Telecom service providers and optic fibre makers are demanding the Narendra Modi-led government to come out with incentives to encourage fibre deployments, a critical telecom infrastructure, ahead of much-anticipated fifth generation or 5G commercial rollout in the country.
“To incentivise operators, the government should draw out incentives so that operators are not challenged to deliver on fiber which is a critical element for India’s digital growth and story,” Reliance Jio president Mathew Oommen told ETT.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio is aggressively putting up a robust fibre network as it aims to deliver ambitious fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service dubbed as JioGigaFiber ahead of its much-awaited shift to 5G.
Oommen feels that service providers should use incentives for creating a deeper fiber with the redundancy of routes.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has seconded the views of Jio’s top executive, which otherwise in a few industry issues appears to have a different narrative such as on industry health.
“Private players should be incentivised to roll out fibre through tax incentives, rationalisation and easy investments,” the operators’ body in a statement said which is also a part of its series of demands to the government. The Delhi-based group represents Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel as well as Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Oommen believes that such incentives could be in the form of conducive policy to attract more investments in building fibre infrastructure by telcos, uniform and reasonable right of way policies with timely approvals.
The National Digital Communications Policy 2018, unveiled in September 2018 has accorded optic fibre cables, the status of ‘public utility’ and lays much emphasis on the fibre-first initiative with incentives and promotion of fibre connectivity for new residential and commercial developments.
However, the government is also considering to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to allow low-interest loans to telcos based on a previous industry recommendation that sought financial support for network expansion.
The national policy also aims to establish the National Fibre Authority (NFA) but, however, the department of telecom (DoT) is yet to take further steps.
The government aims to increase fibre footprint to fivefold by 2022, from the current 1.5 million route kilometres.
“Funds to accelerate fibre deployments is very important. In a digital society, India moves like many other countries. Fiber is really important,” Hans Hess, chairman of Switzerland-based Reichle & De-Massari AG, commonly known as R&M said.
Hess, also a chairman of the Swissmem, a Swiss association of mechanical and electrical engineering industries, feels that in order to produce more data and at a faster rate, a strong backbone is needed that can be built on fiber, and 5G would allow connecting the last mile regions with high-quality communication lines.
“5G is an interesting initiative. We believe India should be more fiberised to be a digital leader of tomorrow,” the top executive added.
Last year, the 5G high-level Forum headed by Stanford University professor AJ Paulraj recommended a broad planning estimate for investment on infrastructure over a period of four years to launch 5G-based services in tandem with matured markets worldwide.
“A significant amount needs to go into fiberisation or fiber densification. The policy goals aim towards a significant portion needed to be invested in fibre rollout,” Sterlite Tech group chief executive Anand Agarwal said.
Agarwal feels that a fiber fund should be put in place in addition to low-interest loans to facilitate initiatives by telecom carriers, Internet service providers and towers firms, and that should be operational by at least mid of 2019.
The national policy though points out towards low fibre penetration in the country, and added that less than a fourth of the telecom towers are fibre-connected, a key infrastructure component essential to offer ultra-high-speed data services over the next generation networks.
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