DoT activities- January 2022

The Department of Telecommunications had a busy January. Some of its activities were:

A. Important events in DoT HQ as incorporated in the Monthly DOto Cabinet Secretary for the Month of January, 2022:

The 2nd ASEAN Digital Senior Officials Meeting with India (2nd ADGSOM + India) and 2nd ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting with India (2nd ADGMIN + India): The 2nd ADGMIN + India meeting was held virtually on 28th January, 2022 chaired by Hon’ble Admiral Tin Aung San, Minister of Transport and Communications, Myanmar and Co-chaired by Hon’ble Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications, India. Representatives from all ASEAN Member Countries participated in the meeting. The meeting considered and approved the India-ASEAN Digital work plan 2022.

Licensing framework for M2M services: As part of the ongoing reforms, Department has issued the “Licensing framework for M2M services under Unified License (UL) on January 17, 2022. Under this, the Licensee can also provide M2M services through the LPWAN or equivalent technologies using unlicensed spectrum or avail an option of obtaining licensed spectrum to provide M2M services in the licensed band. The licence fees of such authorization have been fixed at 8% of AGR on par with other licensees. This is expected to be a big boost for IOT ecosystem.

Inter-Ministerial Committee on Quantum Communication: DoT has constituted an inter-ministerial committee to build synergies in Quantum communication and related applications across Ministries, in line with the objectives of National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA). The first meeting was held on 4th Feb and 5 Task forces have been formed. The Committee will work towards formulating an Action plan for the development of Quantum Communication Technologies in India.

Interactive Session on 5G/4G Use Cases in Agriculture: The Department held a focused interactive session on January 20, 2022, to discuss 5G/4G Use Cases in Smart/Precision Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and allied areas. The session witnessed participation from Use-case Industries (TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, L&T, Tene), Telecom Service Providers (Airtel, Reliance Jio, Voda-idea), 5G Hackathon participants along with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW). A white paper on 5G use cases has been sent to 14 Ministries for wider dissemination containing details of the use cases developed from Indian industry, relevant Centres of Excellence and DoT’s partnership in enabling access to 5G testbed.

Meeting of 6G Task Force on Multi-Disciplinary Innovative Solutions: The Department held Virtual Meetings of the task force on January 18, 2022 & January 25, 2022 under the chairmanship of Prof. Bharadwaj Amrutur, IISc Bangalore, with participation from Academia, Govt., Industry, Associations etc. The task force aims to identify suitable Use-cases, Pilot-Trials, inputs for global standardization etc.

Committee Report on “Utilization of Electric Poles for 4G/5G Small Cell & Wi-Fi Access Points”: DoT had constituted committee with members from KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board), COAI (Cellular Operator Association of India), DIP A (Digital Infrastructure Providers Association), DGT, TEC, DoT to evaluate proposals for utilizing Electric Posts for 5G Small Cells, WiFi Access Points. The Committee submitted its report during the month. Its recommendations are under examination in DoT based on which a policy for 5G small cells and use of urban street furniture would be announced.

Progress under National Broadband Mission: Due to intense monitoring, pendencies of Right of Way (RoW) applications have come down from 71008 on December 15, 2021 to 51,751 as on January 31, 2022. States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have notified the RoW policy due to the intense follow up. Single Window Clearance (Sugam Sanchar Portal) with dashboard facility has been implemented in 10 states i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana & Tripura. The Portal is under testing in five more states i.e. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Manipur, Mizoram & Sikkim.

International Arbitration Dispute:

• In respect of the outstanding international arbitration case instituted by M/s Khaitan Holdings(Mauritius) Limited(KHML) against Government of India, a petition has been filed before President of ICJ challenging appointment of Mr. Xavier, arbitrator appointed by claimant KHML, for failing to disclose his prior engagements in appearances against India in various arbitration disputes.
• With regard to the Notice of Arbitration dated June 24, 2020 received from M/s Maxis Communications Berhad (MCB) and M/s Global Communications Services Holdings Limited (GCSHL), Govt, of India has communicated its approval to the proposal made by Arbitration Tribunal regarding selection of London as seat of Arbritation on January 24, 2022.
• Since, billions of USD as claims have been raised, in both these cases, it is very critical to facilitate conclusion of CBI cases in the Courts well ahead of the conclusion of the International Arbitration proceedings conclude.

