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Our Bureau

Mr Pradip Baijal

Bangalore , April 23

THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Friday that it would release its recommendations on broadband for service providers early next week and will launch another initiative for lowering telecom tariffs further.

``The recommendations should be out by Tuesday or Wednesday,'' the TRAI Chairman, Mr Pradip Baijal, told a national conference on broadband technologies and its applications. ``We should qualify a minimum speed of 256 Kbps as broadband,'' he said.

Mr Baijal said India is stuck with a broadband penetration of two connections per 10,000 which is proving to be a hindrance for investment in creating content and business. He said there was a direct co-relation between a country's GDP and growth of broadband. He said while broadband accelerates GDP growth, GDP growth also accelerates broadband. In 2001, IT driven primarily by broadband rollout, accounted for 50 per cent of Korea's GDP growth rate. ``Such a phenomenon is already underway in the mobile sector, where we now expect to reach 100 million during 2005-06,'' he said.

Mr Baijal said by achieving the target of 100 million by 2005-06, GDP will increase incrementally by 2 per cent. ``The results would be even better with increased broadband penetration,'' he said.

He said high subscription rate was one of the major impediments for growth. In Korea, the charge per 100 Kbps is $0.25 per month while a consumer in India pays 60 times more for the same speed. Korean GDP per capita is $10,000 against India's $500. Hence the Indian consumer pays 1,200 times more than his Korean counterpart. ``We must ensure that the charges are drastically reduced, if they are not, the vicious circle will never be broken,'' Mr Baijal said. He said TRAI would soon launch another initiative to facilitate even lower tariffs.

He said in India, prices have to be right for growth. He said broadband growth could go up substantially if prices are right, entry for operators is easy and there is genuine competition. He said more than 30 per cent of Korean GDP is transacted on broadband. He said the Government has targeted 9 million broadband subscribers by 2007 which is double the industry target. ``Yet this target, even if achieved, results in penetration of less than 1 per cent,'' he said.

Mr Baijal said the Government should rationalise the current levels of taxes and duties for broadband equipment which are around 33 per cent. He said the Government should also be more aggressive in content and application development to generate interest in broadband suppliers as well as buyers.

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