B'band services not less than 256 kbps: Govt

NEW DELHI: The department of telecommunications, in a notice to all telecom operators, has reiterated that branding or naming services with less than 256 Kbps download speed is not in accordance with the Broadband Policy announced in October, 2004.






In the policy, the broadband connectivity has been defined as "always-on-minimum" download speed of 256 Kbps. The operators, while marketing such services, should keep in mind that only always-on download speed of 256 Kbps or above are termed as Broadband services.





The government has strictly warned the telecom operators who indulge in marketing or posing to provide broadband services at download speed of 64 Kbps, 128 Kbps, etc., to refrain from such activities/publicizing advertisements as these types of services will not come under the category of broadband services.





In other words, any download speed, which is at 256 Kbps or more, can alone be termed as broadband services. Therefore, the telecom operators should not mislead the consumers by making such advertisements or adopt any marketing tactics, which would defeat the very purpose of providing broadband services.