indo-us best practices workshop on digital infrastructure and broadband deployment

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India-U.S. CEO Forum - Digital Infrastructure, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Working

Group

in association with

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU)

Report on Indo-U.S. Best Practices Workshops on Digital Infrastructure and Broadband

Deployment

Knowledge Partner: KPMG

New Delhi | Vishakhapatnam | Jaipur

2-5 August 2016

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1. Genesis of the best practices workshops

India-U.S. CEO Forum met in September 2015 as part of the first ever U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial

Dialogue held in Washington D.C. In the forum, the Digital Infrastructure, Innovation and

Entrepreneurship Working Group co-chaired by Sunil Bharti Mittal (Founder & Chairman of Bharti

Enterprises) and James Taiclet (Chairman, President & CEO of ATC) recommended the following:

“Reduce and address barriers to building telecom infrastructure (including addressing tower siting

and zoning issues, radiation concerns, spectrum management, Wi-Fi, fixed infrastructure sharing

and connectivity for rural areas) through government-to-government sharing of best

practices/policies and regulations. Specifically, we recommend the USG and GOI host fora in the next

six months to share best practices in these areas, and India can install the infrastructure necessary

to meet its ‘Digital India’ goals through policies that support “Make in India” and “Design in India.”

In turn, members of this working group are committed to building forty (40) Digital Town Square

pilots through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to demonstrate how effective telecommunications

infrastructure can provide support to local communities in the areas of education, health,

transportation and financial services.” 1

One of the top recommendations was for U.S. Government (USG) and Government of India (GOI) agencies

to share best practices, policies and recommendations with respect to building digital infrastructure and

broadband deployment necessary to meet the ‘Digital India’ goals. CII and BCIU were given the mandate

to help with the workshops.

The CII workshops on ‘Indo-U.S. Best Practices Workshop on Digital Infrastructure and Broadband

deployment’ were held in New Delhi on 2 August 2016, Vishakhapatnam on 4 August 2016 and Jaipur

on 5 August 2016.

Each of the workshops was well attended by policymakers, industry representatives and academia. The

U.S. government sent the following subject matter experts from the Departments of State & Commerce

and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Government of India participated at a high level

in each conference. Representatives from the Government of India and the U.S. Embassy opened each

conference and are listed below.

U.S. Delegation:

Manu Bhardwaj, Senior Advisor on Technology and Internet Policy to the U/S of State, U.S. Department of State

Aimee Meacham, Director, Broadband Program Services, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce

Nese Guendelsberger, Deputy Chief, International Bureau, Federal Communications Commission

John McCaslin, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, Embassy of the United States of America

Steve Traylor, Executive Director and General Counsel, National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisor (NATOA)

Mehnaz Ansari, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), Country Representative-South Asia, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi

Robyn Kessler, Principal Commercial Officer-North India, U.S. Embassy India Delegation:

J.S. Deepak, Chairman, Telecom Commission and Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India

R S Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Government of India

M Hari Narayanan, IAS, Commissioner, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation

M P Dubey, Joint Director, Software Technology Parks of India & DeitY, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India

Naveen Jain, Mission Director (NHM), Government of Rajasthan

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N C Mathur, Director-Engineering, Jaipur Development Authority

The objective of the workshops was to establish a government to government dialogue on best practices:

For digital infrastructure and sustainable broadband network deployment

For increasing awareness about technologies and use of business models which have been used

successfully to deploy broadband infrastructure

For addressing concerns relating to public health and safety

2. The ‘Digital India’ programme

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech on 15 August 2014 spoke of his vision on ‘Digital India’:

“We should dream of a ‘Digital India’. ‘Digital India’ is a dream for the poor, with broadband

connectivity, we can ensure long-distance education…’Digital India’ is plan not for the benefit of the

rich, but the poor…e-governance is easy governance, efficient governance, and that is important”2

With this vision, the ‘Digital India’ programme was unveiled on 1 July 2015 and is designed to build

capabilities across infrastructure, manufacturing, processes, skill sets and delivery platforms, which in

turn would lead to the creation of a self-reliant knowledge economy.

The vision of ‘Digital India’ programme entails 3 key areas3:

These three vision areas further encompass nine themes or ‘pillars’ of ‘Digital India4:

Broadband Highways

Public Internet Access Programme

Internet availability, digital identity, mobile phones, bank accounts, safe and secure cyber space, etc.

• Real-time availability of services on mobile phones and online platforms

• Making electronic and cashless financial transactions possible, etc.

Universal digital literacy, availability of digital resources in Indian languages, etc.

