Centre to "re-write" Broad Band policy: Dayananidhi Maran

Chennai, Nov 27 (UNI) Union Information and Communication Minister Dayananidhi Maran today said the Centre would ''re-write'' the Broad Band policy, bidding adieu to 256 kbps speed limit and provide unlimited speed in January next.

Speaking after inaugurating Ericsson's new Research and Development facility here, Mr Maran said as the country was moving towards an era of unlimited bandwidth, the Broad Band policy is set for a major overhaul.

He said BSNL and MTNL were working on aggressive schemes to offer new bandwidth and unveil the same in January next.

''This will mean good-bye to the present 256 Kbps speed,'' he said.

Mr Maran said while increasing the bandwidth, the deparment also wanted to increase the penetration of Personal Computers (PCs), which was still below the desired level.

The department is set to provide six million broadband connection next year, but last year only 5.5 million PCs were sold, he said.

''We are trying to boost the PC penetration,'' he added.

The mobile connections, however, were growing by leaps and bounds, Mr Maran said adding an average of six million new mobile users were added every month, though there were only 46 million landline users.

The Centre had set a captive growth target of reaching 250 million landline and mobile users by next year and was confident of achieving the target, Mr Maran said.

''We have already reached 176 million and the way the trend is picking up, we will overshoot the 250 million target next year. By the end of next year, one in every four will have a mobile,'' he added.

By the year 2010, 500 million people in the country would be connected through either landlines or mobile, he said.

The Department of Telecom had drawn up massive plans to provide mobile connectivity in rural areas, by setting up towers, using the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund of Rs 7,000 crore, Mr Maran said.

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