links in rural India, because of the high cost and difficulty of building and maintaining fibre or wired networks in difficult terrain, and/or in sparsely populated areas. Therefore, access to TVWS needs to be bundled with the National Optic Fibre Network/BharatNet, and other shared backbone networks like ERNET. Policies should permit different network design scenarios including transmission power and purpose. Point-to-point links are needed over long distances in place of fibre or microwave, and broad coverage is needed for contiguous areas like industrial developments, campuses, commercial complexes, or rural communities. At the user end, TVWS could interface through cellular (3G or 4G) or Wi-Fi transceivers.

TVWS does need tight radio filters (unlike Wi-Fi) to minimise interference, the underlying consideration that drives spectrum management. There's also need for varying power specifications depending on the network design and purpose as described above, and policies for unlicensed sharing using geolocation databases, as defined by the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission).

To be most beneficial, it is not important to extract the maximum carrying capacity from TVWS in every location, as in the misplaced number-of-subscribers-linked spectrum policy some years ago. Rather, the objective for Digital India is to use this technology in combination with others for the purposes people need, namely, for affordable broadband wherever they are, while mitigating radiation hazards. This is essential for India to get its basic communications infrastructure.

---

Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com

1. http://news.rice.edu/2015/07/13/rice-tests-wireless-data-delivery-over-active-tv-channels-2/, Jade Boyd, September 5, 2014.
2. IIT-Hyderabad studied TVWS in southern India from 2009, shared findings with the government/other IITs from 2011, and published in 2014:http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-08747-4_3#, Kalpana Naidu et al.
3. http://www.cse.iitd.ernet.in/~vinay/papers/coral13.pdf, Pradeep Kumar et al, June 2013, IIT-Delhi.
4. arXiv:1310.8540v1 [cs.IT], Gaurang Naik et al, 31 October 2013, IIT-Bombay.
5. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tv-whitespaces-how-white-spaces-parag-kar;http://www.financialexpress.com/article/fe-columnist/editorial-beware-the-white-spaces/146355/

COMMENTS

DEBASHISH

I think this whole issue of TV White Space is being clouded with needless convoluted semantics . The author also does not do much to ' clear the air '.Some basic facts have to be placed on the table and understood clearly. 

1. TV White Space ( TVWS )is not an access technology. Hence the comparison with 3G/4G/cellular technologies is infructuous. 

2. TV White Space is and is being positioned as a " Middle Mile " or a " Mobile Backhaul " technology. This means that it is supposed to compete/susbtitute with fiber or microwave. Indirectly, it is in direct competition to the Optical Fiber which is required to be laid between the Block and the Gram Panchayat ( GP )as a part of the NOFN/Bharat Net Project ! 

3. Going by the Expert Committee Report on NOFN, BBNL shall lay fiber at only 80% of the locations as it is not feasible to do so in the balance 20% locations. They have advocated the mixed use of UBR Backhaul technology (which works in the unlicensed bands ) and satellite technology for the technically non-feasible areas ! 

4. So , if at all there is a use case in the revamped NOFN project ( now called Bharat Net ) for such 'special technologies ' like TVWS, it is only in these 20% GPs only ( unless of course Govt. decides to abandon the fiber project and decide to opt for alternate long-distance wireless backhaul technologies ). 

5. TVWS is being touted as a " technology for providing Rural broadband ". However before we join the bandwagon, it may be good to step back and find out what are we talking about . The moot question is that is this truly a broadband technology ? What are the bandwidths that TVWS is capable of providing ? . In the classical NOFN architecture, each GP was to be equipped with 100Mbps bandwidth which was meant to be used by different Telcos/Internet Service Providers/Cable TV providers etc to provide broadband enabled services to the 640,000 ( and not 500,000 ! ) villages . The early results of the trials with TVWS technologies have indicated a throughput of ~10Mbps against a spectrum requirement of 10Mhz ( under ideal conditions ). By simple extrapolation, this means that to provide 100Mbps, it would need a minimum of 100Mhz spectrum ! Surely, this cannot be a very efficient way of using the spectrum , when the entire " White Space " available is of that order only ( Refer IIT Mumbai study report ). Also, it is quite clear that in GPs which have higher bandwidth requirements due to presence of co-located schools, hospitals , government offices etc , TVWS technology may not be appropriate for such higher bandwidth requirements. 