Digital Infrastructure as a core

utility to every

citizen

Governance and services

on demand

Digital empowerme

nt of

citizens

‘Digital India’

Vision

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Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

e-Governance - Reforming Government through Technology

eKranti – Electronic Delivery of Services

Information for All

Electronics Manufacturing

IT for Jobs

Early Harvest Programmes

3. Broadband deployment is the backbone of the ‘Digital India’ initiative

Affordable and effective broadband connectivity will be the key enabler to meet the vision of ‘Digital

India’. Rankings for India out of a total of 189 countries in the UN Broadband Commission Report, 2015

highlights the opportunity with respect to broadband deployment:

Source: The State of Broadband Report 2015

‘Digital India’ Initiatives &

Projects

BharatNet: The BharatNet initiative is a high speed digital highway to connect all villages 5. This is expected to be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fiber. As part of phase 1 of the project, optical fiber has been laid out in more than 56,000 Gram

Panchayats (GPs) across India6.

Digital locker system: Introduced to minimise the use of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. With a personal storage space of 10MB, it is linked to the Aadhar number of the user. India had 1,016,375 registered users and 1,209,241 documents

stored in digital form by the end of 20157.

The Online Registration System (ORS): This was introduced under e-Hospital application to provide services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports and enquiring availability of blood online. The portal has seen over 327,929 online

bookings since launch8.

‘Digital India’ Platform: The Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) has undertaken an initiative Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitisation of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to citizens. The platform was launched on 01 July, 2015 and till date more than 25.6 million texts have been digitized9.

Next Generation Network (NGN): It has been introduced to replace 30-year-old exchanges, which is an IP-based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multi-media, etc. As part of the program state-owned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to convert 14 million telephone lines with NGN technology10.

Fixed Broadband penetration

131

Mobile Broadband penetration

155

Individuals using internet

136

Households having internet

(Among 133 developing countries)

80

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To bridge the digital divide both supply side challenges which include extending last-mile access

infrastructure to remote and rural communities and demand side bottlenecks which include affordability

of services, digital awareness etc. need to be addressed.

It is important that all stakeholders, including all levels of government, industry (including both service

and infrastructure providers), and residents work cooperatively to arrive at potential solutions to bridge

the divide. Right of Way (ROW) practices such as streamlining processes and encouraging equipment

collocation through use of neutral host infrastructure providers are just two means by which connectivity

may be improved.

Over recent years, several governments, policy-makers and regulators all across the world have made

broadband a policy imperative, based on growing recognition of the impact of broadband on national

goals. By 2015, 148 countries had formalised National Broadband Plans11.

4. Addressing the challenges to achieving digital infrastructure

deployment

1. Technology choices for national broadband deployment

Challenges with respect to building a compelling business case for single technology broadband

deployment across India might hamper private sector participation and broadband roll out in the

country, specifically in remote and sparsely populated rural areas. Global broadband

deployments also indicate the same trend with only 4 countries in the world achieving more than

50% broadband coverage (U.A.E, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong (China) and Japan)11.

Key deliberations from the workshops:

Implementation of pilots and assessment of impact to identify a best fit solution for a

specific geography

Collaboration between central government, state and local governments and the

private sector for demand aggregation and facilitation of infrastructure creation

Incentivising private sector players through development of PPP oriented business models

for OFC laying and its associated costs so as to encourage private sector participation

Case Study: Multi – technology mix, an important agenda of National Broadband Network

(NBN), Australia

The design, build and operation of the NBN, Australia has been assigned to NBN Co, a

government-owned corporation with plans of providing broadband to 93% of the population

As part of the program, progress monitoring mechanism, a strategic review was conducted which recommended that the NBN should be completed using a multi-technology mix to deliver fast broadband sooner and at less cost to taxpayers

In light of this, the Government issued a new Statement of Expectations which instructs NBN Co to build the network in a cost-effective way using the technology best matched to each area of Australia

The strategic review also identified technologies that may be used by NBN Co. Summary of the proposed population coverage by various technologies in NBN: Fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) – ~25% Fiber-to-the-basement (FTTB) – ~11% Fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) – ~29% Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) – ~27% Fixed wireless – ~5% Satellite – ~3%

Source: https://www.finder.com.au/nbn-technology-comparision

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2. Spectrum availability

Spectral deficiency is a challenge in the Indian Telco sector impacting the quality of service and

broadband deployment. Global benchmarks indicate that average spectrum available per mobile

subscriber is one of the lowest in India.


