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Previous page... Current bandwidth
Sufficient bandwidth?
We have analyzed in some detail the potential bandwidth deficiency in India and the principal causes of the same. However, contrary to popular sentiment, I am of the opinion that this country will have sufficient bandwidth available (at least from the international pipes) to meet its requirements in the next 5-7 years. This optimism stems from the following reasons, which are a combination of potential, policy decisions and actual development on the ground:
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India has sufficient landed capacity for bandwidth from the international submarine cables FLAG and SE-ME-WE-II. FLAG itself has a landed capacity of 10 Gbps out of which VSNL, the country's sole international gateway provider, purchases only 1.5%. The rest of the capacity is lying idle as of now.
VSNL is rapidly expanding its capacity to cater to the increasing market demand for bandwidth. It is in the process of increasing its international bandwidth capacity to 800 Megabits from the present 325 Megabits. Total availability to VSNL is about 13 Gbps.
VSNL's total purchases from FLAG and SE-ME-WE-II can be rapidly expanded to 3-4 Gbps depending on the demand.
VSNL is also arranging for an additional bandwidth on optical fiber cable of 155 Mbps each, one from the US east coast to Mumbai and the other from San Francisco to Kochi. Mumbai will serve the northern and western areas of the country and the Kochi head will feed the Silicon Valley of India, consisting of Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.
In addition, VSNL is building five linking satellite access terminals in the four metros and in Bangalore, as a back up to the optical fiber feed.
As more servers and exchanges are located within the country, the cost for accessing international bandwidth would decrease significantly.
International players like Enron are actively considering setting up server farms in this country. This will reduce the international traffic and ease the bandwidth deficiency.
Various ISPs (like Dishnet) are obtaining permission from the Government to set up their own landing stations for accessing bandwidth from international submarine cables.
Both Government organizations such as DoT, Railways, GAIL, the SEBs, PGCIL etc. as well as a large number of private players are scrambling to aggressively wire up the country with optic fiber. We already have approximately 6 lakh kilometers of cable and optic fiber with its mega bandwidth capacities, will further ease the bandwidth bottleneck.
Finally, transmission technologies themselves will have an impact on reduction of bandwidth paucity. Newer innovations like Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) in optic fiber transmission technologies enable transmission at theoretical speeds of possibly terabits per second.
The line of reasoning is that due to a combination of all these factors, bandwidth will be available in sufficient quantities in India within the next 5-7 years. We will have a situation parallel to the US markets where today approximately 30% of the fibers are dark (or not lit up). In such a scenario, bandwidth will become a mere commodity like any other
Next page... Commoditization of bandwidth
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