State and Opportunity of Broadband in India v1.0

8/9/2019 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India v1.0

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State and Opportunity of

Broadband in India

In this paper we will present the state and opportunity of broadband in Asias

most promising and fastest growing economy and worlds second largest

wireless market only after China.

BP Tiwariwww.beyond4g.org

4/20/2010
http://www.beyond4g.org/http://www.beyond4g.org/http://www.beyond4g.org/


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2 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

www.beyond4g.org | Executive Summary 2

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction and motivation ......................................................................................................................... 5

Current shape of broadband in country ....................................................................................................... 6

Broadband leadership Ranking ................................................................................................................. 6

Broadband Penetration in India ................................................................................................................ 8

Average Broadband Speed in Country ...................................................................................................... 9

The principal Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 11

Limited Wire line ..................................................................................................................................... 12Scarce Broadband Spectrum ................................................................................................................... 13

Low Data ARPU ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Broadband opportunities ............................................................................................................................ 15

4G can change broadband situation ....................................................................................................... 15

Deliver a GB for half a dollar ................................................................................................................... 17

Deliver new internet applications with 4G ............................................................................................. 18

Support of large connections in 4G cells ................................................................................................ 18

A need for strong national broadband policy ............................................................................................. 19

Government can influence the broadband situation ............................................................................. 19

Taking India to top 10 broadband nations .............................................................................................. 22

DISCLAMER

This paper is prepared by BP Tiwari and the views expressed here are my own and does not

reflect my company opinion. All the information is presented in this document were collected from public

domain (internet) & wherever possible reference has been provided regarding the source of information.I have made reasonable efforts to ensure that information is true as best of my knowledge at the time of

compilation, however I do not warrant that the information presented herein is complete and without

error. Author of the paper does not take any responsibility of the errors, omissions, or any other accuracy

in any form. I encourage readers to independently verify information as author does not have any

responsibility of the presented information & content.


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List of Figures

Figure 1 : Broadband quality scores.............................................................................................................. 6

Figure 2 : Broadband leadership scores ........................................................................................................ 7

Figure 3 : Broadband penetration ................................................................................................................. 8

Figure 4: Total Internet connections in country .......................................................................................... 8

Figure 5 : Reliance Ev-Do Coverage .............................................................................................................. 8

Figure 6 : Tata Ev-Do Coverage .................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 7: BSNL Ev-Do Coverage .................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 8 : Average mobile broadband speeds in metros cities ................................................................... 10

Figure 9 : Distribution of speed tests .......................................................................................................... 10

Figure 10 : Average National Broadband Speeds ....................................................................................... 11

Figure 11 : GDP based on PPP per capita .................................................................................................... 11

Figure 12: Indicative right of way charges .................................................................................................. 12

Figure 13: Capex per subscriber .................................................................................................................. 12

Figure 14: India Spectrum allocation chart ................................................................................................. 13

Figure 15: Global Data ARPU ...................................................................................................................... 14

Figure 16: Data ARPU of global operators .................................................................................................. 14

Figure 17: Average Data Packages in India ................................................................................................ 14

Figure 18: Global Broadband Tariffs ........................................................................................................... 15

Figure 19: Total Subscriber supported per 4G cell ..................................................................................... 16

Figure 19: Spectral efficiency of various technologies ............................................................................... 16

Figure 20: Broadband delivery cost over 4G............................................................................................... 17

Figure 21: Peak Data Rate in Different MIMO Configurations. .................................................................. 18Figure 23: Broadband and Internet users in India ...................................................................................... 19

Figure 24: Projected additional spectrum requirement for India............................................................... 20

Figure 25: Present right of way charges ..................................................................................................... 21

Figure 26: New Telecom World Order ........................................................................................................ 22


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Executive Summary

Its been a dreamrun for voice in India. Indiapositions itself as number two nation in new

world order. However the broadband

leadership is dominated by Southkorea, Japan,

Hongkong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands,

Singapore, Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway.

India ranked 62 in global broadband leadership

scale, with average download and upload

speeds recorded way below than the needs of

current internet applications. The current

internet visual applications require consistent

2Mbps downlink and 1 Mbps uplink data rates.

In our analysis we found that the average

broadband speed in country is below 600 kbps

in downlink and 300 kbps in uplink. The leading

broadband nations were found above 8 Mbps in

downlink and 2.5 Mbps in uplink and the access

latencies were found below 80 milliseconds1.

Broadband penetration by number of

households was estimated between 5 to 6 %.

The availability of broadband networks hasespecially improved after beginning of Ev-Do

services in country. The mobile broadband

networks were deployed in top 100 cities by

four wireless operators i.e. Reliance, TATA,

BSNL and MTS.

The data collected from Ev-Do Networks in five

metro cities imply average delivery of 300 kbps

in downlink and 150 kbps in uplink. On

average, Hyderabad performed best with 250-

350 kbps average download speed and 100-125

kbps average upload speed and New Delhi was

at the bottom with 240 kbps for download and

130 kbps for upload.

