Impact of National Fiber Network on Indian Broadband Market

What's latest in broadband technology in India & how are they going to benefit the end users?
FTTH (Fiber to the Home) & LTE are the two latest broadband technologies in India, that will provide the much required bandwidth & connectivity to the end users. FTTH is the best broadband technology available which operates on fiber & enables high speed data. LTE is the most advanced wireless technology for offering high speed data.
What are the challenges for next gen broadband network to become a reality?
Major challenge is to create a shared & converged fiber access infrastructure.
How is Sterlite contributing to overcome these issues?
Sterlite Networks Ltd. (SNL), the first organized private player in the country, has undertaken the project of mass roll out of Fiber connected homes. SNL is presently having the largest base of FTTx homes of 100,000 with more the 20,000 subscribers enjoying the experience of ultra-high speed broadband in a multi-service Provider environment.
What all services is going to consume or fuel next-gen broadband network in India?
VAS services like Video-on-Demand, Gaming, Security Surveillance, HD applications etc going to fuel next-gen broadband demand.
How do you see converged network solutions and what all is needed to make this a reality because we don't see seamless connectivity across devices?
The convergence has to happen in all four areas ie. Network Technology, Infrastructure, Devices & Applications. We are presently focusing on infrastructure.
Can you talk about the initiatives being taken across the length and breadth of the country on next gen broadband connectivity?
We believe, initially there has to a drive from the urban. We are creating shared FTTH infrastructure. SNL has selected its roll out area depending on market intelligence & understanding the end user dynamics, which is ideally suited for high penetration.
Fiber to Home technology seems to have enough potential for service providers to leverage including less power that it takes to serve end user. What benefits do Sterlite provides to the service provider?
SNL has created a shared infrastructure which has deferred the Capex of the Service Providers. SNL has selected its roll out area depending on market intelligence & understanding the end user dynamics, which is ideally suited for high penetration and generating high APRU. SNL is as well providing best quality services to the end customers.
On policy level, what all government interventions do we need moving forward to connect rural India?
The creation of the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) has opened up new possibilities of development in the Indian broadband market. The National Telecom Policy (NTP 2012), with its ‘Broadband on Demand vision', has also been heralded by the industry as a step in the right direction and is expected to add significant fillip to India's broadband penetration and growth.