Internet penetration yet to catch up desired pace:DoT official

The pace of internet penetration is yet to reach the desired level in spite of telecom companies' efforts to spread services in the country, a senior Department of Telecom official said today.

Additional Secretary at DoT, N Sivasailam appreciated efforts made by telecom companies to spread mobile phones and services in the country but said internet penetration has yet to happen at intended peace for which efforts are being intensified, as per a statement issued by PHD Chamber. He was speaking on the occasion of World Telecommunication Day ICT Entrepreneurship for Social Impact organised by the chamber.

The National Telecom Policy 2012 has set a target to achieve 175 million (17.5 crore) broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at a minimum 2 Mbps download speed, and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand. Broadband connections in the country reached 14.48 crore at the of February 2016.

The government is rolling out optical fibre networks to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats with high speed broadband by 2018. Recently, inter-ministerial panel the Telecom Commission also approved providing a WiFi facility in villages through common service centres.

Sivasailam indicated that it would take India close to three to five years to develop software in local languages for mass communication and application. He expressed hope that sufficient and skillful entrepreneurship would emerge in India in due course of time to undertake the job of software development in multiple local languages.