A. K. M. HabiburRahman Director, BTCL[1]
1. Introduction
We all know that concept of Internetworking of
network
originated from the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) project
of Dept. of Defense, USA .
There are now millions of computers world-wide connecting each other forming
the Internet. Although the
word “Internet” was used for the first time in 1982, an American Internet
Service Provider, The World
(www.theworld.com), was the first public dialup Internet Service Provider on
the planet started service in 1989. Until Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and
Cable Modem become common in most of the households, the only way to access the
Internet was using dial from PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)
connection.
Dialup technology uses
digital modem which transforms digital signal of computer into analog signal
for traversing over PSTN and vice versa.The first commercial modem,Bell
The main drawback of this
dial-up connection was that a single phone line could only be used for modem
transmission, or phone calls – it was not possible to use both services
simultaneously. The speed was also
painfully slow. Business users had to install a second phone line dedicated to
the modem. The need to use the same phone line for modem transmission and phone
call simultaneously was the mother of invention of broadband.
2. Birth of Broadband
Nothing much changed about
modem and internet technology until a great leap occurred to overcome the problems
of analog PSTN system by inventing the Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology. The ISDN is
comprised of digital telephony and data-transport services offered by the
telephone carriers. The ISDN offers two types of services: (i) Basic Rate
Interface (BRI) with two B channels @ 64 kbps and one D channel @ 16 kbps
providing its total bit rate to 192 kbps.
(ii) ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) service offers 23 B channels and
1 D channel in North America and Japan, yielding a total bit rate of 1.544 Mbps
(here D channel runs at 64 kbps). ISDN PRI in Europe ,
Australia
Unfortunately ISDN
technology did not spread-over and become popular all over the world. However,
the technology continues to use till now. A quantum leap in the data
communication speed in the last mile happened during the mid 1990’s, when
Digital Subscriber line (DSL) technology made it possible to provide both
internet access and telephone calls through the same telephone line
simultaneously. Since then different
variants of a particular technology as well as alternate technologies have been
developed to increase data communication speed. Initiatives have been ongoing
in both the wired and wireless telephony to increase data communication speed.
3. Defining Broadband Worldwide
3.1 International Telecommunication Union
ITU-T Recommendation I.113 defines the term broadband
[wideband] as “Qualifying
a service or system requiring transmission channels capable of supporting rates
greater than the primary rate.” The primary rate is ISDN primary rate which is
1.5 Mbps in North America and Japan Europe and other countries. ITU-T
Recommendation Series I is related to Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) and Recommendation I.113 is about Vocabulary of terms for broadband
aspects of ISDN. The Recommendation was published in June 1997.
In September 2003, ITU published
the report“ITU INTERNET REPORTS: BIRTH OF BROADBAND”. The report statesthat Broadband is commonly used to describe
recent Internet connections that are significantly faster than today’s dial-up
technologies, but it is not a specific speed or service. Recommendation I.113
of the ITU Standardization Sector defines broadband as a transmission capacity
that is faster than primary rate ISDN, at 1.5 or 2.0 Mbps. Elsewhere, broadband
is considered to correspond to transmission speeds equal to or greater than 256
kbps, and some operators even label basic rate ISDN (at 144 kbps) as a “type of
broadband”. In this report, while not defining broadband specifically, 256 kbps
is generally taken as the minimum speed.
The
report recognizes that“The term “broadband” is like a moving target. Internet
access speeds are increasingall the time. As technology improves, even ITU’s recommended
speeds will soon be considered too slow.”Recently,
ITU in its document “Core ICT Indicators2010” released in January 2010 has
considered the broadband as follows:
“Fixedbroadbandrefers
to technologies at speeds of at least 256kbit/s,in one or both directions, such as DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line), cablemodem, high speed leased lines, fibre-to-the-home,
power-line, satellite,fixed wireless, Wireless Local Area Network and WiMAX.”
“Mobilebroadbandrefers to
technologies at speeds of atleast 256kbit/s,in one or both directions, such
as Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), known asUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS) in Europe; High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), complemented by
HighSpeedUplink Packet Access (HSUPA); CDMA2000 1xEVDO and CDMA 20001xEVDV.
