Exclusive Interview: TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum

Broadband India Forum represents the entire broadband ecosystem of India. The think-tank has partners such as 3GPP, TSDSI, IEEE and the Government’s 5G Spectrum Task Force Committee. BIF works to ensure that telcos, broadband service providers, satcom players and technology partners have representation. The forum also provides a platform for leaders to come together to create cross-industry synergies.

At the helm of the think-tank is Mr. TV Ramachandran. Known as TV in telecom and broadband circles, Ramachandran has rich experience in telecom and connectivity leadership. He has played a pivotal role in India's connectivity landscape. In March 2015, at the Voice&Data Telecom Leadership Forum in Delhi, TVR was conferred the Voice&Data Lifetime Contribution Award for his pivotal role in the advent mobile telephony in India.

TV also established the Cellular Operators Association of India; COAI now represents all the country's telcos, along with a range of global and local telecom vendors.

In this conversation with Voice&Data, TVR spoke about satcom, and the potential transformative power it holds.

Q1. Recently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sent favorable recommendations for satcom. How does this affect participation in the Indian satcom market?

BIF is highly appreciative of the recently released recommendations on “Licensing Framework for Satellite based connectivity for low bit rate applications” by TRAI, as greatly liberalizing and forward-looking, for they would propel exponential growth in the sector, and in turn, garner socio-economic benefits for the nation. The recommendations, when implemented, would enable cost reductions, remove supply constraints, and allow ease of doing business, helping bring this highly efficient and advanced technology into the mainstream as a viable, cost-effective connectivity means to power India’s digital dreams.

Presently satellite penetration in India is extremely low, at only 0.3 million subscribers, compared to far higher numbers in other advanced and aspiring digital economies, as depicted in the table below. Moreover, the little number of connections that we do have, are all for enterprise use, with the common man unable to derive the benefits of satcom technologies. One may note from the table below, that in contrast, the other economies have approximately the same number of general users as enterprise ones for their services. These recommendations, when implemented, will help bridge these disparities significantly.

It has been opined by several experts that India has only about half of the satellite capacity that it needs. Permitting the Service Licensees to obtain satellite bandwidth directly from foreign satellites in all the permitted satellite bands to provide satellite-based services would greatly enhance ready availability for catering to the country’s digital connectivity needs, which are growing at a rapid pace. Further, the provision to lease satellite capacity directly from pre-authorized foreign satellites for operations will help make it a cost-effective means for proliferating broadband across the country, and also enable faster deployments/implementation of services.

Removal of legacy regulations permitting only short term contracts between the buyer and supplier without any intermediaries, removal of facilitation charges by the government for hiring foreign satellite capacities, removing the prevailing NOCC charges, reduction of SUC to 1%, and migration from administrative formula based charging to AGR based charging, are all greatly progressive steps that will definitely help make satcom an economically viable technology option.

Promoting technology neutrality by use of all types of satellite in any of the permitted satellite frequency bands for providing myriad satellite-based IoT applications is a masterstroke, as it would help bring out the maximum efficiencies of the technology into play, translating into optimum output and benefits.

A single window transparent system for all approvals/permissions/allocations processes from all the authorizing agencies like DoS, DOT, WPC and NOCC, will help time-bound processing of all formal requirements. Making all the guidelines, application forms, fee details, processes, timelines and application status on the online portal would further aid ease of doing business. Further, easing these procedural norms will reduce cost of going to market for the service providers, leading to more competitive and affordable pricing of services, benefiting the end users eventually.

The TRAI recommendations which have come on the back of earlier enabling measures as reforming the TEC specifications to suit modern satellite technologies, and the DCC approval for use of satcom for cellular and Wi-Fi backhaul will greatly transform the satcom landscape in India by ushering in both competition and technological innovation, thereby benefiting both the network operators and the consumers. The government is committed to use the best and most advanced technologies like satcom in providing the most efficient, reliable and affordable digital connectivity to the Indian citizens, and the industry is committed to provide its utmost support for realizing the same.

Q2. How do you believe the Government of India will come back on these recommendations?