Best practices to enhance spectrum availability

Expand incentives and mechanisms to reallocate or repurpose spectrum: Allow flexible use of spectrum; Conduct incentive auctions in which incumbent licensees may relinquish rights in spectrum assignments to other parties or to the regulatory body

Make spectrum policy more comprehensive: Inclusion of roadmap to identify additional spectrum that can be made accessible for mobile broadband.

Case Study: Effective spectrum sharing model

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recommended spectrum

sharing as a path to double available spectrum. In response to this the 3.5GHz band was

identified as a priority band to establish the principles of sharing by NTIA

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started consulting on specific sharing and regulatory framework required to make this a reality

Analysis was performed in assessing compatibility between wireless base stations and mobile/portable stations and Federal systems operating in this band. Based on the analysis FCC proposed the idea of multi-tiered shared access model

FCC also considered that the utility of the band would be enhanced by considering it only for small cell operation

Source: The Impact of Licensed Shared Use of Spectrum Report 2014 - GSMA

3. Right of Way (ROW) access

Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)/ Infrastructure Providers (IPs) in India spend significant Capex

on receiving Right of Way (ROW) permissions from local governments and municipal bodies. ROW

permissions are a prerequisite for TSPs to be able to deploy optical fiber. The framework for

receiving ROW permissions in India are plagued by:

Multi-window approvals

Procedural bottlenecks

Non-standard processes across geographies

Very high ROW charges across cities

These concerns with respect to ROW permissions have a detrimental impact on fiber laying and, in turn affect network expansion plans. It is imperative that local governments work with infrastructure providers to address these concerns and develop streamlined processes that can provide for more efficient deployment of fiber.


There is a need to introduce ROW policies that help implement single window approval and timely

clearances for laying of fiber. Further, ROW charges should be limited to restoration costs of the

damage occurring during laying of fiber. Measures being adopted in India to address ROW challenges:

DoT is in the process of formulation of ROW rules under Indian Telegraph Act which should ease the concerns that TSPs, IPs and other stakeholders have with respect to interacting with local governments for ROW clearance, through introduction of time limits and deemed approvals. This would give applications clearance for ROW in case authorities default on the timelines that are set

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TRAI is working on what is called a ‘common duct’ policy with couple of pilots in cities in Jharkhand state (Municipal Corporation in the city is laying common duct across the city and other parties - digital TV players, telecom service providers etc. can then lease the duct space to pass their fiber through it). The municipal corporations are also exploring the possibility of a PPP in this domain.

Taking the priority of broadband and digital infrastructure expansion in India into account, the approach should be to work towards having no ROW charges except auditable administrative costs

Best practices with respect to ROW access:

The ‘dig once’ policy implemented by the Obama administration aims to reduce the number and scale of repeated excavations for the installation and maintenance of broadband facilities in ROW. Often, this is one of the more expensive aspects of fiber deployment. Best practices observed as part of the ‘dig once’ policy include: Plan: Prevent waste by identifying areas where broadband infrastructure is most needed

prior to laying fiber, and avoid laying empty conduits Collaborate: Consider joint trench agreements, in which all providers of broadband

services (or all utilities) install infrastructure at the same time, in the same trench or in the same conduit and share the cost of installation

Share knowledge: The central government should share information about dig once strategies at all levels of government and can take initiatives to set positive examples by adopting ‘dig once’ approach for centrally-funded highway projects

Use modern digging technology: Avoid trenching when adding fiber to heavily populated areas by using either Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) or micro-trenching

The FCC has reformed its pole attachment rules in an effort to reduce barriers to deploying wireline and wireless services. FCC has clarified wireless carriers’ right to attach to pole tops and established a complaint process to ensure fair rates, terms and conditions for pole attachments by incumbent telephone companies

ROW access necessarily requires the involvement of local governments. It is important that local officials understand how the streamlining of processes can more effectively and timely permit the installation of broadband infrastructure while still addressing concerns relating to public health and safety.

Case Study: Implementation of ‘dig once’ approach in Dakota County, Minnesota

In 2010, the Minnesota legislature set a goal of universal access to high speed broadband

throughout the state by 2015. In response to the mandate, Dakota county pioneered a

model ‘dig once’ approach that has helped it to build an extensive network of publicly owned

conduit and fiber thus significantly lowering the cost of telecommunications for local

governments, school districts, colleges etc.

