Govt to invest more than Rs 20,000 core to strengthen broadband network

NEW DELHI: The government will invest more than Rs 20,000 crore over the next few years to strengthen the broadband network in the country, telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar said at a media conference on Tuesday. The projected investment would give a boost to digitization, cloud-based services and convergence, Chandrasekhar said at the CII-Media Entertainment Summit 2012 'India-The Big Picture' in the capital.

Broadband penetration in the country was expected to rise to 600 million by 2020 from 20 million at present, he added.

TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar stressed on the need for a separate regulator for content instead of having it monitored by different institutions. Khullar said all stakeholders in the media should come together to sort out the problems faced by the sector before approaching the regulator. Regarding pricing of content, Khullar said it could be resolved once the carriage issue is sorted out. He, however, suggested that the industry should resolve the issue on its own and leave the regulator for other vexing matters.