1Cisco,

http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021

009a.html

The number of broadband connections incountry is less than 10 Million, which is fewer

than 2 % of the total number of voice

subscriptions in India. Total internet

connection in India is about 15 Million as per

statistics released by regulatory of India,

representing less than 1% of total population.

The principal challenges in delivering

broadband to masses are excessively high right

way charges, fragmented cable operators, non

cooperation in last mile copper unbundling

and low data ARPU. The total amount ofspectrum allocated by regulators for broadband

application in country was too little to support

proliferation of broadband services.

The new 3G/BWA spectrum and the advent

WiMAX and LTE based 4G technologies will

play crucial role in shaping broadband industry

in India. Our analysis in this paper exemplifies

the competence of 4G technologies like WiMAX

and LTE to deliver broadband in most

competitive manner. 4G technologies has thepotential to bridge the digital data gap in India

and will play very similar role what 2G

technologies played in Voice.

A need for strong national broadband policy is

felt to foster social and economic development

in India and accomplish broadband leadership.

Analysis presented in the paper estimates

allocation of at least 270 MHz of new spectrum

in next five years and over 450 MHz of

spectrum in next 10 years for broadband

applications would be inevitably required to

take India to top broadband nations.
http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.html


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Introduction and motivation

Broadband is the great wireless infrastructure

challenge of this century and broadband inIndia is no exception. Like electricity a century

ago, broadband is an underpinning foundation

for economic development, employment

creation, universal competitiveness and an

enhanced way of life.

Availability of ubiquitous broadband enables

entire new industry and unlocks vast new

possibilities for existing ones. Broadband is

changing how we educate children, deliver

health care, manage energy, ensure public

safety, engage government, and access,

organize and disseminate knowledge. The

number of Indians who have internet access has

grown from eight million in 2006 to nearly 15

million in early 2009. Increasingly capable fixed

and mobile networks allow Indian consumers to

access a growing number of internet

applications and helping them in transforming

their life.

It is unfortunate that broadband in India is not

all it needs to be. Less than 5 % of thehousehold population in India has true

broadband connection in country and more

than a billion people has limitation in accessing

broadband. This in contrast with the number of

subscriber who has voice connection is

enormous disparity. Broadband in India is

catching up but behind many developing

countries and developed nations.

The situation of broadband has worsened

further with continual delay in allocation of 3Gand broadband spectrum in country.

Government of India has the responsibility to

design policies which will ensure fair

competition for consumer welfare, efficient

allocation of spectrum, right of way to ensure

network availability and reform laws, policies,

standards and incentives to maximize the

benefits of broadband in sectors government

influences significantly, such as public

education, health care and government

operations.

In this paper we will present the state of

broadband in Asias most promising and fastest

growing economy and worlds second largest

wireless market only after China.

The greatest motivation to write on this

particular subject is to present the shape of

broadband in the country and also give you an

idea about the broadband opportunity which is

latent in the country. With advent of 4G

technologies like WiMAX/LTE and allocation ofnew broadband spectrum in country, the

development of broadband is expected to grow

up at a rapid rate.

In this white paper, we will present all aspects

of broadband in India with our analysis and

suggestions to take country in to the league of

top broadband nations.


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www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country 6

Current shape of broadband in

country

It is been generally understood that broadbandproliferation is linked to social and economic

benefits and that countries with high

broadband availability have broadband on their

national agenda.

A recent study by University of oxford, and

Cisco established the fact that high broadband

penetration drives innovation, labor

productivity and competitiveness. The Study

also focused on the minimum performance

requirement for current broadband connections

and found that 28 to 30 countries are meeting

the requirement of current internet

applications.

In 2009, new insight into who the global

broadband leaders are by combining data for

each countrys broadband penetration with a

measure of the quality of broadband services

actually experienced by its citizens was

conducted by a team of MBA students from the

Sad Business School at the University of Oxford

and the University of Oviedos Department ofApplied Economics, and sponsored by Cisco was

published2.

Highlights and key facts of the study;

Overall average broadband quality

increased across the globe in 2009: Global

average download throughput increased by

49% to 4.75 Megabits per second (Mbps)

and global average upload throughput

increased by 69% to 1.3 Mbps.Global average latency decreased by 21% to

170 milliseconds

Top 10 nations on terms of Broadband quality

are;

2CISCO and Said;http://bit.ly/dm5RH7

Figure 1 : Broadband quality scores

Rank Country Broadband

penetration(%

of household)

Broadband

quality

Score 2009

1 South Korea 97% 66

2 Japan 64% 64

3 Hong Kong 99% 33

4 Sweden 69% 57

5 Switzerland 90% 40

6 Netherlands 83% 46

7 Singapore 96% 32

8 Luxemburg 99% 27

9 Denmark 82% 45

10 Norway 84% 38

62 India 3% 20

Broadband leadership Ranking

There is a huge leapfrog opportunity in India

and other emerging markets as per the findings

of the studies3. The minimum average

downloads speed for supporting requirement ofcurrent application was estimated at 3.75 Mbps

in downlink and 1.3 Mbps in uplink with latency

in the range of sub 100 milliseconds in 2010.4

The broadband leadership was dominated by

Southkorea, Japan, Hongkong, Sweden,

Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore,

Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway. The average

download speeds of these nations were found

above 8 Mbps in downlink and 2.5 Mbps in

uplink and the access latencies were found

below 80 milliseconds.

