State and Opportunity of

Broadband in India

In this paper we will present the state and opportunity of broadband in Asia’s
most promising and fastest growing economy and world’s second largest
wireless market only after China.

BP Tiwari
www.beyond4g.org
4/20/2010
 2 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction and motivation......................................................................................................................... 5
Current shape of broadband in country ....................................................................................................... 6
Broadband leadership Ranking ................................................................................................................. 6
Broadband Penetration in India ................................................................................................................ 8
Average Broadband Speed in Country ...................................................................................................... 9
The principal Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 11
Limited Wire line ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Scarce Broadband Spectrum ................................................................................................................... 13
Low Data ARPU ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Broadband opportunities............................................................................................................................ 15
4G can change broadband situation ....................................................................................................... 15
Deliver a GB for half a dollar ................................................................................................................... 17
Deliver new internet applications with 4G ............................................................................................. 18
Support of large connections in 4G cells ................................................................................................ 18
A need for strong national broadband policy ............................................................................................. 19
Government can influence the broadband situation ............................................................................. 19
Taking India to top 10 broadband nations .............................................................................................. 22

DISCLAMER

This paper is prepared by BP Tiwari and the views expressed here are my own and does not
reflect my company opinion. All the information is presented in this document were collected from public
domain (internet) & wherever possible reference has been provided regarding the source of information.
I have made reasonable efforts to ensure that information is true as best of my knowledge at the time of
compilation, however I do not warrant that the information presented herein is complete and without
error. Author of the paper does not take any responsibility of the errors, omissions, or any other accuracy
in any form. I encourage readers to independently verify information as author does not have any
responsibility of the presented information & content.

www.beyond4g.org | Executive Summary 2

 3 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

List of Figures
Figure 1 : Broadband quality scores.............................................................................................................. 6
Figure 2 : Broadband leadership scores ........................................................................................................ 7
Figure 3 : Broadband penetration................................................................................................................. 8
Figure 4: Total Internet connections in country .......................................................................................... 8
Figure 5 : Reliance Ev-Do Coverage .............................................................................................................. 8
Figure 6 : Tata Ev-Do Coverage .................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 7: BSNL Ev-Do Coverage .................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 8 : Average mobile broadband speeds in metros cities ................................................................... 10
Figure 9 : Distribution of speed tests .......................................................................................................... 10
Figure 10 : Average National Broadband Speeds ....................................................................................... 11
Figure 11 : GDP based on PPP per capita .................................................................................................... 11
Figure 12: Indicative right of way charges .................................................................................................. 12
Figure 13: Capex per subscriber.................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 14: India Spectrum allocation chart ................................................................................................. 13
Figure 15: Global Data ARPU ...................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 16: Data ARPU of global operators .................................................................................................. 14
Figure 17: Average Data Packages in India ................................................................................................ 14
Figure 18: Global Broadband Tariffs ........................................................................................................... 15
Figure 19: Total Subscriber supported per 4G cell ..................................................................................... 16
Figure 19: Spectral efficiency of various technologies ............................................................................... 16
Figure 20: Broadband delivery cost over 4G............................................................................................... 17
Figure 21: Peak Data Rate in Different MIMO Configurations. .................................................................. 18
Figure 23: Broadband and Internet users in India ...................................................................................... 19
Figure 24: Projected additional spectrum requirement for India............................................................... 20
Figure 25: Present right of way charges ..................................................................................................... 21
Figure 26: New Telecom World Order ........................................................................................................ 22

