2007 the year of broadband?

The Indian Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran has promised that 2007 will be the year of broadband.

“The year-2007 will see broadband in India further affordable and promised that people have to forget the 256 Kbps and enter the Information Superhighway. Already BSNL and MTNL are working on this. The new year will also see the broadband policy to be rewritten,” he said.

Wake up man, just to compare some broadband plans from the US vs India. The US plans are all UNLIMITED, which is something the Indian ISP’s don’t even offer.

Comcast has an 8mbps/768kps plan for USD 53. Verizon has a 15mbps/2mbps plan for USD 50 or the killer 30mpbs/5mbps for USD 180. Compare that to MTNL’s pathetic 256kbps/256kps plan for around USD 14. Ugh, makes me want to stick needles in my eye every time I fire up my browser on MTNL.

Oh, and if you are wondering about WiFi access in India, it’s virtually non-existent and should be re-labeled WTF in India.