INTERNET FOR ALL: INDIAN VILLAGERS TO GET ACCESS AT PRICES THEY CAN AFFORD
By Frederick Noronha [EMAIL PROTECTED] India's hundreds of millions of rural dwellers are given a cold-shoulder by businessmen, and lack the access to goods, services and information they so badly require. From Chennai in Southern India comes a unique technological solution -- a Internet kiosk that will sell for just Rs 40,000 (around US$830) and could link up hundreds of thousands of villages. What's best is that no subsidies or handouts are involved in this ambitious project. It will be run on business lines, and early field-implementations are already showing this to be both scaleable and practical for implementation across rural India. To every man (and woman) a Net connection. And a phoneline to everyone wanting it. These goals are what electrical engineering prof Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala dreams about consistently. They're not just dreams; he's also getting there, as recent experience shows. Could this professor and head of the Indian Institute of Technology's electrical engineering department in Chennai, do to the Internet what Satyen 'Sam' Pitroda did to Indian telephones in the 1980s? Vastly open up access, to make it a tool for the commonman? US-based Indian expat Pitroda was a keen observer of the telecommunication problems in the Third World. Telecom technology came from the West, and didn't suit the dusty, humid and unreliable electrical connections in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was convinced that India must develop an indigenous telecommunications industry. In 1981, he launched plans to set up India's Centre for the Development of Telematics (C-DoT). Not only did this design indigenous telecom switching systems, to make rural exchanges that could work under tougher conditions, but equipped ordinary telephones with small meters. This equipment was sold to local entrepreneurs, who set up manned public call offices (PCOs) on makeshift tables in bazaars, at streetcorners, or in shops. They did work! By the year 2000, some 650,000 of these PCOs were set up across India, instantly making a world of a difference to the potential of the average Indian to access a telephone. (See 'India's Communication Revolution - From Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts', Singhal and Rogers, 2001, p194-198). But India, with its 1000+ million population, still badly needs some 200 million more Internet and telephone connections. This is essential if the commonman is to get access to the wonders of new information and communication technologies, and if his productive potential is to be developed better, instead of getting wasted. But at current costs of the technology, India simply can't reach anywhere near that figure. So, how does one go about making the Internet and telephones simply a little more affordable? Ask Prof Jhunjhunwala.... His arguments are simple. "We've learnt important lessons from the whole experiment of expanding STD (subscriber trunk-dialling) access within India. What has made a world of a difference was the policy of sharing revenue with the small operator. Instead of one per cent of the Indian population today getting access to STD phones, now nearly 30% of the population has it," he adds. Sitting in his unostentatious and spartan office, Prof Jhunjhunwala says India also has lessons to learn from the growth of cable-TV in the country. Today, millions of Indians across the country get low-cost access to cable-TV, provided through local networks run mostly by the unorganised sector. At a very affordable rate of about Rs 100 per month, a family gets connected to three dozen or more cable channels. This affordable package evolved simply because the informal sector and the small-entrepreneur has been involved in giving out this service. "So, there is a tremendous amount of accountability. Even a difficult technology can be handled. Its costs can be lowered, by involvement of the informal sector, and the benefits thus passed on to the consumer," says Dr Jhunjhunwala. So what do we learn from this, if we are to spread telecom at affordable rates to the hundreds of millions of India? Costs must be pushed down; and local microbusinessmen must be involved in the mammoth task of expanding the service. "It currently costs (an investment of) Rs 30,000 to install a single telephone line. To cover this investment, you need a revenue of at least Rs 1000 per phone line per month. These rates are affordable to just 2-3% of the Indian population. But if you bring down the investment needed for a phone line to Rs 10,000, then affordability of telephones could immediately go up to 30 per cent or more of our population," points out Dr Jhunjhunwala. For much of the 'nineties, Dr Jhunjhunwala has been working with missionary zeal towards this goal. His focus has been to 'incubate' companies of his former students and entrepreneurs -- often those inspired by his infectious optimism -- to work to lowering the