I’ll believe it when I see it, but that it’s up for discussion again brings with it hope for broadband in India: Business Standard reports, quoting unnamed sources that BSNL is considering opening up its last mile to private players. This means that a private company can provide broadband connections to your home using BSNLs existing wireline connection to your home, without having to spend on laying a separate cable. One of the major issues is for private companies to seek a few thousand permissions (mild exaggeration) for digging roads for laying a separate cable, from the government, housing societies etc.
Is It Needed Anymore?
But is the last mile needed anymore? Three or four years ago, at the height of the telecom hype, this would probably have transformed broadband in India, but I’m not so sure if that is still the case. Telecom operators like Reliance Communications and Tata Indicom already provide Fixed WiMax broadband connections, and would they spend on upgrading the existing legacy copper infrastructure? India’s broadband growth has been snail-paced at best, adding between 150,000-200,000 per month on an average, while wireline connections have been declining. The country reported 36.76 Million at the end of January 2010, a keeping with the trend of a steady decline.
Of course, BSNL probably needs to cut costs and bring in the some money from it’s wireline business, given the loss that their “non-cellular’ business has incurred in the last fiscal:
Will The Franchise Model Work?
BSNL, according to the report, intends to appoint a franchisee for the broadband services. BSNL and MTNL have tried franchise models for IPTV and VoIP in India, but it’s appears to have been tightly controlled on the broadband side, and the service quality so poor that these are yet to take off.
I’ve struggled with MTNLs broadband connectivity for two weeks, and it’s taken over 40 phone calls to several people at MTNL for someone to look into the matter, and another few calls for it to be fixed. Managing customers, infrastructure and servers is not MTNLs strong point: I can vouch for that. I’m sceptical about whether a deal where BSNL manages the infrastructure and someone else manages the marketing and customer service, will work out.
We’ll keep an eye out for the exact structuring of the franchising agreement, if BSNL indeed plans to go through with it. In the meantime, curb your enthusiasm. I am.
What’s your take?
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6 Comments until now.
It will not work, primarily because, just like BSNL’s WiMAX etc. franchising efforts, the unbundling will not be thrown open to any player (incl. competition like Airtel) to come in and offer services – instead, cronies of M/s Raja and Co. will be handpicked to be franchisees.
True, it would benefit if an open franchise, where anyone can provide service and may the best SERVICE provider win. And we all that is not going to happen.
It is Sam Pitroda's Recommendation to the PMO to Unbundle the Last Mile for DSL Services.
Telcos without any Wired broadband services may want to use BSNL's second grade copper network – better late than never.
India is a great planner but poor implementer. The problem lies with the callousness of officials, linesman, tips money, tortoise speed service and after all high cost. Franchises may help in getting the connection but post launch service is a big question mark. They do not have competitive price with other operators too. God is the only savior.
I totally agree with Chetan. The Broadband revolution in Japan, about 10 years ago, was unleashed courtesy the opening up of NTT DOCOMO's wirelines for use by other private franchises for providing ADSL broadband services which opened up a huge Pandara's box. Not only did the broadband subscription growth went high and then through the sky leading to millions of new broadband subscribers, it helped the telecom vendors which did not have an existing wireline infrastructure to provide these services within months. Had it not happened, it would have taken them at least another 3-5 years to do so. BSNL should do so at the earliest, so that unlimited no. of players can get to use its copper line infrastructure leading to immense competition and broadband rates coming down like they did in mobile sector. Also, only once ADSL business is saturated, that the industry will want to move to the next level of FTTH with speeds over 100mb kbps and above. It will be a miracle if BSNL lets all franchises use its infra for broadband. It should work.
I totally agree with Chetan. The Broadband revolution in Japan, about 10 years ago, was unleashed courtesy the opening up of NTT DOCOMO's wirelines for use by other private franchises for providing ADSL broadband services which opened up a huge Pandara's box. Not only did the broadband subscription growth went high and then through the sky leading to millions of new broadband subscribers, it helped the telecom vendors which did not have an existing wireline infrastructure to provide these services within months. Had it not happened, it would have taken them at least another 3-5 years to do so. BSNL should do so at the earliest, so that unlimited no. of players can get to use its copper line infrastructure leading to immense competition and broadband rates coming down like they did in mobile sector. Also, only once ADSL business is saturated, that the industry will want to move to the next level of FTTH with speeds over 100mb kbps and above. It will be a miracle if BSNL lets all franchises use its infra for broadband. It should work.