4

3Cisco,

http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021

009a.html
http://bit.ly/dm5RH7http://bit.ly/dm5RH7http://bit.ly/dm5RH7http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021009a.htmlhttp://bit.ly/dm5RH7


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39 countries have a Broadband quality scores

above the threshold required to deliver a

consistent quality of experience for the most

common web applications today, such as social

networking, streaming low-definition video,web communications and sharing small files

such as photos and music.

Nine countries, South Korea, Japan, Sweden,

Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, The Netherlands,

Denmark and Romania, were found to have the

broadband quality required for future web

applications, such as high definition Internet TV

viewing and high-quality video communications

(such as home tele-presence) that will become

mainstream in the next 3 to 5 years.

India ranked 62 in global broadband leadership

scale with average download and upload speeds

way below the threshold of current internet

applications requirement. Broadband

penetration by number of households was

estimated at 5 to 6 %

Figure 2 : Broadband leadership scores5

5Said Business School ,

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.

aspx?k=broadband%20quality

0 50 100 150

South Korea

Japan

Hong Kong

Sweden

switzerland

Netherlands

Singapore

Luxembourg

Denmark

Norway

Malta

Iceland

Australia

Lithuania

United States

Ireland

Canada

France

Estonia

Belgium

FinlandSlovenia

Tiawan

Latvia

United Kingdom

Baharain

Germany

United Arab Emirates

Romania

New Zealand

Spain

Qatar

Portugal

Italy

Greece

Turkey

Russian Federation

Poland

Chile

Mexico

Argentina

Malaysia

China

Saudi Arabia

Ukraine

Brazil

Phillippines

Thailand

Vietnam

Morocco

Pakistan

South AfricaIndia

Indonesia

Egypt

Nigeria

BB Leadership
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.aspx?k=broadband%20qualityhttp://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.aspx?k=broadband%20qualityhttp://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.aspx?k=broadband%20qualityhttp://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.aspx?k=broadband%20qualityhttp://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.aspx?k=broadband%20quality


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Figure 3 : Broadband penetration

Broadband Penetration in India

Broadband penetration in India is about 6 % of

total household which has improved more than

3% as compared to similar period in 2008.

Wireless technologies in last one year have

facilitated in expanding coverage footprint and

availability of mobile broadband networks in

India. By far the largest network is CDMA based

Ev-Do Rev A, and after the launch of Rev A

networks in country, the coverage penetration

has increased to 6% .

Over 75% of the internet connections in the

country are facilitated by state controlled

operator BSNL/MTNL6.

Figure 4: Total Internet connections in country

The coverage of broadband networks has

especially improved after beginning of Ev-Do

services in country. The Ev-Do based mobile

broadband networks were deployed in top 100

cities by four wireless operators i.e. Reliance,

TATA, BSNL and MTS. The coverage is mostly

limited to city centers or areas high inbroadband potential; nevertheless it has higher

reach as compared to wire line deployments.

Figure 5 : Reliance Ev-Do Coverage 7

6BP Tiwari;http://www.beyond4g.org/india-

wireless-market-update-2h-2009

0 50 100 150

South Korea

Japan

Hong Kong

Sweden

switzerland

NetherlandsSingapore

Luxembourg

Denmark

Norway

Malta

Iceland

Australia

Lithuania

United States

Ireland

Canada

France

Estonia

Belgium

FinlandSlovenia

Tiawan

Latvia

United Kingdom

Baharain

Germany

United Arab Emirates

New Zealand

Spain

Bulgaria

Qatar

Austria

Portugal

Italy

Greece

HungaryTurkey

Russian Federation

Mexico

Argentina

Malaysia

China

Saudi Arabia

Ukraine

Brazil

Colombia

Tunisia

Phillippines

Thailand

Vietnam

Morocco

Pakistan

South Africa

India

Indonesia

Egypt

Kenya

Nigeria

Global Broadband Penetration
http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009http://www.beyond4g.org/india-wireless-market-update-2h-2009


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Figure 6 : Tata Ev-Do Coverage 8

State owned largest operators BSNL has Ev-DO

network in 76 cites.

Figure 7: BSNL Ev-Do Coverage 9

However the potential of broadband

development is massive as several of topbroadband nations like South Korea, Japan,

HongKong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherland,

Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway,

7Reliance; http://bit.ly/cSeSP5

8Tata ;http://bit.ly/dwkHj9

9BSNL;http://bit.ly/aVsjou

Malta, Iceland, Australia, Lithuania, United

States, Ireland, Canada, France, Estonia and

Belgium has achieved broadband penetration

over 80% of their household as compared to 6%

in India.

Average Broadband Speed in

Country

Country has deployment of ADSL, Fixed WiMAX,

Metro E and other wire line broadband

technologies but those wire-line technologies

are not enough in extending coverage to large

number of households due to deployment

challenges as presented in next section of thepaper. Our internal studies indicate that

country lacks the minimum required broadband

threshold speed to support the growing

demand of internet applications. In contrast, 39

countries have average download speeds above

3.75 Mbps and 1.3 Mbps in uplink as presented

in Figure 9. The average broadband speed in

India was recorded less than 600 Mbps in

downlink in 2009 as compared to global

average of 4.75 Mbps in 2009.

