As India grapples with the economic slowdown, an area where incremental investment could give a big push to the economy is the upgradation of the digital communication infrastructure. Developed countries like the UK, Australia and Italy have drawn up ambitious country plans (Digital Britain, Digital Australia) to strengthen and modernise their communications infrastructure to compete in the global digital economy. The main focus being the modernisation of their relatively obsolete TV & radio broadcast systems, and infrastructure, which are largely analogue in many countries, including India.

While India implemented two National Telecommunication Policies (NTPs) in the 1990s for upgrading its telecom infrastructure, the broadcasting sector had been left out. Though the department of telecommunications (DOT) has unveiled its draft policy (NTP 2011) in November 2011, its focus is telecom & IT services, with the broadcasting infrastructure going unmentioned, despite the policy emphasising on convergence and broadband.

The cable TV infrastructure has been upgraded in developed countries to provide converged multimedia services, including broadband. But in India, while the telecom infrastructure has been upgraded twice i.e from first generation analogue to second generation (2G) digital in 1990s, and in 2010 to 3G , the cable TV infrastructure is predominantly analogue.

Only half a dozen large cable TV operators, out of about 6,000 multiple service operators (MSOs) such as Hathway, DEN, Ortel, have upgraded their analogue networks to digital, while almost the entire set of smaller operators (about 70,000) called local cable operators (LCOs), who provide the last mile connectivity to homes, employ analogue cable infrastructure. Upgradation of their one-way analogue network to hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) two-way digital network, can provide not only TV services but also broadband data communication of 10s of Mbps for multimedia services. Since the country has 15 crore TV households, out of which about 10 crore have cable connectivity, such an upgradation will provide broadband connectivity to almost the entire country. It will bring the much-delayed broadband revolution to the country.

The first generation HFC systems provide for only analogue TV transmission on a 8 MHz channel, along with digital data communication on other channels. These data channels provide broadband access to the internet through a cable modem at the subscriber?s premises & a cable modem termination system (CMTS) at the cable ?head end.? The second generation digital cable systems based on the state-of-the-art digital video broadcast (DVB) standards, set by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), provide for 12 channels in each 8 MHz analogue channel bandwidth. Therefore, such an upgradation will release a large chunk of spectrum, which is called ?digital dividend?.

Similar upgradation of the analogue (FM) radio transmission to digital, based on digital audio broadcast (DAB) standard of the ETSI, can release additional digital-dividend spectrum. 3G-like auctions, which attracted huge bids, for the digital dividend spectrum for advanced telecommunication & broadcasting services such as HDTV, 3D Television can help the government reduce the fiscal deficit in 2012-2013. Still, neither Trai nor DOT has brought out a detailed consultation paper on this issue.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s last act in 2011 was the release of a consultation paper on implementing digital addressable cable TV systems (DAS), for which Parliament has passed a Bill in its last session, to amend the cable TV Act, thus paving the way for the digitalisation of the cable TV infrastructure by 2014. The consultation paper has brought out many key issues relating to digitalisation, especially on tariff and interconnection. But the vital issue of digital dividend and its utilisation for advanced telecom (4G) and broadcast services (HDTV, 3D etc) has been ignored.

Major countries, including China, have drawn a road map to progressively turn off analog television transmission for both radio and TV by the middle of this decade. The spectrum authorities in these countries have redrawn the spectrum allocation plan so as to release at least about 100 Mhz of frequency and use it for 4G telecom and 3G digital TV services.

Another pressing matter relating to digitalisation of TV is the Digital Transmission Standards. In 1991, the European Launching Group (ELG)?an assemblage of broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers and regulatory bodies?met in 1990 to discuss the formation of a group. The group oversees the so-called Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project, of developing a suite of internationally accepted open standards for digital TV (DTV). Many digital video broadcasters worldover have adopted these standards in delivering digital television and data services. The DVB Project finalised the second-generation DVB broadcast transmission systems called DVB C2, DVB S2 and DVB T2 in 2010 for cable, satellite & terrestrial TV transmissions, respectively.

A large number of countries have adopted the first-generation DVB standards developed in 1990s, and they are now upgrading their broadcast infrastructure to the second-generation DVB standards. Second-generation DVB family of TV broadcast standards will bring greater spectral efficiency and will enable broadcasters to deliver HDTV & 3D TV services at lower costs. Greater the spectral efficiency, grater the release of spectrum for digital dividend.

In India, we are yet to start this process. Only the satellite TV media is based on the DVB-S2 standards. The terrestrial television from cable TV transmission systems and networks are largely analogue. A road map must be prepared for adopting spectrally efficient second-generation TV transmission standards, and a green paper for consultation should be released by the ministry of information & broadcasting. In parallel, plans should also be drawn to gradually replace the analog (PAL) TV sets by digital TV sets, without the set-top box (STB), which is costly and cumbersome.

The subscribers should not be forced to buy STBs, even for their free channels. This was the main bone of contention, when digitalisation with addressability was sought to be introduced in 2003. Therefore, during the transition period, the free TV channels must be simulcast i.e, should be available in both analogue & digital modes. The STB is only required for addressability, and it is not required for the free to air channels.

Although, initially digital TV sets were quite costly, now cheap sets are available for under $100. The prices will fall further due to Moore?s law i.e dramatic fall (50%) in price of electronics component every 18 months. The sets are finding mass market in many developed countries, including the UK. In the US, digital cable-ready or DCR-labelled new TV sets are being manufactured. These sets do not need set-top boxes for free-to-air channels and allow consumers to view SDTV & HDTV. The government should encourage manufacture of such TV sets in India, as 95% STBs are imported from China. India?s demand for STBs is 20 million a year. With some financial incentives, STBs can be largely manufactured in the country. Digitalisation of TV media & broadcast industry will create thousands of jobs in media production for digital content (SD & HDTV, 3D), and hardware & software production for STBs & digital TVs. These activities will stimulate the economy in the present decade. The Planning Commission should set up a high-powered group to draw up a Digital Country Plan on the lines of developed countries, without delay.

The author is former member, Trai/Telecom Commission