Information Society Watch

April 26, 2007, Times of India

The Indian government has proposed to offer free, high-speed broadband connectivity to all Indians by 2009, through state-owned telecom players. This will be done by spending a portion of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) on providing free connectivity. While this may benefit consumers, it remains to be seen as to how this move will affect business. One school of thought suggests that the proposal will be impossible to implement because of potential negative impact on business, while another school of thought suggests that basic broadband should be kept free and that future business models can and will be built around value added services.

Read full text