Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) Steering Group Meeting Bangkok, 12 December 2017 Co-deployment Initiatives in Bangladesh and India Dr K M Baharul Islam Professor of Communications and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla, India
AGENDA Co-deployment in Bangladesh and India Emerging Opportunities Way Forward
BANGLADESH
Co-deployment of OFC along the railway routes in Bangladesh
Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh BANGLADESH BTRC there are currently 54,228 kilometres of fibre optic cable where the nationwide telecom transmission network Co-development of fibre optic has been done along the Highway by both government organizations and private companies Establishment of ICT Network to Remote Areas (Connected Bangladesh) RHD permitted several government organizations like ICT Division, BTCL and private companies GP, BL, Summit, Fibre Bangladesh etc. to install fibre optic work along Highway. Bangladesh s government has undertaken a project to extend fibreoptic connectivity to an additional 772 union councils the country s smallest rural administrative sub-divisions by end of 2018
BTRC: GIS Map of Nationwide Optical Fibre (Aug 03, 2016)
BANGLADESH RAILWAY Co-deployment of optical fibre has already been done along the Railway Route. Out of total 2877 km railway route, Bangladesh Railway has about 2300 km co-deployed with optical fibre Part of which have been leased out to Grameenphone Limited (GP) and Robi Axiata Limited. In addition, 380 km optical fibre is being laid along the construction of new railway lines. Bangladesh Railway has submitted Project Proforma to the planning commission for laying 575 km optical fibre along the rest secondary railway route.
Licence Total Holder Scenario / Operatorin BD OFC Coverage NTTN Summit Communication 20,670 km Fibre@Home 15,468 km Bangladesh Telecommunications 4,935 km Company Limited Power Grid Company of Bangladesh 4,402 km Bangladesh Railway 2,105 km Mobile Phone Operators Banglalink 3,000 km Grameenphone 2,500 km Other operators 1,157 km
INDIA
Optical Connectivity Drivers in India
INDIA India s 200,000 kilometres of highways RailTel- a government project started in 2000 to lay fiber optic cables along the routes of the railyway tracks. With bandwidth upto 400Gbps and redundancy re-routes they have a network of over 30,000KM BharatNet - to provide 1 Gbps (gigabit per second) bandwidth capacity at panchayat level. Targeting to connect 250,000 panchayat under the BharatNet network by March, 2019. Under the Phase I : 100,000 panchayats are targeted to be connected Phase II high-speed broadband to all panchayats by March 2019 Under the Phase II, the government aims to lay 1 million kilometers of additional OFC & give bandwidth to private telecom players at nearly 75% cheaper price for broadband and wifi services in rural areas.
OFC Pipe laid Optical Fibre laid Tenders Finalized Work Started* Description of Work Current Weekly performance of Optical Fibre laying Current Weekly performance of OFC Pipe laying Optical Fibre Cable Delivered on site Status 2,54,955 Kms (1,11,880 GPs) 2,46,161 Kms (1,05,274 GPs) 3334 Blocks / 1,24,757 GPs 3268 Blocks / 1,22,178 GPs 2316Kms 1008Kms 3,10,432 Kms Service Ready GPs BharatNet as on 3 Dec 2017 81,535 GPs
EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES
EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES BTRC has adopted an infrastructure sharing approach in order to minimize the cost of network deployment and to protect the environment by reducing the proliferation of telecom installations like mobile towers. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) 2008 Infrastructure Sharing Guideline (ISG) Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, in 2013, issued a fresh set of guidelines allowing private parties to deploy fibre optic cables along the highways Indian regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) : Infrastructure sharing at backend would not damage the sector s competitive landscape and in fact, such partnerships are necessary to make robust infrastructure project successful.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Bangladesh Information technology will become the basic infrastructure for garment manufacture, shipbreaking, agroindustry and food in future. Industry 4.0, a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technology, includes cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak State Minister for ICT Bangladesh "We have set a target of ensuring employment of 2 million people in ICT sector and achieve the export income of USD five billion by Bangladesh will surely become a high middle income country by 2021 and high income country by 2041 with the continuous expansion of ICT sector."
Future Prospects Sri Nitin Gadkari Minister for Road Transport & Highways Government of India India s 200,000 kilometres of highways can be used for laying optic fibre and oil and gas pipes, which will help the road ministry earn additional revenues. The Ministry Road Transport & Highways, Government of India has offered the use of this entire stretch for laying optic fibre and oil and gas pipes. Speech at INFOCOM 2017 July 14, 2017
TRAI R S Sharma Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Unless you make states partner, nothing will work and that s why we have recommended PPP (public private partnership) model for BharatNet. The alignment of states interest plays an important role, the chief regulator said We are a very robust mobile market, No 2 in the world and telcos made good job in connecting India and there is a huge improvement in wireless bandwidth
PARTNERS IN PROGRESS According to Road Transport and Highways Department, BD: Department of ICT, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) and Bangladesh Submarine Cable limited (BSCCL) are the major actors in codeployment in the country. Bangladesh Railway planning to open its optical fiber cable to others Department of Telecom says the regulator BTRC, operators and service agencies all are involved in co-deployment. BharatNet: Reliance Jio paid the highest advance subscription fee of Rs 13 crore (approx. Two Million USD) to provide broadband services at 30,000 gram panchayats, with a commitment to buy bandwidth in every panchayat from the government as it expands the project. Bharti Airtel paid Rs 5 crore (USD 740,000) for bandwidth buy to cover 30,500 village panchayats while Vodafone paid Rs 1100,000 and Idea Cellular Rs 500,000 lakh to buy bandwidth.
Thank You!! Email: bislam@iimkashipur.ac.in