www.beyond4g.org | Executive Summary 3

 4 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India
Executive Summary
It’s been a dream run for voice in India. India
positions itself as number two nation in new
world order. However the broadband
leadership is dominated by Southkorea, Japan,
Hongkong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands,
Singapore, Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway.
India ranked 62 in global broadband leadership
scale, with average download and upload
speeds recorded way below than the needs of
current internet applications. The current
internet visual applications require consistent
2Mbps downlink and 1 Mbps uplink data rates.
In our analysis we found that the average
broadband speed in country is below 600 kbps
in downlink and 300 kbps in uplink. The leading
broadband nations were found above 8 Mbps in
downlink and 2.5 Mbps in uplink and the access
latencies were found below 80 milliseconds1.
Broadband penetration by number of
households was estimated between 5 to 6 %.
The availability of broadband networks has
especially improved after beginning of Ev-Do
services in country. The mobile broadband
networks were deployed in top 100 cities by
four wireless operators i.e. Reliance, TATA,
BSNL and MTS.
The data collected from Ev-Do Networks in five
metro cities imply average delivery of 300 kbps
in downlink and 150 kbps in uplink. On
average, Hyderabad performed best with 250-
350 kbps average download speed and 100-125
kbps average upload speed and New Delhi was
at the bottom with 240 kbps for download and
130 kbps for upload.
1
Cisco,
http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021
009a.html
www.beyond4g.org | Executive Summary
The number of broadband connections in
country is less than 10 Million, which is fewer
than 2 % of the total number of voice
subscriptions in India. Total internet
connection in India is about 15 Million as per
statistics released by regulatory of India,
representing less than 1% of total population.
The principal challenges in delivering
broadband to masses are excessively high right
way charges, fragmented cable operators, non
cooperation in last mile copper unbundling
and low data ARPU. The total amount of
spectrum allocated by regulators for broadband
application in country was too little to support
proliferation of broadband services.
The new 3G/BWA spectrum and the advent
WiMAX and LTE based 4G technologies will
play crucial role in shaping broadband industry
in India. Our analysis in this paper exemplifies
the competence of 4G technologies like WiMAX
and LTE to deliver broadband in most
competitive manner. 4G technologies has the
potential to bridge the digital data gap in India
and will play very similar role what 2G
technologies played in Voice.
A need for strong national broadband policy is
felt to foster social and economic development
in India and accomplish broadband leadership.
Analysis presented in the paper estimates
allocation of at least 270 MHz of new spectrum
in next five years and over 450 MHz of
spectrum in next 10 years for broadband
applications would be inevitably required to
take India to top broadband nations.
4
Introduction and motivation
Broadband is the great wireless infrastructure
challenge of this century and broadband in
India is no exception. Like electricity a century
ago, broadband is an underpinning foundation
for economic development, employment
creation, universal competitiveness and an
enhanced way of life.
Availability of ubiquitous broadband enables
entire new industry and unlocks vast new
possibilities for existing ones. Broadband is
changing how we educate children, deliver
health care, manage energy, ensure public
safety, engage government, and access,
organize and disseminate knowledge. The
number of Indians who have internet access has
grown from eight million in 2006 to nearly 15
million in early 2009. Increasingly capable fixed
and mobile networks allow Indian consumers to
access a growing number of internet
applications and helping them in transforming
their life.
It is unfortunate that broadband in India is not
all it needs to be. Less than 5 % of the
household population in India has true
broadband connection in country and more
than a billion people has limitation in accessing
broadband. This in contrast with the number of
subscriber who has voice connection is
enormous disparity. Broadband in India is
catching up but behind many developing
countries and developed nations.
The situation of broadband has worsened
further with continual delay in allocation of 3G
and broadband spectrum in country.
Government of India has the responsibility to
design policies which will ensure fair
competition for consumer welfare, efficient
allocation of spectrum, right of way to ensure
network availability and reform laws, policies,
standards and incentives to maximize the
benefits of broadband in sectors government
influences significantly, such as public
education, health care and government
operations.
In this paper we will present the state of
broadband in Asia’s most promising and fastest
growing economy and world’s second largest
wireless market only after China.
The greatest motivation to write on this
particular subject is to present the shape of
broadband in the country and also give you an
idea about the broadband opportunity which is
latent in the country. With advent of 4G
technologies like WiMAX/LTE and allocation of
new broadband spectrum in country, the
development of broadband is expected to grow
up at a rapid rate.
In this white paper, we will present all aspects
of broadband in India with our analysis and
suggestions to take country in to the league of
top broadband nations.
 6 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Current shape of broadband in

country
Figure 1 : Broadband quality scores

It is been generally understood that broadband

proliferation is linked to social and economic Rank Country Broadband Broadband
penetration(% quality
benefits and that countries with high
of household) Score 2009
broadband availability have broadband on their
1 South Korea 97% 66
national agenda.
2 Japan 64% 64
3 Hong Kong 99% 33
A recent study by University of oxford, and 4 Sweden 69% 57
Cisco established the fact that high broadband 5 Switzerland 90% 40
penetration drives innovation, labor 6 Netherlands 83% 46
productivity and competitiveness. The Study 7 Singapore 96% 32
also focused on the minimum performance 8 Luxemburg 99% 27
requirement for current broadband connections 9 Denmark 82% 45
and found that 28 to 30 countries are meeting 10 Norway 84% 38
the requirement of current internet 62 India 3% 20
applications.

In 2009, new insight into who the global
broadband leaders are by combining data for
each country’s broadband penetration with a
measure of the quality of broadband services
actually experienced by its citizens was
conducted by a team of MBA students from the
Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford
and the University of Oviedo’s Department of
Applied Economics, and sponsored by Cisco was
published2.
Highlights and key facts of the study;
Overall average broadband quality
increased across the globe in 2009: Global
average download throughput increased by
49% to 4.75 Megabits per second (Mbps)
and global average upload throughput
increased by 69% to 1.3 Mbps.
Global average latency decreased by 21% to
170 milliseconds
Broadband leadership Ranking
There is a huge leapfrog opportunity in India
and other emerging markets as per the findings
of the studies3. The minimum average
downloads speed for supporting requirement of
current application was estimated at 3.75 Mbps
in downlink and 1.3 Mbps in uplink with latency
in the range of sub 100 milliseconds in 2010.4
The broadband leadership was dominated by
Southkorea, Japan, Hongkong, Sweden,
Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore,
Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway. The average
download speeds of these nations were found
above 8 Mbps in downlink and 2.5 Mbps in
uplink and the access latencies were found
below 80 milliseconds.