Access can be via any device (handheld computer laptop ormobile cellular
telephone etc.).”
3.2 OECD Countries
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD)defines broadband as an Internet connection that is capable of sustaining
download speeds to individual users greater than or equal to 256 kbps. It is
observed that broadband speed defined by most of the countries is less than or
equal to 256 Kbps.
3.3 Some other Countries
Bangladesh:
National Broadband
Policy 2009 of Bangladesh defines
the broadband as “An ‘always on’ data/internet connection that ensures a
minimum bandwidth of 128 Kbps subject to its revision as and when necessary.”The
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has revised the
definition of broadband service in January 2013. As per BTRC
notification,always on connectivity with minimum 1Mbps bandwidth shall be defined
as broadband.
India: Broadband Policy 2004 of India defines
broadband as “An ‘always-on’ data connection that is able to support
interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the
minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second (kbps) to an individual
subscriber from the Point of Presence (PoP) of the service provider intending
to provide Broadband service where multiple such individual Broadband
connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these
interactive services including the Internet through this PoP. The interactive
services will exclude any services for which a separate license is specifically
required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that
it is presently permitted under ISP license with Internet Telephony.”
Department of Telecommunications, India India
Pakistan:Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan
United State of America: Federal
Communications Commission defined “broadband” as the capability of supporting,
in both the provider-to-consumer (downstream) and the consumer-to-provider
(upstream) directions, a speed (in technical terms, “bandwidth”) in excess of
200 Kbps in the last mile.
|
Figure 1:
Minimum Broadband Speed in Different Countries/regions (in kbps)
|
4.0 Reasons behind Variations in Definitions
4.1 Country Landscape
Comparative research demonstrated that the
definition of Broadband in different countries varies between 128 kbps and 10
Mbps.Due to each country’s
unique needs and history, including economic, geographic and regulatory factors,
definitions of broadband vary widely. It was also observed that in most cases
the "advertised" throughput speed has a weak relation with the
actually delivered speed, which will actually vary over time, depending on the
application, the server, and many other factors.
4.2 Statistical Reason!
It should be kept in mind that defining a broadband with a
higher value of data rate is not a panacea. It depends on the availability of
the service, subscribing power of the users and on the overall economic and
social conditions of the country. If a higher value is set, connections below
that data rates will not be officially recognized as broadband and eventually
not included in the statistics. This will contribute a negative impact in the
computation of different indices (e.g. Digital Opportunity Index, ICT Readiness
Index, E-readiness Index, ICT development Index) prepared and published by
different international and regional bodies. These indices indicate one
country’s ICT capability and help build country image in the international
arena. To have a better position in the ‘index table’, some countries might
have still set a lower value to define broadband which must supports common
broadband applications with an intention to upgrade the cut-off value periodically.
5. Impact of Broadband on ICT
Development Index
|
Figure 2: Indicators of ICT Development Index developed by ITU
|
|
Figure 3: Composition of ICT Development Index |
It is understood that
broadband has a substantial contribution to the measurement of ICT Use
sub-index in the computation of the IDI.
The statistics based on national reference value for broadband are
collected by ITU from different national regulators and used for computation of
the IDI. So, the national definition of broadband has some impact on the
competitive status of the ICT capabilities of the nations around the world. A
comparison table of the ICT use indicators of 6 nations of SAARC countries shown
below will demonstrate the status of Bangladesh with respect to ICT Use sub-index
of the IDI.
