(21 March 2008 6:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: Mobile communication is the road ahead for India, said Trai principal advisor of regulatory enforcement N Parameswaran.

Parameswaran was addressing the session "Developing Mobile Communications in Rural Areas - Role of Stakeholders" at the 16th Convergence India 2008 Exhibition and Conference.

Parameswaran, who was chairing the meeting, added, "Alhough teledensity in the country has reached over 25 per cent, the spread isn't even. Rural teledensity is still hovering around 8 per cent. The government's target of 25 per cent per cent rural density will require collective efforts from both the government and the industry."

Taking the session forward, Andrew Corporation VP of engineering for base station antennas Ray Butler said, "The demographics of India make rural wireless coverage critical as only 10 per cent of the population is in the urban areas."

In his presentation, Alcatel-Lucent India head of solution, strategy & marketing A Sethuraman mentioned that the next stage in mobile connectivity will be reached within the next four years, and will result in 75 per cent of the global penetration, accounting for 1.5 billion people of which 1 billion will be from developing countries.

A technology that can be used to bridge this digital device is WiMAX, which has the ability to provide wireless data over long distances through "point-to-point" and full mobile cellular type access.

"Lack of infrastructure is one of the major obstacles in connecting rural India," said Sethuraman.

Discussing the challenges faced in connecting the huge potential but under-served markets of rural India, he added, "We need to look at various options for meeting the information requirements of rural India. Affordable communication is where the answer lies."