Top 10 nations on terms of Broadband quality

4 3
are; Cisco,
http://www.cisco.com/web/MT/news/09/news_021
009a.html
2
CISCO and Said; http://bit.ly/dm5RH7
www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country 6
 7 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

39 countries have a Broadband quality scores

BB Leadership
above the threshold required to deliver a
Nigeria
consistent quality of experience for the most Egypt
common web applications today, such as social Indonesia
networking, streaming low-definition video, India
South Africa
web communications and sharing small files Pakistan
such as photos and music. Morocco
Vietnam
Thailand
Nine countries, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Phillippines
Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, The Netherlands, Brazil
Ukraine
Denmark and Romania, were found to have the Saudi Arabia
broadband quality required for future web China
applications, such as high definition Internet TV Malaysia
Argentina
viewing and high-quality video communications Mexico
(such as home tele-presence) that will become Chile
mainstream in the next 3 to 5 years. Poland
Russian Federation
Turkey
India ranked 62 in global broadband leadership Greece
scale with average download and upload speeds Italy
Portugal
way below the threshold of current internet Qatar
applications requirement. Broadband Spain
penetration by number of households was New Zealand
Romania
estimated at 5 to 6 % United Arab Emirates
Germany
Figure 2 : Broadband leadership scores5 Baharain
United Kingdom
Latvia
Tiawan
Slovenia
Finland
Belgium
Estonia
France
Canada
Ireland
United States
Lithuania
Australia
Iceland
Malta
Norway
Denmark
Luxembourg
Singapore
Netherlands
switzerland
Sweden
Hong Kong
Japan
South Korea

5 0 50 100 150
Said Business School ,
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Pages/Search.aspx/Results.
aspx?k=broadband%20quality
www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country 7
 8 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Nigeria
Kenya Global Broadband Penetration Broadband Penetration in India
Egypt
Indonesia
India Broadband penetration in India is about 6 % of
South Africa total household which has improved more than
Pakistan 3% as compared to similar period in 2008.
Morocco
Vietnam Wireless technologies in last one year have
Thailand facilitated in expanding coverage footprint and
Phillippines
Tunisia
availability of mobile broadband networks in
Colombia India. By far the largest network is CDMA based
Brazil Ev-Do Rev A, and after the launch of Rev A
Ukraine
Saudi Arabia
networks in country, the coverage penetration
China has increased to 6% .
Malaysia
Argentina
Mexico Over 75% of the internet connections in the
Russian Federation country are facilitated by state controlled
Turkey operator BSNL/MTNL6.
Hungary
Greece
Italy
Portugal
Austria
Qatar
Bulgaria
Spain
New Zealand
United Arab Emirates
Germany
Baharain
United Kingdom
Latvia
Tiawan
Slovenia
Finland
Belgium
Estonia
France Figure 4: Total Internet connections in country
Canada
Ireland
United States The coverage of broadband networks has
Lithuania especially improved after beginning of Ev-Do
Australia
Iceland services in country. The Ev-Do based mobile
Malta broadband networks were deployed in top 100
Norway
cities by four wireless operators i.e. Reliance,
Denmark
Luxembourg TATA, BSNL and MTS. The coverage is mostly
Singapore limited to city centers or areas high in
Netherlands
switzerland
broadband potential; nevertheless it has higher
Sweden reach as compared to wire line deployments.
Hong Kong
Japan
South Korea Figure 5 : Reliance Ev-Do Coverage 7

0 50 100 150
6
BP Tiwari; http://www.beyond4g.org/india-
Figure 3 : Broadband penetration wireless-market-update-2h-2009
www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country 8
 9 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India
Figure 6 : Tata Ev-Do Coverage 8
State owned largest operators BSNL has Ev-DO
network in 76 cites.
Figure 7: BSNL Ev-Do Coverage 9
However the potential of broadband
development is massive as several of top
broadband nations like South Korea, Japan,
HongKong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherland,
Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway,
7 Wireless technologies are playing an imperative
Reliance; http://bit.ly/cSeSP5
8
Tata ; http://bit.ly/dwkHj9
9
BSNL; http://bit.ly/aVsjou
www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country
Malta, Iceland, Australia, Lithuania, United
States, Ireland, Canada, France, Estonia and
Belgium has achieved broadband penetration
over 80% of their household as compared to 6%
in India.
Average Broadband Speed in
Country
Country has deployment of ADSL, Fixed WiMAX,
Metro E and other wire line broadband
technologies but those wire-line technologies
are not enough in extending coverage to large
number of households due to deployment
challenges as presented in next section of the
paper. Our internal studies indicate that
country lacks the minimum required broadband
threshold speed to support the growing
demand of internet applications. In contrast, 39
countries have average download speeds above
3.75 Mbps and 1.3 Mbps in uplink as presented
in Figure 9. The average broadband speed in
India was recorded less than 600 Mbps in
downlink in 2009 as compared to global
average of 4.75 Mbps in 2009.
The leading broadband nations like Japan,
South Korea, Sweden, Netherland and
Switzerland have average downlink speeds of
10 Mbps and above. Broadband connections of
these countries are capable of supporting
future web applications, such as high definition
Internet TV viewing and high-quality video
communications (such as home tele-presence)
that will become mainstream in the next 3 to 5
years.
Russia, Germany, UK, Tiawan, Canada, US,
Norway, Denmark, Singapore, HonkKong,
France has average download speeds of 5Mbps
and above.
role in delivering broadband to underserved
areas but their capability to deliver faster
9
 10 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