The leading broadband nations like Japan,

South Korea, Sweden, Netherland and

Switzerland have average downlink speeds of

10 Mbps and above. Broadband connections of

these countries are capable of supporting

future web applications, such as high definition

Internet TV viewing and high-quality video

communications (such as home tele-presence)

that will become mainstream in the next 3 to 5

years.

Russia, Germany, UK, Tiawan, Canada, US,

Norway, Denmark, Singapore, HonkKong,

France has average download speeds of 5Mbps

and above.

Wireless technologies are playing an imperative

role in delivering broadband to underserved

areas but their capability to deliver faster
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speeds are limited by available technology,

spectrum and other parameters. To give our

readers an idea of their capability to deliver

broadband we have collected data from

different cities to show achievable speeds. Thespeeds can vary depending on the time of the

day, technology used, traffic conditions,

topology, etc.

In the collected samples across different

metros, we found that the average speeds were

on the lower end as compared to their

announced10 values with average measured

download and upload speed was 300 kbps and

150 kbps. The download speed touched as high

as 650 to 700 kbps while the upload speedtouched 460 kbps with Ev-Do networks

recording the highest peaks on non busy hour

period.

The results varied by Device/city/route/ time of

day. On average, Hyderabad performed best

with 300-350 kbps average download speed

and 100-125 kbps average upload average

speed and New Delhi was at the bottom with

240 kbps for download and 130 kbps for

upload.

Figure 8 : Average mobile broadband speeds in

metros cities

10Peak Data ;http://bit.ly/dwkHj9

There were occasional peaks observed while

collecting data. The download speeds reached

as high as 650 to 700 kbps while the upload

speeds touched 460 kbps with Ev-Do networks

recording the highest speeds on non busy hourperiod. Data throughput presented above was

averaged for number of samples over time.

Figure 9 : Distribution of speed tests

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Average Download Average Upload

0

24

6

8

10

12

14

050

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650

Frequency%

Kbps

Speed Tests ( Ev-Do ), Mumbai
http://bit.ly/dwkHj9http://bit.ly/dwkHj9http://bit.ly/dwkHj9http://bit.ly/dwkHj9


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www.beyond4g.org | The principal Challenges 11

Figure 10 : Average National Broadband Speeds

The principal Challenges

The economy of India is one the fastest growing (in

terms of GDP) & is the twelfth11 largest economy in

the world by market exchange rates and the fourth

largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

Figure 11 : GDP based on PPP per capita

The last mile (connecting end-users to service

providers), except in top 100 cities is primarily

non-existent in country. In metro cities, copper

cabling is available which can support lower

variants of DSL such as ADSL2. More than 90%

of the countrys urban copper network is ownedby incumbents such as BSNL and MTNL

(Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) and was

deployed for telephony purposes. Multi-tenant

unit (MTU) type homes have implied large

distances of the order of 1000+ feet from the

nearest POP, thereby limiting the use of

advance variants of DSL such as VDSL which can

give 10 Mbps or so of connectivity. DSL (Digital

Subscriber Line) remains the most widely used

technology to deliver broadband Internetservices. For those tier 1 and tier 2 cities

without copper infrastructure, some initial

deployments of Fixed WiMAX, Ev-Do Rev A,

MMDS and other wireless broadband

11Wikipedia

0 5 10 15 20 25

South Korea

Japan

Hong Kong

Sweden

switzerland

Netherlands

Singapore

Luxembourg

Denmark

Norway

Malta

Australia

United States

Canada

Tiawan

United Kingdom

Germany

New Zealand

Mexico

Malaysia

China

Russia

Brazil

Phillippines

Thailand

South Africa

IndiaIndonesia

Nigeria

Average Download speeds

Gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita GDP

0.00

500.00

1,000.00

1,500.00

2,000.00

2,500.00

3,000.00

3,500.00

4,000.00

4,500.00

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita GDP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)


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technologies has started appearing as a

alternative to wireline.

Our analysis points to the following key factors

which is prohibiting use of broadband in India.

Wire line last mile domination by PSE

incumbents & Local Cable Operators

(LCOs)

LCO market which control the cable last

mile is highly fragmented with over

100,000+ LCOs across the country

The current cable TV network is Arial and of

low quality, backed with the lack of

organization makes it difficult to upgrade be

used for reliable broadband lines.Lack of strong national broadband policy to

support low and more uniform rental rates

for access to poles and reduce cost of right

of way charges to enable deployment of

wire line in country.

Numerous delay in allocating necessary

spectrum to support wireless broadband

deployments in India.

Limited Wire line

The prevalent challenge in the country is to

deliver broadband at affordable tariffs.

Exorbitantly high hight of way charges and lack

of necessary attention from government bodies

has prohibited buried DSL penetration in

country as compared to other nations.

