BANGALORE, INDIA: After the remarkable cellular growth, all eyes are now pointing towards broadband growth in the country. In the last few years, the telecom industry has witnessed an incredible demand of bandwidth intensive services, and consequently, there has been continuous rise in the mobile broadband devices.

As per VOICE&DATA research, the overall broadband services market reached over Rs. 7,500 crore in FY 2008-09, registering 40% growth over previous fiscal's Rs. 5,359 crore.

The total broadband subscribers (residential and business users) in India have reached 6.3 mn in FY 2008-09, as compared to 3.9 mn in FY 2007-08. At present, the broadband market is dominated by players like BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Communications, MTNL, Sify, and You Telecom.

While BSNL is the leader in the broadband market based on subscribers, Reliance Communications is the leading player based on revenues. Reliance Communications recorded revenues of Rs. 2,356 crore in FY 2008-09, clocking 72% growth. Main growth for Reliance Communications came from enterprises.

Zooming Ahead
The past few years have been really interesting for the broadband market. The year gone by saw incredible demand for the services which need broadband capabilities. With a large young population, the urban region witnessed mass consumption of entertainment centric applications such as games, online movies, and music. On the other hand, concepts such as e-health, e-learning and e-chaupals are making significant headway among rural masses. If implemented properly, these initiatives can bring fruitful results in the long term.

The new technologies enabling higher bandwidth include VDSL and GEPON. VDSL will provide higher bandwidth over the same copper infrastructure to go beyond 8 Mbps, possibly up to 20 Mbps. Alternatively, where copper doesn't already exist, GEPON can provide up to 100 Mbps using fibre as a medium. Service providers are looking forward to these two promising technologies to break the 8 Mbps barrier faced with ADSL 2+.

Also, there was a buzz over 3G and WiMax services in FY 2008-09. The growth of wireline technology can never be sidelined by 3G and 4G. The bandwidth or capability of wireless technologies are still in a phase of obscurity when compared to wireline.

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Aiming Big