On how the Indian Governments lack of action is hampering Broadband and IPTV in India The Indian broadband story continues to be a sad one - with an addition of just around 140,000 broadband connections in May 2008. What is telling is that between April 2007 and May 2008, India added just 1.81 million connections, bringing the total number of broadband connections in the country to 4.15 million. This is remarkable in the context that India added more than twice that number of Wireless subscribers in May - 8.62 million. Do bear in mind, however, that while in case of wireless (Mobile + WLL), number of connections is the same as number of subscribers, this is probably not the case with Broadband. Also, Internet (Dialup) connections are separate, though they've remained stagnant for a while, if not declined. The decline in wireline subscribers (down 1.7 million connection in May 2008) gives some context to the recent BSNL advertisement featuring actress Priety Zinta - "your landline number is the identity of your house". They really are getting desperate. As much as those in the wireless space like to highlight the decline in wireline subscriber base, it isn't a healthy trend. The growth in the overall subscriber base is NOT a clear indication of an increase in teledensity (which is at 27.59 percent). Subscribers are common between Wireline and Wireless, and many individuals have multiple connections. Also note that Broadband and impending IPTV initiatives have not been able to arrest the decline…