6. Digital India ensures provision of guaranteed broadband transmission bandwidths everywhere with guaranteed SLAs and not on ' best effort ' basis. We have yet to come across a single commercial network being run on TVWS technology anywhere in the world offering highly reliable ( five 9s grade ) and assured quality of broadband service. 

7. It may be prudent to point out that ' field proven' High Capacity Wireless backhaul technologies do exist ( which provide scalable capacities of upto 1-2Gbps ) at distances of upto 10-13 kms , which are in licensed spectrum bands. These are extremely low cost, highly efficient, interference free, Point to Point links which can meet the requirements and complement the government's fibre roll-out in a more cost effective manner than ' special technologies ' viz. TVWS , treated in a special manner ! 

8. Besides, the issue of auction vs free/unlicensed spectrum remains as another moot point where the business case of TVWS hinges on keeping it unlicensed and thereby leading to frittering away of ' precious ' natural resource viz. spectrum , in contravention to the SC guidelines. Given the hype and buzz , it may suffice to state that TVWS has not yet passed the peak of inflated expectations ! I think it would be prudent for the government to let the dust settle down, before making the next move ahead.

November 05, 2015

The author responDS 

Comments 1-5: A “comparison that is infructuous”: The article asks: “Should TVWS be used only for 3G & 4G?” The implied question: “or for other technologies including TVWS-specific ones?” The article also states: “…the objective for Digital India is to use this technology [TVWS technology, as against the spectral medium] in combination with others…” Yes, the term “TVWS” is applied to both the medium – the spectrum – and TVWS technologies, for the (new) technologies developed for that medium, namely, 802.22 and 802.11af. 

The commentator must surely know this, as also the TRAI’s recommendations on the next comment: 

“…direct competition to the Optical Fiber”: 

This perhaps reflects genuine confusion and/or lack of awareness of the complementary role of wireless backhaul (including TVWS). The article clearly mentions supplementing the backbone where laying fibre is too expensive or infeasible. The TRAI’s recommendations on microwave for backhaul discuss this in detail (see: http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Recommendation/Documents/MW%20Reco%20Final29082014.pdf

UPDATED: January 18, 2020:
https://main.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/MW%20Reco%20Final29082014.pdf
“Recommendations on Allocation and Pricing of Microwave Access (MWA) and Microwave Backbone (MWB) RF carriers”, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, August 29, 2014, 
AND
https://main.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Response%20to%20back%20reference%20on%20Microwave_17.11.2015.pdf
"Recommendations On Allocation and Pricing of Microwave Access (MWA) and Microwave Backbone (MWB) RF Carriers (Response to reference received from Department of Telecommunications on recommendations of 16th October 2015"), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, November 17, 2015).

The more fibre, the better. The question is to what extent it can be deployed cost-effectively. For the rest, other technologies and mediums are needed for the intermediate mile. 

“By simple extrapolation, this means that to provide 100Mbps, it would need a minimum of 100Mhz spectrum ! Surely, this cannot be a very efficient way of using the spectrum , when the entire " White Space " available is of that order only…” 

Comments like this appear to be misleading, especially when made by a commentator who seems to understand the technological implications: if there are more cost-effective ways, those are the ones to use. If not, use less perfect methods, including TVWS. The objective is connectivity at reasonable cost, not designing or deploying the most appropriate technology. Why should TVWS be used in any other way than to provide a 100Mbps link to a node to which it is infeasible for cost or other reasons to lay a fibre connection? What could be more desirable in the public interest? Surely not the optimization of some academic measure of TVWS usage. This is where the best is the enemy of the good. 

Comments 6-8

"6. …We have yet to come across a single commercial network being run on TVWS technology anywhere in the world offering highly reliable ( five 9s grade ) and assured quality of broadband service." 

