audioslave
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Average internet Speeds in USA: 5.6Mbps,India:1.79Mbps(Net Index by Ookla - Household Download Index for India).
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition wants to boost the number of broadband connections more than tenfold, to 175 million, by 2017. As if that weren’t ambitious enough, the government aims to have broadband access for 600 million by 2020.
Indian authorities have talked before about their digital vision. The government declared 2007 to be “the year of broadband.” Four years later, Indian broadband can’t even deliver download speeds of 4 megabytes per second, generally considered the standard in the U.S. for broadband. The international average is more like 5.6 mbps. Laying fiber for faster Internet connections is tough, given the country’s bureaucracy. “Right-of-way policies are just convoluted,” says Kunal Bajaj, director for India at Analysys Mason, the London consulting and market research firm. “You have to speak to between 10 and 20 different agencies for every route.” Mason says it can take six months to get permission to put down a cable, and at $60,000 to $70,000 per kilometer the cost is prohibitive.
Singh’s government is now pressuring cable operators in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai to make their networks digital by the middle of next year, a very tough deadline. Operators in the rest of India will have to follow within five years. Once TV subscribers have digital set-top boxes in their homes, they’ll be able to use their cable TV to get broadband Internet access
To make it easier for local cable operators to raise the money they need to improve their digital infrastructure, Singh wants to ease restrictions on foreign investment, raising the limit on foreign ownership from the current 49 percent to 74 percent. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has also recommended offering tax breaks to cable operators so they can invest the savings into digitizing their networks.
Upgrading India’s cable network won’t happen on the cheap. The total cost of additional investments in equipment by companies is expected to be about $10 billion, according to Jawahar Goel, former president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and managing director of satellite TV operator Dish TV.
Forcing subscribers to get digital set-top boxes will also drive up the cost of cable television. Goel expects local politicians will do their best to slow down the digitalization project. “State governments will say, ‘No, no, we can’t implement [the new policy], we’re not ready,’ ” he says.
India Seeks Access to the Broadband Highway - Businessweek
A Well Written Article on the Broadband Scenario in India and What our PM is doing in Order to Compete with China.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition wants to boost the number of broadband connections more than tenfold, to 175 million, by 2017. As if that weren’t ambitious enough, the government aims to have broadband access for 600 million by 2020.
Indian authorities have talked before about their digital vision. The government declared 2007 to be “the year of broadband.” Four years later, Indian broadband can’t even deliver download speeds of 4 megabytes per second, generally considered the standard in the U.S. for broadband. The international average is more like 5.6 mbps. Laying fiber for faster Internet connections is tough, given the country’s bureaucracy. “Right-of-way policies are just convoluted,” says Kunal Bajaj, director for India at Analysys Mason, the London consulting and market research firm. “You have to speak to between 10 and 20 different agencies for every route.” Mason says it can take six months to get permission to put down a cable, and at $60,000 to $70,000 per kilometer the cost is prohibitive.
Singh’s government is now pressuring cable operators in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai to make their networks digital by the middle of next year, a very tough deadline. Operators in the rest of India will have to follow within five years. Once TV subscribers have digital set-top boxes in their homes, they’ll be able to use their cable TV to get broadband Internet access
To make it easier for local cable operators to raise the money they need to improve their digital infrastructure, Singh wants to ease restrictions on foreign investment, raising the limit on foreign ownership from the current 49 percent to 74 percent. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has also recommended offering tax breaks to cable operators so they can invest the savings into digitizing their networks.
Upgrading India’s cable network won’t happen on the cheap. The total cost of additional investments in equipment by companies is expected to be about $10 billion, according to Jawahar Goel, former president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and managing director of satellite TV operator Dish TV.
Forcing subscribers to get digital set-top boxes will also drive up the cost of cable television. Goel expects local politicians will do their best to slow down the digitalization project. “State governments will say, ‘No, no, we can’t implement [the new policy], we’re not ready,’ ” he says.
India Seeks Access to the Broadband Highway - Businessweek
A Well Written Article on the Broadband Scenario in India and What our PM is doing in Order to Compete with China.