Custom built software named ‘One Stop Roadway Permit Shop’ to facilitate collaboration on any project is utilised. As soon as someone requests a permit to work in ROW or a number of related permits, the software alerts all agencies that may have an interest in the ROW

The staff coordinated with each city along the rebuild path to understand their needs and ensured enough conduit and fiber is included in the project to meet demand well into the future

The cost of installing conduit or fiber has come down by as much as 90-95% because of reduction in significant cost of digging and trenching

Over 240 nodes have been connected with fiber at a cost of less than $1 million. Source: All Hands on Deck – Minnesota Local Government models

Case Study: Successful execution of Google fiber project in Kansas

Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan, was released in March 2010 and had

the goal of ensuring ‘every American has access to broadband capability’. Google fiber

project was an endeavor to respond to FCC’s agenda

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Google through this project wanted to achieve use of next generation applications that utilise ultra-high-speed connections and utilise new deployment techniques to build and operate fiber and provide openness and choice in service providers

Google selected Kansas City for fiber deployment based on community survey. One of the key reasons for selecting Kansas City was that local officials streamlined the permitting process for more efficient and timely access to ROW

The network became available to residents in September 2012. Google fiber offers standard bundles and plans to consumers as part of an effort to narrow the digital divide

The project has made fiber available to 210,000 households in Kansas City — or roughly 80 percent of its population. The project helped in instilling competition in the fiber market and provided improved internet speeds for consumers.

Since then Google extended its fiber roll out to the cities of Austin and Provo, Utah — while markets such as Atlanta, Charlotte and San Antonio are set to get it by 2017

Source: Google Fiber students case –Tufts University

Case Study: Government led initiative to reform ROW policies in Austria leading to speedy

broadband deployment

Inclusion of policy as part of Section 2 of the Austrian Telecommunication Act (TKG 2003)26 which prescribes special rules for the granting of ROW.

Under this Act, providers of a communications network shall be entitled to exercise way-leave rights 27 on public property, such as streets, footpaths, public places and the airspace above with the exception of public water facilities free of charge and without special authorisation.

Providers are entitled to exercise way-leave rights on private properties under the certain condition.

The initiative resulted in harmonisation of administrative and application procedures and enabled speedy broadband deployment.

Source: Article on Federal Law relating to Telecommunications-Austria

4. Wireless facility siting

The Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC) wing of Department of Telecom (DoT) issues site

clearance for installation of each wireless facility taking into consideration interference with

other wireless operators, aviation hazards, obstruction to existing microwave links etc. Site

clearance is issued without prejudice to applicable by-laws, rules and regulations of local bodies

such as Municipal Corporations/Gram Panchayats, advance clearance from Resident Welfare

Associations (RWAs) in case of residential areas, structural safety certificate, clearance from

pollution control authorities, fire authorities etc. Before installation of towers, TSPs/ IPs are

required to obtain all necessary permissions from local bodies which is not only time taking,

resulting in delay of tower rollout, but also very costly, making the rollout very cumbersome.


There is a need to introduce policies that help implement single window approval and timely

clearances for tower erections.

Measures being adopted in India to address wireless facility siting challenges:

DoT is currently working to fully automate its process for getting permissions to install towers in a time bound manner.

DoT is framing the ROW rules under the Indian Telegraph Act, to facilitate the permission from local governments, municipal/ local bodies for laying of fiber and establishment of telecom towers in a timely manner and at reasonable cost

There is a need to adopt an approach towards having no wireless facility siting charges except auditable administrative costs

Best practices with respect to wireless siting:

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The FCC has implemented time frames for local jurisdictions to act on applications to site

wireless communication facilities. Key features of FCC’s ‘shot clock’ rules are:

Give jurisdictions 90 days to act on an application to collocate wireless facilities on existing structures and 150 days to act on all other applications to site wireless facilities (can ‘stop the clock’ under certain circumstances)

Clarify that a jurisdiction may not deny an application for a wireless facility on the basis that a different carrier is already serving that area

In a subsequent order, the FCC imposed a 60-day shot clock within which a local government “may not deny, and shall approve” a request for a modification of an existing wireless tower or base station that does not substantially change the physical dimensions of the tower or base station. The order does not preempt local building codes or nondiscretionary structural and safety codes.

It is important to note that with respect to the ‘shot clock’ policy, the FCC:

Does not pre-empt local zoning decisions, only specifies the timeframe for a decision

Does not automatically grant the application if the jurisdiction exceeds the timeframe. The applicant must bring the matter to court within 30 days

Does not prevent applicants and jurisdictions from mutually agreeing on extended timelines

5. Backhaul connectivity

Lack of backhaul connectivity has been a continuous barrier to the growth of a digitally connected India. Given the geographic spread and the demographics in the country, providing digital reach to people at the right price is one of the most challenging issues. Reduction of the cost of last mile access would require collaboration between government and private sector enterprises to work out strategies that make the proposition viable for all stakeholders. It is important to involve private parties who will in turn drive utilisation in order to achieve return on investment (ROI). Further it is equally important for local bodies to consider broadband as essential infrastructure and charge reasonably for ROW.