speeds are limited by available technology,
spectrum and other parameters. To give our
readers an idea of their capability to deliver
broadband we have collected data from
different cities to show achievable speeds. The
speeds can vary depending on the time of the
day, technology used, traffic conditions,
topology, etc.
There were occasional peaks observed while
collecting data. The download speeds reached
as high as 650 to 700 kbps while the upload
speeds touched 460 kbps with Ev-Do networks
recording the highest speeds on non busy hour
period. Data throughput presented above was
averaged for number of samples over time.

In the collected samples across different Speed Tests ( Ev-Do ), Mumbai

metros, we found that the average speeds were 14
on the lower end as compared to their 12
announced10 values with average measured 10

Frequency %
download and upload speed was 300 kbps and 8
150 kbps. The download speed touched as high 6
as 650 to 700 kbps while the upload speed 4
touched 460 kbps with Ev-Do networks 2
recording the highest peaks on non busy hour
0
period.

550
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500

600
650
The results varied by Device/city/route/ time of Kbps
day. On average, Hyderabad performed best
with 300-350 kbps average download speed
and 100-125 kbps average upload average
speed and New Delhi was at the bottom with Figure 9 : Distribution of speed tests
240 kbps for download and 130 kbps for
upload.
Average Download Average Upload
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

Figure 8 : Average mobile broadband speeds in

metros cities

10
Peak Data ; http://bit.ly/dwkHj9
www.beyond4g.org | Current shape of broadband in country 10
 11 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Average Download speeds The principal Challenges

Nigeria
The economy of India is one the fastest growing (in
Indonesia 11
terms of GDP) & is the twelfth largest economy in
India
the world by market exchange rates and the fourth
South Africa
largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.
Thailand
Phillippines
Brazil Gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita GDP

4,500.00
Russia 4,000.00
3,500.00
China 3,000.00
2,500.00
2,000.00
Malaysia 1,500.00
1,000.00
Mexico 500.00
0.00
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
New Zealand
Gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita GDP
Germany
United Kingdom
Tiawan Figure 11 : GDP based on PPP per capita
Canada
United States
The last mile (connecting end-users to service
Australia
Malta
providers), except in top 100 cities is primarily
Norway non-existent in country. In metro cities, copper
Denmark cabling is available which can support lower
Luxembourg variants of DSL such as ADSL2. More than 90%
Singapore of the country’s urban copper network is owned
Netherlands by incumbents such as BSNL and MTNL
switzerland (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) and was
Sweden deployed for telephony purposes. Multi-tenant
Hong Kong unit (MTU) type homes have implied large
Japan distances – of the order of 1000+ feet from the
South Korea nearest POP, thereby limiting the use of
advance variants of DSL such as VDSL which can
0 5 10 15 20 25
give 10 Mbps or so of connectivity. DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) remains the most widely used
technology to deliver broadband Internet
Figure 10 : Average National Broadband Speeds services. For those tier 1 and tier 2 cities
without copper infrastructure, some initial
deployments of Fixed WiMAX, Ev-Do Rev A,
MMDS and other wireless broadband

11
Wikipedia
www.beyond4g.org | The principal Challenges 11
 12 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

technologies has started appearing as a

ROW (Per Km) US$
alternative to wireline.
90000
Our analysis points to the following key factors
which is prohibiting use of broadband in India. 50000
40000
30000
20000
Wire line last mile domination by PSE
incumbents & Local Cable Operators
(LCO’s)
LCO market which control the cable last
mile is highly fragmented with over
100,000+ LCOs across the country
The current cable TV network is Arial and of Figure 12: Indicative right of way charges
low quality, backed with the lack of
organization makes it difficult to upgrade be Other factors which have worsened situation of
used for reliable broadband lines. broadband is non cooperation to unbundle the
Lack of strong national broadband policy to last mile local copper from state owned
support low and more uniform rental rates operators like BSNL and MTNL who controls
for access to poles and reduce cost of right more than 90% of the last mile copper in
of way charges to enable deployment of country.
wire line in country.
Numerous delay in allocating necessary
spectrum to support wireless broadband “Whether we like it or not, excessively high
deployments in India. right way charges, fragmented cable operators,
non cooperation in last mile copper unbundling
and low data ARPU has made operators in India
Limited Wire line to realize, that Wireless is the most effective
way to provide affordable broadband to
The prevalent challenge in the country is to masses in country.”
deliver broadband at affordable tariffs.
Exorbitantly high hight of way charges and lack
of necessary attention from government bodies WiMAX DSL
has prohibited buried DSL penetration in 1400
country as compared to other nations. 1200
1000 1200
800
Figure 12 represents right of way charges in top
US$

