India with a second largest population of 1.1 Bn has just 6% of Indians connected via the internet. USA is ranked 28th in the world in connection speeds with a speed of 5 .1 Mbps while India is still struggling with 256 kbps as broadband and adding to the woes of consumers is the il-legal Fair Usage Policy introduced by market players like Airtel and Tata Indicom / Photon+.
It has been clearly evident that adoption of Internet can accelerate business productivity, thereby generating income, jobs and government revenues in emerging economies. The key steps that can help spur the growth of internet in India are,
- Recognize data networks and Internet as critical national infrastructure
- Encourage investments in growth & penetration by promoting both ISPs & telcos
- Use national resources to accelerate penetration: copper wire, spectrum
- Be technology agnostic for multiple forms of connectivity
- Promote proliferation of access devices to suit budgets and user needs
India Spends Mere $1.3 / User for Internet Infrastructure Growth so this explains the poor growth.
WRT India, Uniqueness of the medium in being lost in translation, Depth of understanding is scarce and Lack of innovative pricing models is a determent for the growth of the broadband industry.
It is high time that India Starts to believe in the medium and the power of internet rather than online connectivity being a commodity for the well educated and relatively wealthy.
The day fools like TRAI, DOT and our government start thinking that bandwidth is necessity not a luxury. That day we might get better internet services.
I laugh at idiotic companies like Airtel, they provide 4 mbps connection at limit of 10 gb. It’s like selling a Ferrari at capped speed of 20km/h. Yes, i know bandwidth costs a lot but if a company doesn’t have infrastructure to provide internet connection. Why do they step in this field, i don’t understand this.
Either spend on infrastructure so that user can actually get a good service or don’t bother with it. High speed doesn’t increase heavy users. It saves time. They need to think that too.
There are so many things missing from this list of what needs to be done to fix the Internet situation in India!
You’re forgetting some vital things like:
Local Loop Unbundling and/or the construction of a new, open network (something like Fibre to the Neighbourhood and then roadside cabinets with either DSLAMs, Cable Headends, Ethernet or GPON equipment – or a combination of all 4)
Right of Way for all players
Peering with a DECENT TARIFF STRUCTURE (peered bandwidth in India is the most expensive bandwidth you can buy)
A much lower ceiling on IPLCs (currently at 1.92Cr per STM per year, this equates to about Rs34/GB, although usually you can get a deal of about half that, but this is still too high)
Regulations on what ISPs can advertise (eg Airtel Impatience with an 8GB cap can’t be advertised as “4mbit/s unlimited”)
…there are many other things too, but I’ve already written about them around the rest of the web 🙂