PPP Tenders for BharatNet: As per approval of Cabinet in the meeting dated June 14, 2021, the RFP for implementation of BharatNet in PPP Model with VGF funding of Rs. 19,041 Cr. across 9 packages covering 16 states was floated on July 20, 2021. Two rounds of bid interactions were carried out with the potential bidders on July 27, 2021 & August 04, 2021 participated by more than 50 companies including Telecom Service Providers, ISPs, OT T players, OEMs and other stake holders. The clarifications to the bid were issued for around 3000 queries after PPPAC/DCC approval and the bids was opened on January 27, 2022. No response was received to the bids for all packages. An analysis with reasons for failure/expectations from bidders has been done and way forward is being worked out. A revised PPP strategy along with options are being presented to the MoC to enable a final decision in this regard.

B. Performance of PSUs of DoT:
BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD. (BSNL)

• Gross SIM sale for the month: 24,56,136.
• Gross Bharat Fiber (FTTH) Achievement: 1,17,569 connections.
• Gross new leased Circuits: 1,540 and upgradation: 1,018. Total provisioning including upgradation: 2,558.
• Gross Bharat Air Fiber Achievement (Data): 3,200.
• Gross Landline Achievement: 19,732 connections.
• Gross ADSL Broadband Achievement: 5,424 connections.
• 10 GB of Caching links have been added (cumulatively 1567 GB links in current FY 2021-22) making the cumulative capacity of 2960 GB Caching and 2484.05 GB Peering link capacity.
• MNP Ratio (Po/Pi): 0.54 {Port In – 605424, Port out = 328364}
• Total 2G BTS added during the month of January, 2022: 3 (Redep-3).
• Total 3G Node-Bs added during the month of January, 2022: 4 (Redep-4).
• The data traffic from wire line broadband has increased from 118.2 PB (Apr- 2019), 155PB (April-2020) and 278.6 PB (April 2021) to 402 PB in the month of January, 2022
• For upgrading of Old legacy wireline exchange, out of planned 4.76 M capacity NGN Port migration, 0.01811 M capacity is migrated in January, 2022 ( cumulative 3.92 M migrated).

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANTS INDIA LIMITED (TCIL)

• Provisional Operating Turnover upto December 2021 for the Financial Year 2021-22 is Rs. 1090.51 Crores.
• TCIL have secured orders for a total of approximately Rs. 17.08 Crores from foreign & inland clients in the month of January 2022.

INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRY (ITI)
The performance of the Company in the month of January 2022 is ₹87.31 Crore (provisional). The cumulative performance for the FY 2021-22 is ₹992.15 Crore (provisional). The turnover is mainly constituted from HDPE manufacturing, OFC manufacturing, SMPS, Solar Panel Manufacturing, Solar street lights, Mini PC, Mini PDO, telephones, Smart cards, 3D Printing, Airtel FTTH Rollout, Execution of ASCON PH-IV, Gujnet, NFS projects, AMC for ASCON, Defence Equipment, NGN equipment, OCB, GSM-SZ & MLLN, 3D Printing, Business from Data Centre, Upgradation of Data Centre for Indian Air Force, Services from Test labs, Reliability lab, Start-up Hub, VSSC Business, SaaS, skill development, Third Party Audit Services (TPA) for implementation of BharatNet Phase II project in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and various other states, business generated by Corporate, MSP, etc.

C. BharatNet:
BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (approx. 2,50,000) in the country. The cumulative status of the BharatNet project, as on January 31, 2022 is as follows:

Optical Fiber Cable laid: 5,64,435 KMs
GPs connected by Optical Fibre Cable (OFC): 1,79,167
Total GPs Service Ready (OFC + Satellite): 1,70,707 (GPs)

As part of this flagship project, the Last Mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology to access broadband /internet services is to be provided at all the GPs in the country. Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 1,04,309 GPs and out of them, services are being provided at 53,913 GPs, catering to more than 16,25,499 subscribers. Overall data usage on BharatNet is about 5,040 (TB) for the month of December, 2021.

The scope of BharatNet has now been extended up to all inhabited villages beyond GPs. On June 30, 2021, Union Cabinet accorded approval for a revised strategy for implementation of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 16 States of the country covering about 3.61 lakh villages (including 1.37 lakh GPs). The estimated maximum Viability Gap Funding (VGF) approved for the above PPP model is Rs. 19,041 crores and the targeted date for completion of the project is August, 2023. The Cabinet has also accorded in-principle approval for extending broadband to all inhabited villages of the remaining States and Union Territories (UTs).

For implementation of the PPP model in 16 States, the Request for Proposal (RFP) has been floated on July 20, 2021 through global biding for selection of the Private Sector Partner(s) and two pre-bid meetings have been held.

D. Telecom sector KPIs:
The details regarding number of telephones and tele-density in the country at the end of December, 2021 are as under:

CT Bureau