Is the “middle mile” the problem preventing Internet service providers (including mobile operators) from more-rapidly extending Internet access to Indian villages? Some would say so.
In 2013 India reached 900 million mobile connections and became the second largest market in terms of mobile connections and unique subscribers.
But as of 2013, the rate of increase has slowed dramatically, suggesting that some new innovations are required to reignite growth, and use of mobile Internet access by the rest of the population.
Backhaul and middle mile optical fiber facilities, or wireless backhaul, remain a challenge.
Generally speaking, rural Internet access is a matter of the last 15 kilometers to 20 km from an optical network point of presence, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology have argued.
Both those requirements are important since 70 percent of India’s population, about 750 million people, live in its 600,000 villages.
So some would argue that if we can figure out how to reach across a 15 km to 20 km distance, most villages in India could be served with Internet access.
The cost of using a mobile network to access the Internet clearly have fallen, and will fall further as operators active new 4G networks.
In India and elsewhere, 2G networks were capable of reaching 20 kilobits per second and 4G technologies can reach 250 megabits per second, which is about 12,000 times faster.
At the same time the actual cost of network infrastructure per megabyte is falling dramatically. Costs per bit fell 95 percent as we moved from 2G to 3G. Costs per bit fell 67 percent from 3G to 4G.
From 2005 to 2013, the average cost of a mobile subscription relative to the maximum data speed dropped about 40 percent each year or 99 percent over that eight-year period.
Indians spend 45 percent of their incomes on mobile technologies and platforms whereas Americans only spend 11 percent.
No comments:
Post a Comment