Govt may revise minimum broadband speed to 2 Mbps from 512 Kbps

GTPL Hathway  | In FY21 so far, the stock price has gained 237 percent to Rs 137.35 as of October 14. The company's FY20 total debt reduced by 49 percent to Rs 148 crore compared to its previous fiscal year while it has witnessed decent sales and profit growth of 91 percent and 253 percent respectively.

In good news to broadband users, the Centre plans to revise the minimum connection speed to over 2 Mbps (Megabits per second) immediately and then raise it to 5 Mbps from 512 Kbps (kilobits per second) at present.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will shortly unveil a revised policy for the same in keeping with the government’s objective of 'Broadband for All' by 2022, as per a senior official quoted in the report by DNA Money.

The policy was last revised in 2011, with the minimum speed raised to 512 Kbps from 256 Kbps. It will be given a final stamp of approval by the Telecom Commission, DoT’s highest policy-making body, the report said.

In December 2018, internet performance testing company Ookla said India rose two spots on mobile broadband to 111th fastest and remained at 65th in broadband.

Average fixed broadband download speed improved 50.4 percent to 23 Mbps. However, the country ranked at the bottom of the list in mobile broadband, with average download speeds increasing by 15.2 percent.