Govt for formulating national broadband policy
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: After a national e-governance plan, Government is looking at formulating a national broadband policy to push broadband penetration in the country and has already prepared a vision paper along with CII. "We are looking at having a broadband policy at the national level. CII has already prepared a vision paper on the same through funding from IT department and now we will invite opinions on the report", IT secretary K K Jaswal told a CII seminar on e-business on Tuesday. He said Government is pursuing a project EC-EDI for trade which is aimed at delivering all international trade related services electronically. To start broadband services, a policy or absence of it should not be seen as a major roadblock, he said while citing the example of BSNL which has started broadband services in certain areas. Referring to a CII report released on Monday, he said to achieve a broadband subscriber base of 10 million in urban India by 2010, immediate action should be taken up. For e-business to succeed in India, more awareness in companies and among people is needed. "We have a broad framework in place for the success of e-business. There are five certifying authorities at present and other agencies for ascertaining the security aspect of e-business are already there. But more awareness is needed", Jaswal said. Broadband connectivity offers data speed of 256 Kbps and above.

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