Response

In the author’s surmise, this may be because the pioneers of TVWS-use and technologies (devices), namely, the USA, the UK, Singapore, already have good fibre and cable networks over most of their geographies. It is only on the fringes that they lack adequate connectivity. These are insufficient markets to provide the level of demand that could have otherwise led to proliferation, and therefore lower-cost devices and success. For instance, device makers are relatively small companies. So it’s a chicken-or-egg situation. The markets that are large enough are China and India, and both have started considering TVWS. Huawei has even acquired one of the early manufacturers, Neul, which was involved in the UK trials. The latter may be an indicator of possibly higher volume production and deployment, assuming Huawei knows what it’s doing (and it certainly seems to). 

"7. It may be prudent to point out that ' field proven' High Capacity Wireless backhaul technologies do exist ( which provide scalable capacities of upto 1-2Gbps ) at distances of upto 10-13 kms , which are in licensed spectrum bands. These are extremely low cost, highly efficient, interference free, Point to Point links which can meet the requirements and complement the government's fibre roll-out in a more cost effective manner than ' special technologies ' viz. TVWS , treated in a special manner !"

Response

This is partly true, but leaves out the rest of the relevant facts; else, if they were really low-cost (and unrestricted), such links would have been deployed extensively in India. Instead, the high cost (and restrictive regulations) make it impractical. This has resulted in the matter being taken to the Supreme Court [Supreme Court civil appeal No. D29714 of 2010]. All this is given in detail in the TRAI recommendations referred to above. 

"8. Besides, the issue of auction vs free/unlicensed spectrum remains as another moot point where the business case of TVWS hinges on keeping it unlicensed and thereby leading to frittering away of ' precious ' natural resource viz. spectrum , in contravention to the SC guidelines."

Response

Consider this: the objective is digital connectivity, in the sense of ubiquitous affordable access. It has not been achieved, and appears infeasible without lower cost access across rural India. If there are better, less expensive ways of providing it, suggest them by all means. If you can’t, think about (a) the objective (ubiquitous affordable access) and (b) constructive alternatives, and try to suggest practical solutions, and avoid misleading or ill-informed comments.  As for the Supreme Court guidelines, if the government formulates sound policies in the public interest, the court's aims will be well served.

9. "Given the hype and buzz , it may suffice to state that TVWS has not yet passed the peak of inflated expectations ! I think it would be prudent for the government to let the dust settle down, before making the next move ahead." 

Response
TVWS use with TVWS devices is not proven. That’s what the trials (mentioned in the article) are about. 

November 10, 2015  

Digital India - Now to Work

Despite the PM's interest, much remains to be done.

Shyam Ponappa 

 |  October 2, 2015

There's a buzz about Digital India again with an Indian PM finally reaching Silicon Valley. So are we close to broadband taking off, or is this just more hype?

The announcements are certainly promising. For instance, that Indian Railways will provide Wi-Fi services at 500 railway stations over the next few years. Google's support tendered by CEO Sundar Pichai offers new hope that this will happen. Other promising announcements include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's announcement of cloud-based services from India, and connectivity at the village level through TV White Space (unused broadcast spectrum), and Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacob's $150-million fund for start-ups in India.

There have been announcements like these before. For instance, the Railways announced Wi-Fi projects for years, with modest achievements. For details, see "A history of Wi-Fi and Indian Railways from 2006 to Infinity (maybe)".1

What's troubling is that in terms of ground realities, except for TV White Space for broadband, there's little evidence of a systematic approach to problems besetting communications, and changes in policies to solve them. Everyone seems carried away, and this is as true of most of the media and the commentariat as it is of the politicians. But informed, systematic efforts at solutions are absolutely essential to achieve these aspirations.

Take the ingenuous comparisons of Silicon Valley with Bengaluru, with the latter being described as "nearly there". Such election rhetoric from former US Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry is one thing, but our savvy media folk should know better. People who visit Silicon Valley from India, or those who are based there and occasionally visit India, can't be blind to the stark differences. One is a place where the basics related to living and functioning effectively actually work well; the other isn't. One has potholed streets with garbage, decrepit or nonexistent sanitation, and chronic power cuts; the other doesn't. It's as simple as that.

This leads to another observation that's tossed off too easily, about less need for government. Blithe statements that government needs to be reduced, or to get out of the way and let the private sector function, are often made with apparently little understanding of what governments do before getting out of the way. Those essential services in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that function seamlessly and are taken for granted? That's what governments can do. In other words, that is government's responsibility: to provide, apart from security and law and order, the infrastructure services and organisation of communities, markets and financial systems that enable citizens to function effectively and live well. Yes, markets are indeed planned and structured in order to function well.

