Telecom regulator TRAI will submit fresh recommendations to the Department of Telecom (DoT) on broadband growth, as it feels new policy boosters are needed to revitalise the sluggish penetration of the service.
A senior TRAI official said the growth of broadband services has been much below the target, therefore calls for some rethinking on the lacunae in the existing policy. The regulator would suggest some measures to DoT to encourage the growth of broadband services in the country, he said.
DoT had set a target of 20 million subscribers by 2010.
However, the total broadband subscriber base stood at 6.98 million in August as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India figures.
TRAI had earlier asked the government to reconsider its proposal of unbundling the local loop and offer incentives to bring down the costs of the access. This would have made BSNL and MTNL offer their nationwide network to private operators on a revenue-sharing basis to offer broadband services.
DoT has already rejected this proposal.
As part of the new recommendations, the regulator is also exploring the idea of getting the number of subscribers independently audited, the official said.
Besides, he said, use of optic fibre infrastructure will play a key role in better penetration of broadband services in some parts of the country.
Broadband policy was announced by DoT in 2004.
