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Of all the access technologies around the Internet, the one that has done well, and will continue to do so, is the Broadband. Starting as a promise almost half a decade ago, today it has matured, and is, in fact, one of the key drivers of Internet usage and growth. The numbers it has notched up are impressive - it is estimated that there are close to 80 million broadband connections worldwide today. And while there are some mature markets (like Korea) where the growth is starting to slow down, there is still immense untapped potential for this offering to roll out.
Broadband started as a technology development, but has soon moved beyond its realms. Its primary promise was providing its customers the ability to do the same thing better and faster. However, it is now evident that it is not a technology issue anymore. Just as it is evident that the full potential of this key driver would never be realised by just downloading of music or adult content. It is now about real content and consumer. And the key question facing strategists today is what content will interest the consumer, and at what price?
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I believe that connectivity (both transmission and access) will sort itself out in India as it has done worldwide. The challenge is delivering compelling content that is cheap. Content can be broadly classified in three categories: video, education and interactive. And for India, it is imperative that a lot of content 47is served in the local language for mass consumption. Unfortunately, we still do not have encoding standards defined in the country, which will lead to standardization on production of content - including keyboard layout. English language has one encoding standard (Unicode) and China has recently standardized on two. In our case, many languages have as many as 4 standards being promoted by various bodies. The second challenge, of course, is to make the consumer use the content again and again. A "killer app", if you will, that will drive usage. There have been a few killer applications that have quietly overtaken the world. Two that come to my mind are Email and SMS. Almost everyone uses them at least once per day. Broadband also needs one.
I used to run technology and networks for many years before moving on to this assignment of managing the business. During my technology days, I had a thumb rule that I would put forth to my customers when they demanded challenging solutions and deliveries. That thumb rule was - GOOD, FAST, CHEAP: pick any two! Think about it. If the solution was to be good and fast, it may not be cheap. If it was to be good and cheap, it may not be fast. And if one demanded the solution to be fast and cheap, it may not be good! However, broadband customers will soon demand a service that has to be all three of the above - good, fast and cheap!
Rahul Swarup
President
Sify Enterprise Solution
We
welcome your comments and suggestions.
Please e-mail us at esbmarketing@sifycorp.com
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