Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought his government’s Digital India initiative back into the headlines over the weekend as he held meetings with the heads of Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other technology giants in California.
At least two of the deals Modi signed in Silicon Valley underscored Digital India’s goal of expanding Internet penetration throughout India: Google announced its plans to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 railway stations across the country, while Microsoft stated that it would help connect 500,000 villages to low-cost broadband Internet.
Since 2011, the central government's National Optical Fibre Network project has been working on connecting 250,000 villages to high-speed broadband services through underground optical fibre cables. However, the project has been delayed several times. According to a government report in February, only 7,470 gram panchayats of the 97,480 panchayats earmarked for the first phase had actually laid out cables. The deadline for the first phase has now been pushed from March 2015 to the end of 2016.
Even after the cables have been laid, however, optical fibres may not be the only way – or the ideal way – to bring last-mile broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity to individual villages and homes. Before rural India can go digital, it might need the help of alternative “White-Fi” technology that researchers at Microsoft and the Indian Institutes of Technology have been trying to promote in India for more than a year.
“White-Fi” is a term coined by Microsoft and refers to the use of unutilised spectrum, or “white” spaces in television broadcasting frequencies to provide digital connectivity.
According to IIT-Bombay researchers, white spectrum could prove to be the most cost-effective technology for last-mile or middle-mile rural connectivity within the Digital India project if the Indian government agrees to take it up.
Two Indian experiments
Around the world, Google, Microsoft and other companies are already deploying white space technology in countries like the US and Singapore, while testing it in Kenya, South Africa, Philippines and Tanzania.
Researchers and telecom companies see plenty of potential to use white space technology in India, where 93% of television broadcast spectrum is reportedly lying unused.
In June, the central government gave experimental licenses for using part of this ultra-high frequency white spectrum in two pilot tests: one is an experiment by IIT-Bombay with seven villages in Palghar, Maharashtra, and another is by Microsoft connecting schools within a 10-km radius in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh. The team at IIT-Bombay has also been collaborating with Microsoft for the AP experiment.
“The network we set up with our home-grown equipment in Palghar is fully operational now, and Microsoft’s tests in Srikakulam are also going well,” said Abhay Karandikar, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at IIT-Bombay who has been heading the experiment with white space technology.
‘It is better than other options’
Within the Digital India framework of connecting villages to the Internet, Karandikar believes white spectrum can play an effective middle-mile role.
The government’s effort is to install the hard infrastructure of optical fibre cables that reach thousands of gram panchayats. “Each panchayat will have village clusters within a 3-4 km radius, and white spectrum can be used to connect this core fibre network to the end-client Internet access points in each village,” said Karandikar. “This is the architecture we have been proposing to the government.”
There are, of course, other technologies that the government could deploy as the middle-mile, such as extending point-to-point Wi-Fi using long-distance links or extending copper cables from the core fibre network to the final Internet access points.
“But there are drawbacks to these options,” said Karandikar. “Point-to-point Wi-Fi would need line of sight links, which is difficult in rural areas if the terrain is uneven, while copper cables are difficult to both deploy and maintain.”
White spectrum technology, on the other hand, is easier to deploy. It could also be more cost-effective, he said, if the government chooses to offer its unused television spectrum at cheaper rates to connect rural India.
Deregulation concerns
“At present there are regulatory constraints because the white spectrum needs to be taken from Doordarshan, and the government has not taken any decision about this so far,” said Karandikar.
According to Rajan Matthews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, any deregulated spectrum to be used for commercial purposes must be auctioned as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines. “We have always supported auctions, and the only thing we ask is that the spectrum should not be fragmented into smaller blocks that are not useful for 3G or 4G,” said Matthews.
But such auctions, Karandikar said, would make broadband connectivity unaffordable for rural India. “Our take is that the government should charge operators but make spectrum available on a shared basis, so that the total cost is shared,” said Karandikar, who is opposed to auctioning bandwidth on an exclusive basis to individual companies. “If the total cost of the network can be brought down, it will be easy on consumers too.”
For now, however, the government is yet to announce whether middle-mile connectivity within Digital India’s rural broadband plans will deploy white spectrum or any other form of technology.
