India May Miss 20 Million Broadband Target

The Indian government’s goal of achieving 20 million broadband users by 2010 may be a bit over-ambitious. The US-based online research agency eMarketer has released the ‘India Online Overview’, which says broadband Internet households in India are expected to be just 10.5 million by 2011, or 5.1 per cent of the total households. This is only half the target number.

According to TRAI, broadband connections in the country numbered 2.47 million at the end of July 2007. With just 2.3 per cent of the Indian population online in 2006 and 2.9 per cent being the projection for 2007, India’s Internet penetration is the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region, as per the report. In contrast, China’s Internet population was 10.2 per cent in 2006 and South Korea’s was 70.5 per cent.

The report also predicts that the online population in India will reach 33.2 million in 2007 and 71.6 million by 2011. It says that the number of home Internet users in India grew 19 per cent between April 2006 and April 2007, and three out of four urban Indians now have broadband. The report warns that for India to reach its online potential, the government needs to liberate the telecommunications sector, though wireless access technologies may also provide momentum

The Indian government declared 2007 to be "Year of Broadband," setting a goal of achieving 20 million broadband connections by 2010. However, the eMarketer survey showed that India may reach just over half that target, or 10.5 million broadband households, by 2011.