Broadband

October 30, 2002
DSL deployment not very significant in India

NEW DELHI -- Though DSL offers an alternate solution to dialup access, it has yet to make serious inroads in India. Sify is among the basic service providers gearing up to offer DSL services in the country. Convergence Plus caught up with Rustom Irani, chief technology officer, Sify, to know more about the firm's plans in the DSL segment and the overall situation in the country. Excerpts from an interview:

CP: What is the present scenario of DSL in India?

Rustom Irani: DSL offers an alternate solution to those who want faster access speeds than that offered by dialup access, but cannot afford and/or manage leased line connections. To offer DSL, DSLAMs (DSL line access multiplexers) have to be co-located in a basic service operator's central office. Subscribers should be free to choose the ISPs they would like to go with.

However, basic service operators in India have not been permitted to locate DSLAMs in their exchanges. Had it been allowed, it would have enabled Internet access over telephone lines by ISPs on a revenue-sharing basis. As such, DSL deployment in the country is not very significant.

CP: Why has the uptake of DSL not been up to expectations so far?

Rustom Irani: Basic operators need to offer reasonable terms to ISPs for co-locating DSLAMs and work with them to provide services. However, this has not happened. Besides, most of the copper connections -- telephone connections, particularly in the last mile -- have multiple knots and erratic joints that restrain high-speed data communication.

CP: Are there any problems related to distance and bandwidth?

Rustom Irani: The service itself does deteriorate with the increasing length of copper from an exchange. Usually, it works well up to two to three kilometers. The bandwidth depends on a particular configuration -- SDSL, VDSL, ADSL -- of DSL, the make and the model. Besides, during the concurrent use of PSTN voice [voice and data transmission concurrently], the speed does come down by 25-50 percent off the peak.

CP: How are the MTUs responding to deployment of DSL?

Rustom Irani: Deployment in MTU is relevant if there is fiber up to the building -- the last mile -- and the DSLAM is co-located within the building. This becomes viable only if there is a DID exchange within such a dwelling. Most housing societies prefer Ethernet/cable modems, as those are more economical in terms of capital investment. There is no large-scale deployment of DSL in residential areas.

CP: What are the features of DSLAMs currently being used?

Rustom Irani: The basic premise of DSL connectivity is to enable Internet access without paying for the dialup charges to the telephone operator, besides offering high-speed access without having to lay a new cable. This allows the user to have a single PSTN line at home. He can receive voice calls over that line while he is using it for data (accessing the Internet). DSLAMs also allow flexibility in offering hourly/flat rate/volume-based billing, as well as ceilings on bandwidth utilisation by individual users.

CP: What will be the future of DSL?

Rustom Irani: It depends on the basic operators agreeing to the co-location of DSLAMs in their exchanges, the commercial terms for offering the service, and how fast they do so. DSL does not really have a large-scale deployment anywhere due to the cost of deployment and alternative technologies such as wireless broadband and Internet over cable.

CP: What is your company doing in the DSL segment?

Rustom Irani: We have initiated talks with some basic operators in this regard. However, we believe that it would take some time before the basic service providers are allowed access to the copper owned by basic service operators.

CP: What is your opinion about Wi-Fi?

Rustom Irani: Wi-Fi is a revolutionary technology. However, its potential can be tapped only when there is an enabling regulatory environment. This means that the licensing and royalty for the spectrum should be totally done away with, albeit with reasonable restrictions on the power emissions and other parameters.