The typical Mauritian loves his TV. Watching the latest sitcom at 6.30 and the news at 7.30 are almost reflexes in many Mauritian households now. The number of satellite dishes popping up at every random corner shows how much Mauritians are concerned about their home entertainment. The much advertised TNT launch aroused a lot of curiosity in that field. And they will be delighted to know that it could be possible to watch interesting programs on their good old TV via Internet as well! Choice. That is what Mauritians can now aspire to.

Revolutionary advances in technology, due to investment in research and development have changed the way we used to do certain typical activities and have given us the freedom to choose. It is already possible for many Mauritians to decide what they will watch and when. But when it comes to how they will watch TV, the choice is now gradually broadening. Along with satellite and TNT, TV over ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) can be brought into the Mauritian household to give the individual even more control of his entertainment.

TV over ADSL is a proper illustration of how xDSL technology is used to optimize the use of the fixed telephony network. Indeed, with ADSL, voice and data are transmitted simultaneously over the copper phone line, on different frequencies ? low ones for voice and high ones for data.. Which explains why we can surf the net and still use our phone at the same time.

With TV over ADSL : the video stream is digitalized, compressed and then transmitted to the consumer through the high frequencies of the phone line.. What is interesting about TV over ADSL is that there is no need to have a PC to receive it. In fact, one can receive it via the TV set alone through a set top box. This is of course relevant for a country like Mauritius where only 1/5th of households are equipped with a computer but where television penetration is considerably higher. Which brings us to the Mauritian context. What about TV over ADSL in our country?

<B>Incumbent operator</B>

An unbiased and very realistic approach needs to be adopted and things must be stated unequivocally. At this point in time, only the incumbent operator, MT, can aspire to think of TV over ADSL which it did in March 2004. In fact, MT had presented the project and claimed it would launch it commercially by the end of 2004 itself. To date, nothing has materialised to that effect and we are not entirely surprised as to why! Presenting ambitious and innovative projects is certainly very laudable. But if those same projects were realistic, proportionate and in response to actual Mauritian demand, it would have been even better. Unfortunately for Mauritius, there seems to be no such realistic vision whereby the real problem would first be tackled. And this whole TV over ADSL story achieves at least one thing: it draws our attention to a core issue, which is the glaringly high prices of broadband (ADSL) in our island. There will never be any demand for complementary broadband services such as TV over ADSL or vVideo on demand until access to ADSL itself is first democratized.

Only one look at the Mauritian Internet (dial up and broadband) market is enough to show that the real problem is not whether an operator can launch TV over ADSL, but rather whether the same operator can market simple internet connections ? dial up or broadband - at competitive and attractive prices. Only 4 operators currently share the internet market (MT, DCL, Network plus and Clickpost) and it is no surprise that MT?s prices are more attractive than those of the new entrants. ..A basic dial- up access is cheaper with the incumbent and while broadband can be purchased with the new entrants at cheaper rates, the difference is almost negligible. The fact that MT controls the national fixed telephony network is no coincidence in this state of things. What we have is therefore a stagnant and not at all competitive internet market. Price is certainly one of the reasons why fewer than 50% of Mauritian households have a dial up internet connection and even worse, fewer than 30% have broadband! These are disappointing figures in a country which can have 80% broadband coverage.

So what ought to be done by the principal concerned parties to change this situation? After all, the statistics concerning internet in Mauritius are a huge contradiction to the well reiterated objective of making ICT the 5th pillar of the economy. What is lacking is of course dynamic competition between operators. It is a simple economic rule that when there is more of a product, the consumer benefits from lower prices. If we take the example of France, which is probably the most dynamic internet market in Europe at the moment, the reason why internet prices are being slashed and yet connection speeds getting faster is competition.

<B>Theoretical work</B>

To achieve this in Mauritius, a different approach altogether must be adopted by the ICTA. It is time for this authority to start putting into practice all the theoretical work it has done. Namely applying positive discrimination so that new entrants are not stifled on wholesale upstream markets. This would then allow them to boost competition on the downstream retail markets. But for this to happen, the authority needs to be involved in decision making and be given enough latitude to fulfil its statutory duties. Furthermore, it might be high time to start thinking of unbundling the last mile of the copper network to give new entrants more independence from MT. Unbundling has proved to be crucial in achieving competition in Europe. Decision makers thus need to be more aware of real issues currently holding the market back. The very delicate position of the government as share holder in our incumbent operator and as policy maker currently presents a huge obstacle for unbundling but which nevertheless needs to be removed at some point.

For Mauritius to keep up with the ever- evolving world of communications, and for Mauritians to benefit from emerging and promising technologies, good foundations must be laid. If the concerned parties want to develop interesting services linked to the internet, it is crucial that the internet market be given a new impetus. There is just no point in building state of the art Cyber cities to house just more call centres if a concrete issue such as making ICT a way of life is not addressed first. . Achieving this is certainly the responsibility of decision makers and relevant authorities, but it is also the role of the private sector to lobby constructively in favour of the industry as a whole. At the end of the day, what must be kept in mind is that the Mauritian consumer is not concerned with the technical details behind a technology. Or how the operators negotiate amongst them. How TNT or TV over ADSL works is also irrelevant to him. What is relevant is price and content quality. This should be the goal of decision makers and operators if they want to bring successful services to Mauritian households.

Only when targeted actions are taken in that direction can Mauritius and its population even start to think of TV over ADSL.

Give them ADSL first?

<B>Anushka RADHAKISSOON</B>