• BSNL tried to reach the length and breadth of India with wireless access. Primarily, two types of technologies are being used by BSNL/MTNL for fixed wireless access—IS 95 CDMA and CorDECT. While IS-95 CDMA happens to
  be the most popular technology among the private service providers as well, CorDECT is being used by a few private fixed line providers and BSNL.

• There was a delay in deployment of CDMA-based solutions as all the concerned parties had to set up their manufacturing units in India. Plans were to deploy 1,00,000 VPTs in the country, but BSNL was able to deploy around 34,000 VPTs only.

• The January IS-95 CDMA-based WILL system was for rural telephony. The total order was worth Rs 1,800 crore. LG bagged half of the order while the other half was shared between HFCL/Hyundai and Lucent Technologies. BSNL plans to cover 1,43,000 VPTs this year with WILL.

• On the broadband side, BSNL/MTNL which had begun deployment of HDSL systems in 1999-2000, completed the deployment of close to 1,050 systems, at an estimated cost of Rs 17 crore.

New Projects

• BSNL and MTNL installed ATM switches in Delhi and Bangalore, and by the first half of this year, they will commission ATM switches in Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta.

• Phase-I of the Sanchar Sagar project was completed in August 2000. The project was conceived to provide National Information Infrastructure connectivity for the National Internet Backbone and bandwidth on demand. Phase-I of the project covers a route length of approximately 17,000 km and provides ten very high speed 2.5 Gbps capacity rings, connecting thirty-three large cities all over the country including major state capitals. A significant part of Phase-II of the Sanchar Sagar project too, was completed. Phase-II of the project, when completed, will cover a route length of 36,000 km on thirty-two rings of 2.5 Gbps capacity connecting 150 cities. The Phase-II project is at an estimated cost of Rs 257 crore.

• The VoIP tender that DTS had floated in May 2000, however, was scrapped. The tender had generated a lot of interest and as many as eighteen companies had bid.

New Infrastructure Providers

• The cellular service providers went ahead with network expansions to meet the surging demand. However, the new deployment remained restricted to base stations and microwave radios. Few went for new technologies. The only two service providers who announced plans to move ahead of GPRS were BPL Mobile in Mumbai (with Motorola technology) and Bharti Cellular in Delhi (with Ericsson).

• Thanks to regulatory hurdles, the new infrastructure providers, particularly in fixed services, have hardly made a beginning. By March 2001, an estimated total of 2.2 DELs have been provided by all the private service providers. The government had earlier projected 52 lakh lines by 2002 by private fixed service providers.

• Thanks to the delay in network roll out, most fixed service providers are deploying broadband networks right from day one to target corporate customers. All fixed service providers went ahead with aggressive broadband plans, especially Tata Telservices, Hughes Tele.com and HFCL Infotel, Bharti Telenet and Shyam Telelink are also combining broadband with wireless. With both narrowband and multiple broadband technologies co-exisiting, aggregation and access management platforms are being deployed by many operators. Unisphere and Lucent have emerged as the major players in access platforms.

• Apart from the fixed service licensees, a few of the ISPs also built broadband networks in selected metros. Mumbai is at the forefront in the deployment of metro networks with companies like BSES Telecom, Tata Power, India Online Network, Hathway Cables, In2Cable, and Zee Interactive rolling out their metro networks. Tata Power made news by signing the first DWDM deal in India with Sycamore. HFC is what most companies have gone for. In2Cable, Zee and Spectranet are building OFC backbones in Delhi. Bangalore has In2Cable and Zee building HFC networks. On the DSL access front, Dishnet leads with as many as 11,000 subscribers hooked on to it through DSL in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi.

• The other area besides broadband that is seeing a lot of action is long distance. The year 2000-01 was the year of preparation. Ducts were laid by companies like Reliance Infocom, Bharti Telesonic, and a number of local service providers throughout the country. An estimated amount of 12,000 route kilometer of OFC has already been laid by all the companies put together. This excludes the OFC infrastructure of the cellular service providers. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and parts of Maharashtra saw major deployment of OFC, along with the metros Delhi and Mumbai.

• Though a lot of companies laid ducts for long distance, only a few have laid fiber and fewer still have decided on equipment. One exception is Bharti Telesonic, which has already finalised SDH/DWDM equipment for its network.

• The utilities, after planning for a couple of years, finally went ahead with their plan to build the network. PGCIL floated a tender to buy Rs 110 crore of SDH and DWDM equipment while GAIL floated one to buy equipment worth Rs 40 crore. The suppliers are yet to be decided.

• International bandwidth is being created by private players with projects such as i2i cable network, a joint venture between Singapore Telecom and Bharti Global; and South East Asian Cable Network (SEACN) by Dishnet DSL. Dishnet DSL will offer a bandwidth of 2.5 Tbps whereas Bharti Singtel JV will offer 8.4 Tbps.

The Forecast

• With new licenses issued to the fixed services providers and likely to be issued to the fourth service providers, there will be a number of new service providers. This is likely to create a big market for the equipment vendors. The fixed service providers together are supposed to spend an estimated Rs 10,500 crore and the cellular service providers are likely to spend around Rs 3,300 crore. How much of that is actually decided this year, remains to be seen. But even if they spend about 25 percent this year, it is still a huge market.

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) alone is planning to spend Rs 16,500 crore on equipment purchase. This will go towards switching, SDH and DWDM equipment, DLC, IS95 CDMA, GSM, and CorDECT systems, and optical fiber cables. Other new technologies like DSL and broadband access platforms may also account for a small percentage. BSNL is also likely to go for network management system this year or early next year. All these figures are exclusive of MTNL figures.

• A lot of companies who have laid duct will blow fiber and put active equipment. While it is difficult to believe that IP directly over DWDM will actually happen, most companies are likely to go for SDH. Bharti Telesonic, Reliance, and the BPL-Tata-Birla consortium, will be the main buyers.

• Some action is likely to happen in the metro network front, with broadband aggregation and access management platforms likely to see the maximum growth.

• Some of the existing fixed service providers are likely to experiment with VoIP switches and softswitches, but the market is not likely to take-off this year.