Sabarkantha Model of Rural Broadband for Digital India

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ByNagarajan M, IAS

District Development OfficerSabarkantha District

Gujarat Email: naga@na.ga

Sabarkantha Model of Rural Broadband for Digital India

Towards Creating a Digital Sabarkantha

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Inaugurated by Hon. CM of Gujarat Smt. Anandiben Patel on 12 Sept 2014

Key achievements of the Model

• Sabarkantha District Panchayat is the only non-telecom player to have tower sharing agreement with BSNL.

• It’s a multi-stakeholder Public-Public-Private-Partnership model

• Revenue sharing as key principle to ensure sustainability of the project

• Modular and scalable model that can be applied to the NOFN/BharatNet Project

Broadband and Development

India Vs. World

What is needed for Rural Broadband

• ISP• Bandwidth• Billing, CRM Solution• AAA authentication• Network Backhaul• Last Mile

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Many Ways to Connect

Kerala Model

All Modes can work in combination

What is needed for Rural Broadband

Khedbrahma Experiment Sabarkantha Model of Rural Broadband

ISP Local Private ISP Railtel – Central Govt. PSU

Bandwidth On Demand On Demand

Billing, CRM ISP consortium ISP Provided

AAA Authentication ISP consortium ISP Provided

Network Backhaul Wireless – 5.8 Ghz Wireless/Cable/Fiber/Leased Line/ Dark Fiber

Last-Mile WiFi - 2.4 Ghz WiFi/ FTTH

Digital Gangetic Plains (DGP): 802.11based Low Cost Networking for Rural Areas – Prof. Bhaskaran Raman

Network Topology

• Recommended by IIT Kanpur (2004) as the best model for Rural Internet Connectivity.

• Uses delicenced spectrum in 5.8 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz.

• Hub and Spokes model• Mesh Network – Link Failure resistance• Multi-mode Middle mile (backhaul)

P2P Link Towers – Range 10 – 15 KM

Link Towers to GP Towers

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Village :- Derol

Location of Tower :- Derol PHC

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Village :- Khedbrahma

Location of Tower :-

K’bma Civil Hospital

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Village :- Chikhla

Location of Tower Chikhla Gram Panchayat

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Stakeholder consultations – July 2014

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Agreement Signing with SHG Leader

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Agreement Signing with SHG Leader

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Agreement Signing with Sarpanch

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Agreement Signing with Sarpanch

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The Digital Brigade

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Dated: 07-05-2014 Sandesh NewsSabarkantha Avruti

General Elections-2014 : Webcasting of Polling at 93/106 booths

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Khedbrahma Model• 32 Gram Panchayats• Village Level towers

and access points installed by GP or SHG.

• Plug and Play model• 10% Revenue share of

all sales generated in their area of operation.

•District Panchayat (DP) erects P2P Towers and provides connectivity to GPs.•Appoints a vendors who provides scalable internet bandwidth as per demand in PPP mode.•Vendors pays 20% revenue share to DP – takes care all other legal and reporting formalities.

Key Benefits

• Provides regular income to GP• Increased respect of Local self Govt. among

citizens• Demand of the times• Risk is divided and handled as per the capacity

of stakeholders• Highly scalable - anywhere across Gujarat• RAILTEL as strategic partner

Some Pointers

• Average no. Of connection will be approx. 8% - 10% of population

• Its not about WiFi but providing internet to rural areas with WiFi hotspots where needed.

• Cyber Kitley – Village Cyber cafe

• Gyan Setu – Online classes

• Rural Ecomm – tie up with Flipkart/Snapdeal

• Learning Portal – K-12, Financial literacy, Livelihood

Project Output

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

Registration Details Partner Wise

Free UserPaid User

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MOU with Railtel in the presence of Hon. CM of Gujarat

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Digital Setu Business ModelPPP model on revenue sharing & Multi-stakeholder inclusive approach

Network Partner

Revenue Share Model

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Revenue Share Breakup

District Panchayat,

Sabarkantha

Gram Panchayat

PACS VCE

PACS-CARE 5% 10% 25% NIL

GP-VCE 5% 25% NIL 10%

PACS-FULL NIL NIL 40% NILDP-GP-VCE 5% 25% NIL 10%

The AGR will be shared as follows:

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Network Monitoring

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CRM System http://gj.railwire.co.in

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Customer Acquisition Form (CAF)

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Billing System

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Subscriber Application form

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Select Plan

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Application Status

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Top-UP Subscriber Account

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Customer Login Page

Synergy with NOFN/BhartNet

• NOFN Terminates 100 MBPS fiber at Panchayat• Last mile to homes, schools and institutions will

depend on wireless• Bandwidth is still not committed under NOFN• Public Internet Service is not yet committed

under NOFN• Will take some years to reach remote areas –

Digital Setu reaches “TODAY”.

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Project Milestones

May - 2014 Webcasting of 96 Polling booths during General Elections – 2014

Sept – 2014 India’s First 100% WiFi Tribal Block declared

Dec – 2014 Free Internet Daily for 30 mins upto 30 MB

Feb - 2015 Tower Sharing contract with BSNL

Aug – 2015 MoU with Railtel Corporation of India Ltd

Recent News on Broadband

More news...A few years

is too long in Digital era

More news...Rural areas are ignored

WLAN vs Bandwidth ApproachFramework to access services

Value Added content can be provided over LAN

eLearning, eAgri, eHealth, Life skills

District Officials can run local need based services

Fosters innovation and emergence of Local and

Rural Startups

Best utilization of mid-mile and last-mile

bandwidth capacity

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What is Sabarkantha Model of Rural Broadband

Multi-Stakeholder

Public-Public-Private Partnership ModeRevenue Sharing basis

Localized

ModularizedScalable

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Stakeholders

DRDA, Sabarkantha

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Stakeholders

Only Non Telecom Entity to have Tower Sharing Contract with BSNL

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Administrative Innovations

• Rate Contract of Line Items for all hardware• AMC for a block of 50 Gram Panchayats to

ensure service levels• Mid-mile investment by District Panchayat

and Last-mile investments by GPs/PACS/SHGs.• Use of Planning funds – BRGF by MoPR, GoI• Own funds of District Panchayat allocated by

General body.

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Myths in Rural Broadband

Bandwidth is costly

End to End responsibility has to be one single agency to ensure SLAs.

Return on Investment (RoI) is low.

Rural Broadband is a technical challenge

Villagers don’t use/need Internet• Online Job application conundrum

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Ironies in Rural Broadband in India

Competition instead of Collaboration

Focusing of weakness of others than the strengths

Bandwidth/hardware as framework of planning than service level

Service Framework and Governance is left out

Who is the owner of the Project?

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Middle-Mile Options

BSNL Tower Rental for Radio DevicesLeased Line connectivity upto exchange levelDark Fiber lease

Other Telecom Players Leasing of Dark FiberLocal Cable Operators (LCOs) Use spare fiber to reach

homes on revenue share (Railwire Model)

Utility Provider building backbone fiber

Kerala Model

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Connectivity as a framework – Services as the Focus

Service Model is situation centric

Needs to be evolved – Bottom-up approach

Grounded in local culture

Thank YouNagarajan M, IAS

District Development OfficerSabarkantha District Panchayat E-mail : ddo-sab@gujarat.gov.in