India Targets Nine Million Broadband Subscriber Base By 2007
The Indian government hopes to achieve a broadband base of nine million subscribers this year. India’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran has told the Parliament the government hoped to reach this target by giving broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats, higher secondary schools and public health centres.
The government had earlier declared 2007 as the “Year of Broadband”. India had about 2 million subscribers at the end of 2006. That means it will have to add another 7 million subscribers in 2007, which is going to be a tough task since there hasn’t been any visible measures to do so. As for the long term target, the government hopes to have 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010. The state-owned telcos MTNL and BSNL have increased the bandwidth from 256 kbps to 2 mbps for broadband subscribers with limited usage plans.
this is laughable at best. The MTNL 2mb increase is not on the "all you can eat" plan. If they truly want to spread broadband they need to jump start the industry with some great pricing plans. Have you seen the pricing structures they have, there are 10-15 plans. They need to simplify it with 2-3 plans max.
Hi
We are not talking about the MTNL or any other service provider but about the regulatory authority.
In order to have India as one of the growing sector its a correct measure to provide the access to the rural and sub urban part of India where the penetration level of the Broadband is very low. I think with the introduction of new technology like WiMAX providers might like to dig deep into the rural areas thus increasing their network and customer base strength.