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CIS Submission to TRAI Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-trai-note-on-interoperable-scalable-public-wifi
<b>This submission presents responses by the CIS on the Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks published by the TRAI on November 15, 2016. Our analysis of the solution proposed in the Note, in brief, is that there is no need of a solution for non-existing interoperability problem for authentication and payment services for accessing public Wi-Fi networks. The proposed solution in this Note only adds to over-regulation in this sector, and does not incentivise new investment in the sector, but only establishes UIDAI and NPCI as the monopoly service providers for authentication and payment services.</b>
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<p>The comments were authored by Japreet Grewal, Pranesh Prakash, Sharath Chandra, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, and Udbhav Tiwari, with expert comments from Amelia Andersdotter.</p>
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<h2>1. Preliminary</h2>
<p><strong>1.1.</strong> This submission presents responses by the Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”) <strong>[1]</strong> on the <em>Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks</em> (“the Note”) published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) on November 15, 2016 <strong>[2]</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>1.2.</strong> The CIS welcomes the effort undertaken by TRAI to map regulatory and other barriers to deployment of public Wi-Fi in India. We especially appreciate that TRAI has recognised <strong>[3]</strong> two key barriers to provision of public Wi-Fi networks identified and highlighted in our earlier response to the <em>Consultation Paper on Proliferation of Broadband through Public WiFi</em> <strong>[4]</strong>: 1) over regulation (including, licensing requirements, data retention, and Know Your Customer policy), and 2) paucity of spectrum <strong>[5]</strong>.</p>
<h2>2. General Responses</h2>
<p><strong>2.1.</strong> Before responding to the specific questions posed by the Note, we would like to make the following observations.</p>
<p><strong>2.2.</strong> There is no need of a solution for non-existing interoperability problem for authentication and payment services for accessing public Wi-Fi networks. The proposed solution in this Note only adds to over-regulation in this sector. The proposed solution does not incentivise new investment in the sector, but only establishes UIDAI and NPCI as the monopoly service providers for authentication and payment services.</p>
<p><strong>2.3.</strong> As the TRAI has consulted widely with industry and other stakeholders before it settled on the list of priority issues contained in Section C.6 of the Note, we are surprised to find that this Note aims to address only the problem of lack of “seamless interoperable payment system for Wi-Fi networks” (Section C.6.d. Of the Note), and does not discuss and propose solutions for any other key barriers identified by the Note.</p>
<p><strong>2.4.</strong> The Note fails to clarify the “interoperability” problem in the payment system for usage of public Wi-Fi networks that it is attempting to solve. The Note identifies that lack of “single standard” for “authentication and payment mechanisms” for accessing public Wi-Fi networks as a key impediment to provide scalable and interoperable public Wi-Fi networks across the country <strong>[6]</strong>. By conceptualising the problem in this manner, TRAI has bundled together two completely different concerns - authentication and payment - into one and this is at the root of the problems emanating from the proposed solution in this Note.</p>
<p><strong>2.5.</strong> Lack of standard process for authentication is created by over-regulation via Know Your Customer (“KYC”) policies, and selection of eKYC service provided by UIDAI as the only acceptable authentication mechanism for all users of public Wi-Fi networks across India, creating further economic and legal challenges for smaller would-be providers of public Wi-Fi networks as they assess their liabilities and start-up costs. Additionally, since this would amount to making UID/Aadhaar enrolment mandatory for any user of public wi-fi networks, it seems to create a contradiction with previously communicated policy from the UIDAI and the Government that no such obligation should arise. Supreme Court has also mandated over successive Orders that enrolment for UID/Aadhaar number should remain optional for the citizens and residents.</p>
<p><strong>2.6.</strong> As was observed by the respondents to the TRAI Consultation concluded earlier this year, there is no interoperability problem that needs to be solved regarding payments for accessing public Wi-Fi networks. Payment services continue to be evolved and payment aggregator services provided by existing companies may be expected to resolve many of the outstanding issues of service proliferation in the upcoming years, at least in the absence of additional mandatory technical measures imposed by the government. Bundling of payment with authentication will only undermine the already existing independent market for payment aggregators, and further enforce mandatoriness of UID/Aadhaar number.</p>
<p><strong>2.7.</strong> Further, the payment mechanism proposed would seem to worsen difficulties for tourists and foreigners in accessing public Wi-Fi in India, as well adds an additional layer of authentication in a system already identified (even in the Note itself) to be overburdened by regulations regarding KYC and data retention. Section C.6.b of the Note highlights the problems faced by foreigners and tourists when the authentication mechanism is premised upon use of One Time Password (OTP) that requires a functioning local mobile phone number. It contradicts itself later by proposing an authentication method that requires the user to not only download an application onto their mobile/desktop device, but also to enrol for UID/Aadhaar number and/or to use their existing UID/Aadhaar number. Instead of reducing the existing barriers to provision of and access to public Wi-Fi, which the Note is supposed to achieve, it creates significant new barriers.</p>
<p><strong>2.8.</strong> The technological architecture advanced by the Note upholds support of governance and surveillance projects that, in addition to being costly in their implementation and thereby slowing down the objective of getting India connected, are also of questionable value to the security of the Indian polity. UID, UPI, and related projects risk undermining cyber-security through their reliance on centralised architectures and interfere with healthy competitive market dynamics between commercial and non-commercial actors.</p>
<p><strong>2.9.</strong> The Note continues to only consider and enable commercial models for the provision of public Wi-Fi networks. We have identified this as a problematic assumption in our last submission <strong>[7]</strong>. It is most crucial that TRAI does not ignore and fail to promote and facilitate the possibility of not-for-profit models that involve grassroot communities, academia, and civil society.</p>
<p><strong>2.10.</strong> Last but not the least, the term “Wi-Fi” refers to a particular technology for establishing wireless local area networks. Further, the term is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance <strong>[8]</strong>. It is this not a neutral term, and it must not be used as a general and universal synonym for wireless local area networks. We recommend that TRAI may consider using a technology-neutral term, say “public wireless services” or “public networking services”, to describe the sector. Following the terminology used in the Note, we have decided to continue using the term “Wi-Fi” in this response. This does not reflect our agreement about the appropriateness of this term. Important: The recommendation for technology-neutral regulation also comes with the qualification that safeguards like regulations on Listen Before Talk and Cycle Time are required to prevent technologies like LTE-U from squatting on spectrum and interfering with connections based on other standards.</p>
<h2>3. Specific Responses</h2>
<h4>Q1. Is the architecture suggested in the consultation note for creating unified authentication and payment infrastructure will enable nationwide standard for authentication and payment interoperability?</h4>
<p><strong>3.1.</strong> No. The proposed infrastructure is likely to be costly for a large number of actors to implement and undermine some of the ongoing innovation in the Indian digital payment services industry. Rather than being helpful, it risks introducing additional requirements on an industry that TRAI has already identified as facing a number of large challenges.</p>
<p><strong>3.2.</strong> There is no need for a unified architecture that provides nationwide standard for authentication and payment interoperability. It does not offer any incentive towards provision of public Wi-Fi networks. Neither is there an interoperability problem at the physical or data link layers that has been pointed out, nor is government mandated interoperability required at the payment or ID layer since there are private entities that provide such interoperability (like, payment aggregators). Additionally, we believe it is inappropriate that the TRAI is trying to predict the most suitable business/technological model for digital payments to be used for accessing commercial Wi-Fi networks. India has a booming online payments industry, and it must be allowed to evolve in an enabling regulatory environment that allow for competition and ensures responsible practices.</p>
<p><strong>3.3.</strong> The Note identifies several structural impediments to expansion of public Wi-Fi networks in India, namely paucity of backhaul connectivity infrastructure (Section C.6.a), Inadequate associated infrastructure to offer carrier grade Wi-Fi network (Section C.6.c), dependency of authentication mechanism on pre-existing (Indian) mobile phone connection (Section C.6.b), and limited availability of spectrum to be used for public Wi-Fi networks (Section C.6.e). All these are crucial concerns and none of them have been addressed by the architecture suggested in the Note.</p>
<h4>Q2. Would you like to suggest any alternate model?</h4>
<p><strong>3.4.</strong> Yes. The model proposed in the Note is likely to exclude several types of potential users (say, foreigners and tourists), and impose a single authentication and payment service provider for accessing public Wi-Fi networks, which may undermine both competition and security in the market for these services.</p>
<p><strong>3.5.</strong> Internationally, there are cities and regions (say, the city of Barcelona and the Catalonia region in Spain) where public Wi-Fi networks have been provided in a pervasive and efficient manner by taking a light regulatory approach that enables opportunities for potential providers to set up their own infrastructures and additionally have access to backhaul. Further, reducing legal requirements on authentication should be considered in place of government mandated technical architectures for authentication and payment. In particular, allowing for anonymous access to Public Wi-Fi or wireless connectivity would reduce both the administrative and the technical burden on potential providers at the hyper-local level, especially for providers whose main activity it is not, and cannot be, to provide internet services (say, event venues, malls, and shops).</p>
<p><strong>3.6.</strong> The CIS suggests the following steps towards conceptualising an “alternative model”:</p>
<ol><li>remove existing regulatory disincentives,<br /><br /></li>
<li>urgently explore policies to promote deployment of wired infrastructures in general, and to enable a larger range of actors, including local authorities, to invest in and deploy local infrastructures by reducing licensing requirements in particular,<br /><br /></li>
<li>examine spectrum requirements for provision of public Wi-Fi, and<br /><br /></li>
<li>provide incentives, such as allowing telecom service providers to share backhaul traffic over public Wi-Fi, and ways for telecom service providers to lower their costs if they also make Internet access available for free.</li></ol>
<h4>Q3. Can Public Wi-Fi access providers resell capacity and bandwidth to retail users? Is “light touch regulation” using methods such as “registration” instead of “licensing” preferred for them?</h4>
<p><strong>3.7.</strong> CIS holds that capacity and bandwidth are neither comparable to tangible goods nor to digital currency. They are a utility, and the provider of the utility has to accept that their customers use the utility in the way they see fit, even if that use entails sharing said capacity and bandwidth with downstream private persons or customers. Wi-Fi capabilities are currently a built-in standardised feature of all consumer routers. Any individual, community, or store with access to an internet connection and a consumer router could become a public Wi-Fi access provider at no additional cost to themselves, furthering the goals of the Indian government in its Digital India strategy to ensure public and universal access to the internet.</p>
<p><strong>3.8.</strong> In order to exploit the opportunities awarded by a large amount of entities in the Indian society potentially becoming Public Wi-Fi providers, TRAI should require neither registration nor licensing of these actors. Imposing administrative burdens on potential public Wi-Fi access providers creates legal uncertainty and will cause a lot of actors, who may otherwise contribute to the goals of Digital India, not to do so. This is particularly true for community organisers and citizens, who may not have access to legal assistance and therefore may avoid contributing to the goals of the government.</p>
<p><strong>3.9.</strong> Light touch regulation when it comes to both granting license to public Wi-Fi access providers as well as authentication of retail users, however, are needed not only as an exceptional practice for such instances but as a general practice in case of entities offering public Wi-Fi services, either commercially or otherwise. Further, additional laxity in administrative responsibilities is needed to incentivise provision of free, that is non-commercial, public Wi-Fi networks.</p>
<h4>Q4. What should be the regulatory guidelines on “unbundling” Wi-Fi at access and backhaul level?</h4>
<p><strong>3.10.</strong> The Note refers to unbundling of activities related to provision of Wi-Fi but it does not define the term. It is neither explained which specific activities at access and backhaul levels must be considered for unbundling.</p>
<p><strong>3.11.</strong> While unbundling should clearly be allowed and any regulatory hurdles to unbundling should be removed, any such decision must be taken with a focus on urgently addressing the stagnated growth in landline and backhaul, as identified in Section C.6.a of the Note. Relying only on spectrum intensive infrastructures, such as mobile base stations, for providing connectivity, creates a heavy regulatory burden for the TRAI, while simultaneously not ensuring optimal connectivity for business and private users. The CIS is concerned that the focus of the Note on standardising a government-mediated authentication and payment mechanism detracts attention from this urgent obstacle to the fulfillment of the Digital India plans of accelerated provision of broadband highways, universal access, and public, especially free, access to internet services.</p>
<p><strong>3.12.</strong> From the example of European telecommunications legislations, implementation of policy measures to ensure that vertical integration between infrastructure (say, cables, switches, and hubs) providers and service (say, providing a subscriber with a household modem or a SIM card) providers in the telecommunications sector does not become a barrier to new market entrants has yielded much success in countries that have pursued it, like Sweden and Great Britain.</p>
<p><strong>3.13.</strong> Further, there should be no default assumption of bundling by the TRAI. In particular, the TRAI should consider reviewing all regulations that may cause bundling to occur when this is not necessary, and put in place in a monitoring mechanism for ensuring that bundled practises (especially in electronic networks, base station infrastructures, backhaul and similar) do not cause competitive problems or raise market entry barriers <strong>[9]</strong>. In most EU countries, especially where the corporate structure of incumbent(s) is not highly vertically integrated, interconnection requirements for electronic network providers of wired networks in the backhaul or backbone (effectively price regulated interconnection), and a conscious effort to ensure that new market players can enter the field, have ensured a competitive telecommunications environment. TRAI may consider reviewing the European regulation on local loop unbundling (1999) and discussions on functional separation (especially by the British regulatory authority Ofcom), within an Indian context.</p>
<h4>Q5. Whether reselling of bandwidth should be allowed to venue owners such as shop keepers through Wi-Fi at premise? In such a scenario please suggest the mechanism for security compliance.</h4>
<p><strong>3.14.</strong> Yes. Venue owners should be allowed to provide public Wi-Fi service both on a commercial and non-commercial basis.</p>
<p><strong>3.15.</strong> It is not clear from the Note and the question what type of security concerns the TRAI is seeking to address. In terms of payment security, the payment industry already has a large range of verification and testing mechanisms. The CIS objects to the mandatory introduction of the proposed payment system so as to ensure greater security for Wi-Fi access providers and the users.</p>
<p><strong>3.16.</strong> As far as hardware-related security issues are concerned, it is again unclear why consumer equipment compliant with existing Wi-Fi standards would not be sufficiently secure in the Indian context. Wi-Fi has proven to be a sturdy technical standard, its adoption is high in multiple jurisdictions around the world, and it also enjoys great technical stability. Similar security assessments could easily be made for alternative wireless technologies, such as WiMaX.</p>
<p><strong>3.17.</strong> The CIS foresees problems is in the allocation of risk and liability by law. The already existing legal obligation to verify the identity of each user, for instance, is likely to introduce a large administrative burden on potential Public Wi-Fi providers, which may lead to such potential providers abstaining from entering the market. Should the identification requirement be removed, however, other concerns pertaining to legal obligations may arise. These include liability for user activities on the web or on the internet (cf. copyright infringement, libel, hate speech). We propose a “safe harbour” mechanism in these cases, limiting the liability of the potential public Wi-Fi provider.</p>
<h4>Q6. What should be the guidelines regarding sharing of costs and revenue across all entities in the public Wi-Fi value chain? Is regulatory intervention required or it should be left to forbearance and individual contracting?</h4>
<p><strong>3.18.</strong> The market segments identified by the TRAI in Section F.18 of the Note should normally all be competitive markets themselves, and so do not require regulatory assistance in sharing of costs and revenues. The more elaborate the requirements imposed on each actor of each market segment identified by the TRAI in Section F.18, the more costly the roll-out of public Wi-Fi is going to be for the market actors. Such a cost is not avoided by price regulation.</p>
<p><strong>3.19.</strong> The TRAI may instead consider introducing public funding for backhaul roll-out in remote areas, where the market is unlikely to engage in such roll-out on its own. Presently, some Indian states (such as Karnataka) are committing to public funding for wireless access in remote areas. The Union Government can assist such endeavours.</p>
<h2>Endnotes</h2>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> See: <a href="http://trai.gov.in/Content/ConDis/20801_0.aspx">http://trai.gov.in/Content/ConDis/20801_0.aspx</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> See Section C.6 of the Note.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> See: <a href="http://trai.gov.in/Content/ConDis/20782_0.aspx">http://trai.gov.in/Content/ConDis/20782_0.aspx</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-to-trai-consultation-on-proliferation-of-broadband-through-public-wifi-networks">http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-to-trai-consultation-on-proliferation-of-broadband-through-public-wifi-networks</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> See Section E.11. of the Note.</p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> See: <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-to-trai-consultation-on-proliferation-of-broadband-through-public-wifi-networks">http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-to-trai-consultation-on-proliferation-of-broadband-through-public-wifi-networks</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> See: <a href="https://www.wi-fi.org/">https://www.wi-fi.org/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> See: Monitoring bundled products in the telecommunications sector is also recommended by the OECD: <a href="http://oecdinsights.org/2015/06/22/triple-and-quadruple-play-bundles-of-communication-services-towards-all-in-one-packages/">http://oecdinsights.org/2015/06/22/triple-and-quadruple-play-bundles-of-communication-services-towards-all-in-one-packages/</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-trai-note-on-interoperable-scalable-public-wifi'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-submission-trai-note-on-interoperable-scalable-public-wifi</a>
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No publisherJapreet Grewal, Pranesh Prakash, Sharath Chandra, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, and Udbhav Tiwari, with expert comments from Amelia AndersdotterDigital PaymentPublic Wireless NetworkTRAIInternet GovernanceTelecomFeaturedAadhaarHomepageUID2016-12-12T13:59:00ZBlog EntryCIS Comments on TRAI Consultation Paper on Promoting Local Telecom Equipment Manufacturing
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-comments-on-promoting-local-telecom-equipment-manufacturing
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) sent comments to the TRAI Consultation Paper on promoting telecom equipment manufacturing. CIS submission drew primarily from the research done in the Pervasive Technologies project.</b>
<p><b><a class="external-link" href="http://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/CP_on_Manufacturing_18_09_17.pdf">Read TRAI's Consultation Paper on Promoting Local Telecom Equipment Manufacturing </a></b></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><span>Preliminary</span></b></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><span> </span></b></p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>This submission presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society, India ("<b>CIS</b>") on the <i>Consultation Paper on Promoting Local Telecom Equipment Manufacturing </i>dated 18.09. 2017, released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), under Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies (“<b>the TRAI Consultation Paper</b>”).</span><span> </span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>We commend TRAI for its efforts at seeking inputs from various stakeholders on this important and timely issue and are thankful for the opportunity to put forth our views.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>We have addressed questions 3 and 5 of the TRAI Consultation Paper. Question numbers referred to in our submission correspond to those in the TRAI Consultation Paper.</span><span> </span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Further, the Department of Industrial Planning and Promotion (DIPP) invited comments on SEPs and their availability on FRAND terms on 01. 03. 2016.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span>[1]</span></a> CIS submitted a detailed response to the consultation, and our present submission will draw significantly from our earlier response<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><span>[2]</span></a>, as well as new empirical research concluded in the since the time of the consultation.</span></li>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><span> </span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><span>About CIS<br /></span></b></p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>CIS<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3"><span>[3]</span></a> is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. Our areas of focus include IP rights, openness, internet governance, telecommunication reform, free speech, intermediary liability, digital privacy, cyber-security, and accessibility for persons with diverse abilities.</span><span> </span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>We strive to maximise public benefit, useful innovation, vibrant competition and consumer welfare. This submission is consistent with our commitment to the domestic goals (as enumerated in Make in India and Digital India), and the protection of India's national interest at the international level. </span></li>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><span>Submission on the Issues for Resolution<br /></span></b></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><i><span>“Q.3 Are the existing patent laws in India sufficient to address the issues of local manufacturers? If No, then suggest the measures to be adopted and amendments that need to be incorporated for supporting the local telecom manufacturing industry.</span></i></b><span>”</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>We submit that amendments to the Patents Act, 1970 may not be preferred, presently. It may be noted that there have been no judgments concluded by Indian courts on disputes relating to licensing of SEPs, yet. Justice Bakhru’s landmark order in <i>Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ) </i>v. <i>Competition Commission of India (2016) </i>provided valuable clarity on the issue of conflict between remedies under Patents Act, 1970 and Competition Act, 1970. As various other matters are yet to be conclusively decided, and given the complex legal questions involved around the interpretation of Patents Act, 1970 and Competition Act, 2002, and constitutional issues around the jurisdiction of regulators and the power of judicial review of the courts, we believe that it would be prudent to examine the ruling of the courts on these issues in some detail, before considering amendments.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>However, to support the local telecom manufacturing industry the Government of India may adopt and implement the following measures: </span></p>