The Government of India has clearly demonstrated its intent to facilitate the use of the most advanced technologies like satcom in providing the most efficient, reliable and affordable digital connectivity to the Indian citizens, through a slew of enabling and liberalizing measures for the sector, especially in the last year’s timespan.

We are of the firm belief that the Government will do all it can to facilitate proliferation of the use of latest state-of-the-art and next generation technologies and liberalize satcom to provide inclusive broadband connectivity to every nook and corner of the country. In consonance with the series of measures taken recently in this area, we expect the Government to approve these path breaking recommendations.

Q3. The government has been working on the Spacecom policy for a while now. What are some of the key areas the policy needs to address to make it an enabling policy framework? 

One of the most important functions that Satellites are slated to provide is that of providing reliable and affordable high speed Broadband connectivity to the unserved and under-served regions of the country, where providing terrestrial means of connectivity are likely to be a huge challenge. The Draft Spacecom Policy 2020 is a welcome first step in consultations towards suitable direction in this regard, and we are hopeful of a strong, liberalized Satcom component to be incorporated in the same, with emphasis for induction of next-gen satellite technologies, ease of doing business and to facilitate apt use of satcom in the mainstream.

Some of the key areas that we expect the Policy to address would include, among others:

• Alignment with the Telegraph Act, TRAI Act and NDCP.
• License Tenure of minimum 20 yrs.
• FDI: Up to 74% by automatic route and 26% in strategic/security domains through FIFP approval.
• Waiving off requirement for transferring foreign orbital resources to Indian administration, as done for NGSO satellites.
• Ensuring technology neutrality, level playing field and non-discrimination for all satellites.
• Ensuring a liberal Satcom Policy to complement the Spacecom Policy.

Q4. There have been a lot of buzz around the next generation of satcom – the LEO networks. What are some of the more important expectations from the LEO players?

BIF promotes the role of Satcom for proliferation of broadband penetration across the country. We however, firmly believe in a technology neutral and non-partisan approach for the same, as was promoted by the NTP 1999 for bolstering telecom proliferation in the country.

While we recognize the importance and relevance of next-gen satellite technologies, viz. NGSOs, we wish to ensure that policy and regulations for the sector be framed in a technology neutral manner, being non-discriminatory for all types of satellites.

We firmly believe that different satellite technologies like GSOs and NGSOs have their own strong technical attributes, and can work synergistically to enhance efficiencies and play a key role in delivering high speed broadband and low latency applications. The 3GPP realizes this aspect and is working towards integrating HTS-GSOs and HTS-NGSOs in Release 17 of the upcoming standards.

Q5. With local and global players involved, it is evident that India has become a hot destination for satcom players. How has India’s satcom space become so lucrative?

As shown earlier, the prevalent low level of satcom connections in the country outlines the huge pent up demand and scope of growth for satcom services in India. This untapped potential, and the growing need to augment both quality and capacity of data connectivity services in line with the incredible uptake of the same - both in the urban and rural markets - necessitates that technologies like satcom be leveraged to extract optimum benefits and utility.

This has, in all practicality, made Satcom a very viable, mainstream option for catering to India’s digital requirements, especially in the under-penetrated rural regions of the country, where terrestrial technologies find it difficult and unviable to reach.

The enabling and expeditious policy and regulatory support from the Government has also played an integral role in this regard. Through a string of measures announced by the Government, since 16^th May 2020, when the Hon’ble FM, as a part of the path breaking First set of Economic Stimulus Packages for revival of the Economy during the pandemic; and then several actions taken by the line Ministries, viz. Department of Space through the Draft Spacecom Policy; and the Department of Telecom through the liberalization of the TEC Specifications for Ground Satellite Segment and the approval of the DCC to permit the use of Satcom for Cellular and Wi-Fi Backhaul, has clearly expressed its intent to open up the erstwhile restricted and tightly held Satcom space.

These actions by the Government, coupled with the recently announced extremely forward looking TRAI Recommendations on permitting use of Satcom for IoT and other applications in an extremely liberalized manner, are extremely positive signs that the space sector is opening up for much-needed applications and utility in the country. This is likely to bring in new players - both domestic and global, and renewed investments into the sector.

