Bridging the digital divide

The internet and broadband segment is yet to gain momentum despite the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) efforts to push the uptake of these services. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the country’s broadband user base stood at 13.79 million, as compared to 919.17 million wireless users.

The government is pulling out all the stops to drive the uptake of these services. For example, DoT is focusing on increasing internet penetration in rural areas by providing improved connectivity to public institutions like village panchayats, primary health centers and schools.

Also, the recently approved National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2012 has set several targets to expand broadband usage. These include increasing the rural teledensity from the current 35 per cent to 60 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by 2020; encouraging digitization of the local cable network; recognizing broadband as a basic necessity; working towards the target of “broadband for all”; and developing synergies between existing, ongoing and future government initiatives like e-governance, e-panchayat, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the National Knowledge Network and Aadhar.

The NTP(National Telecom Policy) also aims to provide high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through optic fibre by 2014.

Today, there is an urgent need to bridge the urban-rural divide and ensure inclusive growth via broadband networks. Establishing a national broadband network is key to achieving these targets.

There are several connectivity gaps in the existing optic fibre cable (OFC) infrastructure between the block and village panchayat levels. Also, there is lack of relevant content and applications and affordable devices in rural areas.It has been estimated that on an average, 2 km of additional OFC connectivity per village panchayat is required. Also, 500,000 km of cables need to be laid, the necessary electronic equipment has to be mounted on the cable connecting the blocks to the village panchayats, and the existing OFC set-up between the blocks and village panchayats should be leveraged by operators. In all, investments worth about $4 billion will be needed to meet these requirements.

According to a World Bank study, a 10 per cent growth in broadband penetration results in a 1.4 per cent increase in the GDP. The project is not only expected to increase broadband usage but also benefit rural India through various electronic- and internet-based initiatives of the government.