Figure 12 represents right of way charges in top

metro cities of the country. To make business

case of broadband appealing alternative modelsof deployment like Arial fiber and copper were

also experimented in top cities of the country

where exorbitantly high right of way charges

prohibited buried copper for residential

consumers.

Figure 12: Indicative right of way charges

Other factors which have worsened situation of

broadband is non cooperation to unbundle thelast mile local copper from state owned

operators like BSNL and MTNL who controls

more than 90% of the last mile copper in

country.

Whether we like it or not, excessively highright way charges, fragmented cable operators,

non cooperation in last mile copper unbundling

and low data ARPU has made operators in India

to realize, that Wireless is the most effectiveway to provide affordable broadband to

masses in country.

Figure 13: Capex per subscriber

90000

40000 5000030000

20000

ROW (Per Km) US$

800

240

1200

500

0200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Capex per Sub(60

Active)

Capex per

Sub(150 Active)

US$

WiMAX DSL


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Scarce Broadband Spectrum

The amount of spectrum allocated for

broadband application in country is really

narrow as compared to other nations. The only

spectrum which was allotted to operators was

in the band 3.3 GHz for broadband MMDS and

LMDS. Each operator assigned nearly 6 MHz

TDD or FDD spectrum in 3.3 GHz.

The 3.3 GHz spectrum suffers from high path

loss and poor indoor coverage. Deploying a

nationwide wireless broadband networks is this

spectrum would require substantially high

capex as compared to sub 2 GHz spectrum.Poor indoor characteristic of 3.3GHz has made

most of the deployments fixed in nature. Fixed

3.3GHz WiMAX/MMDS in country is providing

connectivity to SME and enterprise customers.

The other spectrum allocated for broadband

applications was in 10.15 to 10.65 GHz for

LMDS technology. The 3G and BWA spectrum is

under auction process and should be available

very shortly for operators to deploy new

wireless data networks. Our analysis advocatesthat the total amount of spectrum made

available for 3G and Broadband wireless access

systems is way too low to support countrys

data demand.

Figure 14: India Spectrum allocation chart

FREQUENCY ALLOCATION

452.5-457.5 &

462.5-467.5

MHz

5+5 MHz for cellular mobile,

particularly for rural areas (not yet

allotted)

824-844 & 869-

889 MHz

Cellular mobile

890-915 & 935-

960 MHz

Cellular mobile (only parts of this

band allotted)

1710-1785 &

1805-1880

MHz

Only parts of this band, for cellular

mobile

1850-1910 &

1930-1990

MHz

Part of this band being investigated

for potential allocation to cellular

mobile

1880-1900

MHz

Micro cellular systems TDD

1920-1980 &

2110-2170

MHz

IMT-2000 (3G) FDD mode (still to be

allocated 3 to 4 slots to be

auctioned)

2010-2025MHz

IMT-2000 (3G) TDD mode (still to beimplemented)

2.4-2.4835 GHz EIRP 4W over 10+ MHz (250

mW/MHz) Delicenced (WiFi)

2.535-2.655

GHz

Indian satellite applications, LMDS

and MMDS

2.7-2.9 GHz Available for MMDS if protection

ensured for Aeronautical radio

navigation, location services

3.3-3.4 GHz Broadband MMDS, LMDS

5.150-5.350 &

5.725-5.875

GHz

Max EIRP 200 mW (10 mW/MHz)

Delicenced

5.470-5.725

GHz

Indoor and outdoor wireless access

(incl. RLAN) Max EIRP 1W (50mW/MHz)

10.15-10.65

GHz

Broadband LMDS

24.5-26.5 &

27.5-29.5 GHz

Broadband LMDS, MMDS (High

capacity only LoS systems)

Low Data ARPU

For some leading operators, data is nowcontributing over 40% of the overall revenues.

However increase in data ARPU is not

completely offsetting the drop in voice ARPU

for most operators. From the true and tested

SMS messaging to the new services such asMobile Advertising, Social Networking,

Commerce, Mobile Wallet, and others, different

services helped in adding billions to the

revenues generated in 2009.

US, Japan, Australia and Singapore continue to

lead in data ARPU.


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Figure 15: Global Data ARPU

Most of the major operators around the worldhave double digit percentage contribution to

their overall ARPU from data services.

Operators like DoCoMo, and Softbank are over

44%. KDDI, 3 Australia, 3 Italy, 3 UK, Vodafone

UK, O2 UK, KTF, Telstra, and 3 Sweden

exceeded 30% and many others are on the

verge of crossing the 30% mark. Indian

operators Bharti , Vodafone and reliance are

improving data revenues and today stand at 10

% mark12. India operators data ARPU from

wireless services is less than 1 US$.

Figure 16: Data ARPU of global operators

12Chetan ,http://bit.ly/dt5R0T

We collected samples of different broadband

operators to calculate average data

consumption of broadband in country. It was

found that an average connection in country isconsuming around 3-5 gigabytes per month and

corresponding revenue is around US $ 12.

Figure 17: Average Data Packages in India

The utmost challenge in the country is to deliver

broadband at affordable prices. Current

broadband fee in India is already moving

towards some of the most competitive prices

around the globe and operators are increasingly

finding enormous challenge in delivering data at

current prices levels while meeting the growingdemand of new internet visual applications.