600 800
metro cities of the country. To make business 400
case of broadband appealing alternative models 500
200 240
of deployment like Arial fiber and copper were 0
also experimented in top cities of the country Capex per Sub(60 Capex per
where exorbitantly high right of way charges Active) Sub(150 Active)
prohibited buried copper for residential
consumers. Figure 13: Capex per subscriber

www.beyond4g.org | The principal Challenges 12

 13 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Scarce Broadband Spectrum FREQUENCY ALLOCATION

452.5-457.5 & 5+5 MHz for cellular mobile,
462.5-467.5 particularly for rural areas (not yet
MHz allotted)
The amount of spectrum allocated for 824-844 & 869- Cellular mobile
889 MHz
broadband application in country is really
890-915 & 935- Cellular mobile (only parts of this
narrow as compared to other nations. The only 960 MHz band allotted)
spectrum which was allotted to operators was 1710-1785 & Only parts of this band, for cellular
in the band 3.3 GHz for broadband MMDS and 1805-1880 mobile
MHz
LMDS. Each operator assigned nearly 6 MHz
1850-1910 & Part of this band being investigated
TDD or FDD spectrum in 3.3 GHz. 1930-1990 for potential allocation to cellular
MHz mobile
The 3.3 GHz spectrum suffers from high path 1880-1900 Micro cellular systems TDD
loss and poor indoor coverage. Deploying a MHz
1920-1980 & IMT-2000 (3G) FDD mode (still to be
nationwide wireless broadband networks is this 2110-2170 allocated 3 to 4 slots to be
spectrum would require substantially high MHz auctioned)
capex as compared to sub 2 GHz spectrum. 2010-2025 IMT-2000 (3G) TDD mode (still to be
Poor indoor characteristic of 3.3GHz has made MHz implemented)
most of the deployments fixed in nature. Fixed 2.4-2.4835 GHz EIRP 4W over 10+ MHz (250
mW/MHz) Delicenced (WiFi)
3.3GHz WiMAX/MMDS in country is providing 2.535-2.655 Indian satellite applications, LMDS
connectivity to SME and enterprise customers. GHz and MMDS
2.7-2.9 GHz Available for MMDS if protection
The other spectrum allocated for broadband ensured for Aeronautical radio
navigation, location services
applications was in 10.15 to 10.65 GHz for 3.3-3.4 GHz Broadband MMDS, LMDS
LMDS technology. The 3G and BWA spectrum is 5.150-5.350 & Max EIRP 200 mW (10 mW/MHz)
under auction process and should be available 5.725-5.875 Delicenced
very shortly for operators to deploy new GHz
wireless data networks. Our analysis advocates 5.470-5.725 Indoor and outdoor wireless access
GHz (incl. RLAN) Max EIRP 1W (50
that the total amount of spectrum made mW/MHz)
available for 3G and Broadband wireless access 10.15-10.65 Broadband LMDS
systems is way too low to support country’s GHz
data demand. 24.5-26.5 & Broadband LMDS, MMDS (High
27.5-29.5 GHz capacity only LoS systems)

Figure 14: India Spectrum allocation chart

Low Data ARPU

For some leading operators, data is now services helped in adding billions to the
contributing over 40% of the overall revenues. revenues generated in 2009.
However increase in data ARPU is not
completely offsetting the drop in voice ARPU US, Japan, Australia and Singapore continue to
for most operators. From the true and tested lead in data ARPU.
SMS messaging to the new services such as
Mobile Advertising, Social Networking,
Commerce, Mobile Wallet, and others, different

www.beyond4g.org | The principal Challenges 13

 14 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India
Figure 15: Global Data ARPU
Most of the major operators around the world
have double digit percentage contribution to
their overall ARPU from data services.
Operators like DoCoMo, and Softbank are over
44%. KDDI, 3 Australia, 3 Italy, 3 UK, Vodafone
UK, O2 UK, KTF, Telstra, and 3 Sweden
exceeded 30% and many others are on the
verge of crossing the 30% mark. Indian
operators Bharti , Vodafone and reliance are
improving data revenues and today stand at 10
% mark12. India operators data ARPU from
wireless services is less than 1 US$.
Figure 16: Data ARPU of global operators
12
Chetan , http://bit.ly/dt5R0T
www.beyond4g.org | The principal Challenges
We collected samples of different broadband
operators to calculate average data
consumption of broadband in country. It was
found that an average connection in country is
consuming around 3-5 gigabytes per month and
corresponding revenue is around US $ 12.
Average ARPU
30
20
10
0
1 Gig 3 Gig 5 Gig 10 Gig
Figure 17: Average Data Packages in India
The utmost challenge in the country is to deliver
broadband at affordable prices. Current
broadband fee in India is already moving
towards some of the most competitive prices
around the globe and operators are increasingly
finding enormous challenge in delivering data at
current prices levels while meeting the growing
demand of new internet visual applications.
The observed median average price of
broadband in different countries is presented
below to give the standpoint of challenging13
broadband delivery cost in India. The prices
presented below are the median price of lowest
and highest observed tariff in that country.
13
OECD ; http://bit.ly/drA5AN
14
 15 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Figure 18: Global Broadband Tariffs analysis, we thus do not consider multiple
customers per household. It is also noted that
we only calculate the capacity requirements
Median Price of BB
and the population that needs to be served in a
80 cell, we do not address the coverage issues and
60 techniques needed to deal with null spaces if
US $

