System Requirements

Learning from past experience, the system selected forvillage telephony should comply with the following:

• Should be digital and preferably free frominterference.

• Should be dedicated for that village, not on sharingbasis.

• Once installed, there should be no need to switch itoff. In other words should have very low power consumption and need no airconditioning.

• The end instrument should be a plain telephone, whicheveryone is familiar with.

• Should be capable of having more than one channel, sothat the needs of a PCO plus other users like police, healthcare, etc. can bemet.

• Should have a data channel for Internet connectivity.While extending telephony, can also bring in Internet to avoid additionalexpenditure at a later date.

Methodology

All district and tehsil headquarters have a telephoneexchange. What is required is to extend one or more lines to a desired village.Low capacity spread spectrum radios are available today, which can cover rangesupto 50 kms. These radios cost about Rs 2.5 lakh per hop. These need to becoupled with a small multiplexer, a pair of which would cost about Rs 1-1.5 lakh.A large percentage of this is custom duties. If the Government wants the customduty could be waived, thus considerably reducing project cost. If largequantities are purchased the cost could be further reduced.

Thus all villages within a 50-km radius from the nearestexchange in the country can be linked through this method. The following pointsneed
attention:

• There should be a radio line of sight availablebetween the two points proposed to be linked.

• Electricity should be available. If not, a solar panelsystem could be installed. The radios can work off batteries, however, thereshould be arrangements for battery charging.

Procedure

The operation has to be conducted in phases for the simplereason that over three lakh villages cannot be connected simultaneously. Thesuggested sequence of action is:

Phase 1

• Identify villages without telephone but havingelectricity and are within 50 kms from the nearest telephone
  exchange.

• Carry out a path survey to determine availability of aradio line of sight.

• Appoint a person to man the PCO. A responsible personliving in the village is preferable.

• Install the radio link.

• Derive the number of channels based on requirement. Tostart withthis could be restricted to twovoice plus one data.

• Train the PCO operator and determine charges to belevied. Anything, which comes free, is seldom appreciated.

Phase 2

• Identify villages, which are upto a distance of 50 kmsfrom villages, which have been provided telephones in phase 1.

• Carry out a path survey to determine the availabilityof Radio Line of Sight (RLOS) from one village to the desired village. Theconnectivity can be engineered by setting up a repeater at the village in phase1.

• Carry out all other actions as applicable as outlinedin phase 1.

Most villages could be interconnected like described above.There would however be villages, which cannot be covered in the mannersuggested. Such villages should be provided connectivity through satelliteterminals.

We in India will do well to remember that countries in theWest are developed because they have an extensive communication network and notvice versa.

Maj Gen (Retd) L Tahiliani
is managing director, PCom