India's new broadband policy outlines an ambitious plan for expansion of the country's communications infrastructure. Proposed steps include the lowering of customs duties on telecom equipment, the expansion of local PC production, and the promotion of an open attitude towards broadband access options, including DSL, optical fiber, cable, satellite and wireless.
This policy is based on a successful 1999 model for deregulation of the telecom sector. Back then, more competition was allowed in, the industry moved from a fixed-licensing regime to a revenue-sharing model, and local manufacturing initiatives were introduced. The result: mobile penetration grew at a rate of 70 percent per year, and today the country boasts a mobile subscriber base of 47 million.
Now the government hopes to replicate this success in the broadband arena, as less than a quarter of a million Indians are connected to the high-speed internet. And most of these users live in cities, meaning that the 74 percent of Indians living in rural areas are almost completely deprived of broadband access. It is this type of disparity between rural and urban areas that presents a significant barrier to social and economic progress in India; a barrier the government is looking to remove with broadband.
Disparities between urban and rural India go beyond telecom, with rural dwellers often lacking access to decent education and medical facilities. For this reason, the government is seriously exploring tele-education and tele-medicine services via broadband. The President of India, Abdul Kalam, has in fact suggested a tele-education learning model for reaching students in remote areas where there is a shortage of teachers.
Similar moves are afoot to develop practical, safe and cost-effective tele-medicine services. Today, about 80 percent of India's doctors live in cities, and the distribution of specialists across the country is disproportionate. Likewise, tertiary care hospitals are also concentrated in certain pockets of the country. As a result, patients seeking medical attention must often travel long distances, which is both expensive and impractical. But today, thanks to high-speed data transfers, even detailed clinical examinations can be conducted remotely.
Not only will tele-medicine bring health benefits to India's rural dwellers, but some analysts believe it will also give rise to new jobs. The same can be said of employment opportunities in other areas, with e-commerce, the entertainment service sector and software manufacturing all set to get a boost through the high-speed internet. India's skilled software developers have long been pushing for broadband, as inadequate bandwidth has been constraining them from competing on the international market with speedy outsourcing services.
The Indian government is also looking to accelerate and otherwise improve its own services through broadband. It has established an e-governance group so as to boost information-technology usage in all spheres of governance. The stated goal of the group is to reinvent government "by identifying breakthrough strategies that rethink the core functions of key government services, achieve integrated-services delivery, reduce costs, and redefine administrative processes."
