India’s telecom regulator TRAI has issued a directive (pdf) mandating all fixed broadband providers to ensure a minimum download speed of 512 Kbps including for plans that follow a fair usage policy (FUP). In addition, TRAI has mandated both wired and cellular Internet providers to provide accurate information of post and pre FUP speeds and other tariff information to ensure that the ISP/telco doesn’t use the “unlimited Internet” garb for FUP plans. Interestingly, In August TRAI had recommended setting the minimum broadband speed to 2 mbps from the existing 512 Kbps. Similarly in September 2014, TRAI examined needs to set 2Mbps as minimum speed; it had issued a consultation paper which proposed increasing the minimum speed to 2 mbps. However, the regulator has gone ahead with 512 Kbps as minimum broadband speeds. But the question is: Is this enough? Certainly not and here’s why. -Sad state of Internet speeds: Akamai reports continue to suggest that India’s Internet speeds is lowest in APAC region with average speeds at 3.5 Mbps. The highest was South Korea’s which stood at 29 Mbps. Therefore, a good minimum broadband speed for the country would be at least 16 Mbps. -India’s primary Internet access mode is mobile: Wired broadband can be significantly faster than mobile, but with such low speeds, consumers have no incentive to switch to a fixed connection. TRAI’s recent telecom subscription numbers shows that number of wired broadband subscribers stood at 17.49 million connections, compared to a whopping 148.93 million in wireless broadband…