cost of a telephone connection in India. "We've not yet reached the figure of Rs 10,000 per phone line. But we've brought down costs currently to Rs 18,000 per line," he says proudly. Just because this technology is inexpensive, it's not poor quality. "Look at this connection; it has been working continuously for 13 hours at a stretch, and has transferred 1 gigabite of data", says a confident Dr Jhunjhunwala, just before he snaps the link to the Internet. Besides, this technology has gained acceptance in countries as remote and distinct at Madagascar, Brazil, Fiji, Nigeria, Iran and elsewhere. Says the professor: "These technologies have been developed by companies that have been incubated by us. Like Midas Communication, Banyan Networks, etc." n-LOGUE EXPERIMENT ------------------ One of the interesting companies that this Chennai (formerly Madras)-based professor helped recently spawn is called n-Logue. It is currently engrossed in providing Internet and telephone services primarily to India's small towns and rural areas. "Existing operators are really not focussed on rural areas. They believe rural areas can't generate money, and see rural areas as a burden," says Dr Jhunjhunwala. To this end, Prof Jhunjhunwala and n-Logue came out recently with an innovative solution: a complete Internet kiosk for just Rs 40,000. It uses the wireless-in-local-loop technology. At under the equivalet of US$800, n-Logue is offering wireless equipment, with its antennaes and cables and mast; the telephone instrument; an STD-PCO meter; a good personal computer Pentium 700Mhz, with multimedia and a colour monitor and a batter backup for at least four hours of PC usage; with Indian-language software to make computing relevant to the millions here. "We're providing all this at Rs 40,000. This was the most difficult thing. And this was one of the key work we have done over the last several years," says Dr Jhunjhunwala. "(Since we're talking about low investments) we can create an army of rural entrepreneurs. They could avail of small loans, to set up their own rural STD phone-cum-Internet centres," says Prof Jhunjhunwala. He explains their plan of tying up with LSPs, or local service providers. These small rural-businessmen will be 50% partners, and since they would be from the local areas where they operate, they would have far better contact with those whom they work with. In a 25-km radius, they expect to find buyers for 500 to 700 connections. These could be individuals, government offices, schools -- and most importantly -- Internet kiosks that make access open to everyone. This level of operation should make a LSP viable, feels Prof Jhunjhunwala. Even if the numbers don't come in immediately, they would in a year's time when people start realising how new communication technologies empower them. Work towards this end is already underway at Cuddalore district, in India's southernmost province of Tamil Nadu. In Madurai (also in Tamil Nadu) and Dhar of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, this technology is also being successfully implemented. Likewise, in Bagru of Rajasthan and Sangrur in North India, the project is starting up. "We could have a million subscribers in a three to four year time-frame. It's possible. We are focussed only on small towns and rural areas. We will not do large cities (as there are others who are currently rolling out Internet and phone services there)," says Prof Jhunjhunwala. Simultaneously, Prof Jhunjhunwala is inspiring youngsters to work on rural Internet applications. For instance, one young team has worked on a Tamil-Hindi-English spreadsheet. It currently works on the Windows operating system, and will soon be ported to Linux. Also on offer is word-processing in the local Tamil language, a mail-client in Tamil, and also IRC (Internet relay chat) or voice-mail in the local language. An agricultural-portal in the regional language is also in the making. All this would help make the Internet something potentially very useful in the lives of the average villager. "We're adopting two key elements. Affordability, since everything is very low cost, and involving a local person in providing the solutions," says Prof Jhunjhunwala, explaining his model. DREAMING, DELIVERING -------------------- Over the past five to six months, the concept has been given shape. Says Prof Jhunjhunwala, as n-Logue CEO P.G.Ponnapa looks on: "The challenge is to make it happen to scale. That's his (Ponnapa's) job. Our job is to dream; his job is to deliver." But this is no mere dream. Prof Jhunjhunwala has proven the robustness of his technology in the past. Today, the Cordect wireless-in-local-loop (WiLL) technology he earlier worked on, has been accepted by mainstream companies like the government giant BNSL, MTNL, Shyam Telelink and others. Says Ponnapa: "Other than the sheer numbers (what is exciting) is the ability to make a different in a guy's life. He should believe this kiosk is a lifeline to a better life." He explains that rural