40
any between sectors in the cell, as our main
idea is to present the case of 4G technologies
20
and its suitability to deliver affordable
0 broadband in country.

Dense urban
Cell Radius 250 Meters
Households 8000 per SQ/Km
Subs/Cell 975
Broadband opportunities 3 SPs 325 customers/SP/Cell Site

Urban
4G can change broadband situation
Cell Radius 400 Meters
Households 3000 per SQ/Km
Subs/Cell 936
The role of WiMAX and LTE based broadband
3 SPs 312 customers/SP/Cell Site
technologies is pivotal in shaping broadband
industry in India.
Sub Urban
Our analysis illustrates that 4G technologies like Cell Radius 700 Meters
WiMAX and LTE has the potential to deliver Households 1000 per SQ/Km
broadband in reasonable cost and performance Subs/Cell 955
to India consumers. 3 SPs 318 customers/SP/Cell Site

In this Section, we will present why 4G

technologies has the potential to change the Rural
broadband situation in country. Cell Radius 2 Kilometers
Households 150 per SQ/Km
To present our case, we will consider four main Subs/Cell 1170
segments of the addressable market for 3 SPs 390 customers/SP/Cell Site
broadband wireless access in India. In each
market segment, the number of BWA To compare the subscriber capacity which
customers for each service provider per cell needs to be supported by technologies like
is projected from the population density WiMAX and LTE , following parameter were
represented by the number of households and considered to simulate the case of Dense
SOHO (small/home offices) per sq km. In this

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 16 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Urban, Urban , Suburban and Rural achieved by the technology (standard) chosen.
demography’s. Gradually WiMAX and LTE will shift to their next
evolution by the time India operators come
3 Sector Cell sites across difficult situation of maintaining service
Typical download speed of 1 Mbps levels to IMT-Advanced based systems like 16m
4G spectral efficiency ( 1.6 Bits/Hz/Sec) or LTE A to support the their need of growing
20 Mhz of Spectrum per service mobile data .
provider ( Total 3 Service Provider)
Monthly data consumption : 6 GB/Mo Our analysis supports that WiMAX and LTE
Busy hour 1.6 times based technologies will support mobile data
requirement for first three years and later it can
From Figure 19, it is easy to distinguish that be upgraded to IMT advanced based systems to
with a total capacity of 52 Mbps/cell, a service support the growing need of mobile data.
provider can support 1350 Connections per cell Alternatively operators can also add more radio
for an average 6 GB/Month usage taking busy carrier to support their capacity requirement or
hour traffic in consideration. With data doubling install more capacity cell sites.
every year as per the forecast from Cisco VNI
Index14, service providers will exhaust their cell
DL Spectral Efficieny UL Efficiency
capacity in third year and their consumers 2.4 2.4
monthly data consumption will reach around 12 2.5
1.9 2
gigabyte in a month. 2
1.5
1.4
1.5
Figure 19: Total Subscriber supported per 4G cell 0.8 0.8
1 0.7
Subscriber supported in 4G cell 0.5 0.5
0.3
Support required per cell ( DU) 0.5
1500 0
HSPA HSPA WIMAX LTE Rel LTE A 16M
Number of Subscribers

Rel 6 Rel 7 16e 8

1000

500 Figure 19: Spectral efficiency of various

technologies

0
6 Gig 12 18 24 30 It is worthy to note some of the much recent
/Mo Gig/Mo Gig/Mo Gig/Mo Gig/Mo
data trends form CISCO VNI Index which were
captured in collaboration with 20 leading
Internet service providers and according to
The amount of bandwidth a service provider Cisco, average broadband connection
has to license to support a desired total generated 11.4 gigabytes of Internet traffic per
capacity, depends on the spectral efficiency month, or 375 megabytes per day in Q3, 2009.

14
Cisco VNI; http://bit.ly/nqdf
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 17 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

The average monthly download traffic reported Balanced IPRs which will allow competitive
in clearwire and Yota WiMAX network is around devices.
7 and 10 Gigabytes per month.

Clearly the mobile data traffic is growing fast

and availability of necessary amount of
spectrum to support the need of growing
mobile data traffic is the key to maintain
proliferation of broadband in country.

