New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) As broadband penetration in India hasn’t picked up in proportion to the growth of mobile subscribers, the government Thursday said it has set a target of 250 million broadband connections by 2012.
Currently there are 500 million mobile users and only 8 million broadband subscribers and another 12 million users.

“The idea is to put every village panchayat on the broadband highway by May 2012. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has drawn a scheme for deployment of wireless broadband technology using broadband wireless access for providing last mile connectivity in the villages,” P.J. Thomas, secretary, Department of Telecommunications said.

He was speaking at a conference organized by the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), which spearheads the campaign for promoting internet and broadband.

“In India there is still a vast population which is to be connected on the wireless. Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is widely recognized as one of the catalysts for economic development,” he remarked.

He also referred to recent studies conducted in three countries in Asia which confirm that the penetration of wireless in telecom has enabled a growth of 0.06 percent of the GDP in India whereas it has contributed 0.04 percent of GDP in China.

The conference also discussed regulatory, technology and infrastructure related issues concerning a cross-section of industry sectors, ranging from e-governance and e-education to manufacturing.