dwellers suffer from a low-access to goods and services, low credit and the lack of communication facilities. "Our solution can solve a significant part of the second and third problems," says he. Perhaps what also needs to be noted is that this attempt tries to make the technology commercially viable, and affordable even to those considered 'poor'. In other words, it will not be dependent on huge sums of government subsidies or foreign aid being poured in, to prop it up. Prof Jhunjhunwala says that they have received good support from the government and non-profit development organisations. "All find it a fantastic route (to solve the long-time problem of offering access to the commonman at affordable rates)," says he. "Look at this live video lecture," says a proud Prof Jhunjhunwala, pointing to a personal computer by his side. To demonstrate its capabilities, he also points to the fact that one can make a simultaneous telephone call, even while accessing the Net, using the wireless-in-local-loop technology. "If I put that up in any village, the people there can get an STD-PCO (subscriber trunk dialling-public call office) and at the same time, access the Internet in graphical mode," says Prof Jhunjunwala. "It's possible to have a small-size face-and-shoulder lecture, and at the same time to use the phone," says Prof Jhunjhunwala, pointing to the two-channels that his Cordect wireless in local loop solution offers. "This is the kind of thing that's possible with the technology today. (Internet speeds of) 35kbps can offer a very significant kind of traffic," he points out. Says n-Logue's CEO Ponappa: "There are basically three reasons why these people remain backward. Or why rural areas don't get enough development as they should. (a) They don't get access to good quality goods (b) They don't have access to good quality credit and (c) They don't have access to good quality communication. What we believe is that by implementing this across rural India, the second and third areas would be significantly addressed." So far n-Logue has implemented this solution in four centres. "The first level feedback has been extremely encouraging. We have kiosks running in the middle of Madhya Pradesh, where the average revenue a kiosk-man makes if Rs 4500 per month. Net of expenses, he makes Rs 3000 per month; which makes him a rich man in that village. This guy is typically someone 21 to 25 years old," says Ponappa. DEPEND ON OURSELVES ------------------- Dr Jhunjhunwala strongly argues that the Third World has to depend on itself to locate its own telecom solutions. Technology solutions from the West won't really help make telecom affordable here, he argues. "It's not because of any other reason. But at the current cost of Rs 30,000 ($700-800) you need 40 to 45% return, which is $300 roughly a year. This is about $30 per month, a figure which is affordable to almost every family in the West." So really, 15 years back, in the West they got everyone connected. Now, lowering the basic cost of telephony is no longer a priority. "Because their market does not depend on creating new market. Their market is a replacement market. They essentially have to work to work to provide more features and services, keeping the costs constant." Therefore Western technology has been focussing on mobility, on higher bit-rate services. "They've been working on all those things, rather than bringing down the cost of telecom. That's the reason that for the last 15 years, the cost has remained at US$800 to 1000. It has not come down," says Dr Jhunjhunwala. "(Firms in the West) don't have any incentive to bring down prices. It is our problem, and we who have to take that up," says he. Someone made the mistake of asking Prof Jhunjhunwala who was funding the 'experimental projects' he was currently carrying on. An angry professor shot back, "We're not doing experimental projects. We are doing revenue-generating projects. What is there to experiment about? We've used this technology in 11 countries. The time is over for experiments now." As we finishing our discussion, Prof Jhunjhunwala left the spartan buildings of the IIT, one of India's prestigious technology education institutions, kick-started his scooter, and rode off with an air of determination over what he's doing... and what he hopes to achieve. (ENDS) Contact details: Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor and Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Chennai. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel (44) 235 2120 (OF) or 235 3202 / 445 9355 (R) PG Ponnapa, Chief Executive Officer n-Logue Communications Private Limited, Adyar Chennai. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph 445 5210/12/21/23 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Frederick Noronha | Freelance Journalist | 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India Ph [0091] 832.409490 or 832.409783 Cell 9822 12.24.36 [EMAIL PROTECTED] *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>