Improvements in technology will also play an

important role in bridging the gap in digital
dividend. The key to success in Indian
broadband story will largely depend on Figure 20: Broadband delivery cost over 4G
necessary amount of spectrum and
advancement in 4G Technologies.
MIMO and bigger chunks of spectrum is the key
Deliver a GB for half a dollar to deliver data at competitive and affordable
prices. The amount of data that can be
delivered over wireless systems becomes
The biggest challenge for operators in India is to double with growing number of multiple
deliver a Gigabyte of mobile data in less than antenna chains. The theoretical peak data rates
half a dollar. It was always difficult to deliver that can be supported in 20 Mhz of spectrum
data over wire line media at such cutthroat can achieve data rate well above 300 Mbps with
prices. 4G technologies like WiMAX and LTE has 4x4 MIMO systems. We envisage evolution of
come close in their ability to deliver broadband MIMO systems to play an important role in
data at very affordable prices and has the shaping Indian broadband wireless industry.
potential to reach half a dollar for a gigabyte of
data. The main reason attributed to delivery of With Similar amount of spectrum, the peak cell
affordable broadband data over 4G site data rate for different MIMO configuration
technologies is; is presented below to emphasize the weight of
MIMO systems in shaping India broadband
Higher spectral efficiency ( 2-3 times wireless systems. Data presented here is based
improved as compared to their 3G on 2 , 4 and 8 layer spatial multiplexing.
counterparts)
New and more economical broadband
spectrum as against to their cellular
counterparts( 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5)
Availability of bigger chunks of spectrum (
20 to 40 MHz)
Flat architecture reducing protocols and
network elements
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 18 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Figure 21: Peak Data Rate in Different MIMO As per Cisco the current visual application s
Configurations. requires average connection speed of anywhere
above 2 mbps in downlink to support most of
400 the applications over internet. Needless to say,
the availability of higher speeds in the networks
300
for consumers will only improve more rapid
2x2 MIMO
200 adoption and usage.
4X4 MIMO
100
8X8 MIMO Support of large connections in 4G
0
cells
10 MHz peak

One of the larger interests from the 4G

Deliver new internet applications
with 4G
It is expected that a 10MHz 4G system will
averagely achieve between 2000 – 7500 (kbps)
which is 2-3 times higher as compared to 3G
systems.
Figure 22: Date throughput vs. Coverage
technology is to support minimum of 500
concurrent connections, as wireless medium
will become the primary source of data delivery
in country. In our earlier analysis we found that
a minimum support of 450 to 500
simultaneously connections will be required per
cell site to deliver the need of urban
population in country.
The current release of WiMAX can support up
to 300 active and 600 non active consumers and
LTE will support at least 1200 consumers per
cell site in 20 MHz channel profile. The support
of higher number of active subscribers in 4G
technologies is crucial to keep the capex low.

To summarize , we believe that 4G technologies

has the potential to bridge the digital gap in
India and will play the vital role in shaping
broadband situation in country.

4G technologies has 2-3 times higher

A 20 MHz FDD 4G systems based on LTE or
WiMAX 16m would averagely deliver data rates
of 2000-12500(kbps) to the consumers.
spectral efficiencies and capability to
support bigger channel bandwidths which
will allow delivery of over a GB data for less
than a dollar.
4G technology can be scaled up to support
the growing mobile data

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 19 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

4G technologies have the capability to

Broadband connections Internet Users
deliver consistent data throughputs to
support the needs of visual applications. 16
14
Over 500 broadband subscribers can be
12
supported in a single 4G cell site. 10
4G architecture is flatter and has balanced 8
6
IPRs which will allow delivery of broadband
4
at least possible value. 2
0
A need for strong national Jan 06 Jan 07 Jan 08 Jan 09
broadband policy
Figure 23: Broadband and Internet users in
Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a India
foundation for economic growth, job creation,
global competitiveness and a better way of life.
But, broadband in India is at a nascent stage.
It is enabling entire new industries and
Approximately 1 Billion Indians does not have
unlocking vast new possibilities for existing
broadband at home. Broadband-enabled health
ones. It is changing how we educate children,
information technology (IT) can improve care
deliver health care, manage energy, ensure
and lower costs by hundreds of billions of
public safety, engage government, and access,
dollars in the coming decades, yet India is
organize and disseminate knowledge.
behind many advanced countries in the
Fueled primarily by investment from private adoption of such broadband technologies.
and public sector and innovation, the Indian
Government can influence the
broadband ecosystem has is growing rapidly.
The number of Indians who has broadband at broadband situation
home has grown from two million in 2006 to
nearly 8 million last year. The latest deployment Government can influence the broadband
of Ev-Do network by four operators has allowed ecosystem in many ways;
Indians to access a growing number of valuable
internet applications through innovative devices 1. Ensuring efficient allocation and use of
in larger locations. government-owned assets

Spectrum: Broadband spectrum is a major

input for providers of broadband services.
Currently, the Government of India has set
aside 60 megahertz of spectrum for BWA
applications which will be auctioned shortly.
This spectrum is just a fraction of the amount
that will be necessary to match growing

