But is this for real? The flip side of the Internet saga is that Indian broadband, which runs at 256 kbps (kilobytes per second) is very primitive compared with the international counterparts, where broadband is run at a minimum of several megabytes per second. Even by that yardstick, penetration of broadband poses a major concern. Broadband penetration stands at a mere 0.02 connections for every 100 people currently, in comparison with 1.4 for every 100 people in China and a whopping 25 per 100 in South Korea. The discrepancy in broadband connectivity, however has got a lot to do with the lack of a customer base. Higher connectivity is mostly used by the corporate sector to upload content, but this would form a miniscule part of the overall customer base. Households, on the other hand, have emerged as a significant segment, but they currently use Internet mostly for the purpose of e-mailing and surfing, for which higher connectivity is not needed. Even if the target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010 is met, how fast these connections will be is anybody’s guess.
For complete IIPM article click here
Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006
Author:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri
For complete IIPM article click here
Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006
Author:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri
