The Government of India has finally realised that the country is lagging behind in the Broadband and Internet departments. It had revised its definition of a broadband connection as 512 Kbps from January 2011, from the previous definition of a minimum speed of 256 Kbps, which seems funny as countries around the world get mobile network data speeds ranging from 1-10Mbps.
So if the Government is ‘upgrading’ at this pace, we should see 1Mbps the next year and maybe 2Mbps in 2013 or maybe 2014? Well, that might not be the case. The Government of India has now approved that from January 1, 2015, the stipulated download speed for any broadband connection, either wire line or wireless, will be 2 Mbps.
Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology said , “According to TRAI’s recommendations on the National Broadband Plan submitted on December 8, 2010, a broadband connection is a data connection using any technology that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and support a minimum download speed of 512 Kbps. Also, the upload speed should be atleast be half the download speed. This definition of broadband (both wire line and wireless) given in para 6.21 of the National Broadband Plan, is effective from 1st January 2011. The stipulated download speed of 2 Mbps will be effective from 1st January 2015.”
So is India finally shining?