Recognising the potential of broadband Internet?s contribution to the growth of GDP and quality of life, the government had unveiled a national broadband policy in 2004. The policy envisions accelerated growth in broadband penetration and had laid down a framework to achieve this.

The policy had defined broadband connectivity as an ?always-on? data connection that is able to support interactive services, including Internet access, at a minimum download speed of 256 kilobytes per second (kbps) to an individual subscriber from the point of presence (POP) of the service provider. According to the roadmap enunciated by the policy, the total number of Internet subscribers were to go up from six million in the year ending 2005 to 40 million by the end of 2008. Broadband subscribers were to increase from three million to 20 million.

According to reports, the DoT has recently told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology about its own dismal failure to achieve these targets. Its presentation to the committee clearly revealed that broadband is one of worst-performing segments of the otherwise vibrant telecom sector. India had only 6.81 million broadband subscribers in August 2009, much below the target set even for 2007. At this rate, there appears to be no chance to achieve the target of 20 million broadband subscribers by2010. Similarly, the country is nowhere near the target for Internet subscribers set by the national policy.

According to a survey conducted by the consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, the fixed broadband market in Asia-Pacific showed an accelerated growth to reach 182 million subscribers this year, recording a growth of 17.3%. Frost & Sullivan anticipates a revenue of around $44.9 billion from broadband services in the region, registering a 13.3% growth. The consultancy firm has identified Malaysia?s High Speed Broadband Project, Australia?s National Broadband Network and Singapore?s iN2015 Master Plan as the main contributors to the explosive growth of broadband in these countries. Thanks to these initiatives, the number of broadband users in South-East Asia is expected to reach 212.6 million by 2014. South Korea tops the chart in household broadband penetration with 95%, followed by Hong Kong of about 85%, Taiwan 70%, Japan and Australia 65% each, and China about 25%. Even smaller developing countries such as Vietnam (10%) and Thailand (8%) are way ahead of India in Broadband penetration .

India cannot afford to lag in broadband infrastructure anymore. A joint study by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Department of IT & Telecom in 2004 provides a vision for the broadband economy of the country by 2010. It states that broadband connectivity and services, if designed innovatively and implemented effectively, can power several socio-economic gains for the country in areas of education, healthcare, governance and citizen empowerment.

The study estimates that between 2010 and 2020, ubiquitous broadband can generate direct employment opportunities for 1.8 million, indirect employment for 59 million and yield benefits equivalent to $90 billion. Some of the benefits of broadband contributing to growth in GDP are due to labour productivity improvement, output growth due to e-literacy programmes in secondary schools and e-education in vocational/higher secondary schools. It lays down some benchmarks to realise these economic benefits: (i) achieve a minimum of 10 million subscribers by 2010 and 35 million subscribers by 2020, (ii) achieve broadband coverage for at least 50% of the rural population by 2010 and 100% by 2020, and (iii) make appropriate, and locally relevant, e-education, e-health, e-governance, entertainment and e-commerce services.

One policy initiative responsible for the accelerated growth of broadband infrastructure in developed countries is the mandated unbundling of local loop. This regulatory intervention will enable smaller players like ISPs to rent the last mile infrastructure of incumbents to provide broadband connectivity by employing their own broadband equipment such as digital subscriber line (DSL). ISPs can not only provide connectivity but also supply locally-relevant content & application on their application servers. Another policy initiative which can dramatically accelerate broadband penetration is providing USO support to cable service operators to upgrade their analog one-way network by employing hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) technology. HFC-based cable networks have been deployed to provide broadband access to American homes since the 1990s. They provide download speeds of tens of megabytes per second.

India can adopt such technologies to raise its broadband penetration. For the spread of broadband in rural areas, microcellular wireless technologies like WiFi should be the preferred option. Macrocelluar wireless technologies like WiMAX require high towers, consumes much electricity and require regular maintenance.

Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2006 provide the legal framework for giving subsidy support from USO Fund for building broadband infrastructure in rural areas. Such support to dedicated rural operators is the need of the hour. The new policy should aim to provide access to broadband either at home or through easily-accessible public kiosks to every citizen. By that way, every citizen of India could become netizens and contribute to the economic progress of India, while empowering themselves in the process .

The writer is a former member, Trai/Telecom Commission