Launched With fanfare in 1997, the country's National Internet Backbone project is a non-starter. At stake is the dream of connectivity

By Suveen K. Sinha

Forget those knee quivers. The National Internet Backbone (NIB) is India's worst case of spinal discord. For, a project that was conceptualised in 1997 by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)-envisaging a national network of internet nodes covering over 549 stations through which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could connect their points-of-presence to the internet-is in the boondocks. The joke doing the rounds is that the project commencement date kept shifting between the three national holidays in 2000: January 26, August 15, and October 2. Now, it's the turn of Republic Day, 2001.

Will history repeat itself? Says a reluctant Sanjay Gupta, head of Crompton Greaves' Informatics Division, which is involved with the NIB: ''Phase I may take off even before January 2001. It may happen in December 2000 itself.'' But by and large, everyone maintains a discreet silence. Exactly why is explained by a senior official at the dot: ''There may not be a formal launch of NIB at all. We are more likely to have a soft launch. In fact, some nodes have already been commissioned. And we may give the entire project the same silent treatment.''

Simply put, there's nothing to celebrate. Phase I will only connect 14 main cities, keeping most of the country unconnected to the internet. And then, even if the current NIB comes into play, it would stand redundant, considering the increasing demand-supply gap for bandwidth. Agrees the dot official: ''The speed being currently provided in NIB i is inadequate. But it couldn't be helped, since the demand grew even as the project was in implementation stage. But it's totally scalable.'' Studies reveal that bandwidth poverty-69 per cent in 1995 when internet services were launched-is currently running at around 88 per cent.

Make no mistake: the premise behind the NIB is sound. Any amount of international bandwidth makes no sense without a sound NIB, which alone can ensure that more servers are hosted in India. That will reduce dependence on expensive international bandwidth, besides providing security of data in adverse scenarios. And connect the country's huge rural markets to the web. It's also proven; Singapore has done it, so has Malaysia. The latter, for instance, has developed a multi-media supercorridor by linking 12 of its cities through a 700-km fibre-optic backbone of 2.5-10 Gbps. NIB's three-tier structure would first cover 14 cities, then 31 medium-sized towns, and finally 376 district headquarters and small towns.

Over To The Orthopaedists

Implementation problems have plagued the NIB from the moment the tenders for the $19.5-million Phase I of the project were opened. Several consortia-led by Wipro, Siemens, Ericsson, ITI, RPG Cable, and Tata Lucent-put in bids. While the ITI-led consortium (ITI-IBM-Cisco) emerged as the lowest bidder, in a quick volte-face, it decided to opt out. ITI's bid amount must have been truly low, since the next lowest bidder, cash-rich multinational Nortel Networks, also shied away. It was only when Crompton Greaves-leading a consortium including SGI, Cisco, Netscape, Enlighten DSM, Apache Stronghold, and MRO/Tek-stepped forward and offered to meet the amount that the project moved forward.

No wonder the melee scared away some of the bidders. ''We have decided not to participate in the bidding for Phase II of the project,'' says 3Com Country Head Vijay Yadav. Where do things stand? Bids for Phase II have already been submitted and tenders evaluated. Crompton Greaves' Sanjay Gupta says: ''We may soon get to know who are the lowest bidders.'' Then, the dot would have to place equipment orders. And plan Phase III, to scale the NIB up further.

While the NIB appears fairly comprehensive thanks to its three-tier structure, there are problems. Like most comprehensive projects, it won't be easy to implement. Access points across the country entail a suitable programme at the state-level, since fibre-optic networks have to be set up across the country. Says Nasscom's Dewang Mehta: ''E-commerce and e-governance will not really take off in the country if we don't tap at the level of the tehsil.'' In any case, being comprehensive is not enough. The project seems woefully short of sight in terms of the bandwidth. ''The challenge is to make the backbone faster,'' agrees Nortel's Director (Business Development) Rajan Mehta.

The fact of the matter is the NIB will add a bandwidth of only 34 mbps to the national backbone on the major routes and 8 mbps on other routes. This is woefully inadaquate, and will lead to a problem of connectivity with the international bandwidth. This, at a time when bandwidth projections are piercing the stratosphere. By 2005, Nasscom estimates that the aggregate bandwidth required by India would be 300 Gbps (caveat: it downgrades the requirement by about a 100 Gbps if India develops a viable internal infrastructure). In contrast, Frost & Sullivan predicts a bandwidth requirement of around 35 Gbps by 2004. Whatever the case may be, the bandwidth in India at present is just 0.14 per cent of the lower projection, or 425 mbps.

Then you have the service providers putting together optic-fibre networks in cities and states. The more ambitious ones, like BPL and Subhash Chandra's Siticable have an all-India perspective. Undeterred by the exit of Sam Pitroda's WorldTel from the ambitious seven states project, Reliance Infocom has taken the lead by planning to wire up 115 cities over the next two years. But these initiatives are going to take time, and in any case do not fulfil the same role as the NIB. Over the next two years, the demand-supply gap of bandwidth is expected to widen further. There will also be six national highways over the next two years. But will India's fledgling internet economy have reason to celebrate?

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