Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, May 27, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
Opinion
-
Telecommunications Upgrading public telephone booths... Unique solution to low telephone density T. H. Chowdary
Public telephones ensure that 98 per cent of the country's population has access to a telephone. If unremunerative booths close down, this benefit will be lost; hence, the kiosks need to be reinvented. — Bijoy Ghosh
QUITE often, the telephone density (the number of telephones for 100 people) of a country is referred to while comparing the development of telecommunications in different countries. It has been pointed out that while the affluent countries (for instance, the 30 or so members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) have telephone densities between 60 and 87, India's is less than 5. People are apt to forget that when 30 per cent of the people are below the poverty line and the affluence of the upper quintile of India's population is but a fraction that of the OECD countries, it is not sensible to compare the telephone densities. While our businesses, government, industries and institutions must have as many telephones and every type of telecommunication and information service, as they need the ordinary people, especially those in the villages and remote areas must be able to communicate by telephone or access the Internet on the occasions that they need. That means the telecommunication network and the information services that it supports, must be covering all the villages and the poor quarters in the urban areas. India has been doing extremely well in this regard. Beginning in the late 1970s the national objective was to put a public telephone (PT) in every village, irrespective of the cost and the revenue from such PTs. The Andhra Pradesh telecom policy envisaged ghar ghar mein radio; gaon gaon mein telephone (a radio in every home and a telephone in every village). It initiated the policy of putting the public telephone in a grocer shop, prefering those that are run by physically disabled persons so that the later class can make an honourable living. On every outgoing call, part of the call charge collected from the caller as commission was given to the grocer/physically disabled person. This practice in Andhra Pradesh, over the next few years, became the national policy. The usefulness of the Village Public Telephone (VPT) would be enhanced if national and international calls (STD and ISD) could be made from every one of them, but the type of exchanges that existed in the villages until the late 1980s could not permit STD and ISD calls, except with special arrangements. The development of the digital electronic exchanges of small capacity (128 to 512 lines and their multiples) by the C-DOT (Center for Development of Telematics), and the rapid and extensive deployment of these in the rural areas in the 1989-2000 decade, dramatically extended STD and ISD to even the rural subscribers. Today, of the over 35,000 telephone exchanges in the country, more than 25,000 are indigenously developed and manufactured C-DOT exchanges in the rural areas and small towns. From 1991 to 1996, the indigenously developed multi access rural radio system (MARR) was also put into place which enabled the connection of village telephones to the nearest telephone exchange, not by wirelines but by wireless. These are now being replaced by digital radio systems. Of the country's over 600,000 villages, over 520,000 already have at least one public telephone, some connected by wires and others by wireless. Almost all of these have STD and ISD facilities. Additionally, there are, in the towns and cities, 800,000 public telephones with the STD/ISD signboard. During the former Telecom Minister, Mr Sukh Ram's time (1993-96) these STD/ISD public telephones in towns and cities were given to whosoever applied; in fact, there was a political motive. The Minister appointed Allotment Committees for PTs in each State and city. As this mostly comprised his party-men, the party greatly benefited by the subversion of a good idea for service, for party and personal benefit. While in the 1980s the commission given to the STD/ISD booth attendants was about 10 per cent, from Mr Sukh Ram's time it was double, or more. Many STD/ISD booth operators have come to look at this service as primary as means of livelihood. Quite a number of them are getting Rs 2,000-5,000 per month, and many a booth has become more comfortable for users because of the competition between different booths to attract customers. Since 2002, Internet telephony between Internet subscribers and from public Internet booths to telephones in foreign countries (not within India) are allowed. Instead of making an international call from an ordinary telephone at a huge cost of Rs 72 per minute, as in 2002, one can nowadays make such calls from one's PC through the Internet or from a public Internet kiosk at a fraction of the price — less than Rs 7 per minute. Competition has brought down national long distance (STD) call prices; up to 200 km it is costlier than a local call and in the longest distance slab, the price has come down from Rs 36 per minute to less than Rs 5! Therefore, the usage of the public telephone booth for STD and ISD calls are going down and, hence, the commission to the booth owners. Many of the STD/ISD booths are planning to close down because of the insufficient commission. This would be a tragedy. The Prime Minister's Task Force on Information Technology