Access network - choices and organisational environments in india

Today's Telecommunications environment is changing at a much greater rate because of rapidly evolving capabilities of technology. Another driving force is the demand for increasingly broad range of services and for greater integration of those services. There is also an increasing awareness in Telecommunication administration that there is no functional difference between a Regional Telecom Network and Rural Net work in terms of required services. Subscribers' demands in rural areas for the enhanced services (voice, data etc.) equivalent to their counterparts in Metro areas are increasing. Inspite of all these changes, majority of customer access is still limited to plain old telephony service which represents major segment of traffic to be carried, especially in rural network. India with 600,000 villages and with a population of 858 million, thus faces a major challenge in restructuring telecommunication services to meet customers' demands for superior services on growing scale. This paper discusses Indian environment and appropriateness of technology for the required conditions to provide access to the rural areas for basic telephone and information transfer facilities. It focusses also on the access architecture for a total network solution with hostlremote switches and transmission systems to provide better accessibility and services in urban areas.