The Indian Telecommunications Regulation Authority (Trai) has resulted in its recommendations to improve broadband internet connectivity in India.
As part of its recommendation to the government, Trai has proposed that a minimum of 2Mbps is needed for internet connections called ‘broadband’.
At present, the minimum speed for broadband internet connections is set at 512Kbps, upgraded from 256kbps in 2014.
According to the new definition of Trai about broadband connectivity, “Broadband is a data connection that is always active, provided by fixed or wireless infrastructure, which is able to support a lot of information and services Interactive such as Internet access and video on demand, and offers minimum downlinks and 2 Mbps uplink speeds to individual customers from Point of Backup (POP) from service providers who intend to provide broadband services.
“This also emphasizes the fact that the data connection must have speeds Minimum download of 20 Mbps and the upload speed of 10 Mbps, to individual customers from POP service providers intend to provide broadband services.
Globally, broadband is well defined in connection with the speed of the technology used.
For example, in the US, broadband internet connections must provide a minimum content of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps.
On the other hand, if you see Europe, broadband is only defined as “high-speed internet access that is always active and faster than traditional dial-up access.” In Germany, broadband still must have the same capacity as or higher than the 144 Kbps download speed and for cellular broadband, it must be “3G and high speed cellular technology”.
Trai also recommends that broadband should be categorized in three segments: basic, high speed and high speed.
Basic broadband services must offer at least 2Mbps up to 30Mbps the download speed while high-speed packages must offer anywhere between 10mpbs to 100Mbps download speeds.
The ultra-high speed broadband connection must provide speeds of up to 1Gbps and a minimum of 100Mbps.