Broadband Connectivity As Basic As Education: New Policy | TechTree.com

Broadband Connectivity As Basic As Education: New Policy

The government wants to make broadband as basic a need as healthcare and education.

 

The Department of Telecom is working on framing a National Broadband Policy in India that will treat high-speed Internet as a basic necessity similar to health and education. According to the Economic Times the policy is expected to be finalised within the next 100 days, and should help increase the penetration of broadband in India.

According to unnamed sources, the government will work towards the new legislation of 'Right to Broadband', making it a basic necessity. The move will allow for deeper broadband penetration in the country and also bring together several platforms such as cable TV, optical fibre, wireless data and satellite communications.

[See also: Over Half A Billion Indians Will Be Online In The Next Four Years]

At present there are different departments that govern various technologies. For instance, Cable TV comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Satellite related issues are majorly governed by the Department of Space.

The policy is proposed to look at provisions for providing affordable broadband equipments and devices for end consumer use.

The National Telecom Policy 2012 has set a target of 175 million broadband connections by 2017, and 600 million 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.

[See also: India's Appetite For High-Speed Mobile Internet Is Growing Rapidly]

There were about 61 million broadband subscribers at the end of March, 2014. Of these, 14.86 million subscribed broadband through fixed line and 46 million used wireless connection like dongles, mobile phone and other devices.


TAGS: Internet, Broadband, Department of Telecom, India, high-speed Internet

 
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