Q6. Satcom has been touted as one of the most important disruptions in the connectivity sector. Who stands to gain the most from the satcom boom, and will it address India's deep-rooted connectivity issues?

The scope for Satcom services to proliferate in the vast Indian sub-continent is immense, as satellite services have not yet been used for public consumption yet. One must note that although India has more than 820 million internet connections with about 780 million of them being broadband; in actuality, it is estimated that the unique broadband subscribers are probably below 500 million, owing to use of multiple connections. Moreover, a large majority of these are concentrated in the urban areas, leaving the leviathan rural and semi-urban expanse of India and its humongous potential netizens untapped.

It also needs to be acknowledged that terrestrial technologies, with their need for laying down extensive physical networks in place, will not find favor with the operators to defy all economic rationale and roll-out beyond the convenient urban and suburban landscapes, and justifiably so, given the practicality of the business case in question. We have witnessed first-hand the huge difficulties that the BharatNet project has faced in its implementation so far in connecting the villages and Gram Panchayats in the country, which is quite understandable in view of the ground realities in place. Several credible experts and reports, including one published by the apex global telecom body ITU in 2018, have pointed out that advancements in terrestrial technologies, like 5G – in its initial phase – will only add to the digital divide, increasing the disparities between the haves and have-nots as the normal phenomenon of technology evolution.

Given these facts about the evident inability of terrestrial technologies in rolling out networks to the rural, remote and difficult-to-reach terrains, owing to challenges of techno-economic feasibility as well as plain business viability, almost 60% of India’s populace, based in these areas, remain deprived of the basic and essential access to internet connectivity.

For truly bridging the Digital Divide, for effectively enhancing Digital Inclusion, and to ensure equal progress and prosperity for all, these people need to be taken along in our digital journey forward. Satcom provides the most technologically potent, viable and cost-effective means to connect these unserved and underserved areas and people of the country, to accelerate the Hon’ble PM’s vision of Digital India, Broadband for All, and ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. With an enabling policy and regulatory framework that is technology neutral, ensures a level playing field and is non-discriminatory to any type of technology initiative, Satcom stands an excellent chance to help fulfil these progressive national goals.

With the latest policy and regulatory provisions enabling removal of the erstwhile artificial restrictions imposed on the vertical, satcom is soon expected to provide a viable, mainstream technology option for delivering efficient and cost competitive broadband services everywhere and to everyone. Contrary to the concerns regarding competition, emphasis on enhancing satcom capabilities will, in actuality, greatly complement the terrestrial networks and facilitate a robust blend of all communications technologies to provide a cohesive and widespread pan-India network, to cater to the connectivity needs of the people, especially empowering the have-nots in the unreached geographies.

Therefore, as is evident from the aforementioned points, the liberalization and enhancement of satcom will ultimately serve the purpose of empowering and benefitting the consumers the most, through improved coverage and augmented capacity. Of course the enterprises shall also benefit in the process, which will add further to our nation’s overall economic gains.

A point to also note vitally in this regard, are the implications of a liberalized approach and enhanced applicability of satcom for future networks, especially with the expected imminent ecosystem of converged technologies and verticals going forward. 5G for example, will be integral to the use of IoT applications, Industry 4.0, etc. for augmenting efficiencies, performance and productivity, in a multitude of sectors.

As 5G is expected to cater greatly to agriculture, manufacturing and other segments, a majority of the operations to be logically based in non-urban/semi-urban locations for better cost-efficiencies, made possible by availability of seamless and reliable bandwidth in such locations. Satcom will play the major role in providing both connectivity as well as backhaul services to the networks for these crucial sectors. In fact, the 3GPP is including the NR 5G radio interface (that can connect to satellites directly) in its 5G specifications in the forthcoming Release 17.

Hence, going forward, we can expect a market for an integrated satellite and terrestrial network infrastructure in the context of 5G, focused on optimizing the outcomes of such use cases.