The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has redefined the minimum broadband speed to 2 mbps from the existing 512 kbps (pdf). According to the agency, higher speeds will lead to more jobs, trigger more innovation, increase competitiveness and increase the GDP by up to 0.3%. The TRAI was responding to a reference in the Lok Sabha for the redefining the definition of broadband connections. Note that in recommendations dated 8th December 2010 on National Broadband Plan, the authority had recommended 2 mbps as the minimum broadband speed from the 1st of January 2015, although this doesn’t seem to have taken effect. Note that it’s not clear if the 2mbps speed will apply to pre-FUP (Fair Usage Policy) data consumption following which speeds will be throttled. Even if that is not the case, 2 mbps is too slow and as we have said before, a good minimum broadband speed for the country would be 16 mbps. Minimum upload speeds can be at 2 mbps. Also read: BSNL ups broadband speed to 2 mbps; anything less than 16 mbps is not broadband The other issue, which we had highlighted last year, is that of fair usage policies themselves. Telecom operators in India still use the term unlimited for plans that throttle user speeds post reaching a certain limit or charge them extra for full speeds. Airtel, for example, states that a “service provider should be free to throttle the speed to 64kbps after the expiry of assigned data limit to the customer”. The…
Please subscribe to MediaNama. Don't share prints and PDFs.
You May Also Like
News
Google has released a Google Travel Trends Report which states that branded budget hotel search queries grew 179% year over year (YOY) in India, in...
Advert
135 job openings in over 60 companies are listed at our free Digital and Mobile Job Board: If you’re looking for a job, or...
News
By Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru You’re reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised...
News
Rajesh Kumar* doesn’t have many enemies in life. But, Uber, for which he drives a cab everyday, is starting to look like one, he...