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Friday, Nov 11, 2005

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Maran launches national portal

Special Correspondent

`Content, language of choice key to broadband penetration'

Maran launches national portal of India Content in English and regional languages preferred Broadband connection target set at 30 lakh by December

NEW DELHI: The Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, on Thursday said the government was targeting a three-pronged solution to broadband penetration, including computer penetration, connectivity and good content.

"Content is key to the proliferation of broadband which we lack," Mr. Maran said at the launch of the national portal of India — India.gov.in.

Apparently in the context of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recent observation about the poor take-off of broadband services, the Minister noted that the problem was if people were going to use only Internet, a dial-up connection should be enough.

"To use broadband, one needs to be convinced of good, quality or language of choice content. So, instead of saying broadband has not taken off, the focus should be on encouraging content creation", he said.

Elaborating further, he said, "If we are to boost the broadband penetration we need content in English as well as in all other regional languages. After all only five per cent of the people speak English."

It is pertinent that TRAI has been favouring opening up of last mile access of BSNL and MTNL on the ground that broadband penetration is likely to miss the set target due to poor take-off.

The current broadband connection stands at about seven lakh. The official target is 30 lakh by December 2005.

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