The Govt. plans to offer internet connectivity @ 2Mbps for free through BSNL and MTNL.
The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.
You have heard of free municipal broadband-many cities in the US have drenched themselves in wireless broadband connectivity, freely accessible to residents. The idea is to boost economic activity in general. The Govt. of India plans to achieve free broadband connectivity at a speed of 2 MB per second across the country, with a similar goal. Senior government officials expect to be able to achieve this goal spending only a portion of the burgeoning corpus of the Universal Service Obligation Fund to which all telecom operators contribute 5% of their revenues every year. It is estimated that the unutilised sum from the USOF has touched Rs. 9194.12 crore by March 2007 end.
The current technological trend is for voice calls also to shift to the internet, using voice over internet protocol (VoIP). The Department of Telecom (DoT) will be taking a series of steps to make its plans for free broadband a reality. These include, using the USOF to set up an extensive optic cable network across the country, opening up the long distance sectors to further competition, allowing free and fair access to cable landing stations, permitting the resale of bandwidth, setting up webhosting facilities within the country and asking all the internet service providers to connect to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.
You have heard of free municipal broadband-many cities in the US have drenched themselves in wireless broadband connectivity, freely accessible to residents. The idea is to boost economic activity in general. The Govt. of India plans to achieve free broadband connectivity at a speed of 2 MB per second across the country, with a similar goal. Senior government officials expect to be able to achieve this goal spending only a portion of the burgeoning corpus of the Universal Service Obligation Fund to which all telecom operators contribute 5% of their revenues every year. It is estimated that the unutilised sum from the USOF has touched Rs. 9194.12 crore by March 2007 end.
The current technological trend is for voice calls also to shift to the internet, using voice over internet protocol (VoIP). The Department of Telecom (DoT) will be taking a series of steps to make its plans for free broadband a reality. These include, using the USOF to set up an extensive optic cable network across the country, opening up the long distance sectors to further competition, allowing free and fair access to cable landing stations, permitting the resale of bandwidth, setting up webhosting facilities within the country and asking all the internet service providers to connect to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