and Software (of which I was a Member and the AP Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandra Babu Naidu, the Co-Chairman) did anticipate this. Our recommendation that STD/ISD public telephones all over the country, including those in the villages, must be upgraded into Public Telecommunications Information Centers (PTICs) by converting them into Internet kiosks has been accepted and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was directed to accomplish this. In partial fulfillment of this directive, the DOT/BSNL has extended Internet services to over 4,000 tahsil/mandal towns. In all these places, the PTs can be upgraded into Internet kiosks. This will require capital investment by the booth owners of about Rs 50,000 to acquire a PC, a modem, a scanner and an Internet connection. Since most of the PTs are provided from the telephone network of the Bharath Sanchar Nigam/MTNL, the booth owners can become the Internet service franchisees of the BSNL/MTNL. The AP Government delivers about 40 services in its e-Seva scheme. Begun in Hyderabad 18 months ago, it is being extended to 117 Municipalities in the State (by September 2003) and to between 2,500 and 5,000 villages spread all over the State by December 2003 through STD/ISD booths upgraded into Internet kiosks for delivering the e-Sevas. The booth owner can charge an approved user fee for many of these and many more applications to be developed; all these user fees will go to him. Instead of delivering only telephony, he will deliver e-Sevas and Internet seva. Therefore, the income he is earning from the commission will, instead of declining, go up. Desiring that the e-Seva benefit should go to villages. Since private companies and booth owners themselves may not be incenstived to incur the upgradation investment, the Andhra Pradesh Government has taken the initiative of this upgradation scheme as an `IT for the Masses' programme on its own. It got all the banks in the State to finance the upgradation cost; it is also giving a part of the capital required as subsidy. This initiative, I am sure, will be followed by other States and the Union Government to take IT benefits to the masses and to reach the rural and remote people. The Government of India has constituted the Universal Service Fund (USF) and it has also appointed an Administrator for this purpose. Among other purposes the USF, which is 5 per cent now of the gross revenues of every licensed telecom company, will be used to subsidise the public telephones and Internet kiosks in rural and remote areas and also for a certain class of rural subscribers. This fund could be as much as Rs 2,000 crore per year at 5 per cent of the telecom revenues; currently, this comes out of the revenue the telcos share with the Government as a condition of licence. Economic efficiency in utilisation of the subsidiary will be achieved by inviting bids from telephone companies to take over the existing STD public telephones as well as to put new ones in unconnected villages and upgrade them into Internet kiosks. Whichever company asks for the least subsidy will be given the licence to upgrade and operate public telephones and public Internet kiosks. It is not the telephone density that is an index of the availability and affordability of telephones in not so affluent countries like ours. What percentage of the national territory has a telecom network? What percentage of the population has access to a telephone, either on individual subscription or public access basis? On these counts, we are doing well. About 98 per cent of our population has access to a telephone; and over 90 per cent of the inhabited area is covered by the telecom network. The rest can be done, including the most difficult areas, over the next two to three years. We are using satellite systems for putting public telephones in the remote and not easily accessible habitations in forest, hilly and desert areas and are using solar (photo-voltaic) power, where there are no roads. One thing that is peculiar to the public telephones is that they are only the originating points. They hardly receive incoming calls, although this is possible; the called party will have to be brought to the both by a messenger; this would mean extra costs; the caller would have to call again. This cannot be popular. Instead, voice-mail boxes can be created for those who want such a service. Now that there are competing telephone companies offering long-distance (STD and ISD) and local services, fixed and mobile services separately, the call charges include different elements — local call charge, long distance charge, terminating charge, airtime charge, and so on. The booth operators do on not receive any termination charges. That is why there has to be a special tariff for the calls from the public telephones / public Internet kiosks so that there is an appropriate compensation to the booth owners for their services. Before the STD/ ISD booth operators get into terminal distress and closure, there should be widespread discussion on the public telephone and public Internet service and their business viability. We cannot afford the discontinuance or diminution in the number of public telephone/Internet kiosks. We must also not have a situation where people who have come into this service sector and are making a living from are thrown out of their vocation. (The author is Information Technology Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh.)
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|