The observed median average price of

broadband in different countries is presented

below to give the standpoint of challenging13

broadband delivery cost in India. The prices

presented below are the median price of lowest

and highest observed tariff in that country.

13OECD ;http://bit.ly/drA5AN

0

10

20

30

1 Gig 3 Gig 5 Gig 10 Gig

Average ARPU
http://bit.ly/dt5R0Thttp://bit.ly/dt5R0Thttp://bit.ly/dt5R0Thttp://bit.ly/drA5ANhttp://bit.ly/drA5ANhttp://bit.ly/drA5ANhttp://bit.ly/drA5ANhttp://bit.ly/dt5R0T


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www.beyond4g.org | Broadband opportunities 15

Figure 18: Global Broadband Tariffs

Broadband opportunities

4G can change broadband situation

The role of WiMAX and LTE based broadband

technologies is pivotal in shaping broadband

industry in India.

Our analysis illustrates that 4G technologies like

WiMAX and LTE has the potential to deliver

broadband in reasonable cost and performance

to India consumers.

In this Section, we will present why 4G

technologies has the potential to change the

broadband situation in country.

To present our case, we will consider four main

segments of the addressable market forbroadband wireless access in India. In each

market segment, the number of BWA

customers for each service provider per cell

is projected from the population density

represented by the number of households and

SOHO (small/home offices) per sq km. In this

analysis, we thus do not consider multiple

customers per household. It is also noted that

we only calculate the capacity requirements

and the population that needs to be served in a

cell, we do not address the coverage issues and

techniques needed to deal with null spaces if

any between sectors in the cell, as our main

idea is to present the case of 4G technologies

and its suitability to deliver affordable

broadband in country.

Dense urban

Cell Radius 250 Meters

Households 8000 per SQ/Km

Subs/Cell 9753 SPs 325 customers/SP/Cell Site

Urban

Cell Radius 400 Meters


Subs/Cell 936

3 SPs 312 customers/SP/Cell Site

Sub UrbanCell Radius 700 Meters


Subs/Cell 955


Rural

Cell Radius 2 Kilometers


Subs/Cell 1170


To compare the subscriber capacity which

needs to be supported by technologies like

WiMAX and LTE , following parameter were

considered to simulate the case of Dense

0

20

40

60

80

US$

Median Price of BB


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Urban, Urban , Suburban and Rural

demographys.

3 Sector Cell sites

Typical download speed of 1 Mbps

4G spectral efficiency ( 1.6 Bits/Hz/Sec)

20 Mhz of Spectrum per service

provider ( Total 3 Service Provider)

Monthly data consumption : 6 GB/Mo

Busy hour 1.6 times

From Figure 19, it is easy to distinguish that

with a total capacity of 52 Mbps/cell, a service

provider can support 1350 Connections per cell

for an average 6 GB/Month usage taking busy

hour traffic in consideration. With data doubling

every year as per the forecast from Cisco VNI

Index14, service providers will exhaust their cell

capacity in third year and their consumers

monthly data consumption will reach around 12

gigabyte in a month.

Figure 19: Total Subscriber supported per 4G cell

The amount of bandwidth a service provider

has to license to support a desired total

capacity, depends on the spectral efficiency

14Cisco VNI;http://bit.ly/nqdf

achieved by the technology (standard) chosen.

Gradually WiMAX and LTE will shift to their next

evolution by the time India operators come

across difficult situation of maintaining service

levels to IMT-Advanced based systems like 16m

or LTE A to support the their need of growing

mobile data .

Our analysis supports that WiMAX and LTE

based technologies will support mobile data

requirement for first three years and later it can

be upgraded to IMT advanced based systems to

support the growing need of mobile data.

Alternatively operators can also add more radio

carrier to support their capacity requirement or

install more capacity cell sites.

Figure 19: Spectral efficiency of various

technologies

It is worthy to note some of the much recent

data trends form CISCO VNI Index which were

captured in collaboration with 20 leading

Internet service providers and according to

Cisco, average broadband connection

generated 11.4 gigabytes of Internet traffic per

month, or 375 megabytes per day in Q3, 2009.

0

500

1000

1500

6 Gig

/Mo

12

Gig/Mo

18

Gig/Mo

24

Gig/Mo

30

Gig/Mo

NumberofSubscribers

Subscriber supported in 4G cell

Support required per cell ( DU)0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

HSPA

Rel 6

HSPA

Rel 7

WIMAX

16e

LTE Rel

8

LTE A 16M

0.5

0.8

1.4 1.5

2.4 2.4

0.30.5

0.7 0.8

1.9 2

DL Spectral Efficieny UL Efficiency
http://bit.ly/nqdfhttp://bit.ly/nqdfhttp://bit.ly/nqdfhttp://bit.ly/nqdf


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The average monthly download traffic reported

in clearwire and Yota WiMAX network is around

7 and 10 Gigabytes per month.

