The Digital India initiative, with improved digital infrastructure and internet connectivity is the only alternative to serve the public in a more efficient manner in the country where it is almost impossible to build physical infrastructure for the vast population of 1.3 billion, said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Advisor Sunil Kr. Singhal.
He was speaking on ‘Licensing Guidelines and Regulations Governing ISPs’ at the workshop titled ‘Role of ISPs in Development of Integrated Digital Infrastructure’ organised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) at the School of Planning and Architecture on Wednesday.
Fastest-growing market
Mr. Singhal said there are over 665 million internet subscribers, including 576 million wireless broadband subscribers in the country. On an average, a subscriber on wireless network (mobiles) is consuming 10.7 GB of data per month, and it is doubling by the year.
“India is the world’s fastest-growing market for online applications. From this we can understand that there is no dearth of demand for content online. However, we have only 18 million fixed-line broadband subscribers, and most of the market is being served through the wireless network,” said Mr. Singhal.
“Not more than six to seven per cent of the data in the developed world is consumed on the wireless network. The remaining 94 per cent is used through fixed lines. To improve the fixed-line broadband in the country the government is geared up to extend broadband access to 50 per cent households, or 145 million households. In addition, the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots which are only 80,000 now will be increased to five million by 2020,” he said.
Further, the government wants to encourage the end service providers to ensure last-mile connectivity to the public under the Unified License category, he added.
Bandwidth challenge
Ravi Gandhi, Bharti Airtel Ltd’s Chief Regulatory Officer said India has turned out to be the highest data consuming nation in the world, and all the global companies see India as a big market.