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<li style="text-align: justify; "><b><span> <span>Develop Model Guidelines to improve the working of Indian Standard Setting Organisations (SSOs</span>): </span></b><span>Given the increasing complexity and time-consuming nature of SEP litigation in India, there is a tangible threat of the abuse of the FRAND process, it might be useful for the government to make suggestions on the working of Indian SSOs. The functioning of Indian SSOs has not been satisfactory and it is suggested that the government develop Model Guidelines that may be adopted by Indian SSOs, taking into account India specific requirements. The India specific requirements include a large and exponentially growing mobile device market which has made it possible for manufacturers, patent owners and implementers alike to achieve financial gains even with a low margin. We believe that this measure will also enable the fulfillment of the objectives of the Make in India and Digital India initiatives.</span><span><br /><br />We recommend that various stakeholders, including IP holders, potential licensees and users of IP, civil society organizations, academics, and, government bodies, including the Indian Patent Office, the Department of Telecommunications, the DIPP, TRAI, and, the CCI be consulted in the creation of these Model Guidelines.</span><span><br /><br />In our opinion, the Model Guidelines may cover (a) the composition of the SSO; (b) the process of admitting members; (c) the process of the determination of a standard or technical specification; (d) the process of declassification of a standard or technical specification; (e) the IPR Policy; (f) resolution of disputes; (g) applicable law.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b><span><span>Initiate the formation of a patent pool of critical mobile technologies and cap royalty payments</span></span></b><span><span>:</span></span><span> In light of the observed inadequacies in the IPR policies of various SSOs in India, as well the spate of ongoing patent infringement lawsuits around mobile technologies, we recommend that the government intervene in the setting of royalties and FRAND terms by setting up a patent pool of critical mobile technologies and apply a compulsory license with a five per cent royalty. Further, patent pools should be required to offer FRAND licenses on the same terms to both members and nonmembers of the pool.</span><span> </span><span><br /><br />Our motivations for this proposal are manifold. In our opinion, it is nearly impossible for potential licensees to avoid inadvertent patent infringement. As a part of our research on technical standards applicable to mobile phones sold in India, we have found nearly 322 standards so far.<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4"><span>[4]</span></a> It is submitted that carrying out patent searches for all the standards would be extremely expensive for potential licensees. Further, even if such searches were to be carried out, different patent owners, SSOs and potential licensees disagree on valuation, essentiality, enforceability, validity, and coverage of patents. In addition, some patent owners are non-practising entities and may not be members of SSOs. The patents held by them are not likely to be disclosed. More importantly, homegrown manufacturers that have no patents to leverage and may be new entrants in the market would be especially disadvantaged by such a scenario. Budget phone manufacturers, standing to incur losses either as a result of heavy licensing fees, or, potential litigation, may close down. Alternatively, they may pass on their losses to consumers, driving the now affordable phones out of their financial reach. With the objectives of Make in India and Digital India in sight, it is essential that Indian consumers continue to have access to devices within their purchasing power.</span><span> </span><span><br /><br />Further, how did we arrive at a cap of 5 percent? The rationale for this figure is the royalty cap imposed by India in the early 1990s. As part of regulating foreign technology agreements, the (former) Department of Industrial Development (later merged with DIPP) capped royalty rates in the early 1990s. Payment of royalties was capped at either a lump sum payment of $2 million, or, 5 percent on the royalty rates charged for domestic sale, and, 8 percent for export of goods pertaining to “high priority industries”.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5"><span>[5]</span></a> Royalties higher than 5 percent or 8 percent, as the case may be, required securing approval from the government. While the early 1990s (specifically, 1991) was too early for the mobile device manufacturing industry to be listed among high priority industries, the public announcement by the government covered computer software, consumer electronics, and electrical and electronic appliances for home use. The cap on royalty rates was lifted by the DIPP in 2009.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6"><span>[6]</span></a> It is submitted in the case of mobile device technology, we are witnessing a situation similar to that of the 1990s. In this sphere, most of the patent holders are multinational corporations which results in large royalty amounts leaving India. At the same time, litigation over patent infringement in India has limited the manufacture and sale of mobile devices of homegrown brands. While SEP litigation in India is indeed comparable to international SEP litigation on broader issues raised, specifically competition law concerns, but differs crucially where the parties are concerned. International SEP litigation is largely between multinational corporations with substantial patent portfolios, capable of engaging in long drawn out litigations, or engaging in other strategies including setting off against each other’s patent portfolios. Dynamics in the Indian market differ – with a larger SEP holder litigating against smaller manufacturers, many of whom are indigenous, homegrown.</span><span><br /><br />In June, 2013, we had recommended to the erstwhile Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7"><span>[7]</span></a> that a patent pool of essential technologies be established, with the compulsory licensing mechanism. Subsequently, in February, 2015, we reiterated this request to the Hon’ble Prime Minister.<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8"><span>[8]</span></a> We propose that the Government of India initiate the formation of a patent pool of critical mobile technologies and mandate a five percent compulsory license.<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9"><span>[9]</span></a> As we have stated in our request to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, we believe that such a pool would “<i>possibly avert patent disputes by ensuring that the owners' rights are not infringed on, that budget manufacturers are not put out of business owing to patent feuds, and that consumers continue to get access to inexpensive mobile devices. Several countries including the United States issue compulsory licenses on patents in the pharmaceutical, medical, defence, software, and engineering domains for reasons of public policy, or to thwart or correct anticompetitive practices.</i>”<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10"><span>[10]</span></a> We believe that such a measure will not be in breach of our international obligations under the TRIPS Agreement.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b><span><span>Increase transparency in the patent system by making patentees comply with the law</span></span></b><span>: </span><span>The Patents Act, 1970 requires patentees and licensees to submit a statement on commercial working of the invention to the Controller every year.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11"><span>[11]</span></a> Form 27 under section 146(2) of the Act lists the details necessary to be disclosed for compliance of the requirement of “working”. A jurisprudential analysis reveals the rationale and objective behind this mandatory requirement. Undeniably, the scheme of the Indian patent regime makes it amply clear that “working” is a very important requirement, and the public as well as competitors have a right to access this information in a timely manner, without undue hurdles. Indeed, as the decision<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12"><span>[12]</span></a> in <i>Natco Pharma </i>v. <i>Bayer Corporation<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13"><b><span>[13]</span></b></a></i> reveals, the disclosures in Form 27 were crucial to determining the imposition of a compulsory license on the patentee. <b>Thus, broadly, Form 27 disclosures can critically enable willing licensees to access patent “working” information in a timely manner</b>.</span><span> </span><span><br /><br />However, there has been little compliance of this requirement by the patentees, despite the Indian Patent Office (<b>IPO</b>) reiterating the importance of compliance through the issuance of multiple public notices<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14"><span>[14]</span></a> (suo motu and in response to a public interest litigation filed in 2011<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15"><span>[15]</span></a>), and, reminding the patentees that noncompliance is punishable with a heavy fine.<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16"><span>[16]</span></a> Findings of research submitted by one of the parties<a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17"><span>[17]</span></a> in the writ of the 2011 public interest <i>litigation Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India</i> <i>and others</i><a href="#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18"><span>[18]</span></a> reveal as follows. First, a large number of Form 27s are unavailable for download from the website of the IPO. This possibly indicates that the forms have either not been filed by the patentees with the IPO, or have not been uploaded (yet) by the IPO. Second, a large number of filings in the telecom sector remain incomplete.</span><span><br /><br />In 2015, CIS queried the IPO website for Form 27s of mobile device patents to arrive at a similar conclusion. We obtained 4,916 valid Form 27s, corresponding to 3,126 mobile device patents from public online records. These represented only 20.1% of all Forms 27 that should have been filed and corresponded to only 72.5% of all mobile device patents for which Forms 27 should have been filed. Forms 27 were missing for almost all patentees, and even among Forms 27 that were obtained, almost none contained useful information regarding the working of the subject patents or fully complying with the informational requirements of the Indian Patent Rules.<a href="#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19"><span>[19]</span></a></span><span><br /><br />Further, in our study, we observed that patentees adopted drastically different positions regarding the definition of patent working, some arguing that importation of products into India or licensing of Indian suppliers constituted working, while others even went so far as to argue that the granting of a worldwide license to a non-Indian firm constituted working in India. Several significant patentees claimed that they or their patent portfolios were simply too large to enable the provision of information relating to individual patents, and instead provided gross revenue and product sale figures, together with historical anecdotes about their long histories in India.</span><span><br /><br />The Indian government has made little or no effort to monitor or police compliance with Form 27 filings, undoubtedly leading to significant non-compliance. We also propose the alteration of the Form 27 template<a href="#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20"><span>[20]</span></a> to include more disclosures.<a href="#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21"><span>[21]</span></a> Presently, patentees are required to declare number of licensees and sub-licensees. We specifically propose that the format of Form 27 filings be modified to include patent pool licenses, with an explicit declaration of the names of the licensees and not just the number.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span><b>Require royalty rates to be decided on the basis of the Smallest Saleable Patent Practicing Component: </b>Most modern telecommunication and IT devices are complex with numerous technologies working in tandem. Different studies indicate that the number of patents in the US applicable to smartphones is between 200,000 and 250,000.<a href="#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22"><span>[22]</span></a> A comprehensive patent landscape of mobile device technologies conducted by CIS reveals that nearly 4,000 patents are applicable to mobile phones sold in India.<a href="#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23"><span>[23]</span></a> It is thus extremely difficult to quantify the exact extent of interaction and interdependence between technologies in any device, in such a way that the exact contribution of the patented technology to the entire device can be determined. Thus, we submit that royalty rates for SEPs should be based on the <i>smallest saleable patent practising component</i>, and not on the net price of the downstream product.</span><span><br /><br />The net cost of the device is almost always several times that of the chipset that implements the patented technology. Armstrong et al<a href="#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24"><span>[24]</span></a> have found that the cost of a 4G baseband chip costs up to $20 including royalties in a hypothetical $400 phone sold in the US. One of the litigating parties in the ongoing patent infringement lawsuits in India has stated that one of the reasons for preferring to leverage its patents as downstream as possible in the value chain is that it will earn the company more royalties.<a href="#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25"><span>[25]</span></a> In instances where patent exhaustion occurs much earlier in the value chain, such as in the case of the company’s cross-licenses with Qualcomm (another company that owns patents to chip technologies), the company does not try to obtain royalties from the selling prices of devices for the cross-licensed technologies. It is submitted that such market practices could be detrimental to the government’s objectives such as providing a mobile handset to every Indian by 2020 as a part of the Digital India programme.<a href="#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26"><span>[26]</span></a> It is also worth noting in this context that the mobile device is the first and only medium of access to the Internet and telecom services for a large number of Indians, and, consequently, the only gateway to access to knowledge, information and critical services, including banking.<a href="#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27"><span>[27]</span></a></span><b><i><span><br /><br /> “Q.5 Please suggest a dispute resolution mechanism for determination of royalty distribution on FRAND (Fair Reasonable and Non Discriminatory) basis.”</span></i></b><span><br /><br />The licensing of SEPs on FRAND terms requires the parties to negotiate “reasonable” royalty rates in good faith, and apply the terms uniformly to all willing licensees. It is our submission that if the parties cannot agree to FRAND terms, they may enter into <b>binding arbitration</b>. Further, if all efforts fail, there exist remedies under the Patents Act and the Competition Act, 2002 to address the issues.</span><span><br /><br />Section 115 of the Patents Act empowers the court to appoint an independent scientific adviser “<i>to assist the court or to inquire and report upon any such question of fact or of opinion (not involving a question of interpretation of law) as it may formulate for the purpose.</i>”<a href="#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28"><span>[28]</span></a> Such an independent adviser may inform the court on the technical nuances of the matter.</span><span><br /><br />Further<b>, </b>under the Patents Act, pending the decision of infringement proceedings the Court may provide interim relief, if the plaintiff proves <i>first, </i>a prima facie case of infringement; <i>second, </i>that the balance of convenience tilts in plaintiff’s favour; and, <i>third, </i>that if an injunction is not granted the plaintiff shall suffer irreparable damage. However, it is our suggestion that courts adopt a more cautious stance towards granting injunctions in the field of SEP litigation. <i>First, </i>in our opinion, injunctions may prove to be a deterrent to arrive at a FRAND commitment, in particular, egregiously harming the willing licensee. <i>Second, </i>especially in the Indian scenario, where litigating parties operate in vastly different price segments (thereby targeting consumers with different purchasing power), it is difficult to establish that “irreparable damage” has been caused to the patent owner on account of infringement. <i>Third, </i>we note the approach of the European Court of Justice, which prohibited the patent holder from enforcing an injunction provided a willing licensee makes an offer for the price it wishes to pay to use a patent under the condition that it deposited an amount in the bank as a security for the patent holder.<a href="#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29"><span>[29]</span></a> <i>Fourth, </i>we also note the approach of the Federal Trade Commission in the USA, which only authorizes patent holders to seek injunctive relief against potential licensees who have either stated that they will not license a patent on any terms, or refuse to enter into a license agreement on terms that have been set in the final ruling of a court or arbitrator.<a href="#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30"><span>[30]</span></a> Further, as Contreras (2015)<a href="#_ftn31" name="_ftnref31"><span>[31]</span></a> observes, that the precise boundaries of what constitutes as an unwilling licensee remains to be seen. We observe a similar ambiguity in Indian jurisprudence, and accordingly submit that courts should carefully examine the conduct of the licensee to injunct them from the alleged infringement.</span></li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Concluding Remarks</b></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; "> </ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>We are thankful to TRAI for the opportunity to make these submissions. It would be our pleasure and privilege to discuss these comments with the TRAI; and, supplement these with further submissions if necessary. We also offer our assistance on other matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards the sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span>[1]</span></a> Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Discussion Paper on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on Frand Terms, available at <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms</a> (last accessed November 13, 2017)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><span>[2]</span></a> Anubha Sinha, Nehaa Chaudhari and Rohini Lakshane, “CIS’ Comments on Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Discussion Paper on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on Frand Terms” (April 23, 2016); available at <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3"><span>[3]</span></a> <a href="http://www.cis-india.org">www.cis-india.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4"><span>[4]</span></a> Rohini Lakshané, CIS, List of Technical Standards and IP Types (Working document), available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8SgjShAjhbtaml5eW50bS01d2s/view?usp=sharing (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5"><span>[5]</span></a> Kumkum Sen, News on Royalty Payments Brings Cheer in New Year, available at http://www.businessstandard.com/article/economypolicy/newsonroyaltypaymentbringscheerinnewyear11001 0400044_1.html (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6"><span>[6]</span></a> See Sanjana Govil, Putting a Lid on Royalty Outflows How the RBI Can Help Reduce India’s IP Costs <i>, </i>available at <a href="http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/lidonroyaltyoutflows">http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/lidonroyaltyoutflows</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017) for a discussion on the introduction of royalty caps in the early 1990s, and its success in reducing the flow of money out of India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7"><span>[7]</span></a> Nehaa Chaudhari, Letter for Establishment of Patent Pool for Low cost Access Devices through Compulsory</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Licenses, available at <a href="http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/letterforestablishmentofpatentpoolforlowcostaccessdevices">http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/letterforestablishmentofpatentpoolforlowcostaccessdevices </a>(last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8"><span>[8]</span></a> See Rohini Lakshané, Open Letter to PM Modi, available at <a href="http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/openlettertoprimeministermodi">http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/openlettertoprimeministermodi</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017) for further details of CIS’ proposal.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9"><span>[9]</span></a> Rohini Lakshané, FAQ: CIS’ proposal to form a patent pool of critical mobile technology, September 2015, available at <a href="http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/faqcisproposalforcompulsorylicensingofcriticalmobiletechnologies">http://cisindia.org/a2k/blogs/faqcisproposalforcompulsorylicensingofcriticalmobiletechnologies </a>(last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10"><span>[10]</span></a> Id.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11"><span>[11]</span></a> Section 146(2) of the Patents Act, 1970.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12"><span>[12]</span></a> Sai Vinod, Patent Office Finally Takes Form 27s Seriously, available at <a href="http://spicyip.com/2013/02/patentofficefinallytakesform27s.html">http://spicyip.com/2013/02/patentofficefinallytakesform27s.html</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13"><span>[13]</span></a> Order No. 45/2013 (Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Chennai), available at <a href="http://www.ipab.tn.nic.in/0452013.htm">http://www.ipab.tn.nic.in/0452013.htm</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14"><span>[14]</span></a> Intellectual Property India, Public Notice, available at</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.ipindia.nic.in/iponew/publicNotice_Form27_12Feb2013.pdf">http://www.ipindia.nic.in/iponew/publicNotice_Form27_12Feb2013.pdf</a> ((last accessed 13 November, 2017) <i>and </i>Intellectual Property India, Public Notice, available at <a href="http://ipindia.nic.in/iponew/publicNotice_24December2009.pdf">http://ipindia.nic.in/iponew/publicNotice_24December2009.pdf</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15"><span>[15]</span></a> Supra note 11.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16"><span>[16]</span></a> Id.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17"><span>[17]</span></a> See research findings available at <a href="http://spicyip.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/FORM27WP1Rcopy.pdf">http://spicyip.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/FORM27WP1Rcopy.pdf</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18"><span>[18]</span></a> In the High Court of Delhi, W.P.