Clearly the mobile data traffic is growing fast

and availability of necessary amount of

spectrum to support the need of growing

mobile data traffic is the key to maintain

proliferation of broadband in country.

Improvements in technology will also play an

important role in bridging the gap in digital

dividend. The key to success in Indian

broadband story will largely depend on

necessary amount of spectrum andadvancement in 4G Technologies.

Deliver a GB for half a dollar

The biggest challenge for operators in India is to

deliver a Gigabyte of mobile data in less than

half a dollar. It was always difficult to deliver

data over wire line media at such cutthroat

prices. 4G technologies like WiMAX and LTE has

come close in their ability to deliver broadband

data at very affordable prices and has the

potential to reach half a dollar for a gigabyte of

data. The main reason attributed to delivery of

affordable broadband data over 4G

technologies is;

Higher spectral efficiency ( 2-3 times

improved as compared to their 3G

counterparts)

New and more economical broadband

spectrum as against to their cellular

counterparts( 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5)

Availability of bigger chunks of spectrum (

20 to 40 MHz)

Flat architecture reducing protocols and

network elements

Balanced IPRs which will allow competitive

devices.

Figure 20: Broadband delivery cost over 4G

MIMO and bigger chunks of spectrum is the key

to deliver data at competitive and affordable

prices. The amount of data that can be

delivered over wireless systems becomes

double with growing number of multiple

antenna chains. The theoretical peak data rates

that can be supported in 20 Mhz of spectrum

can achieve data rate well above 300 Mbps with

4x4 MIMO systems. We envisage evolution of

MIMO systems to play an important role in

shaping Indian broadband wireless industry.

With Similar amount of spectrum, the peak cell

site data rate for different MIMO configuration

is presented below to emphasize the weight of

MIMO systems in shaping India broadband

wireless systems. Data presented here is based

on 2 , 4 and 8 layer spatial multiplexing.


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Figure 21: Peak Data Rate in Different MIMO

Configurations.

Deliver new internet applications

with 4G

It is expected that a 10MHz 4G system will

averagely achieve between 2000 7500 (kbps)

which is 2-3 times higher as compared to 3G

systems.

Figure 22: Date throughput vs. Coverage

A 20 MHz FDD 4G systems based on LTE or

WiMAX 16m would averagely deliver data rates

of 2000-12500(kbps) to the consumers.

As per Cisco the current visual application s

requires average connection speed of anywhere

above 2 mbps in downlink to support most of

the applications over internet. Needless to say,

the availability of higher speeds in the networks

for consumers will only improve more rapid

adoption and usage.

Support of large connections in 4G

cells

One of the larger interests from the 4G

technology is to support minimum of 500

concurrent connections, as wireless medium

will become the primary source of data delivery

in country. In our earlier analysis we found that

a minimum support of 450 to 500

simultaneously connections will be required per

cell site to deliver the need of urban

population in country.

The current release of WiMAX can support up

to 300 active and 600 non active consumers and

LTE will support at least 1200 consumers percell site in 20 MHz channel profile. The support

of higher number of active subscribers in 4G

technologies is crucial to keep the capex low.

To summarize , we believe that 4G technologies

has the potential to bridge the digital gap in

India and will play the vital role in shaping

broadband situation in country.

4G technologies has 2-3 times higher

spectral efficiencies and capability to

support bigger channel bandwidths which

will allow delivery of over a GB data for less

than a dollar.

4G technology can be scaled up to support

the growing mobile data

0

100

200

300

400

10 MHz peak

2x2 MIMO

4X4 MIMO

8X8 MIMO


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4G technologies have the capability to

deliver consistent data throughputs to

support the needs of visual applications.

Over 500 broadband subscribers can be

supported in a single 4G cell site.

4G architecture is flatter and has balanced

IPRs which will allow delivery of broadband

at least possible value.

A need for strong national

broadband policy

Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a

foundation for economic growth, job creation,

global competitiveness and a better way of life.

It is enabling entire new industries and

unlocking vast new possibilities for existing

ones. It is changing how we educate children,

deliver health care, manage energy, ensure

public safety, engage government, and access,

organize and disseminate knowledge.

Fueled primarily by investment from private

and public sector and innovation, the Indian

broadband ecosystem has is growing rapidly.

The number of Indians who has broadband at

home has grown from two million in 2006 to

nearly 8 million last year. The latest deployment

of Ev-Do network by four operators has allowed

Indians to access a growing number of valuable

internet applications through innovative devices

in larger locations.

Figure 23: Broadband and Internet users in

India

But, broadband in India is at a nascent stage.

Approximately 1 Billion Indians does not have

broadband at home. Broadband-enabled health

information technology (IT) can improve care

and lower costs by hundreds of billions of

dollars in the coming decades, yet India is

behind many advanced countries in the

adoption of such broadband technologies.

Government can influence the

broadband situation

Government can influence the broadband

ecosystem in many ways;

1. Ensuring efficient allocation and use ofgovernment-owned assets

Spectrum: Broadband spectrum is a majorinput for providers of broadband services.

Currently, the Government of India has set

aside 60 megahertz of spectrum for BWA

applications which will be auctioned shortly.

