According to the latest figures, India has just about 2.3 mn broadband subscribers. That translates to a penetration of just 0.2% for broadband compared to 19.6% in the US, 20% in the UK and 32% in Denmark and Iceland.

India has 39.5 mn wire line telephone subscribers compared to Denmark’s little over 3 mn. Despite having over 100 mn PCs (which hardly translates to about 3% PC penetration), 40 mn Internet users and 70 mn cable and satellite homes, broadband reaches only 2.3 mn users in India. PC penetration is 8% in China, 14% in Brazil and 15% in Russia.

Measures suggested by ISAPI for increasing the broadband penetration in India. 100% depreciation for computers and broadband equipment within the first year. Exemption from income tax for employees (government and private) of the amount spent on acquiring a PC or laptop.

A novel suggestion for ensuring deeper broadband penetration in India

As lack of a computer is one of the topmost reasons for poor penetration of broadband in India, this should be offered as a service that is charged but maintained and upgraded by the broadband service provider. This will obviate the need for customer investments in a piece of hardware that is open to complications in operations, obsolescence and risk of virus attack. A case in point is network PC, a relatively low-cost PC designed for internet access and specialized business use, but without the full capabilities of today’s personal computer.

More options could be monitors or basic computing power PCs connected over the network to centralized higher computing resources run on non-proprietary software to keep costs low. Such a configuration could also reduce the power required at the customer end, a problem that continues to plague all such solutions in India and is not faced in fixed telephone networks as the fixed phone is powered from the local exchange which always has a power backup. For an additional recurring charge, the service provider could also provide secure storage of customer data at his end, thus eliminating the need for hard disks at the customer end.