India’s state owned telecom operator BSNL plans to drive a campaign at the Krishna district of Andhrapradesh state, that may attract up to 700 subscribers to its FTTH services. BSNL is capable of giving FTTH services and it has the required fiber optic networks. BSNL officials feel that a special initiative is required to attract people towards FTTH services.
So far only 11 subscribers have taken FTTH connection from BSNL. The special drive will attract more subscribers towards Fiber to the home services in the area. FTTH has clear advantages over conventional broadband technologies. General public are not aware of those advantages unless they are taught about it. Service providers must organize campaigns and seminars to make the public understand about the new service solutions.
Another reason to the delay of FTTH services must be the pricing. Monthly charges for FTTH services are very high in India. It is not reasonably priced in India to force the public to change their connection to FTTH. A 2 Mbps connection requires a monthly charge of US$26 in India, which could be taken as $13/Mbps, while in Japan it costs less than $0.65/Mbps. Subscribers in Japan definitely have clear advantage and reason to change to FTTH, while in India the head of the family has to think many times before taking the decision to change.
1 Gbps connection over FTTH network offered by BSNL costs more than US$660 a month in India! Connectivity charges in India is around US$240. One of the attractive services over FTTH networks that subscribers in the subcontinent, not limited to India, can not be neglected would be Bollywood movie offering.
India could not achieve anything significant in the field of FTTH till now, while other Asian economies are marching towards rolling out of FTTH networks massively. There may be lack of vision both in the political as well as bureaucratic leaderships in India. Young, talented leaders will argue and contribute to the growth of FTTH services in any country, which India lacks currently. India’s telecom regulatory authority TRAI had submitted their report on the advantages of FTTH and its contribution to the GDP detailing clearly what to do to implement high speed broadband in India. This might be due to the lack of vision for growth.
India had invested heavily in fiber optic networks compared to its investment and improvement in other major areas such as eradication of poverty, water supply etc. This might be due to the information technology growth in the country. Unless political leadership is convinced with the potential of FTTH technology, it is difficult for India to achieve anything significant in FTTH deployment. Hope such leadership would emerge India soon. |
