M-CONNECT
>
country that has embraced the telecentre concept, and people want to hear about what you have done. It really shows how we can combine public money and private money in a very effective way. How do you view India as a market or as a business model? We believe that India is probably the most innovative country in the world in terms of developing Community Service Centres (CSC). We have been watching what has been going on in India with very high interest and using it as an example to many countries in the world. For example I was recently in Sao Paulo for a broadband conference, and I actually showed an example from India. What I think is fantastic about India is that there is a vision which is not only about Internet access, but about services. For instance, your e-Seva project of Andhra Pradesh has a lot of creativity and innovation. They are selling services and not just Internet access, so it provides more value to the users. Users can benefit from the services without having to be Internet literate. The CSC’s have become a place of learning, with new services being developed to suit the user needs, and new business opportunities are created. India is of course a very important market for us. We have a big team in India, they have been working with service providers, talking about possible business models for CSCs. There are provisions where they have worked on the cost of coverage and the business model to be able to make it more sustainable. But as I said, we have also been using India as a role model as we have the most innovative things happening in India right now in business models. Someone asked me to compare what is going on in India and Latin America and I said what is great in India is that big private companies are really seeing the bottom of the pyramid as big market opportunities. So they are interested in creating applications for the CSCs for e-Government services. In some countries
that is not yet the case. Private companies have not yet understood the potential of business we could have with the bottom of the pyramid segment of the population. It is a new thinking, but I think in India it has been going on for quite some time. What are the challenges that you face as far as broadband connectivity goes? The challenge is to find the most cost effective way to increase the coverage and also meet the needs of the population. The needs vary from people who want the most advanced services like those available via a blackberry for example to people who cannot afford more than two dollars on their mobile phone, and both delivered from the same base station. Some of the innovation is coming from a new micro payment solutions. Mobile payment solutions are extremely advanced because there are millions of transactions to be processed and we are trying to be the number one worldwide in the prepaid mobile segment. It is an area where we have put a lot of investment. The other opportunity is for service providers to leapfrog to IP because it is very cost effective for high traffic volumes, it is flexible to respond to changing network demands and very scalable. What is your message for our readers. I just want to say that I have been amazed by what is happening in e-Governance in India and the way they bring e-Governance services to everyone. Another thing that I think is really well understood in India is the ability to leverage initiatives from different organisations and government organisations, like what they have done in Andhra Pradesh with the one stop portal for all e- Services. I think it is a very good initiative as it contributes to the e-Education plan and e-Agriculture plan. I think in India the concept of CSCs is great. We are really watching what is going on in India and we are promoting what you are doing.
Nine Telecom Applicants Get Approval The Indian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has approved applications of nine telecom aspirants and is close to issuing them Letters of Intent (LoIs). The approval would be followed by issuance of universal access service (UAS) licences and allocation of spectrum. However, the allocation of spectrum will take some time as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was finalising the amount of vacant spectrum. The proposals were pending with the Telecom Ministry after the
42
DoT’s approval of applicants last month. Though, the issue of spectrum is still a concern as the DoT’s Wireless Planning and Coordination cell is in the process of identifying vacant spectrum. The department is also awaiting vacation of spectrum by the defence forces. Apart from Datacom Solutions, Aska Projects, Spice Communications, Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom (a subsidiary of BPL Mobile), Unitech Builders & Estates, Nahan Properties, S Tel and Shyam Telelink are in the fray for start-up spectrum.
www.egovonline.net
ov