Measures being adopted in India to address the backhaul connectivity issues:

The BharatNet project under ‘Digital India’ umbrella is a step towards bridging the urban-rural divide in Broadband penetration. In India, Andhra Pradesh was the first state to begin implementation of the fiber grid project. The project envisages taking fiber connectivity to substation levels from where last mile connectivity will be provided via cable operators and multi-service operators

Best practices with respect to encouraging private players to invest in backhaul connectivity:

NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) strategic framework to encourage private players to invest in last mile connectivity

Key aspects of NTIA’s strategy to bolster Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) in enhancing the last mile connectivity are: Ensuring middle-mile deployments were closer to last mile users

Provide open access networks which would enable last mile service providers to lease

services

Usage of middle mile deployments at subsidised rates by last mile service providers

NTIA has been able to establish around 900 interconnection agreements on the networks they have deployed, deployed 116,000 miles of fiber across U.S. and delivered more than 20 million training hours resulting in training of more than 4 million people

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Case Study: Joint public/private investment approach to connect county owned facilities in

Scott County, Minnesota

Mandate was to connect all county-owned facilities, including schools, libraries, city halls,

police and fire departments and public safety towers in Scott County, Minnesota

The Scott County entered into a collaborative partnership with commercial providers and the State of Minnesota

In 2007, Scott County developed its 90-mile ring for $3.3 million and expanded the network to 11 adjacent counties. It also interconnected with the state’s high capacity backbone and multiple private providers

Scott County provided the upfront deployment costs and owns the fiber network. It partnered with three commercial middle-mile network providers to maintain and manage the network at no charge to Scott County in exchange for including fiber strands in the buried conduit — a significant construction related cost saving

Scott County also partnered with the State of Minnesota’s Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) to operate the network and provide services to its own facilities and schools at no charge in exchange for fiber capacity across connected counties.

In addition to cost savings to state government, the network also helped attract significant private investment and fostered job creation.

Source: The Executive Office of the President report 2015

Case Study: A robust middle - mile infrastructure build at Ontario County, NY

A countywide telecommunications study revealed that the diverse telecommunications

culture in Ontario was an issue to doing business in the County. Technology-based

businesses were considering relocating due to the lack of diversity, redundancy,

competition and in general, access to broadband

The county considered the development of an open access fiber backbone to provide consistency throughout the County. The countywide project called for the installation of 180-plus miles of fiber cabling to interconnect key middle-mile entities throughout the County, including county facilities, town and village offices, schools, colleges, healthcare facilities, fire stations, public safety facilities, communications towers, larger industries etc.

Finger Lakes Regional Telecommunications Development Corporation (FLRTDC) was responsible for all aspects of the project. It partnered with numerous telecom providers, the local community college and private businesses

The County has and will realize a significant reduction in telecommunications costs over 20 years by pre-purchasing connectivity around the entire ring ($1M for 12 strands for 25 years). Cellular and service providers are realizing savings of up to 66 percent over prior costs, which are being reinvested into new technologies and better services countywide

FTTx providers are considering using the fiber backbone to offer fiber, triple-play and potentially quintuple-play - services to County residents, which will reduce monthly telecom costs and the development of higher capacity services

Source: Cost Estimates for Connecting Anchor Institutions to Fiber - NATOA

6. Utilisation of Universal Service Obligation (USO) funds

Urban backhaul capacity in India is a big challenge. This problem is amplified by hefty ROW

charges imposed by local bodies. Though USO funds were originally created to fund voice

connectivity predominantly in the rural areas, it is equally important to view universal service

obligation with growth of both voice and data as USO focuses on universality of connectivity

whether rural or urban. Therefore, it is important to rethink policies pertaining to USO fund

utilisation in context of current data explosion, customer needs and capacity requirements

thereof in urban and semi urban areas.


Measure to be adopted for enhanced allocation of USO funds:

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USO fund allocation can be carried out on a project–to–project basis and funds can be allocated

to whichever stakeholder is best placed to implement the project.

Best practices with respect to USO funds: The FCC has committed itself to reforming, streamlining, and modernising its universal

service programs to drive further investment in and access to 21st century broadband and

voice services. This is followed by specific targeting of support for broadband expansion and

adoption.

