Five years ago, a firm started an optic fibre broadband service in a gated community of Delhi. It offered a 20 Mbps plan to 80 subscribers. Gradually, the company failed to maintain the advertised speed as its subscription base grew more than a hundred per cent. A technical executive of the firm said, "We have nearly 200 connections on the same infrastructure. Most consumers do not know what speed they have purchased."
Debt-ridden telcos are blowing billions on marketing and tariff plans in a rush to protect subscription base in a highly competitive market, but improving Internet experience for end users through investment in infrastructure is not their priority. Domestic rating agency ICRA has said falling investment in capital expenditure has hurt service quality.
Former VSNL CMD BK Syngal said, "Yes, it's poor infrastructure. No systematic study of traffic management has been carried out to see where clogging is and where investment is required. In such a situation, you will continue to suffer poor Internet services".
According to telecom regulator TRAI, the average data speed of top firms is 6.98 Mbps. India Rating's latest report said that industry-wide per-user data usage has increased by 784% to 1.2GB in the quarter ending (QE) June 2017 from 143MB in QE June 2016. Manoj Gairola, CEO and founder of telecomtiger.com, said "Genesis of the problem lies in the hyper-competition and high cost of investment, which is a result of the 2G scam. The companies paid a heavy price for spectrum. But they never invested in basic infrastructures."
"Even spectrum procurement was low. This resulted in low data speed as their networks were originally designed for voice. They could not compete in the data environment. In fact, three years back, operators such as Idea and Vodafone were saying that 4G will not have any market in India".
Top seven telcos' total debt jumped to 20 per cent in 2016-17 to Rs 3,59,940 crore. In a letter to Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, then SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya wrote, "Data with us suggests that the total EBITDA of the sector on an annual basis is Rs 65,000 crore, which is unsustainable for a debt of more than Rs 4 lakh crore".
TRAI has fixed the minimum download speed of 512 Kbps for all fixed broadband providers. It has also directed wired and cellular Internet providers to deliver accurate information about speed tariff. TRAI emphasises that companies cannot disguise plans in "unlimited" download offers.
Former TRAI chairman RS Sharma also said that broadband health is not good in India and fixed-line infrastructure is in poor state. Companies have started "focusing" on 5G, but it will be useless unless the existing problems are fixed. The government's new telecom policy, slated to be out in 2018, may show rays of hope.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "ROMANIAN_ELECTRIC_POWER_TRANSMISSION_LINES")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}