The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday said it would come out with recommendations on broadband speed for service providers next week.
"The first step would be a speed of 256 kbps and it will keep increasing. The recommendations would be out by next Tuesday or Wednesday," Trai Chairman Pradip Baijal said in his keynote speech at the National Conference on Broadband Technologies and its Applications, organised by MAIT, in New Delhi.
In India, broadband penetration was abysmally low at two connections per 10,000 and Trai was aiming to replicate the telecom revolution in this space, he said.
"With extremely low penetration, no one would invest in creating content and business on broadband. Unless the vicious circle is broken, we will never create 'broadband India', which we must if we have to accelerate GDP growth and make our economy, and particularly our service sector, more competitive," Baijal told delegates from the industry.
He said high costs of broadband rates were a major entry barrier for customers, citing that in Korea, charge per 100 Kbps of bandwidth is 25 cents per month, whereas in India, the consumer pays 60 times more ($15) per month for the same speed.
"Korean GDP per capita is $10,000 against India's $500. Thus, on an affordability basis, the Indian consumer pays 1,200 times more. We must ensure that the charges are drastically reduced -- if they are not, the vicious circle will never be broken," Baijal said.