The data on broadband at the end of 2014 in the Broadband Report 2015 by the ITU and Unesco suggest that India is not doing too well compared with its developing neighbours in Asia (see chart below).2  Our leadership and government need to confront this reality, and apply themselves to reforms to improve conditions. Broadband subscriptions as a percentage of our population trail most countries, and the percentage of individuals using the Internet is at the bottom of the pack, with Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

To make Digital India a reality, here's what the government needs to do:

• Trials using TV White Space (TVWS, or unused broadcast spectrum) for broadband are finally under way, after years of struggle to get them going. If they work out, policies must be framed quickly for this spectrum to be bundled with fibre backbones such as BharatNet (the erstwhile National Optic Fibre network), and licensed service providers given access at reasonable cost.
   
• Policies need to be formulated with government and operators working together, instead of as adversaries. This will increase the probability of success, as the private sector can be convinced of and contribute to practicable methods that they accept.
   
• Policies for sharing spectrum can be extended to other under-used spectrum held by the government and Defence (secondary sharing, as in the USA), and to networks as well. This will facilitate broad, contiguous spectrum bands that are essential to support rising data usage that is affordable. Policies must also enable authorised operators to access all networks, fostering competition while increasing revenue potential and reducing costs. The data on broadband at the end of 2014 in the Broadband Report 2015 by the ITU and Unesco suggest that India is not doing too well compared with its developing neighbours in Asia. Our leadership and government need to confront this reality, and apply themselves to reforms to improve conditions.
  
• The TVWS devices are manufactured by relatively small companies abroad with the exception of Huawei, which acquired Neul, one of the pioneers in the UK. Indian innovators can produce such devices locally, but only if they have a supportive ecosystem. That means sufficient continuing orders to create revenues for sustainable profits and cash flows. In a market like India, such orders need government support until new policies are in place and the demand is established. Once that happens, private enterprises can compete.
  
  For instance, a chip designer start-up in Bangalore with designs for TV and broadband cards using TV White Space has had to scramble to manufacture complete products to bring their prototypes to market. Without sustained buying, they'll languish like other device manufacturers overseas, with episodic sales to narrow markets. That's because developing economies are likely to be bigger markets for these devices than developed economies, but only after policies allow deployment; secondly, there's insufficient support in developed markets. The irony will be if Indian innovators can get only offshore prospects like Huawei as partners or investors.
   
• Unremitting government effort in the systematic development of basic infrastructure services (at the primary level, besides communications, there's power, transportation, water and sanitation, basic health and education; at the secondary level: communities, markets and financial systems) will round out the potential for India as a producer economy as well as a large and growing market.

This is the work that now needs to get done: accept the reality of our infrastructure deficiencies, change our spectrum and network sharing policies, plan step-by-step, and execute for results.

---

Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com

(Disclosure: The writer is involved in a white space project)

1. http://www.medianama.com/2015/02/223-a-history-of-wi-fi-and-indian-railways-from-2006-to-infinity-maybe/, Riddhi Mukherjee, February 27, 2015.

2. http://www.broadbandcommission.org/ documents/reports/bb-annualreport2015.pdf

Law & Order Through Traffic Systems

A TV white space system for traffic management may yet induce us to observe discipline and law-abiding behaviour

Shyam Ponappa / Jun 06, 2013

In such chaotic times, should we even consider minor themes, like trying to bring order to our traffic, and our behaviour on our roads? Yes, if one accepts that turmoil and crises provide opportunities as much as threats, and because these areas are among the few in which there may be chances of success if there are well-directed efforts. Instead of passively being buffeted by fate, we can do something about it: analyse the causes of our horrific traffic, devise an approach to mitigate or contain some factors, and formulate and implement solutions. Also, the technology is readily available, and the solutions need not be all-encompassing efforts on a countrywide scale, or not at all. Hence this pitch for a technology- and institution-driven, systems approach to traffic management that could potentially change the way we are. The big assumptions are: (a) that systems can induce order and law-abiding behaviour on our roads, for a start, and (b) that this will reduce traffic accidents. Let's consider how.