7. Power availability

Grid power availability is a concern especially in rural areas. Given the cost constraints felt by

TSPs/ IPs in rural areas, it is challenging to depend on alternate sources of energy for telecom

facilities. Also, Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs) have an important role to play by the way

of bulk energy production for telecom facilities in addition to meeting community power

requirements.


Measure to address power availability challenges in rural areas: Grid power connections to telecom facilities be given priority allocations similar to priority allocations in the agriculture sector. Pilot in India to address power availability issues: USTDA has also supported Idea Cellular in a cell tower project for remote connectivity where

5 pilot cell towers are being run on alternate and methanol based fuel cells.

8. Site Radio Frequency (RF) emission

Telecom industry related emissions have been a cause of concern from a healthcare & safety

perspective, gathering ever increasing attention with every passing year. One of the main

concerns with respect to the telecom industry is Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) emissions. A

recent survey conducted by World Health Organization (WHO) to assess existence of standards

across countries shows that India’s EMR emission thresholds set by the regulator are amongst the

most stringent, at 1/10th of International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection’s

(INCIRP) recommendation. There are no conclusive studies to indicate that EMR radiations below

INCIRP recommendations are harmful to humans. Even with stringent threshold EMR requirement

in India, common perception is that site emissions are harming human beings in the vicinity.


Measures to address the site emission related challenges:

It is important that decisions with respect to siting of wireless facilities, shutting down of existing wireless facilities etc. be assigned solely to nodal offices and not individuals or local bodies

It is extremely important to change the perception of people in India through empirical data

9. Content creation

While a developed device ecosystem is critical for adoption of internet, social media alone will

not influence people from all demographics to adopt internet. Capacity creation and coverage

expansion alone will not facilitate the adoption of internet. The internet is different for different

people and is not as commoditised as voice services hence, content creation is important to

facilitate this adoption.

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To drive internet users in rural India, Government of India may look towards incentivising content

creation with respect to utility services.

5. Deliberations on other initiatives as part of ‘Digital India’:

1. Smart cities

When thinking of smart cities, one envisages digitalisation of the city in a sustainable

environment. Digital infrastructure is one of the most important components of smart cities as

connectivity is the key. Connectivity between people, machines and governments is key to the

success of smart cities. Smart city initiatives gives a unique opportunity for the central government, private entities and local authorities to come together. Private partners can offer to play the role of neutral infrastructure developers and build a digital backbone. Government agencies need to be enablers and invite private service providers such as:

Transport aggregators

Health aggregators

Waste management companies

Utility companies

Energy saving companies etc.

It is important to explore methods in which policies can be reformed so as to encourage

entrepreneurs to latch onto the digital backbone and create revenue streams.


Best practices for successful implementation of smart cities:

Policies developed are agile to keep up with fast growing technology. Whether policies are agile or not will make the difference between having smart cities or digital slums. Policies need to be designed in a manner that encourages technology implementation

Opportunities with respect to Vishakhapatnam smart city:

Use of solar panels on smart street light to harness renewable energy

Incorporating sensors on electric poles for natural disaster management

Policy drafting for net metering for efficient energy generation and management

Smart grid implementation through PPPs

U.S. initiatives in India with respect to smart cities:

Towards the end of 2015, U.S. Department of Commerce submitted four draft work plans to the Indian Ministry of Commerce one of which was in the area of ‘Infrastructure and Smart Cities’ entailing provisioning of assistance to U.S. companies to participate in projects that support Prime Minister Modi’s economic development agenda focusing on water, waste management, transportation, healthcare, telecommunication and renewable energy

Recently, USTDA submitted the Visakhapatnam Smart City document to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and the document entails how USTDA will help in decision making, implementing efficiencies and enhance customer service across smart grid, water delivery, intelligent transportation etc. to revolutionise the lives of citizens

The advantages of smart cities is clear with USTDA’s involvement with TATA Power, New Delhi where losses have reduced via efficiency and productivity improvement, from 53% to 11% recently. The results were achieved via coordinated efforts between TATA, USTDA,

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U.S. representatives and the Delhi state government, delivering smart power to 7 million citizens of New Delhi

Reverse trade missions are typically funded by USTDA where select officials and decision makers are taken to the U.S. to get first hand demonstrations of smart city implementation. In February 2016, the reverse trade missions were conducted for Visakhapatnam where 14 officials toured Washington, New York and San Francisco to observe smart city implementations. The reverse trade missions for Ajmer and Allahabad are underway.

