High-speed Net Subscribers to Touch 275 million in India by 2015 Date:   Tuesday , August 03, 2010 Not only size, but speed also matters. More and more Indians are using high-speed Internet services these days. According to a study by Assocham and Frost & Sullivan, the number of high-speed Internet users is likely to touch 275 million from 9 million by 2015, as telecom firms roll out Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) air waves that were auctioned in June. The study says that recent broadband wireless auctions, in which operators were allocated spectrum, come as a much-needed respite for the future of broadband adoption in India. Assocham and Frost & Sullivan expect the deployment of BWA to begin in this fiscal itself. The report says that at the end of 2009, around 43 percent Internet subscribers were still using conventional dial-up connections. But today, there is a lot of potential to migrate existing subscribers to high-speed services. Apart from high-speed Internet access, the BWA spectrum also enables Internet telephony and TV services. Not only this, the spectrum can also be used for voice and high-speed data services. In BWA, the government auctioned two slots of 20 MHz each. The Internet Service Provider Infotel emerged as the only pan-India winner for BWA spectrum. Regarding the current low level of broadband penetration (nine million), the study says that it was due to factors such as insufficient wire-line infrastructure, fragmented local cable operators network and usage rates, and delays in awarding spectrum. The study further says that the mobile handset manufacturers stand to gain from the roll-out of 3G services by private operators. Since high-speed Internet services are quite affordable today, the increase in the number of subscribers is quite obvious. The number will increase, for sure.