Traffic Accidents & Deaths

Information on traffic accidents is available from the National Crime Records Bureau at the ministry of home affairs. The latest report available is for 2011. There were 473,084 reported traffic accidents in 2011, comprising 440,123 road accidents, 2,385 "rail-road accidents" and 30,576 "other railway accidents". The figure for accidental deaths from unnatural causes was 367,194, of which traffic accidents accounted for 165,072. The latter included road and rail accidents, but excluded deaths from drowning and accidents involving aircraft. Road traffic accidents and deaths countrywide and for the Union territory of Delhi for the last five years are shown in the graphs below.

While frightful enough, the graphs do not quite convey the horrid rough-and-tumble unpleasantness of our roads. Could there be some way to bring order to this aspect of our lives? Perhaps, if we can imagine better scenarios, and then apply ourselves to act collectively to achieve them. It may be possible to introduce systems that elicit better governance and behaviour, as in the following instances.

Wireless smart grids and TV white space


An early example of augmenting existing communications networks with TV "white space" (ie, the unused TV spectrum) devices was implemented in America, in the city of Wilmington in North Carolina and its environs of New Hanover County. The City of Wilmington has about 100,000 people in about 105 square kilometres, while the county has a population of nearly 200,000 in an area of about 515 square kilometres.1

Because of the distance between localities, the extent of wetlands and waterways, and the dense foliage, extending broadband coverage to all its residential areas was difficult and expensive. In January 2012, Spectrum Bridge helped with installing a wireless overlay in three locations using TV white spaces to provide broadband connectivity. Additional equipment enabled real-time traffic monitoring to improve efficiency, reducing congestion and travel time, as well as aiding in law enforcement, in disaster management such as hurricane evacuations, and in enabling broadband connectivity for public schools. The coverage extended to the parks and recreational areas, providing better facilities for citizens, as well as more efficient environmental monitoring. The point is that communications can be effected much more effectively and efficiently through using TV "white space" bands.

In April 2012, a different group including Google, Microsoft, the BBC, and so on set up a smart grid in the university town of Cambridge in England, using TV white space in six locations covering a radius of about 6 km, comparable to central New Delhi. This network covers a population of about 125,000 and enables the management not only of services like electricity meters, but also of air quality sensors, street lights, traffic management, and parking spaces.2

Traffic and law enforcement systems for India

Now consider New Delhi and the National Capital Region. While it has a huge population over an extensive area, central New Delhi covers a radius of some 6-7 km, as do other localities in the city and its environs. Apart from the scale of population and geography, there are also the differences in culture or ethos with the instances mentioned earlier.

Yet, if our authorities could pull together a coordinated effort to develop and implement a network that would support wireless webcams, it may well provide a basis for governance that could work. If initiated for traffic and area management, there could be major improvements in bringing order through non-discretionary traffic management, as also in upholding law enforcement for the safety of citizens.

There may be an outcry from civil liberties champions, but residents will likely welcome the benefits, although they might cavil at unpopular but essential disciplines like system extensions to electricity and water metering. It will also bring about the cutting of the knot of India's welter of unimplemented laws.

The elements of this system would have to consist of really good overall design for the wireless overlay using TV white space bands, initially for a system of web cameras. These spectrum bands are unused despite being very effective for long-range communications. There would need to be some form of automated action report generation systems - for example, penalties for traffic violations. Also needed would be appropriate institutional support so that violators cannot ignore penalties, like fast-track collection processes that do not require recourse to an overburdened and dilatory judicial system. In addition, some degree of surveillance for crisis detection and rapid response would be necessary to deal with law enforcement.

The actual implementation could be modular by location and purpose while maintaining an integrated systems approach, so that areas of action as well as locations could be phased and need not be done simultaneously on a massive scale. In other words, it need not have the ab initio monumental scale of the UID, and could perhaps avoid some of the controversial design issues confronting the latter. It needs the approach, coordination and effort that achieved the Metro.

---

                                                                                              shyam ponappa at gmail dot com

1.http://www.spectrumbridge.com/ProductsServices/WhiteSpacesSolutions/success-stories/wilmington.aspx
2. http://gigaom.com/2012/04/25/brits-score-white-space-first-with-city-wide-network/