(C) 5590/2015. This litigation is currently ongoing. See, illustratively, Mathews P. George, <i>Patent Working in India: Delhi HC issues notice in Shamnad Basheer </i>v<i>. Union of India & Ors. – I </i>, available at <a href="http://spicyip.com/2015/09/patentworkinginindiadelhihcissuesnoticeinshamnadbasheervunionofindiaorsi.html">http://spicyip.com/2015/09/patentworkinginindiadelhihcissuesnoticeinshamnadbasheervunionofindiaorsi.html</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19"><span>[19]</span></a> Contreras, Jorge L. and Lakshané, Rohini and Lewis, Paxton, Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products (October 1, 2017). NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3004283">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3004283</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20"><span>[20]</span></a> Form 27, The Patents Act, available at <a href="http://ipindia.nic.in/ipr/patent/manual/HTML%20AND%20PDF/Manual%20of%20Patent%20Office%20Practice%20and%20Procedure%20%20html/Forms/Form27.pdf">http://ipindia.nic.in/ipr/patent/manual/HTML%20AND%20PDF/Manual%20of%20Patent%20Office%20Practice%20and%20Procedure%20%20html/Forms/Form27.pdf</a> (last accessed November 13, 10`7).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21"><span>[21]</span></a> However, we came across some complaints raised by patentees and industry observers regarding the structure of the Form 27 requirement - namely, patents covering complex, multi-component products that embody dozens of technical standards and thousands of patents are not necessarily amenable to the individual-level data requested by Form 27. See Contreras, Jorge L. and Lakshané, Rohini and Lewis, Paxton, Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products (October 1, 2017). NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3004283">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3004283</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22"><span>[22]</span></a> Mark Lemley and Carl Shapiro, Patent Holdup and Royalty Stacking, <i>85 Tex. L. Rev. at 2015 </i>; See also, for e.g.,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RPX Corporation, Amendment No. 3 to Form Sl,11 Apr. 2011, at 59, available at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1509432/000119312511101007/ds1a.htm (last accessed 22 April, 2016), quoting <i>“Based on our research, we believe there are more than 250,000 active patents relevant to today’s</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>smartphones…” </i>.; See further Steve Lohr, Apple Samsung Case Shows Smartphone as Legal Magnet, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2012, available at <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/applesamsungcaseshowssmartphoneaslawsuitmagnet">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/applesamsungcaseshowssmartphoneaslawsuitmagnet</a>.html (last accessed November13, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23"><span>[23]</span></a> Jorge L. Contreras and Rohini Lakshané, Patents and Mobile Devices in India: An Empirical Survey, available at <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2756486">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2756486</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24"><span>[24]</span></a> Ann Armstrong, Joseph J. Mueller and Timothy D. Syrett, The SmartphoneRoyalty Stack:Surveying Royalty Demands for the Components Within Modern Smartphones, available at <a href="https://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/Editorial/Publications/Documents/TheSmartphoneRoyaltyStackArmstrongMuellerSyrett.pdf">https://www.wilmerhale.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/Editorial/Publications/Documents/TheSmartphoneRoyaltyStackArmstrongMuellerSyrett.pdf</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25"><span>[25]</span></a> Florian Mueller, Ericsson Explained Publicly why it Collects Patent Royalties from Device (Not Chipset) Makers, available at <a href="http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/01/ericssonexplainedpubliclywhyits.Html">http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/01/ericssonexplainedpubliclywhyits.Html</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26"><span>[26]</span></a> Romit Guha and Anandita Singh Masinkotia, PM Modi’s Digital India Project:Government to Ensure that Every Indian has a Smartphone by 2019, available at <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20140825/news/53205445_1_digitalindiaindiatodayfinancialservices">http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/20140825/news/53205445_1_digitalindiaindiatodayfinancialservices</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27"><span>[27]</span></a> Nehaa Chaudhari, Standard Essential Patents on Low Cost Mobile Phones in India: A Case to Strengthen Competition Regulation? available at <a href="http://www.manupatra.co.in/newsline/articles/Upload/08483340C1B94BA4B6A9D6B6494391B8.pdf">http://www.manupatra.co.in/newsline/articles/Upload/08483340C1B94BA4B6A9D6B6494391B8.pdf</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28"><span>[28]</span></a> Section 115 of the Patents Act, 1970.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29"><span>[29]</span></a> <i>Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd </i>v. <i>ZTE Corp. and ZTE Deutschland </i>, Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 16 July 2015 in GmbH C170/13.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30"><span>[30]</span></a> Third Party United States Fed. Trade Commission’s Statement on the Public Interest, <i>In re Certain Wireless Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, Computers and Components Thereof</i>, U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n, Inv. No. 337TA745 (Jun. 6, 2012).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ftnref31" name="_ftn31"><span>[31]</span></a> Jorge L. Contreras, A Brief History of FRAND: Analyzing Current Debates in Standard Setting and Antitrust Through a Historical Lens <i>, </i>80 Antitrust Law Journal 39 (2015), available at h ttp://ssrn.com/abstract=2374983 or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2374983">http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2374983</a> (last accessed 13 November, 2017).</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-comments-on-promoting-local-telecom-equipment-manufacturing'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/cis-comments-on-promoting-local-telecom-equipment-manufacturing</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaTelecomFeaturedHomepage2017-11-26T02:56:15ZBlog EntryCIS anniversary
https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society will celebrate five years of its existence with an exhibition showcasing its works and accomplishments. </b>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">This was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/cis-anniversary/article4686344.ece">Hindu Business Line</a> on May 5, 2013</p>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">The exhibition will be held concurrently at both Bangalore and Delhi offices from May 20 to 24, 2013, said a press release.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">“To promote transparency, we're getting the general public to be our auditors by throwing open our account books and contracts which show how we have spent the Rs 8.3 crore received from our donors.”</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">The exhibition will also see artists like Kiran Subbaiah, Tara Kelton, Navin Thomas, Abhishek Hazra, among others exhibiting their works, as well as lectures.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary'>https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2013-05-06T07:28:07ZNews ItemChina Club instead of Bombay Club?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club
<b>Emulate China's coordinated policies for strategic sectors, and we'll rely less on commodity exports, says Shyam Ponappa in his article in the Business Standard on May 13, 2010.</b>
<p>With the momentum of the past few years, India’s potential for growth is enormous, despite the chaotic loose linkages. In sectors like power and telecommunications, this translates to demand far outstripping capacity. Some contend that domestic inability to build capacity — i.e., being able to actually pull it off, as against the perpetual potential — will conscribe not only these sectors, but also limit overall growth. So the argument goes, e.g., let China build India’s power plants, because we need the power and don’t have capacity/they do it cheaper.</p>
<p>Comparative advantage notwithstanding, this reasoning is fallacious given the realities of national interests and self-interest. To understand why, consider the naïveté of the underlying assumptions — about “rational man”, that capitalism is fair, capital is immobile, surplus value accrues to countries and not to companies, or that the pursuit of self-interest maximises societal <a class="external-link" href="http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/papers/free-software/BMind.pdf">benefits</a>.</p>
<p>Our quandary is aggravated by our inability so far to orchestrate supportive policies for even a level playing field. Ironically, one need only consider India’s approach to IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) in the initial growth years to realise this. India’s policies in IT and ITeS, while far from perfect — in fact, sneaked through by stealth, as in the preferential 64 kbps communications lifeline, and the tax breaks for software service exporters — provided the foundations for transforming IT and then ITeS/BPO/KPO (Business Process and Knowledge Process Outsourcing).</p>
<p>These sectors also benefited from a controlled exchange rate, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) managed a steady depreciation during those years. But they did not have another vital ingredient of coordinated policies as did the Asian tigers: low borrowing rates (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/050610_03.jpg">see the diagram</a>)</p>
<p>This is one reason why, for instance, India’s machine tool manufacturers or shipbuilders have not matched the growth of knowledge-based services. The former need inexpensive, long-term capital for production and marketing, as well as for continuous innovation, upgrade and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wu.ac.at/europainstitut/noeg/raju_s2.3-2">scale</a>.</p>
<h3>Why labour arbitrage and not products</h3>
<p>This is also one reason why we lack product orientation, because product design, development and marketing require the support of easy access to cheap capital for a long period. Labour arbitrage needs little capital. Therefore, we have been better mercenaries than producers of products, compared with the chaebols (Samsung, Hyundai) or keiretsu (Mitsubishi, Dai-Ichi/Mizuho). There are, of course, many additional reasons: their education, training, work practices, our policies against large corporations, etc.</p>
<p>With growth in domestic markets across a broad range — telecom equipment, engineering goods, power — there are domestic manufacturing initiatives, such as L&T and Bharat Forge in power generation joining Bhel, or Tejas Networks in optical switching. But for the transformational changes we have witnessed in IT, we need coordinated industrial policies that support domestic manufacturing, because that’s the competition. Unthinking acceptance of “open markets” without heed to how others — including developed economies — cosseted and built their manufacturing capacity will ensure that India stays a raw materials and commodities exporter, while importing trains, aircraft, machine tools, and equipment for power generation, telecommunications and defence.</p>
<h3>Integrated policies work</h3>
<p>Ideally, supportive policies comprise a coordinated range, such as state and central taxes, favoured locations with good infrastructure — energy, transport and communications, subsidised land, favourable exchange and interest rates, preferred access to domestic markets, and barriers to unfair competition, like import tariffs not below the WTO floor, and safeguard duties. Without this orchestration, the victors are companies and countries that have understood these principles, and have these systems in place. (This applies equally to farm products.)</p>
<p>Many are apprehensive that what works elsewhere will not work in India because of malpractices, as seen in recurring scams. There is every need for systems with integrity, and for enforcement with penalties. But just as corruption in government or civil society does not do away with the need for either, misuse does not negate the need for incentives. It would be self-damaging to lose the opportunity to try and get our act together simply because of apprehensions of corruption and/or incompetence. That would be like not subsidising food for the poor; it’s a different matter that we need better methods to prevent gross misappropriation.</p>
<p>The consequence of heedless, ad hoc muddling through instead of orchestrated strategies is that manufactured imports will dominate our markets, while domestic manufacturing is fragmented, hamstrung or absent. Having said that, consider India’s needs in electricity or communications — telecom, Internet and broadcasting — and it is apparent that crafting policies is not simple. So many conflicting images, some based on facts, others, mere impressions, which are often more important than facts. What should policy-makers do for our needs on such a massive scale with growing shortfalls?</p>
<h3>Emulate China</h3>
<p>The short answer: learn from China. In the power sector, Chinese suppliers have the following advantages:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Low-cost access to capital.</p>
</li><li>
<p>An exchange rate advantage (10-30 per cent).</p>
</li><li>
<p>No sales tax and octroi, aggregating to about 11 per cent.</p>
</li><li>
<p>Zero customs duty on equipment for large plants (China imposes a 30 per cent import duty)</p>
</li></ul>
<p>Corrective action discussed for years has not resulted in concrete steps. The power ministry, citing supposed user benefits, opposes the planning commission’s recommendation of a safeguard duty. This is as shortsighted as “free electricity” that undercuts investments in power.</p>
<p>In telecommunications, consider Huawei, with revenues of over $20 billion, nurtured for 20 years with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as an R&D partner and guaranteed customer, vis-à-vis, say, Tejas Networks from Bangalore, with no government support.</p>
<p>Our policies need to focus on our long-term interests with strategic intent and execution, as in other countries, balancing costs with the benefits of domestic capabilities. These sectors need government procurement support, not criteria that disqualify Indian companies in strategic sectors like power and communications. They also need interim methods for Chinese companies to contribute while upgrading our skills and processes. Our aim needs to be a level playing field.</p>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=393889">Business Standard</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:35:05ZBlog EntryChanging Our Game
https://cis-india.org/telecom/organizing-india-blogspot-in-shyam-ponappa-sep-5-2012-changing-our-game
<b>Adopting 'co-ordination models' like the Stag Hunt could reduce contention and improve outcomes.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa's column was originally published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-changing-our-game/485364/">Business Standard</a> on September 5, 2012 and also posted in <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2012/09/changing-our-game.html">Organizing India blogspot</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Consider the handling of irregularities in spectrum allocation and in coal mining rights. Instead of swiftly ring-fencing problem areas where there are allegations of culpability supported by prima facie evidence, then striving for good policies going forward, the ruling coalition and the Opposition are in a war of attrition. What began with the United Progressive Alliance’s turning a blind eye to the spectrum awards has turned into the Bharatiya Janata Party’s heedless flailing to tear down their opponents. Meanwhile, the confusion created by the pronouncements of the Comptroller and Auditor General and previously of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has vitiated conditions for constructive reform. Any solution that fails a populist screen is likely to be guillotined in the streets.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Contention versus co-operation</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There seems to be quite a contrast between our manifest contentiousness and our apparent friendliness. From our chaotic ways in traffic to dealing with each other and with our surroundings more generally, often, self-centred, short-term opportunism appears to override our better nature. As evidenced in the coalgate stand-off in Parliament, or our inability to establish adequate infrastructure, this cuts across all levels of individuals and groups. The irony is that no one gains, except the perpetrators and supporters of rip-offs and stand-offs. They, too, gain only in the short run, unless they’re not caught out. In the long run, everyone is worse off except the rogues who get away.</p>
<p>How did we get to this self-destructive state, and how might we get out? Insights from game theory could provide some perspective. One stark fact is that our interactions are predominately driven by self-interest that leads to contention, on the lines of a Prisoner’s Dilemma, <a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> instead of a co-operative group- or common-interest model like the Stag Hunt.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a></p>
<p>The two models are described briefly below. For those who want to skip the description, read on after the next two paragraphs.</p>
<h3>Prisoner’s Dilemma</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Two men attempting a burglary with a weapon, A and B, are caught, with insufficient incriminating evidence for the burglary. They are questioned separately and not allowed to communicate. If both deny the burglary, they escape a 10-year sentence and will be imprisoned for two years for possession of a weapon. A is told separately that if B pleads guilty and A does not, B will get a reduced sentence of four years, while A will get 10. So A has an incentive to confess and get four years, too. A is also told that if he confesses, he can go free, while B gets 10 years. Therefore, the logical choice for A is to confess. The same logic applies to B. So, both confess and get four years, instead of both denying and getting only two years. The logical trap is that acting in one’s self-interest without communication and co-operation leads to a worse position.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Stag Hunt</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A group of hunters agree to wait for a stag in their assigned positions. If one sees a hare and shoots at it, the stag takes flight and the group loses out. The group and individuals gain most if individuals stick with their commitment and get the big prize. However, individuals may be tempted to defect by a less risky, smaller pay-off like a hare.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Logical trap: Self-interest leads to contention and lowest equilibrium</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In zero-sum games like cricket, tennis or football, where the total pay-off is the same no matter who wins, one participant gains at the expense of another. In most real-world encounters, however, players can improve their outcomes by co-operation and co-ordination. In other words, many everyday situations can be likened to non-zero-sum games, where one party’s win is not necessarily another’s loss. If individuals (or teams/groups) pursue their self-interest without co-operating and co-ordinating with other players, the pattern is like the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and a logical trap leads to a position of lowest equilibrium (the Nash Equilibrium). This position results from each player/group making the best decision that he/she/they can while taking into account the decisions of the others, and no one can act independently without worsening their position.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Co-ordinating better outcomes</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">By contrast, if players can (a) co-operate and (b) decide through effective co-ordination, everyone gains. Examples are centrally sponsored projects executed in Opposition-run states – for highways or power, for example – or the backing of political parties for India’s 123 Agreement with America on nuclear co-operation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Can we escape a logical trap and contention by adopting models that elicit co-operation and co-ordination? Game theory suggests that models based on trust and co-ordination like the Stag Hunt work for a big prize (the stag). The question is whether it is possible to move to a co-ordination model and, if so, how to do it. While there are no simple fixes, the University of Vienna’s evolutionary game theory models hold out some promise through providing insights into how patterns of co-operation can spread in populations.<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There’s also the long, slow haul of structured education and training in collaborative problem solving. The techniques that need incorporation in our curricula from junior school through higher education, vocational training, and at work, are co-operative problem solving as an approach, and project management as a method. The latter starts with a clear definition of goals and objectives, followed by standard operating procedures covering the gamut of the logic of process flow for tasks, setting milestones/sub-objectives, critical paths, and individual and group responsibilities on timelines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A second aspect where governments have to step in is institutional design — boldly initiating systems and processes after eliciting convergence in each sector from all stakeholders on sound plans in the public interest. Driven by goal-directed project management, this requires systematic action braving populist pressure and distractions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These initiatives would significantly improve India’s ability to act in the public interest.</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>].<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Q6IeVp">http://bit.ly/Q6IeVp</a><br />[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>].“The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure”, Brian Skyrms, <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/TlNJnC">http://bit.ly/TlNJnC</a><br />[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>].VirtualLabs, Christoph Hauert: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/90W392">http://bit.ly/90W392</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/organizing-india-blogspot-in-shyam-ponappa-sep-5-2012-changing-our-game'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/organizing-india-blogspot-in-shyam-ponappa-sep-5-2012-changing-our-game</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-09-06T11:14:42ZBlog EntryChange is coming, thanks to the mobile
https://cis-india.org/news/change-is-coming-thanks-to-the-mobile
<b>An article by NT Balanarayan in the DNA on August 27th,'09</b>
<p>Bangalore: A simple mobile can do much more than all your friends or send you cricket alerts, this is not me saying it, this is what a bunch of mobile enthusiasts organised under the banner of different societies are trying to say with the upcoming unconference Mobile tech for Social Change.</p>
<p>The event which will be held in unconference style - read: casual atmosphere - will try to focus on mobile technology and applications which can help not just connect human beings, but also improve their lives. The event is being organised by Centre for Internet Society (CIS) in collaboration with Women's Learning Partnership, Mobile Monday Bangalore and MobileActive.org and will be held on September 1.</p>
<p>Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS says that the event will bring together two groups of people and provide them a platform to interact and work on ideas.</p>
<p>"On one side, there are the NGOs and social entrepreneurs and on the other side there are the people who develop technology for mobile phones, the geeks and the hackers etc. So if this event works out like expected, there may be a mailing list in the future so that these people can keep in touch and help develop mobile technology that will help uplift the lives of people," he says.</p>
<p>So how important are mobile phones as a technology? According to Abraham, it might be the easiest way for an Indian to access the internet. "There are around 400 million mobile users in India against 80 million people who have occasional access to the internet. The mobile users end up using internet technology a lot in India through GRPS, EDGE and at times indirectly through SMS gateway. This platform however, needs more work so that much more can be provided to mobile users," he says.</p>
<p>The Mobile Monday initiative headed by Kesav Reddy, will be helping CIS to organise the event. "We are expecting not just NGOs and developers, but also, researchers, donors, intermediary organisations and mobile operators; all in all we are expecting 100-200 participants," he says.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/change-is-coming-thanks-to-the-mobile'>https://cis-india.org/news/change-is-coming-thanks-to-the-mobile</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecom2011-04-02T15:09:50ZNews ItemCentre- or State-Driven Development?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-shyam-ponappa-centre-or-state-driven-development
