TRAI concerned about low broadband penetration

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which expressed concern over the low broadband penetration in India, today issued a consultation paper on ‘National Broadband Plan”.

Availability of Broadband services at affordable tariff will provide access to enormous information, facilitate delivery of civic services, increase GDP contributions, generate more employment and enhance productivity, the regulator said in a press release.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also made a reference to TRAI seeking its recommendations on the need to review the definition of broadband connectivity in view of future growth in Internet/broadband driven by wireless technologies.

TRAI said it is a matter of concern that broadband penetration in India is low in spite of the fact that 104 telecom service providers are providing broadband services. The broadband penetration is just 0.74 per cent when compared with the teledensity of 52.74 per cent.

According to the regulator, there is a need to identify impediments and create an environment to encourage broadband growth. The net broadband addition per month is just 0.1 to 0.2 million in contrast to approximately 18 million mobile connections per month.

Though 70 per cent of Indian population lives in rural areas; broadband facility is limited to metros and major cities. Availability of broadband is critical for development of rural areas. Out of total 9.0 million broadband subscribers at the end of April 2010, just 5 per cent are in rural areas. The low broadband penetration in rural areas is attributed to non availability of transmission media connectivity up to village level.

The situation demands an urgent focus on creation of robust national infrastructure scalable to cater to future requirements not only in urban areas but also up to villages. For making all villages broadband enabled, an option being explored is taking optical fibre to 375,552 villages having population of 500 or more, said TRAI.

Such a network would require laying of about 12 billion kilometres of optical fibre at a cost of about Rs. 323 billion.

TRAI said that the funding of such project could be considered from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for non-skilled work and from Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) for material and equipment cost.

It asked the stakeholders to send their comments on the consultation paper by July 7, 2010.