20 Million Broadband Users Will Take 5 Years While Govt Approves Broadband For 20000 Colleges
The Broadband Policy of 2004 stated that India would achieve 20 million broadband users by 2010. Now we are at the end of 2009 (almost) and the TRAI latest numbers suggest that broadband penetration in India has just about managed to reach 6.8 million subscribers! At this rate the target of 20 million broadband subscribers would be reached by 2014 so said Mr Manoj Kohli,Chairman, CII National Committee on Telecom and Broadband and CEO and Joint Managing Director of Bharti AirTel Ltd.
Inspite of this slow growth the CII is aiming for 214 million connections by 2014 i.e. in the next 5 years. A tall ask if you ask us. The wire line infrastructure in India is certainly not equipped to provide this growth. What may give it the impetus is the upcoming wimax auctions which may lead to India being connected via Wimax. We have reported earlier on how 20% of the worlds wimax internet connections might be in India by 2012 and that could be the way broadband penetration could grow.
There are also plans to take Wimax to rural areas and BSNL is taking initiatives on this front. The government has also given approval to a project which connects 20000 colleges and 5,000 R&D institutions via broadband in India. Hopefully all these initiatives are fully realized as they would go a long way in strengthening the economy of India.
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Nice info.. Keep it up..
@Rajiv,
So what was your conclusion???
From the data it seems its impossible…
you think they’ll mak eit??
Bijay Rungta aka @rungss on Twitter
Bijay – I really doubt they will reach that number!
At the pace broadband connections are growing in India I dont see the 214 million target achievable even with the wimax and 3g deployment.
The only way I see broadband penetration rising is by artificially lowering computer hardware costs and broadband connectivity costs.. If the government of India decides to wave off all the direct and in direct taxes for just 5 years on all computer hardware and software besides running Bsnl and Mtnl broadband wings at just the break even point by lowering broadband charges to a bare minimum forcing private players to follow suit then I we would be able to atleast achieve a respectable growth year on year but even with all this done the 214 million broadband connections seems like a dream in that time frame.
Thanks
Parminder Chahal