ERNET

Objectives:

• Set up and run a nationwide Academic and Research Network.
• Undertake and promote R&D in the area of computer networking
• Human Resource Development in the area of computer networking.
• Content hosting relating to education and research.
• Registrar for domains- edu.in, res.in & ac.in

Education and Research Network of India (ERNET):

• ERNET operates through Point of Presence (POP) located at premier educational & research institutes
• 15 PoPs at various cities of India
• 400 Mbps of Aggregate Internet bandwidth
• 100 Mbps connectivity to global research network through GEANT 2
• ERNET Network- GARUDA Network (GRID)
• National Knowledge Network (NKN)

Garuda Network:

• National Grid Computing Initiative - GARUDA 
• National initiative for grid computing as Proof of Concept
• 45 institutes connected in 17 cities
• 2.4 Gbps bandwidth for grid fabric
• More than 300 CPU computing resource available in grid

NKN

• Interconnect all National Research & Education
  
• Institutes, Leading National Labs, Colleges etc

Connect more than 5000 sites across the country

Serve millions of end-users + eScience Projects

3-tier Architecture, partially subsidized by National

• funds: Links national, regional and international initiatives
• High Capacity, Highly Scalable Backbone

• Provide Quality of Service (QoS) and Security
• Wide Geographical Coverage
• Bandwidth from Many NLD’s
• Highly Reliable & Available by Design
• Testbeds ( for various implementation)
• Dedicated and Owned.
• Connectivity for International & other global R&D Networks

Source Barman|ERNET@APAN

India's Cables : Another View

The table and picture below show another view of cables coming to/from India. It seems that the Indian government has set three locations for cable landing stations i.e. Mumbai, Cochin, Chennai.

Source/Courtesy Bharti (2005/2006?)

India : International Telecom Access

With regard to international telecommunication (actually cable :-D ) businesses, India has several players / facilities (as of March 2008):

• International Long Distance Operators : 14
• Cable Landing Stations LS : 6
• Cable Systems : 9

Bandwidth / Capacity :

• Total Designed Capacity : 18.60 Tbps
• Total Lit Capacity : 587.50 Gbps (3% of design capacity)
• Total Protected Capacity available : 100 Gbps (17% of lit capacity)
• Total Utilized Capacity : 91 Gbps (90% of protected capacity 15% of total lit capacity)
• Total Spare Capacity : 496.50 Gbps (85% of total lit capacity)

Credits: SK Gupta / TRAI

India : Telecom Growth

Well, this post is actually more to "Tower" rather than "Telecom" :-D

According to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India):

• 1991- Teledensity less than 1%
• 1991- Telecom sector opened to private operator to provide mobile
• 2003- Calling party pay regime was implemented
• 2004- The growth of mobile sector started to pick up
• Government announced in May 2006 to provide 250 Million telephones by 2007 and 500 Million telephones by 2010
• Most of the growth was in mobile sector as wireline was stagnating at around 40 Million
  

• The estimated number of tower required to reach the target was 135,000 towers by 2007 and 330,000 by 2010
• This required huge investment of USD 10 bn by 2007 and USD 25 bn by 2010 only to setup towers (approx. USD 75 th./BTS)

• Total Number of towers : 0.22 mn (as of 31.03.2008); 36% shared!
  
• Total Number of Wireless Subscribers: 261.06 mn
  

Credits: S K Gupta / TRAI

India - Some Numbers (Again!)

Milestone for telecom growth in India

• 1994 –NTP 94
• 1999 –NTP 99
• 2001 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2002 –Deregulation of the ILD
• 2003 –Abolished RPP
• 2004 –Launch of ADSL on Fixed line (Internet Boom)
• 2005 –74% Foreign Investment Allowed in Telecom Sector

International Bandwidth Usage (Ghosh/Aircel)

• China has more than 10 times of higher bandwidth usage as comparison to India
• By 2011 India is likely to have 1000 Gbps bandwidth usage

Others :

• As of 2007, India utilized 36+ Gbps international Internet bandwidth
• Current broadband penetration in India less than 1%
• Broadband to contribute the maximum to the capacity growth in India

( 2007 ? )

Source/Courtesy : Ghosh/Aircel

India : The Bandwidth Hotspot

Since a long time India historically has an important position in the world (of everything). This continues for our current information age, where India surely plays a major and growing role. I would say, India is a kingdom, specifically a "bandwidth" kingdom :-)

According to Telegeography, as of end 2007, India has 36 Gbps Internet bandwidth, serving traditional telecom/data users as well as the emerging 3.4 mn broadband customers.

Some other facts:

• Solely Tata has a massive terrestrial optical infrastructure that spans over 40,000 km (NLD - 400 th. km all ??) and connects to neighboring countries (Pakistan, Nepal, China) and to all major international cable landing stations (SMW3, SMW4, FEA, TIC, etc.)
  
• Tata has over 100+ national private line PoPs, offering a full range of services (E1 to STM64, fastE, GigE) with flexible arrangement (monthly, annual, IRUs)
  
• Tata has pan-india coverage with dual line maintenance, covering 300 major cities; their network is at-least take ring architectures to become India's the most vibrant domestic network
  
• Tata also offers comprehensive cable redundancy with capacity on (almost) all cable coming into India
  

Some Facts about India (Source/Courtesy Telegeography); taken from Bill Barney/Pacnet

Indian Fiber Optic Networks (Source/Courtesy Tata)

Indian International Fiber Optic Connections (Source/Courtesy Tata)