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At least two of the deals Modi signed in Silicon Valley underscored Digital India’s goal of expanding Internet penetration throughout India: Google announced its plans to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 railway stations across the country, while Microsoft stated that it would help connect 500,000 villages to low-cost broadband Internet.
Since 2011, the central government's National Optical Fibre Network project has been working on connecting 250,000 villages to high-speed broadband services through underground optical fibre cables. However, the project has been delayed several times. According to a government report in February, only 7,470 gram panchayats of the 97,480 panchayats earmarked for the first phase had actually laid out cables. The deadline for the first phase has now been pushed from March 2015 to the end of 2016.
Even after the cables have been laid, however, optical fibres may not be the only way – or the ideal way – to bring last-mile broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity to individual villages and homes. Before rural India can go digital, it might need the help of alternative “White-Fi” technology that researchers at Microsoft and the Indian Institutes of Technology have been trying to promote in India for more than a year.
“White-Fi” is a term coined by Microsoft and refers to the use of unutilised spectrum, or “white” spaces in television broadcasting frequencies to provide digital connectivity.
According to IIT-Bombay researchers, white spectrum could prove to be the most cost-effective technology for last-mile or middle-mile rural connectivity within the Digital India project if the Indian government agrees to take it up.
Two Indian experiments
Around the world, Google, Microsoft and other companies are already deploying white space technology in countries like the US and Singapore, while testing it in Kenya, South Africa, Philippines and Tanzania.
Researchers and telecom companies see plenty of potential to use white space technology in India, where 93% of television broadcast spectrum is reportedly lying unused.
In June, the central government gave experimental licenses for using part of this ultra-high frequency white spectrum in two pilot tests: one is an experiment by IIT-Bombay with seven villages in Palghar, Maharashtra, and another is by Microsoft connecting schools within a 10-km radius in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh. The team at IIT-Bombay has also been collaborating with Microsoft for the AP experiment.
“The network we set up with our home-grown equipment in Palghar is fully operational now, and Microsoft’s tests in Srikakulam are also going well,” said Abhay Karandikar, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at IIT-Bombay who has been heading the experiment with white space technology.
‘It is better than other options’
Within the Digital India framework of connecting villages to the Internet, Karandikar believes white spectrum can play an effective middle-mile role.
The government’s effort is to install the hard infrastructure of optical fibre cables that reach thousands of gram panchayats. “Each panchayat will have village clusters within a 3-4 km radius, and white spectrum can be used to connect this core fibre network to the end-client Internet access points in each village,” said Karandikar. “This is the architecture we have been proposing to the government.”
There are, of course, other technologies that the government could deploy as the middle-mile, such as extending point-to-point Wi-Fi using long-distance links or extending copper cables from the core fibre network to the final Internet access points.
“But there are drawbacks to these options,” said Karandikar. “Point-to-point Wi-Fi would need line of sight links, which is difficult in rural areas if the terrain is uneven, while copper cables are difficult to both deploy and maintain.”
White spectrum technology, on the other hand, is easier to deploy. It could also be more cost-effective, he said, if the government chooses to offer its unused television spectrum at cheaper rates to connect rural India.
Deregulation concerns
“At present there are regulatory constraints because the white spectrum needs to be taken from Doordarshan, and the government has not taken any decision about this so far,” said Karandikar.
According to Rajan Matthews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, any deregulated spectrum to be used for commercial purposes must be auctioned as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines. “We have always supported auctions, and the only thing we ask is that the spectrum should not be fragmented into smaller blocks that are not useful for 3G or 4G,” said Matthews.
But such auctions, Karandikar said, would make broadband connectivity unaffordable for rural India. “Our take is that the government should charge operators but make spectrum available on a shared basis, so that the total cost is shared,” said Karandikar, who is opposed to auctioning bandwidth on an exclusive basis to individual companies. “If the total cost of the network can be brought down, it will be easy on consumers too.”
For now, however, the government is yet to announce whether middle-mile connectivity within Digital India’s rural broadband plans will deploy white spectrum or any other form of technology.
