CQ-Department of Telecom suggest ISP franchise license for cable TV broadband services =================================================== Government has been talking of using the Cable TV infrastructure for broadband since the 2004 Telecom Policy. The Policy had talked about using Cable TV Networks for the ISPs. However very little was done in this regards. In 2010 while drafting the National Broadband Plan also TRAI emphasised on this expecting that 28 mn cable broad connections will be given by 2012 and 72 mn by 2014. However, all these projections including the plan to connect 2,50,000 Gram Panchayat with broadband by 2012 remained on paper or in trail form. It is good that the new government wants to look at the proposal again. Back in 2004, it was suggested to the government to use the country’s cable TV infrastructure as a “franchisee network” of internet service providers for providing broadband services and now they are willing to take a look at the proposal again. A note has been released in the same context saying that there is a need to relook at existing ISP license conditions and a separate ISP permit only for cable TV broadband may be created so that existing cable TV infrastructure can be leveraged to provide broadband. The note further states that “cable TV connections reach more households than wireline telephone connections, given that total cable TV and DTH subscriber base as on March 2014 stood at 100 million and 56 million respectively”. DoT is also likely to unveil new laws to spur direct-tohome (DTH) service providers to step up both “urban and rural broadband coverage”. These, in fact, will be among the highlights of the new BJP-led government’s upcoming broadband policy that likens broadband connectivity to a fundamental right like education and health. The new broadband policy will also explore ways to attract large investments from potential developers of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. “Developing FTTH infrastructure needs huge investments to drive broadband growth in the medium and long term, especially to transform cities and towns into an always connected society,” adds the departmental note. While the new policy will not change the NTP 2012 broadband penetration target of 175 million customers by 2015, it has advanced the 2020 target date for 600 million broadband customers by a year to 2019, the DoT note shows. The Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF), which is funding the national optic fibre network, or ‘NOFN’ project, has recently told telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad that the broadband coverage target for 2014-15 will be halved to fifty thousand gram panchayats as bulk of cable laying, trenching and ducting work is incomplete. It may recollected that Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) had been pursuing use of cable networks for broadband for many years demanding government support to upgrade the networks. Only last year the Federation President Mrs. Roop Sharma had meet the communication and IT minister Sh Kapil Sibal to explain her point of view. She had even approached TRAI to lay more emphasis on improving the Cable TV infrastructure for broadband rather than focus of transmitting maximum TV channels in the DAS Regulations. Source: cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/5420-cq-department-of-telecom-suggest-isp-franchise-license-for-cable-tv-broadband-services.html
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 13:25:09 +0000
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