BANGALORE, INDIA: The broadband subscriber count will reach around 275 million by FY-2015 from approximately nine million as of now, says analyst body Assocham and research firm Frost & Sullivan.

This is owing the growth in submarine cable capacity and supply of capacities with the adoption of wireless broadband (BWA), finds a report, 'Dawn of the Digital Decade’, jointly brought out by Asscham and Frost & Sullivan.

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Chairman, Asscham Convergence Committee, C S Rao pointed out that this under-penetration in India is due to factors such as insufficient wire line infrastructure, fragmented local cable operators network, lack of a broadband policy to regulate pricing of rental and usage rates and delays in awarding spectrum to wireless broadband deployments.

However, the paper claims that recent broadband wireless auctions in which operators were allocated spectrum for wireless broadband deployments comes as a much needed respite for future of broadband adoption in India.

It is expected that total broadband subscribers will reach about 275 million in next five years. This is due to the fact that submarine cable capacity would grow substantially and supply of capacity will shoot-up since adoption of BWA would become more popular.

The two institutions expect that deployment of BWA would begin in this fiscal itself, added  Rao.

Levearaging on broadband technologies, the paper says that excessively high right way charges, fragmented cable operators, non cooperation in last mile copper unbundling and low data ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) has made operators in India to realize, that wireless is the most effective way to provide affordable broadband to masses in country.

With around 43 percent of Internet subscribers still using dial-up connections at the end of 2009, there is potential to migrate existing subscribers to high-speed services.