Today’s ‘Chart of the day’ is brought to you by E2E Networks Private Limited As on March 2011, India had a total of 19,674,983 Internet connections spread across as many as 168 ISPs, and with the top 5 ISPs - BSNL, MTNL, Reliance, Airtel and Hathway accounting for 89.95% of this base. But what of the others? Some observations: - Only 4 ISPs had more than 1 million connections, and 12 ISPs had more than 100,000. - 75 ISPs have an Internet base in the range of 1-500 connections - 16 ISPs have no (reported) connections. - There is a difference of 8.89 million connections between the top two ISPs - BSNL and MTNL for March 2011. Data Source: TRAI Sure, fragmentation may have reduced after the country's Department of Telecom revamped the ISP licensing in 2007, but has it really helped? The broadband target set by the Indian government has been missed each time, and public ISPs (MTNL and BSNL) dominate with a 69.8% market share primarily due to the legacy wireline connectivity they own. Wireless may not be able to handle the load, and there has to be a push for growing the wireline base in India. It's time to unbundle the last mile. Share data sources with us: contact nikhil@medianama.com Advertise: To advertise on Chart of the Day, contact sales@medianama.com. Daily and segment-wise options available.
