India is a rare success story in telecom space where mobile networks have dared to infiltrate the rural landscapes where electricity, roads, railways, drinking water is yet to reach. A country of more than a billion people carries the pride of 76 per cent teledensity. Even after two decades of existence, Indian wireless telephony is primarily driven by voice which contributes to 90 per cent of the revenue.
Fierce competition and falling tariffs helped telecom operators to put mobile phones in the hands of poor from urban slums as well as rural hinterlands. Considering 2G revolution is not enough to achieve Indian government?s social objectives of spreading literacy, financial inclusion, providing better health facilities etc, in the draft of New Telecom Policy 2012, government has set an objective to provide affordable broadband on demand by 2015, to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020, at a minimum of 2 Mbps download speed and making available 100 Mbps on demand. In remote areas, broadband connections are provided mainly through copper, optic fibre and digital subscriber line (DSL). Using wireless broadband alongside the wired network will reduce the installation costs significantly.
The report is attached.
