Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
News >> Technology >>
BSNL to offer 2 megabits per second broadband speed
By siliconindia
|
Friday, 15 December 2006, 18:30 IST
New Delhi: Broadband connectivity of 256 kilobits per second speed is passe. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. will now offer broadband services with speed of up to 2 megabits per second to all its existing subscribers who were till now getting 256 kbps connection.
Announcing the move, the Communication and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, said, "We are christening the year 2007 as the Year of Broadband in India. To trigger this growth, BSNL has come out with an aggressive plan for providing five million broadband connections in 2007 and that too with minimum download speed of 1 Mbps. It is now for the private operators to match it or beat it."
Subscribers will not be charged for migrating to the high-speed broadband access nor will they have to change their consumer premise equipment.
Speaking at the inaugural session of India Telecom 2006, Maran said fresh investments of about $2 billion (about Rs 9,000 crore) from telecom equipment providers was expected in the next one year for setting up manufacturing units in the country. "The entry of Nokia into manufacturing followed by Flextronics, Motorola and others has laid the platform for positioning India as a global hub for telecom manufacturing," said Maran.
Since May 2004, India has already witnessed investment commitments of over $17 billion in IT and telecom.
At the inauguration, President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, stressed the need to assess and debate issues relating to invasion of privacy. "Ethics for utilization of telecom tools and technologies also need to be evolved so that individual privacy is not intruded upon. Although some restrictions are in place for unsolicited telephone calls, there is a need for more effective control mechanism."
"Connectivity for the billion people is the connectivity of the planet; which meant connecting 6,00,000 villages and bringing 700 million people to the 300 million people living in urban," added Kalam.
India Telecom 2006 is being organized by the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and IT in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Telecom Equipment Manufactures' Association (TEMA).