Need For Speed

A few years back, when the Indian government destitute the entry fee and revenue share for international long distance licenses, the number of service providers jumped from four to 31 resulting in intense competition and lower costs to the users. The government wants to do something similar with broadband too. A suggestion made at a broadband technology conference last month was to making connections free or near-free, and levy charges on the basis of usage of content. However, the major contention killing the growth of broadband is gait: 90 percent of the present 2.7 million connections are getting only 256kbps bandwidth. For once, tech revolution won’t remain urban sparks. As part of the center’s broadband plans for rural India, BSNL is planning to provide broadband connectivity over wire-line to 25,000 villages through Wi-Max; and to the inaccessible interior using satellite.