This spectrum is just a fraction of the amount

that will be necessary to match growing

0

2

4

6

8

1012

14

16

Jan 06 Jan 07 Jan 08 Jan 09

Broadband connections Internet Users


20/22



demand. More efficient allocation and

assignment of spectrum will reduce deployment

costs, drive investment and benefit consumers

through better performance and lower prices.

Our analysis foresees that government of India

will require at least 450 to 600 MHz of new

spectrum in next decade to support the

broadband requirement of country. As wireless

will become the predominant way of

broadband delivery in country and hence the

availability of adequate spectrum is even more

important for India.

To draw from our analysis, we have projectedmobile data growth trends of internet traffic

measured from CISCO VNI index and other

operators with best know spectral efficiencies

from 4G systems taking 10 years into

consideration.

Projected mobile data traffic considers busy

hour data traffic requirement and also look

forward to factors that large amount of wireless

data will be offloaded to wi-fi and wire-linenetworks in next 10 years.

Figure 24: Projected additional spectrum

requirement for India

Spectrum analysis summary;

Make 450 megahertz of spectrum newly

available for broadband within 10 years, of

which 270 megahertz should be made

available for mobile use within five years.

Reframe 2G spectrum for more flexible use.

More unlicensed spectrum: Expand

opportunities for innovative spectrum

access models by creating new avenues for

opportunistic and unlicensed use of

spectrum and increasing research into new

spectrum technologies.

Infrastructure: Infrastructure such as poles,

conduits, rooftops and rights-of-way play an

important role in the economics of broadband

networks. Ensuring service providers can access

these resources efficiently and at fair prices can

drive upgrades and facilitates competitiveentry.

The current right of way chargers are

exorbitantly high. If government can maintain

low ROW charges for broadband networks, it

will have direct impact on delivery of

0

200

400

600

800

2010 2015 2020

Mobile Data in Handsets

Broadband Data( BWA ,Laptops)

Year Handsets Internet

centric

devices

2010 6 MB/H 20 MB/H

2015 48 MB/H 173 MB/H

2020 366 MB/H 1500 MB/H


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broadband services and will allow delivery at

affordable levels.

Figure 25: Present right of way charges

Summary of infrastructure;

Establish low and more uniform rental

rates for access to poles, and simplify the

process for service providers to attach

facilities to poles.

Improve rights-of-way management for

cost and time savings, promote use of

government facilities for broadband,

expedite resolution of disputes and identify

and establish best practices guidelines for

rights-of-way policies.

Facilitate efficient new joint infrastructure

construction and allowing joint deployment

of broadband infrastructure.

Other Initiatives

Create mechanisms to ensure affordability to

low-income Indians: Creating incentives for

universal availability and adoption of

broadband.

Ensure all Indian have the opportunity to reap

the benefits of the broadband. All Indians

should have access to broadband service with

sufficient capabilities, all should be able to

afford broadband and all should have the

opportunity to develop digital literacy skills to

take advantage of broadband. This should

include creating broadband funds to accelerate

deployment of broadband in country,

2. Promote polices and incentives forbroadband adoption.

Health care: Help ensure health care providers

have access to affordable broadband and create

incentives for adoption by expanding

reimbursement for e-care.

Education: Provide and improve the

connectivity to schools, libraries and accelerate

online learning by enabling the creation of

digital content and learning systems, removing

regulatory barriers and promoting digital

literacy.

Economic opportunity: Support broadbandservices and applications to drive job creation,

growth and productivity gains. Also expand

opportunities for job training and placement

through an online platform.

Public safety: Support deployment of a

nationwide, interoperable public safety mobile

broadband network in next 10 years.

90000

4000050000

3000020000

ROW (Per Km) US$


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Taking India to top 10 broadband

nations

Its been a dream run for voice in India. India

positions itself as number two nation in new

world order.

Figure 26: New Telecom World Order

Our data story has been lacking for number of

reasons which was also talked earlier

throughout the paper.

We have listed top 10 items if done properly,

will take India into top10 broadband nations.

1. We need a strong national broadbandpolicy now focusing on making India top

broadband nations and polices consistent

towards that goal.

2. Ensure at least 270 MHz of spectrumavailability in next five years and over 450

MHz of new spectrum in coming decade.

3. Allocation of more unlicensed spectrum toenable delivery of broadband in affordable

way.

4. Use of 4G technologies for broadbanddelivery would be most efficient way of

broadband delivery in India.

5. Government should establish low and moreuniform rental rates for access to poles and

reduce cost of right of way charges to

enable broadband deployments in country.

6. Government should facilitate efficient new joint infrastructure construction and allow

joint deployment of broadband

infrastructure.

7. If possible, a little amount of broadbandspectrum should be allocated free of cost to

operators with obligation of deployingnationwide broadband network to have

higher broadband penetration in country.

8. Creating incentives for universal availabilityand adoption of broadband in country.

9. Ensuring availability of low cost broadbandaccess devices to masses.

10.Operators will have to continuouslyInnovate in delivering new services,

improving network efficiencies and in

keeping broadband delivery cost asminimum as possible.

Documents

State and Opportunity of Broadband in India v1.0