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Monday,
May 01, 2006
MUMBAI
The Second Summit, March 10, 2006
Session I
One Year of Broadband in
Retrospect: Major learnings and
the Road Ahead
The first session discussed the
performance of Broadband in the
previous year and the learnings
derived from it. The business models
that will help in bringing down
costs were also discussed along
with the possible future technologies.
The obstacles of the future were
also discussed.
Kuldeep Goyal, chief general manager,
BSNL (Maharashtra) began by saying
that the previous year was very
challenging, and was full of learning
but the targeted milestone was not
achieved. |
“We
have found that penetration is poor
due to lack of demand, and for that
we have to popularize broadband
and increase PC penetration,”
he added. He said the spread of
broadband was limited to urban areas,
and for taking it to the rural areas
there is need to develop localized
and relevant content. He added that
video on demand and gaming is sure
to pick up soon.
Parind
Parekh, CEO, Exatt Technologies
was of the view that more players
entering the field has led to healthy
competition and better quality of
service. He said, “The ISP
community coming together to standardize
their packages, and with PSUs coming
up with interesting schemes we are
also gearing up for the same. It
can be safely said that broadband
is steadily growing in the country.”
Ruzan
Khambatta, CEO & MD, E-Comm
Opportunities added that “one
of the factors that has helped us
grow is that we ourselves provide
services without tying up with local
cable operators and have full control
over the business. We are focused
on a personalized service to gain
competitive edge over other industry
players,” she added. She was
of the view that people want mobile
Internet connection and they want
package deals. “Last mile
connectivity is still a major obstacle
for broadband,” she added.
Prashant
Arya, chief manager, Business Development,
Sterlite Optical Technologies pointed
out that the infrastructure for
broadband was still working on the
one designed for voice services.
“At this point of time, there
is no standard for network infrastructure,
and manufacturers and service providers
have to try out various models and
find the one best suited for them.
At present, ISPs can not offer ISD
or STD calling and this is a regulatory
drawback for standalone ISPs; and
that is the reason for triple play
not happening,” he added.
According to him, price of the content
was also an issue along with the
cost of deploying network infrastructure.
He added that service operators
need to demand more from their vendors
and they have to find solutions
and go for innovation-this will
solve all the issues. |
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Session
II
The Hunt for Killer Services:
Will IPTV/Video on Demand
Hit Big Time
This session discussed what
groundwork was needed to provide
services through broadband
and whether IPTV and video
on demand will gain popularity.
What would be the killer applications
and how to bring down costs
of networks? The issues related
to these applications and
networks were also discussed.
Piyush
Aggarwal, head, Broadband,
MTNL was of the view that
the service providers were
facing the challenges of network
infrastructure and bandwidth
requirement. “Content
aggregation is another area
to be worked on and storage
management and improvement
of backend processes are major
areas which need improvement.”
There are various options
which can be considered, according
to the business model and
the service providers' experience,
he added. Also that voice
has been a killer application
for a long time and will continue
to be so in the future. “IPTV
is a great opportunity in
the area of broadband, if
a proper model of revenue
sharing and delivery to the
customer is developed-then
it can be a killer application,”
he added. He pointed out that
in India there were no guidelines
for the technical aspects. |
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Amit
Kumar, director, Technology
and Content Operations,
Times Broadband pointed
out that video centric
delivery was a different
ball game, which needs
to be nurtured with
a lot of care. “Digital
content delivery is
a powerful medium and
soon industry players
will realize its potential,”
he added. On the issue
of killer applications,
Kumar added that gaming
will be the killer application
but it needs a lot of
attention. He pointed
out that audio on demand
is also picking up globally.
“Providing differentiated
services is the need
of the hour. The customer
should get any content
any time an any cost,
that will be digital
empowerment,”
he added.
Arun
Neralaghatta, project
manager, IPTV &
Streaming Media Services,
HP added that along
with service providers,
content providers should
also take initiative
to provide content for
broadband. “The
problem is that there
are no standards for
networks and service
providers have no flexibility
once the network is
deployed. “There
are going to be many
more services available
in future such as next
generation IPTV. Therefore,
service providers need
flexible platforms which
can be integrated with
their existing networks,”
he added. He was of
the view that media
on demand was the killer
application irrespective
of geographical boundaries.
We need software, which
can take content to
multiple formats, and
we need to device new
ways to manage the content. |
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Sudhir
Gosar, CTO, In2Cable
added that digital TV
using CAS, along with
broadband would enable
providing video on demand
to the subscribers.
He was of the view that
the killer applications
will be the one, which
will hold value for
the user, and the killer
application for broadband
could be learning and
education. “Entertainment
will be and always was,
a killer application.
Interactivity will be
the killer application
for the masses,”
he added. He also said
that technical standards
were in place but when
it comes to deployment
of models, there are
no standards.
Session
III
Building the
Right Content Ecosystem:
Partnership Model and
Revenue Share
The panel discussed
the appropriate content
ecosystem and the ways
in which content can
be optimally utilized.
The cost models for
content delivery were
also discussed.
Anil
Garg, CTO, Set India
was of the view that
the regulatory aspects
of the broadband services
need to be designed
properly. “There
is no SLA or quality
of service guidelines
for |
broadband
service providers. Therefore,
we are scared to provide
content for broadband,”
he added. India is a
huge number opportunity
and there is a great
potential provided issues
such as SLAs and QoS
are addressed.
Ishwar
Jha, vice president
(Technology), Zee Network
added that the first
phase is to realize
the content which will
be popular among consumers.
“The issue is
that we are there to
give the content, the
issue is to get the
content secured,”
he added. He also pointed
the need for a balanced
business model which
will survive.
Alok
Kejriwal, CEO, contest2win.com
emphasised that anybody
can create an ecosystem.
According to him, gaming
was the best application
for broadband as the
thrill of doing things
in real time is another
world to explore. “Indians
have adapted technology
faster than anywhere
in the world and gaming
has a great potential
in India,” he
added.
Dr
Nikhil Jain, chief technology
advisor, Qualcomm said,
“The fundamental
question is to reduce
costs in getting content
from the creator to
the user”. He
added that quality of
service was also an
important aspect for
a business model to
succeed in India. |
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