“Broadband- The Answer to ICT Development” was the topic of the IETE Apex Forum on July 10, 2004 at IETE HQ. Lt Gen (Retd) D P Sehgal, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Chairman Industrial Coordination Committee welcomed the congregation and Shri P N Chopra, DIG BSF (Retd), Convenor of the forum introduced and justified the theme of the topic. ‘Broadband is being seen as a media of the future. There are unlimited avenues in which broad band services are going to open up different ICT applications such as in the area of entertainment, marketing, freight logistics, transportation, healthcare, tele medicine, financial services, cheque transaction, tourism, e-governance, etc’ said Shri P N Chopra, in his introductory speech. He expected a boom in the growth of broadband services similar to the mobile telephony.

The Chief Guest, Shri S Lakshminarayanan, IAS, highlighted the importance of Broadband in the delivery of ICT for economic development and growth. He gave an overview of Government’s plan and targets for increasing broadband access. He praised engineers both in Govt and private sector for increasing the teledensity of the country ahead of the planned target dates.

Shri S Lakshminarayanan released the Proceedings of “ Optimal Utilization of Frequency Spectrum” previously held IETE Apex Forum.

The panelists who presented their views were Shri R N Agarwal, Former Wireless Advisor, Govt of India, Shri A S Guin, Chief Engineer, Doordarshan, Shri S N Gupta, Advisor TRAI, Shri M Shanmugham, Director All India Radio, Dr Rakesh Mehrotra, Managing Director, Zee TeleFilms and Shri P K Garg Wireless Advisor to the Govt of India.

Shri R N Agarwal, in his address called ICT as the barometer of socio-economic development of society. He said that it was the right time for India to have appropriate penetration of broadband services. He talked about the different facets, applications affordability, quality of services etc. According to him there should be flexibility in the approach for utilizing different frequency bands for different services.
Shri A S Guin spoke on Broadband & IT in Broadcasting. He talked about the importance of broadband services and its use for TV, HiFi distribution, video retrieval, data transfer services etc. He described one-way and two-way transport systems, limitations and advantages of broadband through wireless, DTT, DTH, DRM, DAB and Cable Satellite.

Shri S N Gupta addressed the emerging trends in ICT and deregulation. Starting with the development trends, he covered evolution of VoIP, last mile technologies, shift from fixed to mobile access, mobile technology trend, convergence, spectrum utilization and telecom deregulation.

Shri Rakesh Mehrotra from Zee Telefilms said that broadband should be for masses and not only for elite. He described it’s utility in Indian environment and acceptance of western or Indian model. Talking of communication and development of economy in rural India he said everything is doable. He suggested that we should understand the importance of broadband for rural masses, eliminate artificial cost, be technology neutral, conversion of village PCO’s into community commercial hubs, involvement of NGOs, learn to use TV for delivery of ICT and then finally migrate to TV based ICT services.

Dr Shanmugam’s talk centered around Broadband & Broadcasting. The impact of Broadband on broadcasting and its access application was highlighted.

With the availability of global connection, increased teledensity, mobile telephony, growth of Internet, increased data traffic, broadband is required, which is a faster communication channel- was the opinion of Shri Garg. He said that many social problems might crop up if technologies are not brought to the rural areas. He favoured the judicious mix of wireless and wireline technologies, wise use of limited spectrum, development of proper contents, traffic affordability before spreading the broadband technologies. He strongly believed that delicensing of the spectrum is not the solution, as the delicensed band cannot be extensively used.

Prof K K Aggarwal, President, IETE summed up the views presented by the panelists. He said broadband is necessary to take ICT to remote, rural and even to urban areas. ICTs are the necessary tool for desired economic growth of people living in every part of our country.