By IANS
New Delhi : The target of 20 million broadband users by 2010 may remain illusive for India if the much-needed airwaves or the spectrum is not allocated soon to the service providers, a leading industry body said Thursday.
The Indian broadband services market is still underdeveloped and the subscriber base has not exceeded beyond 2.5 million with a household penetration of around one percent, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said.
“Spectrum finalisation has already taken a great deal of time and if further delayed it is going to jeopardize prospects of broadband and telecom services,” Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot said in a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Dhoot also recommended that the government “gradually move out of spectrum monopoly and industry gets fair chance to compete in a healthy manner and widen the existing subscriber base for the benefit of common masses”.
It has also suggested the government spearhead the development and deployment of certain applications such as e-governance, e-education, agricultural services and healthcare services in rural areas.