<b>Federalism requires a strong Centre as well as strong states, and effective organisation and coordination -- which can be facilitated by using the Internet.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa's article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/shyam-ponappa-centre-or-state-driven-development-114020501524_1.html">Business Standard</a> on February 5, 2014, and in <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2014/02/centre-or-state-driven-development.html">Observer India Blogspot</a> on February 7, 2014.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are opposing views on the merits of centrally driven development compared with <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=States">states</a> developing on their own approach. At one level, some corporate leaders as well as politicians and members of civil society exhort states to compete for capital investment. This debate extends beyond states going their own way, to community-level local government, as in the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) "Swaraj" through mohalla sabhas (town-hall meetings or open assemblies) for local government.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Basic Weakness: Lack of Organization & Coordination</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the benefits of community-led initiatives for local issues are indisputable, advocates emphasising decentralisation perhaps overlook some fundamental aspects of our reality. These are the extent of the inadequacies in our infrastructure networks, our organisational set-up, and in our ability to achieve effective coordination. Years ago, when Swaran Singh was food and agriculture minister in 1964, he reportedly said that one of our basic weaknesses was "lack of adequate administrative coordination and absence of a unified set-up at different levels" and that it should be "possible to achieve more rapid and lasting progress through a comprehensive and integrated approach than through uncoordinated and isolated efforts of different agencies and organisations operating at different levels…." <a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> He couldn't have been more right, even today.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Result: Poor Infrastructure</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The lack of unified organisation and effective coordination has a direct bearing on infrastructure. This is what people really need, no matter what else they might want. Take the current focus in Delhi on water and electricity. To these two, we must add roads, transport and communications as elements of essential first-order infrastructure services. People everywhere in the country need these services. Likewise, their second-order service needs include healthcare, education and finance. All these services are subject to network economics, and no local community can be self-sufficient without integration with external linkages. At the appropriate levels ("centres") of city, region, state and country (for example, for national highways or communications networks), these services need "centrally" organised supply and coordinated distribution for effective and efficient delivery. Aside from problems related to corruption, it is in ignoring organisation and coordination, or in handling them ineptly, that our governments fail. Centrally driven development is not just an option we fail at, mostly; it is an absolute necessity to empower ourselves, and until we get it right, we will be hamstrung by this deficiency.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Oblivious to Sewerage & Sanitation</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As an aside, another major failure in not appreciating the systems required for basic infrastructure is in ignoring the linkage of water supply with sewerage and sanitation, historically and even now. Sewerage is concomitant with water supply; having water entails having to deal with sewage. Water and sanitation systems need significant "central" design - in the sense of overarching integrated systems at the appropriate level - with expert inputs in system development and implementation. This is usually not feasible at the local-community level alone. Ignoring this results in open sewage, polluted water bodies, unhygienic conditions and stinking surroundings. In this context, while building new smart cities is good, the dire need is to upgrade the systems in our existing cities, towns and villages, so that we live better. Such steps may not grab the headlines, but this is the stuff of our lives.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Virtual Mohalla Sabhas (Townhall Meetings)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next, consider the approach to community participation in local government. There is certainly considerable potential for community participation, but not through methods like the "janata darbar" open assembly last month by the AAP in Delhi, or the Nationalist Congress Party's limited online interaction sessions. Doing so effectively and with efficiency is likely to require well-designed and deployed processes using Web-based technologies and methods, rather than, by way of example, the AAP's approach of live mohalla sabhas. Press reports suggest the AAP plans 2,700 mohalla sabhas in Delhi, the idea being that government representatives will attend these open assemblies, where issues will be discussed and resolved.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> This seems like it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in practice. Instead, if the proponents of these ideas adopted the approach of online town-hall meetings or virtual mohalla sabhas, governments could design and implement Internet-based systems using asynchronous communications - eliciting inputs and recommendations from domain experts and discussion by citizens for decision making by authorised functionaries. Such systems could also allow for realistic project time frames and ensure follow-ups on water and sanitation, electricity, transport, health, education, or whatever else. If political parties, especially the experienced administrators and engineers/MBAs supporting these parties, bend their minds to these tasks, we are likely to have better systems with more impressive results on the ground.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For instance, take garbage clearing. This might well improve if ward committees oversaw the work of sanitation workers, as mentioned here <a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a>; but the prerequisite is a system-wide design in place with processes that work, as suggested in this broad critique. <a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> These services need overarching system design and implementation far beyond the scope of any mohalla sabha, except at the local deployment level.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Internet-Based Systems & Procedures</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many political parties use Internet technology for fund-raising and membership mobilisation. It should be feasible for them to consider extending this to governance - although this will be quite a stretch in terms of their understanding and adopting the principles of organisation, logical processes and systems when compared with the relatively simple tasks of membership drives and fund-raising. But this is how our politics and governance need to evolve. We need systematic processes using the Internet. This could facilitate and channel discussions to explore and define objectives, generate and evaluate alternatives, make trade-offs, order priorities, and arrive at actionable decisions implemented over an extended period, with sound project management methodologies and tools. There's off-the-shelf software available, such as Microsoft's TownHall and others like OnlineTownHalls and MindMixer. Perhaps there's scope for systems developed specifically for our purposes. What's needed is to adopt this systems approach, regardless of the software.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. <i style="text-align: right; ">Lack of coordination", Swaran Singh, 1964, The Hindu: </i><span style="text-align: right; "><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/this-day-that-age-dated-february-4-1964/article5651028.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/this-day-that-age-dated-february-4-1964/article5651028.ece</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. <span style="text-align: right; "><a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/aap-plans-2-700-mohalla-sabhas-in-city/99/">http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/aap-plans-2-700-mohalla-sabhas-in-city/99/</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. <span style="text-align: right; "><a href="http://m.ibnlive.com/blogs/vivianfernandes/1878/64973/can-aam-aadmi-partys-mohalla-sabhas-work.html">http://m.ibnlive.com/blogs/vivianfernandes/1878/64973/can-aam-aadmi-partys-mohalla-sabhas-work.html</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>].<span style="text-align: right; "><a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/op-ed-the-problem-with-aap-s-mohalla-sabhas-467074">http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/op-ed-the-problem-with-aap-s-mohalla-sabhas-467074</a></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-shyam-ponappa-centre-or-state-driven-development'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-shyam-ponappa-centre-or-state-driven-development</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2014-02-12T16:47:43ZBlog EntryCelebrating 5 Years of CIS
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/celebrating-5-years-of-cis
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is celebrating 5 years of its existence with an exhibition showcasing its activities and accomplishments. The exhibition will be held at its offices in Bangalore and Delhi from May 20 to 23, 2013.</b>
<hr />
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-5-years-all-posters.zip" class="internal-link">Download all the posters exhibited during the recent exhibition here</a></b>.</p>
<hr />
<p align="JUSTIFY">As a move to promote transparency, CIS is inviting the general public to be its auditors by throwing open its account books and contracts which show how it has spent the Rs. 13.13 crores received from its donors. The four-day event will see renowned artists like Kiran Subbaiah, Tara Kelton, Navin Thomas and Abhishek Hazra featuring their work and also giving live demonstrations.</p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY"></h2>
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<hr />
<h2 align="JUSTIFY">Agenda</h2>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><i>Open exhibition on all the 4 days from 10.00 a.m. to </i><i>8</i><i>.00 p.m., in Bangalore and Delhi. The evening programmes will be held in Bangalore</i>. <i>Dinner will be served right afterwards.</i></p>
<hr />
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Evening Programmes</b></p>
<hr />
<h3 align="JUSTIFY">May<i> </i>20<i>, </i>2013</h3>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">18.00<br />19.00</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Why did I buy a set-top box?: What we know, don't know and need to know about Digitalisation </b><b>— A Talk by Vibodh Parthasarathi<br /></b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Why are we being asked to install set-top boxes? How will this change what we want, and pay for, on TV? Grappling with these questions, the talk will evaluate the rationale of the digital migration in cable currently underway, and the less talked about digital migration being planned for the public broadcaster. These scarcely debated and often contentious issues form the core of a recent <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-india">Country Report on the Media in India</a>, anchored by the speaker. The India Country Report, the first inter-sectoral and policy oriented study of our electronic media landscape, finds the ongoing digitalisation of cable, the infusion of digital tools in the press and the proposed digital switchover of the public broadcaster, posing varied challenges not only to journalism but to public interest at large. This report is part of a global initiative, <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/projects/mapping-digital-media" target="_blank">Mapping Digital Media</a>, examining opportunities and risks amidst the transitions to a digital media ecology across 50 countries.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N8gCYiYS9VY" width="250"></iframe>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">19.00<br />19.30</p>
</td>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Film Screening on Cyber Cafes of Rural India by Video Volunteers</b><br />Video Volunteers in partnership with CIS have been documenting the cyber cafes of rural India. Kamini Menon and Christy Raj will do the screening of seven 2-minute films:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Cyber Cafe Trends Slowly Changing in Imphal</b> by Achungmei Kamei (Manipur)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Transgender Interaction with Cyber Cafes </b> by Christy Raj (Karnataka)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Cyber Cafes Prevail Over Mobile Phones in Nagaland</b> by Meribeni Kikon (Nagaland)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Mobile Technology Threatens Cyber Cafes in HP</b> by Avdhesh Negi (Himachal Pradesh)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Cyber Cafe Visit - A Day's Journey</b> by Saroj Paraste (Madhya Pradesh)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>The Challenges of Establishing Cyber Cafes</b> by Rohini Pawar (Maharashtra)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>The Community Service Centre - Myth or Reality?</b> by Neeru Rathod (Gujarat)<br /><br /><b>Video</b><br /> <iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2OxWtwIWNdc" width="250"></iframe> </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">19.30<br />20.00</p>
</td>
<td><b>Hindustani Classical Performance by Aditya Dipankar <br /></b><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">20.00</p>
</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>RSVP</b>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bernadette Längle</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> (<a href="mailto:bernadette@cis-india.org">bernadette@cis-india.org</a>), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Prasad Krishna (<a href="mailto:prasad@cis-india.org">prasad@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3 align="JUSTIFY">May 21, 2013</h3>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>18.00<br />19.00</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Screening of Sabaka <br /></b><b> </b>A young elephant trainer in India vows revenge against the cult that killed his family. He seeks help from the local Maharajah who refuses, and he sets out alone to battle the enemy... <a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaka">Sabaka</a> is a 1954 film produced and directed by Frank Ferrin starring Boris Karloff, Reginald Denny, June Foray, et.al.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>19.00<br />20.00</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Slouching towards Tlön: An Encyclopedia for the 2nd century of Indian cinema — A Talk by Lawrence Liang </b><br />Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen’s Encyclopedia of Indian cinema (1994) marked an important moment for the study of Indian film history. In the two decades since its publication we have seen a rise in the academic community working on Indian film history along with the rise of various new archival initiatives online. Materials that were hitherto unavailable have also made their way into the public domain via the efforts of film historians, cinephiles and other enthusiasts. It is perhaps fitting to think about what a collaborative encyclopedia of Indian cinema for the 21st century may look like. Using Rajadhayksha and Willemen’s Encyclopedia as a base, Lawrence has been working on an online version that incorporates moving images, photographs and archival materials and his presentation will open up questions of how one thinks of an online encyclopedia as well as larger conceptual questions of the relationship between the encyclopedias, the internet and moving image archives.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2n5ZON8M_0E" width="250"></iframe></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p><b>RSVP</b>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bernadette Längle (<a href="mailto:bernadette@cis-india.org">bernadette@cis-india.org</a>), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283, </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Prasad Krishna (<a href="mailto:prasad@cis-india.org">prasad@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>May 22, 2013</h3>
<p>Cybersecurity, Privacy and Surveillance</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">18.00<br />18.30</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">“<b>The Indian Surveillance State”</b><b>—</b><b> </b><b>A Talk by Maria Xynou </b><br />The Central Monitoring System confirms that, starting from last month ‘Big Brother’ is a reality in India. But how do authorities get the tech to spy on us? Maria has started investigating surveillance technology companies operating in India. So far, 76 companies have been detected which are producing and selling different types of surveillance gear to Indian law enforcement agencies. Join us to see India´s first investigation of who is aiding our watchers!</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fshPBINoACs" width="250"></iframe></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">18.30<br />19.00</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Why Privacy and How?</b> <b>A Talk </b><b>by Bernadette Langle </b><br />"But I have nothing to hide!" That's what most people think. Are you sure? What about all the services you use for free, don't you think the service provider has to spend money on that, and that he needs to earn it somehow? Bernadette will show some alternatives and also how easy it can be, to put your messages in a virtual private envelope as you use to do with messages on paper.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><br /> <iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DVa8dkda1D0" width="250"></iframe></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">19.00<br />19.45</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Cyber Security Preview </b><b>—</b><b> </b><b>Presentation</b><b> by Laird Brown</b> and<b> Purba Sarkar </b><br />CIS in cooperation with Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, is developing a film project on cyber security in India from a civil society perspective. Laird will show the preview of the project. The preview will include an overview of the project along with a video footage from the first series of interviews.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><br /> <iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/moqgZ6tDl4g" width="250"></iframe></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">19.45<br />20.00</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Faking of Fingerprints: </b><b>A Presentation by </b><b>Bernadette Langle </b><br />Bernadette will give a brief presentation on how easy it is to fake a fingerprint. Afterwards you can get hands-on. Fake a fingerprint yourself and take it with you to your home.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3q6UBK6lLRI" width="250"></iframe>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"> </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p><b>RSVP</b>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bernadette Längle (<a href="mailto:bernadette@cis-india.org">bernadette@cis-india.org</a>), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283, </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Prasad Krishna (<a href="mailto:prasad@cis-india.org">prasad@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>May 23, 2013</h3>
<p>Kannada Language and IT</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">18.00<br />18.15</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Kannada in Modern Era: A Guest Talk</b><b> by Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambara </b><br />Dr. Chandrashekhara will be the chief guest for this session and will give a guest lecture.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9bMUu08f_JU" width="250"></iframe></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY">18.15<br />19.30</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>From Palm Leaf to Tablet – Journey of Kannada: A Talk by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja </b><br />Kannada language which has a history of 2000 years and quite rich in literature started on palm leaves. Kannada advanced with modern times adopting the marvels of Information Technology. This is accomplished by successfully implementing Kannada in various facets of IT. It is being used everywhere from data driven applications to websites to hand held devices like tablets. These aspects will be brought out during the talk.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Summary in Kannada:</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">ತಾಳೆಗರಿಯಿಂದ ಟ್ಯಾಬ್ಲೆಟ್ ತನಕ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಪಯಣ<br />ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡು ಸಾವಿರ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಭವ್ಯ ಇತಿಹಾಸವಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಉಗಮ ತಾಳೆಗರಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಆಯಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯು ಆಧುನಿಕ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಅದ್ಭುತ ಕೊಡುಗೆಗಳನ್ನು ತನ್ನದಾಗಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಬೆಳೆಯಿತು. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಅಂಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿ ಬಳಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದರ ಮೂಲಕ ಇದು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಯಿತು. ಆನ್ವಯಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶವಿರಲಿ, ಪ್ರತಿಸ್ಪಂದನಾತ್ಮಕ ಜಾಲತಾಣವಿರಲಿ, ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಿಡಿದು ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಟ್ಯಾಬ್ಲೆಟ್ ಇರಲಿ –ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಡೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಬಳಕೆ ಆಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಕಡೆ ಒಂದು ಪಕ್ಷಿನೋಟವನ್ನು ಈ ಭಾಷಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನೀಡಲಾಗುವುದು.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Video</b></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w4CiHwpX9X0" width="250"></iframe></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>19.30<br />20.00</td>
<td><b>Carnatic Music Performance by Nirmita Narasimhan<br /></b><br /><b>Video<br /><br /> <iframe frameborder="0" height="255" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-P4v5u_Q34M" width="250"></iframe> </b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00</td>
<td><b>Dinner</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<p><b>RSVP</b>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bernadette Längle (<a href="mailto:bernadette@cis-india.org">bernadette@cis-india.org</a>), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283 </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Prasad Krishna (<a href="mailto:prasad@cis-india.org">prasad@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h3>About the Speakers</h3>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b> </b></p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/VPforblurb.jpg" alt="Vibodh" class="image-inline" title="Vibodh" /><br />Vibodh Parthasarathi</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b>Vibodh Parthasarathi </b>works with the Centre for Culture and Media Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is also a Board Member at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. He maintains a multidisciplinary interest in media and development policy, business history of creative industries, and governance of media infrastructure. At the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, his ongoing research addresses media policy literacy, the TV news industry and the digital switchover in India. He is the co-editor of the critically acclaimed tri-series on Communication Process (Sage).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Lawrence.png" alt="Lawrence" class="image-inline" title="Lawrence" /></p>
<p>Lawrence Liang</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><b>Lawrence Liang</b> is the Chairman of the Board at the Centre for Internet and Society. He is a graduate of the National Law School. He subsequently pursued his Masters degree in Law and Development at Warwick, on a Chevening Scholarship. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Lawrence has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain. He has written extensively on these issues and is the author of <i>The Public is Watching: Sex, Laws and Videotape</i> and <i>A Guide to Open Content Licenses</i>. Lawrence has taught at NLS, the Asian College of Journalism, NALSAR, etc., and is currently working on a Ph.D. on the idea of cinematic justice at Jawaharlal Nehru University.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_maria.jpg" alt="Maria" class="image-inline" title="Maria" /><br />Maria Xynou</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Maria Xynou</b> is a Policy Associate on the Privacy Project at the CIS. She has previously interned with Privacy International and with the Parliament of Greece. Maria holds a Master of Science in Security Studies from the University College London (UCL). <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Bernadette.jpg" alt="Bernadette" class="image-inline" title="Bernadette" />
