The telecom sector is the foundation on which various pillars of the Digital India programme are being built. Significant growth in this sector is the result of key reforms and initiatives taken by the government. This has facilitated the creation of the necessary infrastructure and attracted investment in the sector, leading to social and economic development, improvement of rural digital connectivity and near-universal coverage of telecom services.

In a year-end review report released by the Ministry of Communications, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) highlights various initiatives taken by the government and the milestones achieved by the telecom sector during 2020…

Key metrics

India continues to have the second largest number of telephone connections in the world. As of October 30, 2020, the total number of telephone connections stood at 1,171.72 million, of which 1,151.73 million were mobile connections. Overall teledensity reached 86.37 per cent, while rural teledensity stood at 58.85 per cent.

Internet and broadband penetration in the country grew at a rapid pace and the number of internet subscribers stood at 776.45 million at the end of September 2020. This accelerated the growth in internet traffic, with wireless data usage reaching 75.21 exabytes during January-September 2020. The cost of data has also reduced substantially to Rs 10.55 per GB, facilitating affordable internet access for millions of citizens.

Service delivery in villages through BharatNet

Under the BharatNet project, around 150,000 gram panchayats have already been connected with high speed broadband, which will help launch various services in rural areas. As of December 28, 2020, Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed in gram panchayats and about 480,000 fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband connections have been provided. In addition to Wi-Fi hotspots, the number of gram panchayats connected on state-wide area network (SWAN) stands at 5,330. The scope of BharatNet has now been enhanced to connect all 600,000 inhabited villages in the country. To leverage the potential and entrepreneurship of the private sector, a major part of the roll-out is being done through public-private partnerships.

Submarine OFC connectivity between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar Islands

The submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting the Andaman & Nicobar Islands to Chennai was launched on August 10, 2020. This connectivity will enable endless opportunities on these islands. Work for laying 2,300 km of submarine cable was completed before the targeted date. The task of laying cables under the sea, surveying in the deep sea, maintaining the quality of the cable and laying of the cable with specialised vessels has not been easy. The project also had to overcome challenges such as high waves, storms and monsoons and tough times owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submarine OFC connectivity between Kochi and Lakshadweep

During his 74th Independence Day speech on August 15, 2020, the prime minister announced that in the next 1,000 days, Lakshadweep would be connected with submarine OFC. The union cabinet, on December 9, 2020, approved the project connecting 11 islands of Lakshadweep to Kochi through 1,300 km of undersea OFC.

Revival of BSNL and MTNL

The long-pending issue of the revival of BSNL and MTNL was taken up by the cabinet. The cabinet’s comprehensive revival plan consists of several measures, including reduction of staff cost through voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), allotment of spectrum for 4G services, monetisation of land and building, tower and fibre assets of BSNL/MTNL, debt restructuring through sovereign guarantee bonds and in-principle approval of the merger of BSNL and MTNL.

The VRS was implemented successfully. A total of 92,956 employees of both public sector units (BSNL 78,569 and MTNL 14,387) opting for VRS have retired on January 31, 2020. The salary expenditure of BSNL and MTNL has reduced by around 50 per cent (approximately Rs 6 billion per month) and 75 per cent (approximately Rs 1.4 billion per month) respectively. The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation have become positive in the first half of financial year 2020-21 for both BSNL and MTNL.

The process of spectrum allocation for 4G services to BSNL on a pan-Indian basis, including Delhi and Mumbai, has been initiated and funds have been provisioned in financial year 2020-21. Sovereign guarantee of Rs 150 billion have been extended to BSNL and MTNL. BSNL and MTNL have raised funds from the market to restructure the existing high cost debt.

Managing the Covid-19 crisis

For effective management of the pandemic, CQAS (Covid-19 Quarantine Alert System) was developed for in-house monitoring and management of the quarantine geofence. Auto emails/messages (SMS) are sent to state government agencies, if any identified corona positive or quarantined person moves away from his/her quarantined mobile tower area. As of now, the system has been used by governments in 18 states and union territories. It has handled approximately 2,700,000 targets (identified Covid positive or quarantined persons) and generated more than 183 million quarantine breach alerts.

Meanwhile, more than 3 billion SMS alerts were sent to citizens in 10 vernacular languages in 26 states/union territories for Covid-19 awareness.

Other initiatives

Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI)

The union cabinet, on December 9, 2020, approved setting up of public Wi-Fi networks by public data office (PDO) aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service through PDOs spread across the length and breadth of the country, to accelerate the proliferation of broadband internet services through a public Wi-Fi network. This framework takes forward the goal of the National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 (NDCP) of creating a robust digital communications infrastructure across the country. It will encourage technology entrepreneurs to develop and deploy Wi-Fi technology solutions, triggering Make in India. This new ecosystem will also enable new business models for shopkeepers as potential PDOs to provide high speed broadband services. No licence fee will be charged for providing broadband internet services using public Wi-Fi hotspots. This step will massively encourage internet proliferation and penetration across the length and breadth of the country.

Simplifying regulations and reducing compliance burden for BPO/M, ITeS

While the guidelines governing other service providers (OSPs) had a provision for work-from-home (WfH) for their employees/agents, conditions were stringent and thus, the WfH facility was not being utilised optimally. During the current pandemic, OSPs and their customers faced challenges due to lockdowns, which called for urgent simplification of WfH guidelines to ensure continued operations of these entities. There was a pressing demand from OSPs seeking relaxation in terms and conditions with respect to WfH in the wake of Covid-19. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had also given certain recommendations on the issue. DoT, with the aim to qualitatively improve the IT industry’s ease of doing business, particularly business process outsourcing and management (BPO/M) and IT-enabled services (ITeS), held widespread consultations with all stakeholders, and issued new guidelines, which will tremendously reduce the compliance burden of the BPO industry.

Under the new guidelines, the registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with. Further, the BPO industry engaged in data-related work has been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations. In addition, requirements such as deposit of bank guarantees, requirement for static IPs, frequent reporting obligations, publication of network diagram, and penal provisions, have also been removed. Similarly, several other requirements that prevented companies from adopting WfH and “work from anywhere” policies have been removed. Additional dispensations to enhance flexibility for the industry have been allowed.

Development of online licence management system of DoT

A web-based portal, “Saral Sanchar” (simplified application for registration and licences), for issuing various types of licences and registration certificates for OSPs has been developed by DoT. Apart from licensing applications, several applications are being processed on this portal. Standing Advisory Committee for Frequency Allocation clearance has been made online and paperless. More than 25,000 tower sites have been cleared within three months.

Further, in line with the government’s priorities in terms of ease of doing business and simplification in the regulatory compliance process, a progressive change in the regulatory policy provision regarding equipment type approval (ETA) has also taken place. ETA and import licences for certain categories of consumer products with wireless modules operating in the delicensed band are now permitted through self-declaration by the applicant through this portal. Till date, around 11,000 ETAs have been given following the launch of the facility in April 2019.

The 5G ecosystem

The emerging 5G technology has the potential for major societal transformation in India by enabling massive expansion of digital products and services across all sectors. In order to launch 5G services in India, DoT has set up indigenous 5G test beds, a consortium project led by IIT Madras and other leading institutions. A 5G hackathon was also organised for the development of India-specific use cases. The first 5G use case lab has been set up at the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad, for the financial sector.