Broadband is a global phenomenon, and India is on its way to join the big picture. Consider this. Consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers put together a study on the future of broadband, sometime back. RHK, which has been analysing tech/telecom data for the past 12 years, came out with world rankings of broadband penetration. This was part of its broadband access networks program. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States of America is going all out, analysing whether broadband is being deployed to all Americans. Reason: broadband networks are vital to the economy, healthcare, and education….

Back home in India, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently finalised a broadband economy report: Vision 2010. All in all, it’s about the world looking at broadband in a big way!

Speaking of the FCC move, it has sought information on how the Commission should define advanced telecommunications capability, whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans, whether the current level of broadband deployment is reasonable and timely, and what actions, if any, can be taken to accelerate broadband deployment.

Interestingly, it’s not India alone that looks at international models before deployment of any new technology, be it direct-to-home broadcasting or broadband. The FCC too wants details on trends in other nations and how America’s deployment of advanced telecommunications capability affects its role in a global economy, according to a recent new release issued by the Commission.

Meanwhile, India’s vision, as per the CII report, is to make the country among the top five broadband countries in the world by 2010. To put things in perspective, the CII National Broadband Economy Committee has defined broadband as “an always-on network capable of providing interactive voice, data and video services on public networks”. If you’re looking at speed, the committee has said that there should be at least two tiers of service. While the true broadband would be capable of providing minimum asymmetric bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps, a “lite” version would provide 256 kbps.

More: ZDNet India

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