<p>Bernadette Langle</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Bernadette Längle </b>recently graduated in social and cultural anthropology, philosophy and computer science. She is also a so-called hacktivist together with one of the oldest hacker associations of the world, the Chaos Computer Club, having a lot of influence in German politics. As one of the core-team organizer of Chaos Communication Congress in Germany she also has a lot of experience in organizing events.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy3_of_Laird.png" alt="Laird Brown" class="image-inline" title="Laird Brown" /><br />Laird Brown</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Laird Brown</b> is a strategic planner and writer. His core competencies are brand analysis, public relations, and resource management. Laird has worked at the United Nations in New York; high-tech ventures in North America, Europe, and India; and, is a guest speaker at ICT conferences internationally. He is currently working on a film project for CIS on cyber security in India with Purba Sarkar.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/purba.jpg" alt="Purba" class="image-inline" title="Purba" /><br />Purba Sarkar</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Purba Sarkar</b> is an associate producer with the cyber security film project. She holds a Bachelor in Technology degree from West Bengal University of Technology. Purba worked as a strategic advisor in the field of SAP Retail for 4 years before joining CIS in January, 2013.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Kambara.png" alt="Kambara" class="image-inline" title="Kambara" />Dr.Chandrashekhara Kambara</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambara</b> is a prominent poet, playwriter, folklorist, film director in Kannada language. He is also the founder-vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi. He is known for his effective usage of North Karnataka dialect of Kannada language in his plays and poems and is often compared with D.R. Bendre. He has been conferred with many prestigious awards including the Jnanpith Award (the highest literary honour conferred in India) in 2011 for the year 2010, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Shri by Government of India, Kabir Samman, Kalidas Samman and Pampa Award. After his retirement, Kambara was nominated Member of Karnataka Legislative Council, to which he made significant contributions through his interventions. <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy2_of_Pavanaja.png" alt="Pavanaja" class="image-inline" title="Pavanaja" /><br />Dr. U.B. Pavanaja</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dr U B Pavanaja</b> holds a Master’s degree from Mysore University and Ph.D. from Mumbai University. He was a scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, for about 15 years. He has done advanced research in Taiwan. He resigned from BARC in 1997 and dedicated himself fully for the cause of Computer and Indian languages. He has to his credit many firsts, viz., first Kannada website, first Kannada online magazine, first Indian language (Kannada) website to receive Golden Web Award, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for Palm OS, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for WinCE device (HP Jornado 720), first Indian language version (Kannada) of universally popular Logo (programming language for children) software, etc. His Kannada logo won the Manthan Award for the year 2006. He was a member of the technical advisory committee setup by the Govt. of Karnataka for Standardization of Kannada on Computers (2000). He is also a member of the Kannada Software Committee of Govt. of Karnataka (2008-current). <br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h3>The Artists</h3>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Kiran.png" alt="Kiran Subbaiah" class="image-inline" title="Kiran Subbaiah" /><br />Kiran Subbaiah</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Kiran Subbaiah</b> studied sculpture at Santiniketan, MSU Baroda and the RCA London. He was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam where he worked on art that incorporated informatics and electro-mechanics. He is also known for making videos using custom-built tools that enable him to perform multi-person film-making tasks single-handed. His art is shown extensively in India and abroad. Subbaiah is based in Bangalore and is represented by the Chatterjee and Lal gallery in Mumbai. Kiran will present the Spectator, a robot that can sense the presence of human beings around it. It tries to appreciate them as works of art.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Tara.png" alt="Tara Kelton" class="image-inline" title="Tara Kelton" /><br />Tara Kelton</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Tara Kelton</b> is an artist and designer. She has been living in Brooklyn, USA and Bangalore, India for the last three years. She received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2009. Kelton’s video, print, and web-based works investigate moments in which technology alters our perception of the physical world. Kelton has taught at the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology and has recently exhibited her work at Vox Populi (USA), Franklin Street Works (USA), GALLERYSKE (Bangalore) and the India Design Forum (Mumbai). Tara will present <i>Trace</i>, a surveillance camera feed drawn in real-time by anonymous online workers.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Navin.png" alt="Navin Thomas" class="image-inline" title="Navin Thomas" /><br />Navin Thomas</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Navin Thomas</b> is a multimedia artist and a professional scrap market junkie, he spends a good quality of his precious time looking for obscure cultural misfits... after destroying most of himself in the 90's, he now spends his time restoring your mother's brother’s tin space toys and other unusual situations.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Abhishek.png" alt="Abhishek Hazra" class="image-inline" title="Abhishek Hazra" />Abhishek Hazra</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Abhishek Hazra</b> approaches his art with a particular emphasis on the study of the historiography of science. He uses videos and prints that often integrate textual fragments drawn from real and fictional scenarios. He has previously exhibited and performed at Science Gallery, Dublin, HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art Contemporain, Experiment Marathon Reykjavik, Reykjavik Art Museum and Kunstmuseum Bern. Abhishek was most recently an artist in residence at SymbioticA, the Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts, University of Western Australia, Perth. It was first performed as part of Beam Me Up, curated by Reinhard Storz and Gitanjali Dang, which was acknowledged by Pro Helvetia, New Delhi and German Book Office, New Delhi. Abhishek will be presenting #cloudrumble56 (attempted to re-animate sections of the Indian parliamentary archives — specifically, the transcripts of the scientist M.N. Saha's (1893-1956) interventions — through a performance that was transmitted only through live tweets on Twitter).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Aditya.png" alt="Aditya Dipankar" class="image-inline" title="Aditya Dipankar" />Aditya Dipankar</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Aditya Dipankar </b>started fiddling with music at the age of 4 when he started learning the <i>tabla</i> and then went on to play it for a long time. Years later, he discovered his strong inclination towards singing. Now, under the noble guidance of Pandit Vijay Sardeshmukh (Senior disciple of Pandit Kumar Gandharva), he is trying to understand the simplicity and spontaneity in the rich tradition of Hindustani classical music.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Nirmita.png" alt="Nirmita Narasimhan" class="image-inline" title="Nirmita Narasimhan" />Nirmita Narasimhan</p>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; "><b>Nirmita Narasimhan</b> is a Policy Director at CIS and works on accessibility for persons with disabilities. She was awarded the national award for empowerment of persons with disabilities by the President of India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award. Nirmita Narasimhan is a disciple of Dr. Radha Venkatachalam and renowned maestro Prof. T.R. Subramanyam. She began learning music at the age of 5 and went on to complete her Ph.D. in this subject from the Delhi University. Nirmita has been performing since 1995 and received several accolades such as the Sahitya Kala Parishad Scholarship and prizes in several competitions. She received the Gold medal in MA for standing first in the University and also stood first in MPhil. She has released a CD on Ponnayya Pillai compositions and also sung in an album of <i>varnams</i>. Nirmita has performed in different places in India such as Delhi, Chennai, Tirupathi and Bangalore as well as in Singapore and has also given several thematic concerts such as <i>Eka Raga Sandhya</i> and <i>Pallavi</i> concerts. <br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/sharathcopy.jpg" alt="Sharath Chandra Ram" class="image-inline" title="Sharath Chandra Ram" /></p>
<p>Sharath Chandra Ram</p>
</td>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sharath Chandra Ram (Sharathchandra Ramakrishnan) has interests in multimodal art, cognitive science, accessibility, digital humanities and network cultures. He is a faculty at the Centre for Experimental Media Arts at the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology. At the Centre for Internet and Society he helped set up and manage activities at the Metaculture Media Lab : an open hackerspace and alternative platform for research and exchange. His writings and musings at CIS maybe found here: <a href="https://cis-india.org/author/sharath">http://cis-india.org/author/sharath</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Artificial Intelligence specializing in interactive virtual environments. Previously as a Research Associate at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences he received a special mention award at the International Conference on Consciousness (2012) held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies for his work on ‘Cross modal Integration’. As an amateur radio broadcaster, he is a proponent of the free use of airwaves for relief work, education and transmission art. He has also been a development related radio journalist (PANOS @ Nepal, Voices UNDP@Bangalore), speaker at the International Ham Radio Convention (Port Blair, 2006) and as a film enthusiast has been a Press Reviewer for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h2><span class="author-g-ecflmmhkz122zm34g8fj">Locations</span></h2>
<h3><span class="author-g-ecflmmhkz122zm34g8fj">Bangalore</span></h3>
<p>Centre for Internet and Society<br />No. 194, Second 'C' Cross, Domlur,<br />2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560071,<br />Karnataka, India <br />Ph: +91 80 4092 6283 <br /> Fax: +91 80 2535 0955</p>
<h3>Delhi</h3>
<p>Centre for Internet and Society<br />G 15, Top floor<br />Behind Hauz Khas, G Block Market<br />Hauz Khas,<br />New Delhi 110016<br />Ph: + 91 011 40503285</p>
<hr />
<h2>Event Brochure</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-celebrates-5-years.pdf" class="internal-link">Event Flier</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Event Posters/Banners and Videos</h2>
<hr />
<h3>Accessibility</h3>
<ol>
<li>National Resource Kit (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>NVDA E-Speak (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/nvda-espeak.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/nvda-espeak" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>International Collaborations (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/international-collaborations.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/international-collaborations" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Partners (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/partners.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/partners" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Publications (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/publications.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/publications" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Timeline (<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/timeline.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/timeline" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Inclusive Planet (PDF, <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/inclusive-planet" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>In the below video Anandhi Viswanathan gives a demo of the National Resource Kit project and Rameshwar Nagar gives a demo of the NVDA and ESpeak (Text-to-Speech) project during the exhibition.</i></p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2Z1xfwvkFoQ" width="250"></iframe></p>
<ol> </ol>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Access to Knowledge</h3>
<ol>
<li>Broadcast Treaty (<a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/broadcast-treaty.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/broadcast-treaty" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Copyright (<a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/copyright-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/copyright" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Software Patent 1 (<a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/software-patent-1.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/software-patent-1" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Software Patent 2 (<a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/software-patent-2.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/software-patent-2" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Pervasive Technologies (<a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-exhibition-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/pervasive-technologies-poster.pdf" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3>Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Factsheet (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-language-factsheet.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/indian-language-wikipedia-factsheet" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Reaching Out (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/reaching-out.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/reaching-out-to-participants" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Outreach (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/outreach.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/outreach" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Bridging Gender Gap (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/bridging-gender-gap.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/bridging-the-gender-gap" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Press Coverage (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/press-coverage.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wikipedia-press-coverage" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Education Programmes (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/education-programmes.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wiki-education-programs" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Team Achievements (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/achievements.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/access-to-knowledge-team-achievements" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Visualization (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/visualization.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/indic-wikipedia-project-visualization" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3>Openness</h3>
<ol>
<li>Open Access to Scholarly Literature (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-access-to-scholarly-literature.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-access-2-scholarly-literature" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Open Access to Law (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-access-to-law-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-access-2-law" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Open Standards (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-standards-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-standards" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Free/Open Source Software (<a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/foss-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/foss" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol> <ol></ol>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Internet Governance (Free Speech)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Blocking of Websites (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/blocking-websites.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/blocking-websites" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Freedom of Speech (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/freedom-of-speech.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/free-speech" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Intermediary Liability (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/intermediary-liability-poster.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/intermediary" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Internet Governance Forum (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/internet-governance-forum.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/igf" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol> <ol></ol>
<hr />
<h3>Internet Governance (Privacy)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Privacy Events (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-events.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/events" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Timeline (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-timeline.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/events" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>UID (1) (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/unique-identity" class="internal-link"></a>UID (2) (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-2.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/unique-identity" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>DNA (1) (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-1.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-1" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>DNA (2) (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-2.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-2" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3>Telecom</h3>
<ol>
<li>Institutional Framework for Indian Telecommunication (<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/institutional-framework-for-indian-telecommunication.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/institutional-framework" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Growth of Telecom Industry in India (<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/growth-of-telecom-industry-in-india.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/growth-of-telecom" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Delicensed Spectrum (<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/delicensed-spectrum.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/delicensed" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Spectrum Sharing (<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-sharing.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3>RAW Monographs</h3>
<ol>
<li>Archives and Access (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/archives-and-access.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/archives-access" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-society-and-space.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/internet-society-space" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>The Last Cultural Mile (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/last-cultural-mile.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/last-cultural-mile" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Porn, Law, Video Technology (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/porn-law-video-technology.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/porn-law-video-technology" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Re:Wiring Bodies (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/rewiring-bodies.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/re-wiring-bodies" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Community Informatics and Open Government Data (Special Issue) (<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/community-informatics-open-govt-data.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/spl-issue-community-informatics-and-ogd" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
</ol> <ol></ol>
<hr />
<h3>News and Media</h3>
<ol>
<li>Media Coverage (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/media-coverage.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/home-images/MC.png/view" class="external-link">PNG</a>)</li>
<li>Organizational Chart (<a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/organizational-chart.pdf" class="internal-link">PDF</a>)</li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/celebrating-5-years-of-cis'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/celebrating-5-years-of-cis</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at WorkEvent2014-02-25T09:15:58ZEventCatching up on broadband
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband
<b>The govt can invest some of the Rs 1,00,000 crore from the spectrum auctions to help India catch up on broadband, says Shyam Ponappa in his latest article published in the Business Standard on July 1, 2010.</b>
<p>When it comes to broadband, India is “notably lagging its peers”, to quote Booz & Co, an international consulting firm.<span class="visualHighlight">1 </span>Its report recounts our pathetic coverage — less than half the anticipated 20 million — and recommends that both industry and government must act in concert. Spelling out the roles for both, it concludes that we need a national policy to improve fixed-line infrastructure more rapidly than the current market-based approach does, as well as satellite-based communications.</p>
<p>The report recommends this because advanced economies have broadband on widespread fixed-line networks, and many are pursuing strategies to further empower their citizens through state action, as before. The effects are many, but let’s start with examining costs. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/070110_18.jpg">Figure 1</a> shows the relative cost of broadband in a sample of countries.</p>
<p>India seems favourably placed with its low purchasing power parity (PPP) cost. However, relative to costs in India, this is about 6 per cent of average monthly gross national income (GNI) per capita, ranked 78th, as shown in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/070110_19.jpg">Figure 2</a>. In comparison, the first 23 countries — Macao, Israel, Hong Kong, the US, Singapore, etc., Greece and Spain included — have costs below or close to 1 per cent; the next 16 have costs below 2 per cent. As the 39 countries have PPP costs of only 0.25 per cent to twice India’s cost, India’s cost as a percentage of its GNI is six times theirs, i.e. Indian users have to pay relatively more. Increasing GNI, while desirable, is harder, more complex, and will take much longer. By contrast, costs can be reduced quickly by sharing network resources and limiting government collections to a reasonable percentage of revenues, instead of auctions and arbitrary levies.</p>
<h3>Broadband leaders</h3>
<p>Wired Asian countries like Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea already offer broadband on the next generation of high-speed networks. Singapore’s approach especially should be of interest to India, with policies supporting a blend of public subsidies and private investment, while separating three activities: infrastructure, network operations (wholesale), and user services (retail).2</p>
<p>Two years ago, Singapore set out to create an environment with more open access to downstream operators by separating the building of infrastructure from the running of the network. It drew on the experience of local community networks in countries like Britain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Three Singapore companies partnered with Axia Netmedia, a Canadian broadband company, to form a consortium called OpenNet, the infrastructure operator. OpenNet uses one partner’s existing network (SingTel’s) as a base. With a government grant of 750 million Singapore dollars, OpenNet is building an extensive fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) grid to be completed by 2012. The second partner is a subsidiary of Singapore Power, SP Telecommunications, which leverages Singapore Power’s experience in developing infrastructure. The third, Singapore Press Holdings, is a leading media services company.</p>
<p>The network operator, a subsidiary of StarHub (a cable and phone operator), is Nucleus Connect. Residential services at 100 mbps have been announced, to be provided by over 10 retail service operators. While some analysts opine that increased competition may not lead to appreciable cost reduction, Singapore is already ranked fifth-lowest in cost as a percentage of average monthly GNI per capita.</p>