2. Digital literacy

The importance of IT literacy is key for the digital revolution to become a success in India. It is

clear that delivering IT literacy to the masses has to be through a PPP model as it will be a very

large scale initiative that intends to reach out to the entire population. Unlike with voice services, broadband services can be used for a host of purposes. To build

relevance of internet access, internet education plays an important role. The National Digital

Literacy Mission (Digital Saksharta Abhiyan) aims to ensure digital literacy (at least one member

of every household in India is digitally literate) is only the beginning. A multilayered structure

has been created with specific programs to service each section of the society.


American Tower Company (ATC) and Hole-in-the-Wall Education Project (HiWEP) initiative to

enhance digital literacy: ATC supports ‘Digital India’ through its Digital Town Square initiative. These town squares utilise

the uninterrupted power supply and broadband link from tower sites located in rural and

underserved parts of India to provide critical access to education services. By partnering with

HiWEP and others, a wireless broadband link is provided to self-learning kiosks, serving local

communities and encouraging computer literacy for children. Moving forward, ATC India will be

expanding the self-learning kiosk program to include a broad range of additional benefits. For

example, they plan to partner with multiple stakeholders to provide Wi-Fi services, e-Governance

services, telemedicine, banking, skill development programs and ATMs.

Rajasthan specific digital literacy initiative:

It is important to note that the Government of Rajasthan has already taken several steps

towards dispensing IT literacy to the public. The Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited

(RKCL) has set up multiple IT Gyan Kendras across the state where any person can avail training

and achieve computer literacy in Microsoft Office.

6. Global Connect

Secretary John Kerry and U.S. State Department recently launched a new initiative called ‘Global

Connect’. Through Global Connect, the U.S. State Department seeks to bring an additional 1.5 billion

people online by 2020. It was mentioned that ‘Global Connect’, lays emphasis on importance of every

government’s underlying policies and creating a stable environment for growth. It involves working

towards three focus areas:

Firstly, encourage Finance Ministers and senior government officials to make internet access central

to their development and growth initiative, as being currently performed in India as part of the

‘Digital India’ initiative

Secondly, to work in cooperation with multilateral government banks, international financial

institutions and private donors to double public and private lending for connectivity and digital

technology by 2020

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And finally, to harness the knowledge and resources of the technology community ranging from

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to American and Indian private sector for

instance, technology companies and technocrats in IT hub cities like Bengaluru to implement

solutions for high speed affordable broadband access

Since the launch of ‘Global Connect’ ten months ago:

Announcements of more than USD 1 billion in U.S. government financing and loans with U.S. State

government development agency partners have been made

The initiative has more than 40 countries as supporters

Joined by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Ministers from all continents, Secretary Kerry

announced 65 initiatives and global actions valued at over USD 20 billion to help bridge the digital divide.

As Secretary Kerry highlighted in his remarks, this included up to $171 million in new financing for a low-

cost and rapidly scalable wireless broadband network in India.

As part of Global Connect, the U.S. hopes to join like-minded allies and stakeholders to champion internet

policies that will encourage investment and create strong enabling environments for growth. During these

workshops, a few areas were identified as key policy areas for future discussion to help bolster

connectivity in India, including:

Spectral harmonisation: How can governments to the greatest extent possible make the scattered

spectrum contiguous and align national use of spectrum with international harmonised band plans?

Spectrum availability: How can governments make spectrum available to the mobile industry in a

timely manner with the right combination of spectrum bands identified for mobile broadband

services?

Voluntary infrastructure sharing: How can governments help internet, mobile and telecom companies

gain some flexibility to engage in types of commercial infrastructure sharing agreements to expand

the network coverage in a sustainable manner?

Universal Service Obligation (USO) funds: How can all governments identify ways to disperse these

funds to help extend mobile services both in urban and rural areas?

Sector neutral taxation: Sector specific taxation and fees on providers and consumers of mobile

telecom, internet services and devices can have a detrimental impact on investment, especially in

low income populations. How to balance this reality with the need for tax revenue?

Rural only licenses: Taking a look at lessons learnt in the U.S. that may help Indian wireless carriers

As both the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Global Connect’ initiatives recognise that internet infrastructure is just

as important to every country’s economy as traditional infrastructure such as roads, energy, highways

etc. and all stakeholders need to collaborate and increase their efforts to extend the benefits of digital

technology to everyone. As part of these workshops, it was announced that IEEE and other key

stakeholders, including the World Bank, would host a regional ‘Global Connect Stakeholders Event in New

Delhi on Internet Inclusion’ on 15 September. This full day event will feature interactive discussion and

working sessions with a focus on finding sustainable solutions and models for digital inclusion as

envisioned in the ambitious Digital India program, envisioned by Prime Minister Modi. It was also

announced that a second ‘Global Connect Stakeholders Conference’ will be held in Washington D.C.

during the Fall Spring/IMF Bank Fund meetings and that there would be a considerable focus on findings

and recommendations from these workshops and the 15 September Global Connect stakeholder event in

New Delhi.