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 20 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India
demand. More efficient allocation and
assignment of spectrum will reduce deployment
costs, drive investment and benefit consumers
through better performance and lower prices.
Our analysis foresees that government of India
will require at least 450 to 600 MHz of new
spectrum in next decade to support the
broadband requirement of country. As wireless
will become the predominant way of
broadband delivery in country and hence the
availability of adequate spectrum is even more
important for India.
To draw from our analysis, we have projected
mobile data growth trends of internet traffic
measured from CISCO VNI index and other
operators with best know spectral efficiencies
from 4G systems taking 10 years into
consideration.
Projected mobile data traffic considers busy
hour data traffic requirement and also look
forward to factors that large amount of wireless
data will be offloaded to wi-fi and wire-line
networks in next 10 years.
Year Handsets Internet
centric
devices
2010 6 MB/H 20 MB/H
2015 48 MB/H 173 MB/H
2020 366 MB/H 1500 MB/H
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Mobile Data in Handsets
Broadband Data( BWA ,Laptops)
800
600
400
200
0
2010 2015 2020
Figure 24: Projected additional spectrum
requirement for India
Spectrum analysis summary;
Make 450 megahertz of spectrum newly
available for broadband within 10 years, of
which 270 megahertz should be made
available for mobile use within five years.
Reframe 2G spectrum for more flexible use.
More unlicensed spectrum: Expand
opportunities for innovative spectrum
access models by creating new avenues for
opportunistic and unlicensed use of
spectrum and increasing research into new
spectrum technologies.
Infrastructure: Infrastructure such as poles,
conduits, rooftops and rights-of-way play an
important role in the economics of broadband
networks. Ensuring service providers can access
these resources efficiently and at fair prices can
drive upgrades and facilitates competitive
entry.
The current right of way chargers are
exorbitantly high. If government can maintain
low ROW charges for broadband networks, it
will have direct impact on delivery of
20
 21 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

broadband services and will allow delivery at should have access to broadband service with
affordable levels. sufficient capabilities, all should be able to
afford broadband and all should have the
ROW (Per Km) US$ opportunity to develop digital literacy skills to
take advantage of broadband. This should
90000 include creating broadband funds to accelerate
deployment of broadband in country,
50000
40000
30000
20000
2. Promote polices and incentives for
broadband adoption.

Health care: Help ensure health care providers

have access to affordable broadband and create
Figure 25: Present right of way charges incentives for adoption by expanding
reimbursement for e-care.

Education: Provide and improve the

Summary of infrastructure;
Establish low and more uniform rental
rates for access to poles, and simplify the
process for service providers to attach
facilities to poles.
Improve rights-of-way management for
cost and time savings, promote use of
government facilities for broadband,
expedite resolution of disputes and identify
and establish “best practices” guidelines for
rights-of-way policies.
Facilitate efficient new joint infrastructure
construction and allowing joint deployment
of broadband infrastructure.
connectivity to schools, libraries and accelerate
online learning by enabling the creation of
digital content and learning systems, removing
regulatory barriers and promoting digital
literacy.
Economic opportunity: Support broadband
services and applications to drive job creation,
growth and productivity gains. Also expand
opportunities for job training and placement
through an online platform.
Public safety: Support deployment of a
nationwide, interoperable public safety mobile
broadband network in next 10 years.

Other Initiatives

Create mechanisms to ensure affordability to

low-income Indians: Creating incentives for
universal availability and adoption of
broadband.

Ensure all Indian have the opportunity to reap

the benefits of the broadband. All Indians
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 22 State and Opportunity of Broadband in India

Taking India to top 10 broadband 4. Use of 4G technologies for broadband

nations delivery would be most efficient way of
broadband delivery in India.
5. Government should establish low and more
It’s been a dream run for voice in India. India uniform rental rates for access to poles and
positions itself as number two nation in new reduce cost of right of way charges to
world order. enable broadband deployments in country.
6. Government should facilitate efficient new
joint infrastructure construction and allow
joint deployment of broadband
infrastructure.
7. If possible, a little amount of broadband
spectrum should be allocated free of cost to
operators with obligation of deploying
nationwide broadband network to have
higher broadband penetration in country.
8. Creating incentives for universal availability
and adoption of broadband in country.
9. Ensuring availability of low cost broadband
Figure 26: New Telecom World Order access devices to masses.
10. Operators will have to continuously
Innovate in delivering new services,
Our data story has been lacking for number of
improving network efficiencies and in
reasons which was also talked earlier
keeping broadband delivery cost as
throughout the paper.
minimum as possible.
We have listed top 10 items if done properly,
will take India into top10 broadband nations.

1. We need a strong national broadband

policy now focusing on making India top
broadband nations and polices consistent
towards that goal.
2. Ensure at least 270 MHz of spectrum
availability in next five years and over 450
MHz of new spectrum in coming decade.
3. Allocation of more unlicensed spectrum to
enable delivery of broadband in affordable
way.

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