<p>Can India do some catching up?<br />a) Can India do something similar? Don’t we need to? How?</p>
<p>The answer to the first question is: only if the government decides on a concerted drive.</p>
<p>To the second: yes, to be competitive.</p>
<p>To the third: with a comprehensive, integrated systems approach. It is insufficient if only one or a few ministries and agencies are involved, because the development and execution of solutions require cutting across turf boundaries. The conventional approach of the ongoing Trai consultation followed by recommendations addressed by the DoT is simply inadequate, because their charter is too limited. Many issues concerning commercial and user decisions, particularly of government agencies and the Department of Defence, and radical changes in approach need active participation from these players as well as the private sector for resolution. Examples are Booz & Co’s recommendations of a better fixed-wire network, and satellite communications in the Ka band, or the possibility of exploiting the cable and satellite TV network of around 110 million households. The entire communications network, or at least the backbone, needs to be shared for efficiency, unlike the existing limited tower-sharing. Also, state governments need to be closely involved in issues like Rights of Way and user needs.</p>
<p>b) Governments at the Centre and all states need to facilitate the productivity of their citizens, instead of hamstringing them with taxes, levies, auctions and dysfunctional policies. This is more easily said than done, with our predatory history, fractious coalitions at the Centre and states, and freewheeling, combative state governments. Governments at all levels have to coordinate this problem-solving initiative for all stakeholders, adapting the experience of leading broadband countries, instead of predatory behaviour seeking personal gains. The consultative process needs to agree on goals, and then figure out practical ways to achieve them.</p>
<p>c) With inspired leadership and a constructive approach, half of the over Rs 1,00,000 crore from the 3G and BWA auctions could support a broadband gambit drawing on concepts like Singapore’s public-private partnership, instead of being just a damaging revenue-collection exercise. Again, easier said than done, but with result-oriented, strong leadership to elicit enlightened employee engagement, even MTNL and BSNL could be partners in a core network in a role like SingTel’s. A public-private network-builder can draw on the combined strengths of its participants to provide a platform for a number of private operators. Separating the infrastructure building and operations from wholesale network services and end-user services could make this feasible and practicable.</p>
<ol><li>
<p class="discreet">“Bringing mass broadband to India: Roles for government and industry”, Booz & Co, June 7, 2010: http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Bringing_Mass_Boadband_To_India.pdf.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">“Singapore gets wired for speed”, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/technology/15iht-rtechbroad.html?ref=internet.</p>
</li></ol>
Read the original in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-catching-upbroadband/399894/">Business Standard</a>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:32:27ZBlog EntryCashlessness Needs Connectivity
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-january-4-2017-cashlessness-needs-connectivity
<b>And connectivity needs political and administrative convergence. This new year brings with it uncertainties amidst the push for cashlessness. Without going into the demerits or otherwise, some clarity on a road map to go forward from where we are might help with realistic planning to manage our way out of this situation.</b>
<p>The article was published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/shyam-ponappa-cashlessness-needs-connectivity-117010401360_1.html">Business Standard</a> on January 4, 2017 and mirrored in <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2017_01_01_archive.html">Organizing India Blogspot</a> on January 5, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cashless transactions need ubiquitous connectivity, which we don’t have. Without it, the goal is simply unfeasible. Better to recognise this now, rather than act out elaborate charades, resulting in avoidable economic hardship and social ructions. Connectivity needs effective, efficient communication links at a reasonable cost. These call for realistic objectives and solid implementation, not bluster and unrealistic goals or plans, such as fibre-optic networks everywhere, payment systems on a hastily assembled database riddled with imposters, or insufficient security and privacy.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">What is required?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The need is for internet connectivity using fibre backbones, extending to users through aggregation networks that are mostly wireless. The chances of establishing these networks increase if political parties and government agencies take concerted action on how to do so. This is necessary for two reasons. One is that our present network development and spectrum policies do not facilitate achieving universal broadband, especially in areas with lower commercial potential than prosperous urban clusters. The second is the legacy of network development with entrenched rivalries and perceived ways of managing spectrum, and the aftermath of the spectrum scam. These constrain society’s collective ability to configure solutions for connectivity, as opposed to the biased or limited perceptions of stakeholder groups such as the government, the judiciary, the citizenry, and industry (comprising service providers and equipment suppliers). Government agencies also have divergent agenda, e.g., the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is responsible for recommending spectrum use, the Department of Telecommunications/Ministry of Communications has licensing authority and runs the state-owned operators, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting holds certain spectrum bands, the Ministry of Defence and government agencies hold other bands, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is responsible (without the authority) for providing broadband. Hence, the need for a convergent approach, as effected partially for electricity supply, from coal mining through transportation to distribution (although other sectors – hydel, hydrocarbons and nuclear – are yet to be similarly linked).</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">What needs doing</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Radical changes such as pooling and sharing network infrastructure have to be considered for widespread connectivity. Such changes can’t happen with confrontation and mistrust, but only with trust and cooperation. This may seem naïve, but the ruling party leadership sets the tone for cooperation, as does the administrative leadership. Their pitch has to be sufficiently persuasive to induce diverse stakeholders – other political leaders, the judiciary, the citizenry who want industry to pay their pound of flesh while getting good services that are priced very low, and the operators, who have huge investments in networks and spectrum rights – to consider sharing equipment, and to work out worthwhile terms for everyone.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Currently, contending political parties pursuing selfish objectives as antagonists settle at the lowest achievable equilibrium. To understand why, consider two parties, A and B, with objectives along the horizontal X axis for A and the vertical Y axis for B in the chart.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img height="256" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DchG8EFkWos/WHBJRMF2VLI/AAAAAAAACpA/At9I2LDQeAY_D8u-1tn2b8GxOJcDziQSwCLcB/s320/Finding%2BA%2BBetter%2BEquilibrium%2BThrough%2BCollaboration.png" width="320" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>When parties pursue conflicting interests confrontationally, they end up at N or Nash Equilibrium, where neither can improve their position without the other’s concurrence. Assume A has the objective of maximising a majoritarian agenda, while B seeks to maximise dynastic control of its leadership positions. This holds for any objectives that are unrelated (orthogonal). If their objectives are along the same dimension — say, control of the Centre or of the same states, there can be no accommodation: one wins what the other loses. This has happened so far, as parties are periodically voted in and then out by a disenchanted electorate. But if they accommodate, their equilibrium could move up to S, the “Best Feasible Equilibrium” point, where the acceptable limits of their respective objectives meet. (For more details, see: “<a href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2008/04/tatas-corus-buy-game-theory-analysis.html" target="_blank">Tata’s Corus Buy: A Game Theory Analysis</a>”, organizing-india.blogspot.in, November 2, 2006, and "<a href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2008/04/indias-access-to-nuclear-fuel_18.html" target="_blank">India’s Access To Nuclear Fuel & Technology</a>", April 3, </span><span>2008.)</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Imagine waking up to find that instead of the usual confrontation and vitriol, a different and gracious protocol awaits you. One of harmonious interaction marked by accommodation and courtesy, despite nature being red in tooth and claw. Utopian? Perhaps. But not if the powers that be realise that the way out of the cashless crisis is to seek benefits for everyone, instead of self-destructing by chasing chimera such as pure cashlessness or other unrealistic goals. Instead, they could give people what they need but don’t have: ubiquitous communications infrastructure that facilitates all activities (not just cashless transactions), and a more secure, well-ordered environment for pursuing their livelihoods and well-being. Policy decisions to share network infrastructure would be the start of this journey.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>We can then break out of the impasse created by legacy communications policies and posturing, e.g., which party was responsible for what scam, the popular obsession with high auction prices for spectrum while wanting cheaper services, and operators committed to cornering spectrum.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Once the leadership collaborates, they’ll find that communications services delivery will be much improved by sharing capacity and coordination. This would enable other stakeholders – private sector operators, the citizenry, the judiciary – to accept that everyone gains from cooperative access to and delivery of communications services, provided adequate profits are generated and shared equitably. This will help in accepting a more rational, pay-for-use policy on the lines of highways, metro rail, or oil pipeline usage, and recognise the financial infeasibility of having auctions as well as funds for investments in networks for countrywide broadband access.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Government and stakeholders can then work together to develop solutions that are fair and practical. For instance, one or more consortium/s of operators with the government as a co-investor in each (on the lines of Singapore’s OpenNet) can co-own the network and coordinate for most effective and efficient service delivery. Earnings from spectrum usage can be collected by the government once the networks are commercially viable, as for developing any other infrastructure. Such collections are likely to exceed the auction fees foregone, as with revenue sharing from licence fees.</span></p>
<p><span><br /></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-january-4-2017-cashlessness-needs-connectivity'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-january-4-2017-cashlessness-needs-connectivity</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaBroadbandTelecom2017-02-02T15:17:34ZBlog EntryCall drops: Dealing with the menace or just shifting goal posts?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/india-tv-news-june-26-2016-call-drops
<b>It is nothing short of an irony that the world’s second largest mobile user market that boasts of being the world’s fastest growing economy is plagued by poor infrastructure and overloaded networks to an extent that many callers are cut off even before they can finish a sentence. The fault in India’s much-acclaimed telecom revolution is a questioning, frequent phenomenon called “call drops”. There have been several signature campaigns and media pressure demanding that the government and telecom companies get their heads together to fix this raging demon of a problem. However, all they have been treated with is lip service and nothing more.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.indiatvnews.com/business/india-call-drop-and-its-possible-solutions-337037">published by India TV News</a> on June 29, 2016</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So, on one hand we have Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claiming that the call drop problem is improving as telecom companies are installing towers, and on the other is TRAI that shows reports that operators like Aircel, Vodafone and Idea are using call drop masking technology incorrectly to fudge the data on call drops. Not long ago, we had Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself take up the issue and we saw a flurry of allegations and counter allegations flying between the government and the telecom companies on where the fault actually lies.<br /><br />While the government claimed it had freed enough spectrum to fix network issues and blamed the companies for not investing enough in the infrastructure, the telcos hit back at the government saying they were facing regulatory hurdles in setting up of towers because of environmental issues posed by regulation. In all, we kept going in circles and the change promised remained as elusive as its perception.<br /><br />Reality is that for cell phone users in India, call drop continues as a common phenomenon and figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) attest to this claim. According to TRAI, the figures have doubled in the last one year and the worst affected cell has more than 3% TCH drop (traffic channel call drop) rate, which is four times higher than the permitted limit. Quality of Service Regulations has allowed service providers a 2 per cent allowance of call drops on the basis of averaging call drops per month. <br /><br />TRAI has recently conducted Audit and assessment of Quality of Service being provided by service providers through independent agencies for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service, Basic Service and Broadband Services in many states. In Ahmedabad all the operators have failed to meet the call drop rate benchmark of less that 2% expect Airtel 2G. Also in Mumbai most of the operators have not met the less that 2% call drop benchmark except Airtel 2G and 3G and Vodafone 2G.<br /><br />Many other states have gone through this drive test and have failed.<br /><br />This begs us to put up a serious question in the interest of the more than 103.518 cr users who shell out money for pathetic services - Is the problem actually being resolved or are we, the consumers, being taken for a royal ride?<br /><br />Before we set out to give you a complete idea on the state of affairs and where we stand in terms of actually working towards fixing this problem, a look at some basics first to put things in context.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Telecom.jpg" alt="Telecom" class="image-inline" title="Telecom" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>What is call drop?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A call drop technically signifies the service provider’s incapability to maintain a call, either incoming or outgoing, once it has been properly established. In India, call drops are a performance indicator for the country’s telecom networks. In many cities, mobile users have to rush from one room to another or drive around neighborhoods to find better signals or better voice quality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Call drops now figure among the top customer issues with telcos in several Indian cities. There is very little transparency on call drop data but it can be said that most companies have multiple sites where the call drop incidence is much above the set 2 percent limit. New Delhi has been particularly hit after city authorities cracked down and sealed unlicensed mobile towers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The problem had increased so much that India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the industry regulator, had specified that telecom service providers need to compensate users for dropped calls. The regulator said that the consumers will be paid Re.1 per call up to 3 dropped calls per day, only to be turned down by the Supreme Court, rendering the TRAI decision null and void.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom companies had cried foul over the directive, firstly by saying that the regulator had no authority to levy such penalty and secondly, by saying that it wasn't possible to segregate the reasons for call drops.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">SC gave a 99-page judgment and said that the regulation appears to be meant only to penalise telcos. The judgment highlighted various flaws in the ruling by the Delhi high court which upheld TRAIs regulation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It further upheld the 2% exemption extended to service providers with regard to call drops and said the regulation would have penalized them despite it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“A penalty that is imposed ‘without any reason’ either as to the number of call drops made being three, and only to the calling consumer, ‘far from balancing the interest of consumers and service providers’, is manifestly arbitrary, not being based on any factual data or reason,” the court said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>A ‘towering’ menace</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Towers act as boosters that help radio waves travel better, and are a necessary part of the telecom architecture in any country. There are approximately 5,50,000 towers in India, and industry associations think another 1,00,000 are needed. The lower radio bands need less towers to travel longer distances, so when telecom companies offer services like 3G or 4G, they have to be at higher frequencies (2,100 MHz or 2,300 MHz instead of 900 MHz), which need more tower support.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Call drops occur due to several reasons.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Patna have less towers than needed. Civic authorities across the country have shut down a total of around 10,000 towers and an additional 12,000 towers cannot be used due to various reasons.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom companies are reluctant to share towers. This is because they are fixed investments by subsidiaries of telecom companies. Permission to erect a tower is given by the municipal body, but no uniform standards or procedures exist here.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The setting up of boosters on buildings remains a task, and permission has to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Things could improve if telecom connectivity were seen as being similar to water and power supply, and developers were to apply for a uniform set of permissions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If we take the recent scenario the State-run telecom operator BSNL is said to expand its network in Chhattisgarh by installing 2,000 new mobile towers in the next two years, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, stepping forward to strengthen mobile connectivity in the state.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom Secretary J S Deepak recently said that penal powers cannot be “one and final solution” for call drop and the telecom firms have committed Rs 12,000 cr to install new towers to check this problem.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and industry has responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs 20 lakh which is around Rs 12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” he said recently.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Most of the mobile service providers have frequently failed in quarterly sample call drop tests conducted by Trai but operators have contested the results saying that they comply with benchmark set by the regulator.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On this, the operators raised issues such as regulatory hurdles by local authorities and opposition by residents associations to installation of mobile towers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“All top CEOs have said they will set up war rooms to address this issue. We need to work with them to facilitate installation of mobile towers,” Deepak said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We are coordinating with minister (Ravi Shankar Prasad) to launch portal on EMF (radiation) next month. This will give data of about 4.3 lakh mobile towers. People can go online and check if a tower is emitting radiation within limit or not so that citizens are aware that it not an issue,” he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So after the launch of portal on EMF (radiation) next month, the fight on hurdles might be resolved, which will then raise questions on the operators if the call drop issue still persists.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Do companies benefit from call drops?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">All the benefits depend on the tariff plan. If it’s measured in seconds, the telecom company gains nothing — no matter how many times the connection cut, billing resumes at the same rate. But if it is measured in minutes, or if the plan contains features such as a certain number of free calls in every billing cycle, call drops is a nightmare for the consumers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Telecom firms claim that 95 per cent of tariff plans involves billing in seconds. Since call drops are the most common in overcrowded areas, interruptions tend to shorten the call and, to that extent, reduce the average revenue per user per minute. Since companies measure their performance on the basis of call drops too, it is risky for anyone to intentionally create conditions for drops, thus porting to another operator.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) in a report said that the telecom industry is facing a lot of challenges which are leading to call drops:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>State bodies initiate actions against the towers without any prior notices like disconnecting electricity supplies, sealing the premises and even dismantling of tower sites.</li>
<li>Restrictions imposed by state governments and municipalities for wireless sites for erecting cell-sites in non-commercial areas, sealing of the cell-sites by municipal authorities.</li>
<li>Issues pertaining to Right of Way (RoW) – due to no approval, operators are not even in a position to put up sites. Frequent fiber cuts due to infrastructure projects are recurring phenomena in almost all circles.</li>
<li>Site outages on account of long power failures and delay in restoration of power supply by electricity boards.</li>
<li>Owner/legal issues, which is an important factor, because if the operator does not obtain the permission to set up the cell site, calls in the area would be dropped.</li>
<li>Interference due to illegal wide band radio and coverage restrictions arising out of cross border spectrum interference.</li>
<li>Shortage of spectrum amid surging data traffic growth and the lack of availability of a sufficient quantum of globally harmonized spectrum in contiguous form is the biggest impediment to the deployment of wireless technologies in the access network and hence for better quality of service resulting in increased call drops with the increase in data traffic.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Government’s role and what it can do</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government says that call drops can be addressed to a large extent through better management of spectrum, something that will only provide partial relief. The occurrence of call drops is higher at busy areas, typically city centres. This means there is an unequal spread of traffic across the spectrum.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Regardless of these technical roadblocks, there is actually quite a lot that the government can do.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>General allowing of shared spectrum so that the same bandwidth is homogenously distributed among towers that are in a row.</li>
<li>Government rules prohibit spectrum swapping, but to tackle the issue a policy should be amended for the same.</li>
<li>Unused spectrum bands, which are either not used or have been missed due to the traffic in the bandwidth should be reformed and put to efficient use.</li>
<li>Every state should be encouraged to use uniform procedures on towers and policies regarding this should be amended. </li>
