From the media

Bombay is not yet on par with the great cities of the world as far as the telecom service go, but thanks to liberalisation, it is not a distant dream, observes Suchit Nanda

The world around us is turning digital. However, India hasn't been unaffected by the global change; far from it, it has seen more dramatic changes and will continue to. Thanks to the liberalisation of the economy and the increasing presence of new providers who help change the way we do business, globalisaiton is here to stay. On her own India would be a deserted ship in the 'digital sea' without adoption of these new and very promising tools.

Basic infrastructural services like telecom and power are lagging far behind according to world standards. For our 950 million-odd population, there are less than 9 million phones, which is far below the world average of one phone for every ten people, and the waiting list to obtain one is an unthinkable for another two years.

Clearing the backlog and achieving the nation's target of 30 million phones by the year 2000 at the estimated cost of over $20 billion, is far more than the government can afford. Making the most of the situation, almost every major telecom company is eager to get their foot in. What one needs now is a deft handling of the situation - a far cry from the bungling of the cellular phone tenders and the preposterous licensing requirements of some of the "Value Added Services" being imposed by our telecom Czars in the guise of DoT (Department of Telecommunications).

Although India was just three years behind the US in installing the first telephone exchange, it is now nearly a decade late in even some very basic areas. Bombay has 11.27 lakh telephone connections and a waiting list for another one lakh. The only saving grace is the mushrooming of communication centres in the recent years - the city has approximately 4,874 of these.

The pager services, which have been recently introduced to the city, have a whopping 4,500 subscribing to it. But the sales have been greatly affected by the precondition that the instruments are to be bought strictly from DoT vendors. The general opinion is that the instruments should be freely available.

Modems have made it possible to remain connected and in tune with rest of the world, and pull out information almost immediately when required. With a simple technology at its core, it has touched and affected the lives of millions of people worldwide. One of the biggest uses of modems is E-mail.

The online scene in India has elicited an enthusiastic response, but, for all practical purpose, is in a state of flux. There has been a flood of players in what was virtually a virgin market and others are still coming in. Existing players like Business India, Dart, ICNet and new entrants like RPG-Sprint and Datapro are all vying for a slice of the cake.

With all this excitement around, DoT wants its pound of flesh and is likely to get what it asks for. What is conspicuous by its absence is a neutral regulatory body that can ensure a leveled playing field. Since DoT acts as a regulator as well as a provider, questions about how it can remain unbiased, come to the fore.

Almost all the players today are simply talking about E-mail, file transfers and FAX - the most primitive of online services. There is little talk about databases, since there isn't much data collected anyway, and almost no one talks about Internet connectivity which is where the action is. Today, only ERNET under the Department of Electronics (DoE) and NICNET has actual connectivity to Internet. That this is severely limited in terms of who gets access and the band width possible.

Companies or individuals that want to connect to the Internet have no option at all but to spend phenomenal amounts of money to get connected and yet wonder about the legal aspect of the issue. It is believed that the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), which is our only international carrier, is shortly coming out with a plan to provide Internet to the public.

If everything works out as per the plan, this would be a great step forward. What we have to wait and see is the price being quoted and the strings that would be attached to it.

The DoT, in all its wisdom, has imposed a licence fee of Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh per annum on E-mail operators. Interestingly, this only covers basic E-mail services which is just one component of the value-added services.

E-mail on the Internet is just a part of the entire network. One wonders how DoT would react if someone was to make these services available to the public in the open market like combinational technologies covered under the VAS, hooking the pagers to E-mail services or sending faxes using cellular phones. Would principles of double taxation apply here? The need for granting permission and charging licence fee for add-on equipment to telephones such as the fax, modems, cordless phones or answering machine s must be abolished.

Recently, the Rs. 3000 per annum charge for use of fax has been lowered to Rs. 300, bringing it on par with what is charged for a modem. However, one wonders why there is such a fee at all? A fax or a modem does not load the system in any way; it ultimately boils down to sound signals that are being transmitted - be it a human voice, a fax or a modem signal. Free use of these tools, in fact, encourages subscribers to use the telephone network more, thus bringing in higher revenues.

All these factors have resulted in a marginal use of the existing technologies. There are just about 350 educational institutions and about 3,000 individuals in the country who use E-mail regularly. This is a far cry from the estimated 10 million in the US alone and the hundreds of thousands in Singapore and Hong Kong.

If the government was serious about the helping the country progress, they would abolish all such laws that curtail growth in this area. Just as the commercial providers, even the networks have not been spared, with the inclusion of Bulletin Board Services (BBSs) - the emerging electronic platform for social interaction - in the list of value-added services.

With a threat of license fee looming over the heads, SysOps (System Operators) are at the mercy of DoT, which is to decide their fate shortly. Despite BBSs being similar to HAM operators, who provide a public service, they are being asked to pay an exorbitant mandatory licence fee of Rs. 15 lakh per annum! Interestingly, India would be in the unique position of being the first country to do so.

It is high time that somebody stood up and stopped this. In a move to counter DoT, SysOps have formed the Forum for Rights to Electronic Expression (FREE), a body which protects the rights of the cybercitizens.

If Bombay has to become Singapore or Hong Kong, it has to pro-actively do a lot more than dream. One glance at the current scenario is enough for everyone to see that we are at least a decade behind these cities. Bombay has the potential of becoming the commercial centre of this region - but can it do so? Just as an example, Hong Kong has over 300 BBSs while there are only 30 in India!

It is common to find computer-based voice mail systems answering phones and taking messages. The year ahead is going to see a quantum leap in their strengths. Video phones promises to do just the opposite - show the face behind the voice. As of now, the existing systems are pretty expensive, and the pictures bad. With Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) and higher band width allocation per subscriber, it could change for the better.

But the buzz word today is Multimedia. The convergence of text, sound and video on to a common medium holds a lot of promise.

This is one segment that is going to see one of the fastest growth around and there are firms in the city.

Another concern is the security of networks which is indispensable. What is needed is a lot of care and thought when designing and implementing networks. The Information Super-highway is vulnerable to electronic bandits unless adequate care is taken.

(Suchit Nanda is a technology consultant and the co-author of War on Virus. He also runs a weekly column for a leading computer magazine)