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Rural India to be benefitted by 3G
By siliconindia
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Friday, 09 October 2009, 19:07 IST
New Delhi: As the country prepares to roll out third generation (3G) mobile services in one of the fastest growing telecom market, the expectations are high that it will benefit people in the vast, impoverished rural segment the most, reports Asia Times. The rural population of India is estimated at seven percent of its 1.1 billion population.
"In the same way that basic mobile services allowed India to leapfrog over the digital divide, 3G services with their video and picture features can transform life in the infrastructure-deficient rural areas," said Devendra Jalihal, Member, Chennai based Telecommunication and Computer Networking Group (TeNeT).
The services have been experimental in India till now. The state owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has launched a promotional drive in New Delhi, charging 
1.80 a minute for a video call within the company's network. The calls to private internal networks, when they will be available, will cost 3 per minute.
TeNeT is a specialized group constituting several departments of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, the TeNeT has been tasked with research and product development for the Indian telecom and networking industry as well as driving IT policy.
Its missions include building 50 million broadband connections over the next five years, helping to double the rural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India, making distance education of a high quality and driving the next generation of wireless standards.
"At TeNeT we are naturally very excited about the rollout of 3G because video and pictures can help overcome language barriers. For example, very few farmers speak or understand English, and this limits their access to urban markets using voice alone," said Jalihal.
"The possibilities are endless, as 3G will positively impact areas such as health services, education, agriculture and governance. There will naturally be an increase in public expectations in these areas, and this can dramatically stimulate social change," he said.
Jalihal believes that the introduction of 3G enabled mobile services do more than just making up for the relatively poor penetration of the Personal Computer (PC) into India's rural areas.
The 3G services can make internet more easily accessible compared to using a PC, which needs steady electricity supplies, maintenance, broadband services and other infrastructure that are missing in large parts of rural India.
"While we are approaching a figure of 500 million mobile subscribers, PC penetration in India remains poor compared to countries like Russia, Brazil and China," said Jalihal. The internet population in India is seven percent, whereas in China it is 25.3 percent. In Asia, South Korea has the highest internet penetration covering 77.3 percent of the population, followed by Japan with 74 percent, Singapore with 66 percent, Malaysia and Taiwan, with 65 percent each, according to Internet World Stats.
Also, India is currently adding 10 million new mobile subscribers per month on an average. The World Bank estimates that every extra 10 mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country can boost GDP growth by 0.8 percentage points.
With the arrival of 3G, fishermen can negotiate prices of their catch by sending the pictures of the type of fish they have to offer. The farmers and horticulturalists can also bargain for the best prices before harvesting, bypassing middlemen. "It helps if florists in cities like New Delhi or Mumbai place major orders if they can actually see the color and size of the flowers in real time," said Deven Appiah, a Bangalore based Flowerist.
1.80 a minute for a video call within the company's network. The calls to private internal networks, when they will be available, will cost 3 per minute.
TeNeT is a specialized group constituting several departments of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, the TeNeT has been tasked with research and product development for the Indian telecom and networking industry as well as driving IT policy.
Its missions include building 50 million broadband connections over the next five years, helping to double the rural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India, making distance education of a high quality and driving the next generation of wireless standards.
"At TeNeT we are naturally very excited about the rollout of 3G because video and pictures can help overcome language barriers. For example, very few farmers speak or understand English, and this limits their access to urban markets using voice alone," said Jalihal.
"The possibilities are endless, as 3G will positively impact areas such as health services, education, agriculture and governance. There will naturally be an increase in public expectations in these areas, and this can dramatically stimulate social change," he said.
Jalihal believes that the introduction of 3G enabled mobile services do more than just making up for the relatively poor penetration of the Personal Computer (PC) into India's rural areas.
The 3G services can make internet more easily accessible compared to using a PC, which needs steady electricity supplies, maintenance, broadband services and other infrastructure that are missing in large parts of rural India.
"While we are approaching a figure of 500 million mobile subscribers, PC penetration in India remains poor compared to countries like Russia, Brazil and China," said Jalihal. The internet population in India is seven percent, whereas in China it is 25.3 percent. In Asia, South Korea has the highest internet penetration covering 77.3 percent of the population, followed by Japan with 74 percent, Singapore with 66 percent, Malaysia and Taiwan, with 65 percent each, according to Internet World Stats.
Also, India is currently adding 10 million new mobile subscribers per month on an average. The World Bank estimates that every extra 10 mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country can boost GDP growth by 0.8 percentage points.
With the arrival of 3G, fishermen can negotiate prices of their catch by sending the pictures of the type of fish they have to offer. The farmers and horticulturalists can also bargain for the best prices before harvesting, bypassing middlemen. "It helps if florists in cities like New Delhi or Mumbai place major orders if they can actually see the color and size of the flowers in real time," said Deven Appiah, a Bangalore based Flowerist.