<li>Set up rules for companies to improve on their services. Besides penalty which has been dropped government should keep a check on telcos to work properly.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director at the Centre for Internet and Society said that Telecom companies in India have scarcity in terms of spectrum, which needs to be rationalised by allowing spectrum policy in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He also added that the government’s decision of not allowing spectrum supply doesn’t really make sense as India needs the policy. Also, the radiations emitted by the spectrum which are harming people should be scientifically taken care of.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>What are the benchmarks for call drop that should be followed by the telcos?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TRAI has laid down the quality of service benchmarks for call drop rate to be less than 2 percent. The 2 percent call drop benchmark means that not more than 2 percent calls made from a network should automatically disconnected in a telecom circle.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, the call drop test was conducted in Bhopal and Mumbai. TRAI found that most operators in Mumbai, except Airtel 2G/3G and Vodafone 2G, are not meeting the under 2 per cent call drop rate benchmark. In the drive tests conducted during May 10 to 13 in Mumbai, the call drop rates of No 1 carrier, Bharti Airtel's 2G and 3G networks, stood at 1.49 per cent and 1.94 per cent, while Vodafone-2G's was 1.68 per cent.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Other than Airtel and Vodafone in 2G, all operators failed to meet the Call Drop Rate benchmark in Bhopal. TRAI in a report said that Idea, Reliance and BSNL all have Call Drop Rates in the range of 10 percent or above. These are exceptionally high and clearly indicate urgent need for improvement in order to deliver reasonable levels of service.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>What steps should be taken to improve the problem?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A lot has to be done to settle the issue. The mobile towers do not have an unlimited capacity for handling the current network load. So telecom companies need to increase the towers to tackle the load. This is being followed as telecom operators have decided to invest Rs.12,000 crore for installation of 60,000 more towers over the next three months, while the BSNL will install 21,000 BTS towers a report said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A report by TRAI said that the problems like removal of towers from certain areas by authorities needs to be addressed. Also, with the increase in the usage of 3G networks, the growth rate of mobile towers supporting 2G networks has reduced, which also needs to be addressed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that the call drop problem was improving with various telecom companies are installing about 1.24 lakh towers to mitigate the issue. In a report he said, “Things are improving....private telecom operators have installed one lakh towers, while the State-owned BSNL has put in place 24,000 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) towers across the country in the past one year to improve the call drop problem.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The roadmap</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Surveys are being conducted and a lot of efforts are being made by the operators and also TRAI to solve the call drop issue. However, in a country with the world’s second-largest mobile user market it is tough to solve the problem completely but not impossible. That, in theory, is the situation. On ground though, things don’t appear to be running in tune with tall claims by the government or the telecom companies. If the situation is improving, as the government claims, change needs to be visible, which is apparently not the case. Also, if the investments are being made to the tune of what the telecom companies are claiming, that would translate into solving the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The moot point here is that if the number of towers is the root cause behind the millions of consumers facing this absolute nightmare of an issue, can this “go-getter” government not come to any arrangement so as to solve the issue? Perhaps, the government, which displayed exemplary enthusiasm in gaining a seat in the coveted Nuclear Suppliers Group, needs to translate some of that energy into getting to a solution for an issue plaguing a large and growing population of its billion plus populace. It would only serve some good. No pun intended.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/india-tv-news-june-26-2016-call-drops'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/india-tv-news-june-26-2016-call-drops</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomTRAI2016-07-01T16:45:45ZNews ItemCable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995
https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-television-networks-regulation-act
<b>In this module, Snehashish examines the purpose of the legislation, the persons affected by it, the administrative bodies which come under the Act, the penalties (including the consequences in case of non-compliance), appeal process and the debates surrounding the legislation.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Before the introduction of cable television in India, broadcasting was solely under the control of the State. The Government of India was caught unprepared with the emergence of cable networks and broadcasting through satellites in the early 1990s. The Government was not able to put a check on transmission and broadcast of television through foreign satellites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The necessity of procuring licence for operating cable networks was first mentioned by the Rajasthan High Court in the case of <i>Shiv Cable TV System v. State of Rajasthan</i>.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> In this case, the district magistrate ordered a ban on cable networks as they were being operated without licence. Subsequently the order of the district magistrate was challenged in the Rajasthan High Court on the ground that the order was in violation of fundamental right to freedom trade and profession. The high court held that there was no violation of the right to freedom of trade because cable networks fall within the definition of “wireless telegraph apparatus” under the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act and therefore it necessary to have licence to operate such network. This highlighted the need for having a framework for the regulation of cable networks in India which led to the enactment of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Object of the Act</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The object of the Act was to regulate the ‘haphazard mushrooming of cable television networks’. Due to the lack of licensing mechanism for cable operators; this resulted in large number of cable operators, broadcasting programmes without any regulation. The Act aimed at regulating content and operation of cable networks. This was due to the availability of signals from foreign television networks via satellite communication. The access to foreign television networks was considered to be a “cultural invasion” as these channels portrayed western culture. It also wanted to lay down the "responsibilities and obligations in respect of the quality of service both technically as well content wise, use of materials protected under the copyright law, exhibition of uncertified films, and protection of subscribers from anti-national broadcasts from sources inimical to national interests".</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There were three amendments made to the Act.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Act is divided into five chapters. The first chapter discusses the scope and extent of the Act and meaning of the terms used in the Act. The second chapter deals with "Regulation of Cable Television Network". The third chapter relates to "Seizure and Confiscation of certain Equipments". The fourth chapter focuses on "Offences and Penalties". The fifth chapter covers other miscellaneous provisions.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Regulation of Cable Television Network</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The regulation of cable television network under the Act is ensured through a two step process. In order to keep track of cable operators, it has mandate a compulsory registration for cable operators. It also lays down provisions to regulate content to be broadcasted by the cable operator.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Registration of Cable Operators</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In order to regulate cable television networks, it was made mandatory for cable television network operators to be registered.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> Procedure for registration is laid down is section 5 of the Act. Any person who is operating or desires to operate a cable network may apply for registration to the registering authority.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An application for registration of cable operator has to be made under Form 1 along with the payment of fees of Rs.50 to the head post master within whose territorial jurisdiction the office of cable operator is situated. The registration certificate which is issued by the registering authority after inspection is valid for 12 months and can be renewed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The registering authority may also refuse the registration of a cable operator. The reason for such refusal has to be recorded in writing and communicated to the applicant.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Section 4A was inserted into the Act by the TRAI (Amendment) Act, 2002. Section 4A deals with "transmission of programmes through addressable system". [Refer to section on “2003- Amendment to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (Amendment Act)"].</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Content Regulation</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Central Government, in public interest can put an obligation on every cable operator to transmit or retransmit a programme<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a> of any pay channel through addressable system. In public interest the central government may also ‘specify one or more free-to-air channels to be included in the package of channels’ (basic service tier). The Central Government may also, in public interest specify the maximum amount which can be charged by the operator to the subscriber for receiving the programmes transmitted in the basic service tier provided by such cable operators. The cable operators have to publicize to subscribers the subscription rates of each pay channel at regular intervals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sections 5 and 6 of the Act deal with advertisement code and programme code. All cable services should be in conformity with the codes. Under section 7, cable operators have to maintain a register as to the content transmitted or retransmitted. All cable operators shall compulsorily re-transmit Doordarshan channels.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Section 9 of the Act mandates ‘use of standard equipment in cable television network’. It is the duty of the cable operator to make sure that the cable television networks do not interfere with authorized telecommunication systems.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Offences and Penalties</h3>
<p>Section 11 gives power to the authorized government authority to seize any cable operator’s equipment, if such officer has reason to believe that the cable operator is using the equipment without proper registration.</p>
<p>Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Act deal with offences under the Act. They lay down punishments for any act which is in contravention with the provisions of the Act.</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Section</td>
<td>Ingredients of the Offence</td>
<td>Penalty/ Fine</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>Anyone who is held to be in violation of the provisions of this Act <br /></td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>For the first offence: Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years or with fine which may extend to Rs. 1000 or with both.</p>
<p>For every subsequent offence: Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 5 years and with fine which may extend to Rs. 5000.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Section 17 deals with when an offence under this Act is committed by a company; in this case the person in charge will be liable.</p>
<p>The Act also gives power to the authorized officer<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> to prohibit the transmission of certain programmes in public interest under section 19 of the Act.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under section 20 of the Act, the Central Government in public interest may prohibit the operation cable television network. The Central Government may make such an order in the interest of the (i) sovereignty and integrity of India; or (ii) security of India; or (iii) friendly relations of India with any foreign state; or (iv) public order, decency or morality.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">2003- Amendment to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (Amendment Act)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Numerous complaints were received by the Government stating that there has been unreasonable price hike in cable television by the cable operators. Moreover, the cable operator were not paying appropriate revenue by concealing there income and under-reporting their income. The cable operators defended themselves by stating that the broadcasting industry is unregulated and they are forced to increase the price for proving cable television services as the broadcasting companies can increase the charges as per their wish. In order to address these problems, the government appointed a specialized task force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Special task force in its study noted that the consumers do not have the choice to select the premium channels they wanted to watch rather it is provided to them in a bundle irrespective of the fact they want to subscribe to such channel or not. In order to give choice to the consumer it recommended the introduction of conditional access systems (CAS). This would require the consumers to set up set-top boxes which will allow the consumers to view all the free to air channel and he can choose to watch any of the premier channels for a charge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This recommendation of the task force was introduced through the 2003 amendment to the Act. The main objective of the Amendment Act was to address to the frequent and arbitrary increase in cable charges. This was introduced section 4A which allowed operators to transmit pay channels through an addressable system<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn5" name="fr5">[5]</a>apart from basic package of free-to-air channels.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There was a lot controversy with respect to implementation of the CAS. In order to explain the controversy, it is important to understand the structure of the cable market. The cable market is divided into three categories. Broadcasters, who are at the top of the pyramid, the Multi-System Operators are in the middle and the local cable operators are at the bottom of the pyramid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 2003 Amendment introduced to CAS was welcomed by the broadcasters and the MSOs. But the consumer and the local cable service providers were unhappy with this decision because the consumers feared that they have to pay special rates for pay channels whereas the local operators were outraged because they believed that CAS would affect their revenue. Due to the adverse reaction from the consumers and the local cable operator, the government delayed the implementation of CAS indefinitely. This finally culminated in a case<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn6" name="fr6">[6]</a> before the Delhi High Court.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Delhi High Court decided that implementation of CAS cannot be delayed. Subsequently to this, the government announced in 2004 that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be handling the problems regarding CAS and make recommendations on the same. TRAI recommended that CAS should be denotified and it can be re-introduced later when there is adequate regulation to properly implement it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government on the recommendation of TRAI withdrew the implementation of CAS. However, this decision was faced with a new challenge<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn7" name="fr7">[7]</a>and this time the single judge bench of the Delhi High Court held that the Government does not have any ground to suspend the CAS and it has disregarded the previous decision of the Delhi High Court in <i>Jay Polychem</i> case. Finally, the government re-introduced CAS but after issuing rules as to its working and implementation.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. AIR 1993 Raj. 1997<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. Section 4 of the Act: "No person shall operate a cable television network unless he is registered a cable operator under this Act..."<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. Section 2(g): “programme means any television broadcast and includes –<br />i exhibition of films, features, dramas, advertisements and serials through video cassette recorders or video cassette player;<br />ii any audio or visual or audio-visual live performance or presentation and the expression “programming service” shall be construed accordingly<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>]. Section 2(a): authorized officer means within his local limit of jurisdiction<br />i a District Magistrate, or<br />ii a Sub Divisional Magistrate, or<br />iii a Commissioner of Police, and includes any other officer notified in the Official Gazette, by the Central Government or the State Government, to an authorized officer for such local limits of jurisdiction as may be determined by the Government.<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr5" name="fn5">5</a>]. Section 4-A, Explanation (a), Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995; Addressable system is defined as, "an electronic device or more than one electronic devices put in an integrated system through which signals of a cable television network can be sent in encrypted or unencrypted form, which can be decoded by the device or devices at the premises of the subscriber within the limits of authorisation made, on the choice and request of such subscriber, by the cable operator to the subscriber."<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr6" name="fn6">6</a>]. Jay Polychem v. Union of India, (2004) IV AD 249 (Del)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr7" name="fn7">7</a>]. Hathaway Cable Datacom v. Union of India, 128 (2006) DLT 180</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-television-networks-regulation-act'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-television-networks-regulation-act</a>
</p>
No publishersnehashishTelecom2013-03-15T06:10:46ZPageCable Television
https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-tv
<b>Srividya Vaidyanathan brings you the history and evolution of cable television in India, how it works, cable television penetration in India, digitization rule and the end consumer in India.</b>
<h3><b>What is Cable TV?</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Cable TV (CATV) stands for Cable Television, i.e., a method of providing consumers with access to television programs via coaxial cables or through optical fiber cable located in the subscribers’ premises.</p>
<h3>Evolution/History</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There were four television terrestrial networks in the United States in the 1950s. One had to have a clear line of sight to the transmitting towers to be able to watch TV. Those living in hilly regions could not watch the TV programs because they could not have a clear "line of sight" over the hills. In 1948, people living in the hilly regions of Pennsylvania solved their problems by putting antennas on hills and running cables to their houses.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> Using Terrestrial TV only a few TV channels could be broadcast whereas in the case of cable TV it is possible to downlink a good number to satellite TV channels, add local TV content, get TV contents from other sources, form bouquets of the TV channels and transmit it to TV homes using coaxial cables.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">How does it work?</h3>
<p>The figure below gives a high level flow diagram explaining the working of a CATV.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/47164ec191b24b048ea0a944a6ef3a12" /></p>
<p>Figure 1: CATV Architecture – The image above is a pictorial representation of the working of a Cable TV.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TV Network companies beam their TV shows via satellites. Cable operators (or <i>multi-system operators</i> (<i>MSO</i>)) install head-ends (control centres for cable network) for aggregation of TV channels received from different satellites. They can mix this with content received from other sources such as broadband connections, local channels, etc., to form a bouquet of channels and then distribute to homes using coaxial cable (hence, the name cable TV) network installed either underground or hung over utility poles. To access the cable television services, one needs to subscribe to a cable company which will then connect a simple coaxial cable from the wall outlet to the television sets. One has to then program his/her cable ready television sets to receive the cable channels. In case one does not have a cable ready television then one needs to install a device called a converter box.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In CATV, the signals are sent through cables and not through the air, thus doing away with "line of sight" requirement and enabling much better quality of reception. The television signals that come via cable are not disturbed by trees, buildings, or other hindrances.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other cable based services</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Coaxial cables are capable of carrying signals in both directions (to and from the customer’s end) and also the ability to carry large amounts of data. Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as cable, internet and cable telephony. Broadband cable internet is made possible by having a cable modem at the customer's end and a cable termination system at the cable operator's end. Cable internet works very well when the distance between the cable modem and the cable termination system is not more than 160 km.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Cable TV penetration in India</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The TAM Annual Universe Update – 2012 indicates that India has over 148 million households (out of 231 million) with TVs, of which over 126 million have access to CATV or Satellite TV, including 42 million households which are digital subscribers. In Urban India, 88 per cent of all households have a TV and over 70 per cent of all households have access to satellite, cable or DTH services. Households with TVs have been growing between 8 to 10 per cent, while growth in satellite/cable homes exceeded 9 per cent and DTH subscribers grew 63 per cent. CATV households could be higher because of unaccounted for or informal/unregistered cable networks that aren't taken into consideration during mainstream surveys. India now has over 500 TV channels covering all the main languages spoken in the nation.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a> Digicable Networks (India), Hathway Cable and Data Com, InusInd Media and Communications (InCable), and DEN Networks are some of the notable cable service providers in India.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Cable TV digitization rule and the end consumer in India</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An ordinance has been passed by the Government of India making digitization of cable services compulsory. According to this amendment made in the section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 1995, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting will make Digital Addressable System (set-top box) mandatory. As part of the first phase, October 31, 2012 is the sunset date for the four metro cities in India to adopt set-top boxes. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has clarified that there would be no further extensions on the sunset date. This measure will empower consumers to an increased number of channels and high quality viewing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Consumers will be able to enjoy digital picture and sound quality, enhanced services such as high definition and video on demand content. The Bill will prevent local cable operators from bypassing the digital set-top box. TV broadcasters will be able to monitor their subscriber base and control the flow of revenues. This will render obsolete the role of the "middleman". Advertisers too will be able to create targeted campaigns owing to higher knowledge or analytics about the viewership patterns of users.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a></p>
