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By Sundeep Jauhar
The Indian telecom services industry is consistently plagued with scarcity & high cost of spectrum, resulting in serious cost challenges in expanding quality networks. It is worth noting that for every 10% increase in mobile penetration there is a 1.2% increase in GDP.
However, the fact also remains that the proceeds from spectrum sale has always been & will remain a major source of direct revenue for any Union Government. They will not forego it.
Thus the Telecom Service Providers (Telcos) must seize the Digital India opportunity to actively participate & partner in its nation building initiatives. Not as a charitable cause but as part of a long term viable business strategy.
Once Telcos have successfully demonstrated technology, new services, execution capabilities & the willingness to partner the government on the Digital India projects (within their existing network coverage) – these successful islands of demonstration would force the Govt to realize the criticality of telecom for the success of Digital India and the concurrent need to address the crucial spectrum issues.
It will also allow Telcos to experience newer revenue streams and be more optimistic in expecting the Govt. to chip in with more practical steps like sharing of timelines & quantum for spectrum auctions, release of precious spectrum hoarded by Defence or even declare the telecom service industry as an “essential service” with the attendant advantages.
The opportunity
The Digital India programme strives to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy by transforming the entire ecosystem of public services through the use of IT & telecom. It focuses on providing high speed internet services to its citizens and make services available in real time for both online & mobile platforms across all villages of the country. It is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments.
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Nine key pillars of growth areas have been identified for this push.
Broadband Highways, envisage provision of high speed connectivity and cloud platform to various government departments & all citizens up to the panchayat level. This includes deployment & integration of on-going & new ICT infra projects like State Wide Area Networks, Data Centers & the NOFN(National Optical Fibre Network) fibre laying project slated to connect 2,50,000 rural Gram Panchayats.
e-Governance to ensure digitisation of all databases & automation of process workflows inside Govt departments. It includes online application & tracking, online repositories, integrated and interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.
Public Internet Access Programme, envisages 2,50,000 Common Services Centres ,one in each Panchayat & upgrading 1,50,000 Post Offices as multi-service centres.
e-KRANTI or National e-Governance Plan 2.0 through its 44 Mission Mode Projects is underway to ensure ICT enablement & electronic delivery of services. Its span covers sectors like e-education, e-healthcare, e-courts, police, insurance, income tax, property registration, passports, pension, land records, road transport, municipalities, banking & financial inclusion.
The Government is also continuously looking for ways to fast-track the programme and explore best technology options & business models.
Telcos could partner in laying out the NOFN optic fibre, lease out spare fibre network, share capacity on microwave, build & lease Data Centres in the PPP model. Instead of rolling out costly independent parallel fibre networks, a co-owned shared network with the Govt (on the lines of existing tower sharing pacts like Indus Towers) would work wonders. As fibre reaches Panchayat levels, the Telcos can execute various last mile connectivity options like microwave, Wi-Fi etc. It will enable them access to lucrative untapped rural India markets for voice & data revenues – especially, with the large number of govt e-projects in the pipeline.
The RFP for accreditation of cloud service offerings of Private Service providers to realize a comprehensive government private cloud environment (Meghraj) for use by central and state government line departments, districts and municipalities is already out. Telcos ought to tie-up with the Cloud solution providers to provide a robust telecom broadband backbone. Once the numerous e-governance projects are on stream, the Telco’s broadband pipes & airwaves would be buzzing with traffic & revenues.
M2M & IOT solutions in the domains of PDS, location tracking, traffic, railways & power grid management can be bundled along.
As wireless networks reach the rural hinterlands, Telcos having Payment bank licenses can truly monetize & transform their existing e-wallets business to effective mobile banking platforms.
Google is rolling out Wi-Fi network across 100 railway stations in partnership with Railtel. While we have seen sporadic pilots like NDMC Delhi, Supreme Court & Metro Wi-Fi initiatives – its time Telcos deployed large scale Wi-Fi networks across Universities, tourist spots & commercial hubs in tandem with the Digital India vision. For example, the Government has asked Google to partner with a Telco for testing the balloon- based Internet technology, Project Loon. Telcos should grab this partnership opportunity.
Telcos need to move aggressively & align with the Digital India vision. Leveraging their networks, latest technologies, expertise and working in consortium with like-minded synergistic partners (like Cisco, Microsoft, Advantech, IBM, Huawei, TCS, HCL & Govt bodies like BBNL, DOT, Railtel ) can put the Telcos in a sweet spot to capitalize on the various government initiatives by being both an enabler & value added partner.
– Sundeep Jauhar is an experienced telecom business professional with extensive experience in building, turning around ,operating and expanding independent businesses
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