The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommended a slew of measures, including fixing minimum broadband speed at 2 megabits per second, to promote internet connectivity and increase connection speed.
The regulatory body of the Government of India released its recommendations on “Roadmap to Promote Broadband Connectivity and Enhanced Broadband speed”, as per which definition of broadband has been reviewed and the minimum download speed for broadband connectivity reviewed upward from the present 512 Kbps to 2Mbps.
It also recommended the adoption of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as defined earlier to bring cable TV operators into the plan. The recommendation also includes providing backhaul connectivity on optical fibre using the BharatNet network with Service Level Agreement.
Further, to incentivise investment in the last-mile linkage for fixed-line broadband, TRAI recommended notifying a skill development plan and an interest subvention scheme for cable operators registered as micro and small size enterprises.
Trai has recommended the implementation of direct benefit transfer for accelerating the growth of fixed-line broadband services in rural areas by reimbursing up to INR 200 per month per subscriber for their broadband connection charges.
Trai had recommended excluding revenue from operations other than telecom activities and operations as well as revenue from activities under a licence/permission issued by the information and broadcasting ministry, receipts from the USO Fund, etc for computation of applicable gross revenue.
The regulator in its recommendation to the Department of Telecom (DoT) asked for expediting spectrum auction of frequencies that are considered fit for 5G services.
The regulator has suggested three categories of broadband service- basic with a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps and less than 50 Mbps, fast broadband between 50-300 Mbps download speed, and super fast capability of delivering greater than 300 Mbps speed.