<p>The two key terms in the cable digitization mandate are <b>digitization</b> and <b>addressability</b>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digitization will solve the problem of capacity constraint and will enable introduction of value added services (viz., pay per view, time shifted video, personal video recorder, near video on demand, radio services, broadband, etc.) in the offerings to the customer, which would enhance the range of choice for the customer and improve the financial viability of operations for the service provider. Addressability will ensure choice of channels to the consumer and transparency in business transactions and will build stakeholder confidence in the sector. It will also effectively address the issue of piracy.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn5" name="fr5">[5]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The key here is — the end consumer will need to buy a set-top box from his cable service provider to continue watching TV. This will cost anywhere between Rs. 700 and Rs. 2000, and will be offered with the option of an all up-front payment or part payment and part EMIs. Without this box, the customer will not be able to watch television, not even free to air channels (FTA). This could have an impact on the mode of TV access in India. Some may not upgrade their cable television connection, while the majority may simply shift to a DTH service, since both incur set-top box costs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-decoration: underline;">TRAI recommendation</span>: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated that all multi-service operators (MSOs) carry a minimum of 200 channels from the beginning. This number must be increased to 500 channels by 2013. Subscribers will have to be offered 100 free-to-air channels as a basic pack — Basic Service Tier, if they wish to subscribe to that, at a minimum of Rs. 100, carrying all 18 Doordarshan channels and five channels of each genre — news, sports, infotainment, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment. TRAI recommends the approximate cost of a basic set-top box to be Rs.1500.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Suggested Reading</b></p>
<ul>
<li>IPTV</li>
<li>Mobile TV</li>
<li>DTH</li>
<li>Terrestrial TV</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Glossary</b></p>
<h3>Co-axial Cable</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis. Coaxial cable is used as a transmission line for radio frequency signals. Its applications include feed lines connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their antennas, computer network (internet) connections, and distributing cable television signals.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn6" name="fr6">[6]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/31ecbf5f17a14f6dbb62151bd64e13fd" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">Figure 2 - The above is a cross-sectional view of Coaxial cable</p>
<h3><b>Optical Fiber</b></h3>
<p>An optical fiber (or optical fibre) is a flexible, transparent fiber, made of glass (silica) or plastic, slightly thicker than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe" to transmit light between the two ends of the fibre.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn7" name="fr7">[7]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/89089e36ddb6405c997fa7d8e115c6a3" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">Figure 3 - The above picture shows a bunch of optical fibres</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. From How Cable Television Works (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/cable-tv.htm">http://www.howstuffworks.com/cable-tv.htm</a>)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. From How does cable television work? (<a class="external-link" href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_cable_television_work">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_cable_television_work</a>)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. From TAM Update (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.tamindia.com/tamindia/Images/Overview_TV_Universe_Update-2012.pdf">http://www.tamindia.com/tamindia/Images/Overview_TV_Universe_Update-2012.pdf</a>)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>]. From Cable TV Digitization Top 10 Facts (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/cable-tv-digitisation-top-10-facts-204388">http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/cable-tv-digitisation-top-10-facts-204388</a>)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr5" name="fn5">5</a>]. From TRAI Recommendations (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Recommendation/Documents/finalreom5agust.pdf">http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/Recommendation/Documents/finalreom5agust.pdf</a>)<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr6" name="fn6">6</a>]. From Coaxial Cable (<a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable</a>).<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr7" name="fn7">7</a>]. From Optical Fiber (<a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber</a>)</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-tv'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-tv</a>
</p>
No publishersrividyaTelecom2013-03-15T08:33:08ZPageBuilding Up vs Tearing Down
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-op-ed-shyam-ponappa-july-3-2013-building-up-vs-tearing-down
<b>We have to find ways to deal with corruption without subverting our developmental aims.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This article by Shyam Ponappa originally <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/building-up-vs-tearing-down-113070301014_1.html">published in the Business Standard</a> on July 3, 2013 was also <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2013/07/building-up-vs-tearing-down.html">mirrored in Organizing India Blogspot</a></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span>Many economies around the world are in an unenviable state. India too has lost another chance at breaking out of its self-limiting mould of haphazard divergence and fractious irresponsibility. These constraints are exemplified by the ruling party's overindulgence in populist and crony handouts, such as ill-considered Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or</span><span> food security </span></span><span>initiatives, or the latest gas pricing </span><span>decision, apparently without any sense of responsibility for the detrimental consequences, including for cash flows. The sole criterion is to somehow stay on top. Alas, they are matched by the unmitigated confrontationism of a flailing Opposition. As a consequence, we remain a land of unrealised potential, our energies focused on hindering or tearing down instead of building up. Lack of credible enforcement is hampering development, and the two are becoming mutually exclusive.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span>To a considerable extent, the troubles worldwide, including our own, appear to have resulted from excesses of some sort, whether of dishonesty or destructive activism. Is a sense of decline because of the economic downturn, or are there genuine negativities in our times? Is there an inevitable slide to dishonesty, as Plato concluded - reaffirmed in more recent works across cultures, such </span></span><span><span>as <i><b>Corruption </b></i></span><span><i><b>Cycles</b></i> by Cristina Bicchieri and John Duffy?</span></span><span> </span><a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span>The distribution of personal attributes in any large set of people ensures that there will always be some who will try to cheat, even in the elevated domain of scientific research. A consideration of two instances, one global and the other local, may provide some indicators.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Misconduct in Research<br /></b><span><span>Consider the retraction of scientific papers. The title of a report published in October 2012 says it all: "Misconduct Accounts for the Majority of Retracted Scientific </span></span><span><span>Publications".</span></span><span> </span> <a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> First, there has been a rising trend in the 2,047 retractions since the first in 1977 (there's a puzzling caveat about retractable offences not being necessarily new). Second, the rise since 1977 has been almost tenfold. Third, over two-thirds were attributable to misconduct, including intentional falsification or fabrication of data. Almost half of all retractions (43 per cent) were for fraud, suspected or actual; duplicate publications were 14 per cent, and plagiarism almost 10 per cent. The report concludes that for articles for which the reason for retraction is known, three-quarters were for actual or suspected misconduct, while errors accounted for only a quarter (Chart 1).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Chart 1</p>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Chart.png/@@images/96c650f4-609d-40ce-90b1-beac93cc7bb5.png" alt="Chart" class="image-inline" title="Chart" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Geographic Spread</b><br />Of the retracted articles from 56 countries, three-quarters of fraud or suspected fraud were from the United States, Germany, Japan, and China. India's share in plagiarism and duplicate publication is relatively high; its share in fraud, also relatively high, is lower than in the other two (Chart 2).<br /><br /><span>Chart 2</span></p>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Chart.png/@@images/22cf2f3d-fe3e-4586-9c84-8ffb586ae977.png" alt="Chart" class="image-inline" title="Chart" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India's research papers in science, social science, and economics/business for the period 2000 to 2010 and their share in world citations were as follows:</p>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy2_of_Chart.png/@@images/98986154-a806-42a3-b055-c662f272f4c2.png" alt="Chart" class="image-inline" title="Chart" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Science Watch website provides details for each field. To quote from it: "For the period 2000-2010, India ranked 11th in output, 17th in citations received, and 34th in citations per paper (among nations publishing 50,000 or more papers during the period) across the science and social sciences fields surveyed in Essential Science Indicators." By way of comparison, the US published nearly 3,050,000 papers (11 times as many) from 2001 to August 2011, while China was second with about 8,37,000 (three times as many). <a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These data show that the loss of innocence is global and rising, but that we have a disproportionate share: 11th in output, but sixth in fraud, fifth in plagiarism and sixth in duplicate publication.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Improved Indian Highways<br /></b><span><span>At the local level, press reports seemed to indicate that our highways programme was faring badly. A few, like the Greater Noida Expressway near Delhi, the Yamuna Expressway to Agra, and the Jaipur-Agra highway appeared to be exceptions. Last month, however, our 3,000-kilometre drive from Delhi to Coorg averaged 600 km a day on mostly good roads. Some stretches in Northern Karnataka were breathtaking, and the feeder roads alongside were particularly impressive. Something is really happening in road construction (see <a href="http://www.nhai.org/allphase.htm">http://www.nhai.org/allphase.htm</a>, on a well-presented website).</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span>This demonstrates the possibility of achievement despite evident deficiencies and alleged corruption, even though much remains to be done to make the road system genuinely world-class.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Less Cheating, More Fair Play<br /></b>So how can we tackle corruption while pursuing development? The trick is to devise processes and institutions that favour equitable outcomes, or less cheating and more fair play rather than the opposite, without obstructive policing. If the processes have incentives and penalties that are credibly administered, perhaps we'll get the desired results. One essential requirement is of universal acceptance, and inculcation of these processes as an obligatory aspect of citizenship. Impartial and systematic enforcement has to be the norm - perhaps the hardest step for us - without recourse to the imposition of parallel bureaucracies of elaborate policing mechanisms, street demonstrations, or handouts of free electricity, food, TVs, computers and the like. Credible enforcement could allow us the opportunity to focus on building pleasant, productive communities with decent living standards with systems against corruption, preventing the expending of discretionary effort on such matters at the cost of development.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But the prerequisite is to get those in power to allow the trick. If we could learn to apply standard operating procedures to incentives and punishments, the fight against corruption and progress in development need not be mutually exclusive.</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. <a href="http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/anth169/bicchieriduffy1997.pdf">http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/anth169/bicchieriduffy1997.pdf</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/42/17028.full.pdf">http://www.pnas.org/content/109/42/17028.full.pdf</a><br /> (Ferric C Fang, R Grant Steen, and Arturo Casadevall; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, US, September 2012)</p>
<p>[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. <a href="http://sciencewatch.com/articles/top-20-countries-all-fields-2001-august-31-2011">http://sciencewatch.com/articles/top-20-countries-all-fields-2001-august-31-2011</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-op-ed-shyam-ponappa-july-3-2013-building-up-vs-tearing-down'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-op-ed-shyam-ponappa-july-3-2013-building-up-vs-tearing-down</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2013-08-02T07:06:30ZBlog EntryBroadband Wireless Access – Standards
https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/broadband-wireless-access
<b>In this unit, Jürgen Kock tells us about the broadband wireless access standards, why do we need technical standards, who defines BWA standards, WiMAX standards and long term evolution.</b>
<h3><b>Why do we need technical standards?</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Standards define key aspects of a technology. Thanks to standardization consumers can for example buy any kind of AA battery and be sure, that it’ll work in most, if not all, devices that specify the use of this kind of batteries. While batteries follow global standards, power plugs are only defined on a national basis. Travelers know about this inconvenience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In wireless communication, standards ensure interoperability between user devices and the radio network of different vendors. Frequency bands, modulation techniques, power levels and encryption are just some of the aspects covered by standards.</p>
<h3><b>Who defines BWA standards?</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>IMT-2000</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union – Radiocommunication Sector) started in the 1980s to define the requirements for a 3rd generation of mobile communication systems. As an agency of the UN (United Nations) the ITU combines the effort of governments and the telecommunication industries for a worldwide supported standardization. Finally, in the year 2000 the ITU approved the technical specifications for the 3rd generation of mobile networks under the name "IMT-2000" (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000). One goal of IMT-2000 is to provide seamless delivery of services. The minimum requirements for data speed were defined at 2Mbps for stationary or walking users and 348 kbpsfor fast moving users in vehicles.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>IMT Advanced</b></p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>The ITU has coined the term IMT Advanced to identify mobile systems whose capabilities go beyond those of IMT 2000. In order to meet this new challenge, 3GPPs Organizational Partners have agreed to widen 3GPP’s scope to include the development of systems beyond 3G.</p>
<p>Some of the key features of IMT-Advanced will be:</p>
<ul>
<li>Worldwide functionality & roaming</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Compatibility of services</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Interworking with other radio access systems</li>
</ul>
<p>Enhanced peak data rates to support advanced services and applications (100 Mbit/s for high and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility) Source: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/qYLvQj">http://bit.ly/qYLvQj</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Two competing technologies are the basis for Broadband Wireless Access. The evolution of mobile or cellular networks called Long Term Evolution (LTE)lies under the responsibility of the ITU and the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program). We’ll start our discussion with the competing technology called WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>WiMAX Standards<br /></b>WiMAX is based on the IEEE suite of standards 802.16.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> The initial standard was released in 2001 and is named 802.16-2001 accordingly. The goal was to define a wireless broadband technology for fixed users, with a range of up to 50 km and data rates that can compete with wireline DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). For achieving coverage of such wide distances, this initial standard required a line-of-sight between sender and receiver, which was soon seen as a limitation of the technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2004 the standard was updated, but still covered only fixed users. 802.16d-2004 is therefore referred to as the current standard for <b>Fixed WiMAX</b>. The frequency range 2 – 11 GHz’s was added to the previously defined range of 10 – 66 GHz’s. The new range allowed for static connections without a line of sight. Static means, that there is no <span>handover</span> mechanism defined, when a user moves out of the range of his cell.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br />With 802.16e-2005 the standards where extended to cover <b>Mobile WiMAX</b>. Handover and roaming support was added for slow moving users. The frequency bands used for mobile users are 2.3 and 2.5 GHz. Of course, service providers can also offer fixed access in those frequencies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The latest release of the WiMAX standards 802.16m-2011 defines an advanced air interface with data rates of up 1 gigabit. This fulfills the formal requirements of 4G networks as defined by the ITU.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>LTE – Long Term Evolution<br /></b>LTE is defined by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership), a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations. It provides detailed technical specifications to cover all aspects of a cellular communication network within the frameworks IMT-2000 and IMT Advanced of the ITU.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The standardization is published in so called Releases.<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> Release 1 to 7 covered 2G and 3G networks including UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/c874e9dd98da4b0ba7beb5d628df86e1/@@images/image/preview" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Source: Anritsu, Understanding LTE (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/NDBlKf">http://bit.ly/NDBlKf</a>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Release 8, published in 2008, marked the first LTE standard. The goal of 3GPP was to define an evolutionary upgrade of cellular networks, providing higher data rates and improved quality of service. At the same time the demand for cost reduction and a low complexity of the network architecture was addressed. Unlike the WiMAX standard, LTE standardization encompasses the whole network architecture including the radio network, core network and service architecture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Here is an overview of the key requirements and features of the different 3GPP LTE releases:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Mobility<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li>Optimized for low mobile speed from 0 to 15 km/h.</li>
<li>Higher mobile speed between 15 and 120 km/h should be supported with high performance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Mobility across the cellular network shall be maintained at speeds from 120 km/h to 350 km/h (or evenup to 500 km/h depending on the frequency band).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Coverage<br /></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Throughout, spectrum efficiency and mobility targets above should be met for 5 km cells, and with aslight degradation for 30 km cells. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Release 8 - 2008</b><br />This was the first LTE release. The release contains 36 technical specifications.</p>
<ol>
<li>Evolved radio access<br />
<ul>
<li>New air interface (not backward compatible)</li>
<li>High spectral efficiency<br />— OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) in Downlink, Robust against multipath interference (reduces path loss) <br />— Single-Carrier FDMA in Uplink </li>
<li>Variable bandwidth: 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz</li>
<li>Support of Multiple Antenna technology MIMO</li>
<li><span>FDD</span> and <span>TDD</span> within a single radio access technology</li>
<li>Simple Architecture</li>
<li>Very low latency: Short setup time and short transfer delay</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Evolved Packet Core<br />
<ul>
<li>Reduced complexityof the core network</li>
<li>All IP network SAE (System Architecture Evolution) </li>
<li>Support of Self-Organizing Network (SON) operation</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/e20ef4784efe4cdfb79fa179410b228e/@@images/image/preview" /><br />Source: LTE-Release 8 User Equipment Categories, <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/9R0DIm">http://bit.ly/9R0DIm</a></p>
<p><b>Release 9 - 2009</b><br />Release 9 brings enhancements and Improvements for</p>
<ul>
<li>System Architecture Evolution </li>
<li>WiMAX and LTE/UMTS Interoperability</li>
<li>Location services</li>
<li>Emergency services</li>
<li>Broadcast services</li>
<li>Voice Over LTE (VoLTE)</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Release 10 – 2011 - LTE-Advanced</b></p>
<ul>
<li>First release of LTE Advanced</li>
<li>Backwards compatible with release 8 (LTE).</li>
<li>Fulfilling IMT Advanced 4G requirements (For example 1 Gbps peak downlink data rate)</li>
<li>Multi-Cell HSDPA with 4 carriers</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Release 11 – planned in 2012 Q3</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Advanced IP Interconnection of Services</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Service layer interconnection between national operators/carriers as well as third party application providers</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Peak Data Rates</b></p>
<p><b><img class="image-inline" src="../knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/resolveuid/16f354281534441283a1fa66e20adf9e" /></b></p>
<h3>Sources – Further Readings:</h3>
<ol>
<li>ITU Overview for IMT-2000 (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/NdSM8E">http://bit.ly/NdSM8E</a>)</li>
<li>ITU Entry Point for IMT Advanced (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/f5FqtH">http://bit.ly/f5FqtH</a>)</li>
<li>Homepage of 3GPP (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Cai9O">http://bit.ly/Cai9O</a>)</li>
<li>3GPP Entry Point forLTE (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Cai9O">http://bit.ly/Cai9O</a>)</li>
<li>3GPP Entry Point for LTE Advanced (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/Cai9O">http://bit.ly/Cai9O</a>)</li>
<li>Wikipedia article about 3GPP (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/dugu8O">http://bit.ly/dugu8O</a>)</li>
<li>3GPP technical paper UTRA-UTRAN Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE) including high level requirements (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/NhbfeE">http://bit.ly/NhbfeE</a>)</li>
<li>E-Learning on LTE and other Telecommunication Fundamentals (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/NdTd2A">http://bit.ly/NdTd2A</a>)</li>
<li>LTE Introduction (<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/rxQDzE">http://bit.ly/rxQDzE</a>)</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>].To download 802.16 standards: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/SgpUeV">http://bit.ly/SgpUeV</a><br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>].To downloadLTE and LTE Advanced standards:<a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/LCR9em">http://bit.ly/LCR9em</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/broadband-wireless-access'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/broadband-wireless-access</a>
</p>
No publisherJürgen KockTelecom2013-03-15T09:21:59ZPage