Table-1: ICT Use Indicators for Six
Nations of SAARC Region for 2011 & 2012
Country
|
Percentage of individuals
using the
Internet
|
Fixed (wired)-broadband
subscriptions per
100 inhabitants
|
Active mobile broadband
subscriptions
per 100
inhabitants
|
ICT
Development Index Ranking
|
||||
2011
|
2012
|
2011
|
2012
|
2011
|
2012
|
2011
|
2012
|
|
Bangladesh
|
5
|
6.3
|
0.3
|
0.3
|
0.4
|
0.5
|
139
|
135
|
Bhutan
|
21
|
25.4
|
1.8
|
2.2
|
0.9
|
2.5
|
117
|
118
|
India
|
10.1
|
12.6
|
1.1
|
1.1
|
1.9
|
4.9
|
120
|
121
|
Maldives
|
34
|
38.9
|
5.4
|
5.5
|
17.5
|
21.5
|
71
|
73
|
Pakistan
|
9
|
10
|
0.4
|
0.5
|
0.4
|
0.7
|
128
|
129
|
Sri Lanka
|
15
|
18.3
|
1.7
|
2.0
|
2.3
|
4.4
|
107
|
107
|
6. Shifting of Fixed-broadband Speed
Advertised
Speed (Mbit/s
|
2008
|
2012
|
0.256
|
45.1
|
20.8
|
>0.256
- 0.512
|
18.8
|
16.0
|
>0.512
- 1.024
|
17.4
|
18.1
|
>1.024
- 2.048
|
7.6
|
13.9
|
>2.048
- 10
|
9.0
|
20.1
|
>10
- 50
|
-
|
6.9
|
Speed
not specified
|
2.1
|
4.2
|
The ITU report “Measuring the Information
Society 2013” presented a statistics on minimum advertised fixed-broadband speeds of 144 nations over the period
2008 to 2012 as given in the table.It is
observed that 45% countries offered fixed-broadband with 256 Kbps minimum speed
in 2008 which came down to 21% in 2012. Number of countries offering broadband
with minimum speed in 256~512 Kbps segment and 512~1024 Kbps segment have not
changed over the study period. But number of countries doubled in 1024~ 2048
Kbps segment and 2.048~10 Mbps segment during that period. It is remarkable
that still 4.2% countries do not advertise any minimum speed for
fixed-broadband. The statistics demonstrate the fact that upward movement of
minimumfixed-broadband speed occurred although one-third countries still offer
minimum 256~512 Kbps speeds forfixed-broadband service.
7.0 Misunderstandings on Broadband
 Figure - 4 : Broadband Value Chain |
Although broadband is
sometimes interchangeably used with Broadband Internet, but the perception in
not fitted in Bangladesh Context. Bangladesh
The
second misunderstanding is about minimum bandwidth to be assigned as dedicated
or shared for the full path of broadband delivery. This is related to quality
of service and price of the service to be paid. It is unrealistic to consider
subscribed bandwidth for the full path in terms of value of the broadband
package. Many operators formulate package to offer dedicated bandwidth for full
path at higher price and term the service as “Leased Line Internet”. There are
big differences between Broadband Services and Leased Line Internet Services. The
service providers offer the broadband service at cheap rates because this does
not guarantee subscribed bandwidth availability at all time beyond the Service
Provider’s PoP. These services are always on best effort basis. But in case of
Leased Line Internet, the service providers have to ensure 100% availability of
bandwidth at all time for full path for what has been paid for by the customer.
The regulators specify different criteria to maintain
quality of broadband service by the service providers. As for example, TRAI issues
‘Quality of Service of
Broadband Service Regulations 2006’ and directs the service providers for “Subscribed Broadband Connection Speed to be met>80% from ISP Node to
User.”
8. Conclusion
There is an alternative approach to define the broadband by
some countries. They define broadband in terms of functionality instead of
defining in terms of speed. Brazil is an example where broadband is defined as
the internet connection with sufficient capacity to provide access to data,
voice and video applications that are common or socially relevant to users.
This allows for the government to adjust the set of Internet applications that
serve as the benchmark. However, as far as country’s competitive status is
concerned,it needs to follow a common metric. If it wants to be able to track
its growth in broadband availability from year to year, it needs to set a
standard that can be easily and reliably measured over time. In the midst of
controversy of defining broadband in different countries, Canada has set a
clear position in this regard. The Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission distinguishes between “high-speed Internet
service,” defined as at least 128 kbps, and “broadband service,” which must be
at least 1.5 Mbps. This is an interesting solution indeed!
