ETIMC: Trai Sharma bats for rapid fiberisation for broadband penetration

The telecom regulator said India ranks way below in international indices on ICT development and connectivity, and made a strong pitch for rapid fiberisation of telecom networks to meet the country’s future data communication needs.

A key reason, the regulator, said are “the dismal levels of wireline broadband connectivity in India,” which at 7% is way below the 46% world average.

“Mobile wireless coverage has virtually reached the entire country, accounting for 93% of the country’s broadband connectivity, but its quality is not uniform, which is why, going forward, fiberisation will be extremely necessary for meeting future data communication requirements,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman R S Sharma said at the ET Telecom India Mobile Conclave 2018.

To boost wireline broadband services, he said, there is a need to review the National Building Code and mandate city developers and builders to have specially demarcated zones for suitable housing communication infrastructure.

Sharma, however, said India’s emerging digital economy amid the upsurge in data consumption, would require a whole new set of rules. “Our present rules and regulations are made for the physical world, which is why they need to be redesigned for the digital ecosystem,” said Sharma.

The digital economy, he said, throws up multiple challenges for regulators, including the issues of data privacy and ownership, the sharing of private data unknowingly and the risks associated with the misuse of the same. Improving digital literacy of citizens, he said, is key another challenge for regulators and policy makers.

On the upcoming National Telecom Policy 2018, Sharma said its key goals would include ringing in digital transformation of government enterprises, and industry, and ushering in the development of world-class cities.

The Trai Chairman said the advent of 5G networks could bridge gaps in India’s physical telecoms infrastructure, and help the country leapfrog in areas like health, agriculture and irrigation. “5G technologies have the ability to transform, but operationalising them would require huge infrastructure development, especially since current wireless networks will not be adequate and the need of the hour will be huge backhaul networks in the backend to cater to 5G applications.

According to him, 5G technology’s biggest advantages include its huge throughput, its ultra low latency levels and machine to machine (M2M) communications.