15

7. Way Forward

S.

No Focus Area Description

Opportunity/ Challenge

resolved Outcome/ Benefit

Relevant USG

Ministry, GOI

Ministry or

Industry

1 U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue at New Delhi

Key outcomes of the CII-BCIU workshop to be presented at the upcoming U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue to be hosted in New Delhi:

Enhance spectrum policy to address availability/ harmonisation concerns, establish clear spectrum roadmap and improve flexibility of spectrum use

Alleviate concerns and change perception of people on telecom related emissions

Introduce ROW policies that help implement single window approval and timely clearances for erection of towers and laying of fiber. Further, ROW charges should be limited to restoration costs of the damage occurring during laying of fiber.

Leveraging cable TV infrastructure for broadband deployment

Centre & State Governments to make broadband a top priority, in turn accelerating digital infrastructure deployment in India

Highlight and discuss best practices on digital infrastructure deployment

Present other key outcomes as part of the deliberations

Establishing a government to government dialogue at state and municipal levels on the challenges and opportunities in digital infrastructure development

India-U.S. CEO Forum

2 Reverse Trade Missions

Reverse trade missions:

For smart city initiative for Ajmer

and Allahabad

With Government of India leaders

and decision makers at state and

local level with the objective of

seeing the deployment of best

practices in the U.S.

Building technical capacity for

Government of India officials in

matters of digital infrastructure

expansion at a national and local

level. Key areas that can be visited

are:

o Dig once policy

implementation

o Spectrum policy enhancements

o Encouraging private sector

investments

o Encouraging infrastructure

sharing etc.

Understand the regulatory

best practices around stated

domains and feasibility of

implementation in Indian

context.

Explore the possibility of

inviting more stakeholders to

future CII-BCIU workshops

including World Band, ITU,

Internet society

representatives etc.

Identify current ongoing

projects across national and

local geographies in India

from which stakeholders can

be handpicked for reverse

trade missions, learning

group workshops etc.

Wider array of

perspectives

Enhanced knowledge

sharing

Improved assimilation

of best practices

Implementation of best

practices which would

lead to:

o Faster internet

infrastructure

deployment

o Increasing digital

literacy

o Increased

innovation to meet

the local needs of

people through

custom programs

USTDA, FCC, NTIA, NIST, DoT, TRAI, CII, BCIU, other USG and GOI representatives

16

S.

No Focus Area Description

Opportunity/ Challenge

resolved Outcome/ Benefit

Relevant USG

Ministry, GOI

Ministry or

Industry

3 Global Connect

As part of ‘Global Connect’ initiative, a forum on regulatory best practices on the following areas led by IEEE to be conducted in September 2016 in India.

how to build internet infrastructure

how to train users

how to meet needs of the people

that are specific to the local

environment

potential for innovation

Understand the regulatory best practices around stated domains and feasibility of implementation in Indian context.

Implementation of best

practices which would

lead to:

Faster internet

infrastructure

deployment

Increasing digital

literacy

Increased innovation to

meet the local needs of

people through custom

programmes

IEEE, other GOI and USG agencies

8. Bibliography

1 U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, 2015

2 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-08-15/news/52846104_1_prime-minister-narendra-modi-brand-india-bank-accounts

3 http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/vision-and-vision-areas

4 http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/programme-pillars

5 http://digitalindiainsight.com/9-pillars-of-digital-india/

6 http://www.bbnl.nic.in/index1.aspx?lsid=570&lev=2&lid=467&langid=1

7 India soars high - KPMG thought leadership

8 http://ors.gov.in/copp/#

9 https://digitizeindia.gov.in/

10 http://www.bgr.in/news/bsnl-switches-to-next-generation-network-technology-on-the-fixed-lines/

11 The State of Broadband report 2015

http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/vision-and-vision-areas

http://digitalindiainsight.com/9-pillars-of-digital-india/

17

This report has been developed by KPMG in India based on CII-BCIU ‘Indo-U.S. Best

Practices Workshops on Digital Infrastructure and Broadband Deployment’ and inputs

received from members of the Digital Infrastructure, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Working Group, India-U.S. CEO Forum.

18

© 2016 KPMG, an Indian Registered Partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

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