Broadband Communication Standards and Rural India

Access to (mobile) broadband still eludes a sizeable population in rural India, despite the extensive presence of cellular networks in the country. Apparently, a poor alignment of cellular broadband technologies with the connectivity requirements of rural areas, especially those in countries like India, is behind this incongruity. This chapter identifies the key requirements and challenges that should be addressed by wireless broadband technologies to be suitable for deployment in rural India. It also provides details on the efforts undertaken by the Indian telecom standardization community to address these challenges. The efforts have resulted in two standards proposals, namely, the “Low Mobility Large Coverage Area Cell (LMLC)” and “Frugal 5G Networks” as enhancements to the fifth generation (5G) wireless technology standards. The chapter provides a brief description of these proposals, their architecture, and their capabilities. LMLC is already integrated with ITU’s 5G technology standards, while “Frugal 5G Networks” are currently being standardized under IEEE.