Although, the growth in Mobile telephony has been stupendous in India over past 5-6 years, same cannot be said about broadband. The growth in broadband subscribers has been at snail’s pace. Mobile telephony spread across length and breadth of India, thanks to cheap handsets and even cheaper call rates. Unfortunately, broadband could not reach the masses due to higher prices, lower speeds, infrastructural issues among other reasons. Even today, India’s broadband density is miniscule 1 percent with majority of subscribers in Urban cities only!
Bringing Internet connectivity to masses, especially in rural areas, is one of the key goals and Indian Government envisages to cover 2,50,000 village panchayats with broadband by 2012. Currently, only about 97,548 villages are covered with broadband.
In a recent press release, Government has released State-wise broadband subscribers including urban and rural areas Circle-wise connections.
Broadband Subscribers in India as of November 2010
| Sl. No | State/Telecom Circle | Broadband subscribers (As on 30.11.2010) |
| 1 | Andaman & Nicobar | 5045 |
| 2 | Andhra Pradesh | 992222 |
| 3 | Assam | 67098 |
| 4 | Bihar (including Jharkhand) | 146148 |
| 5 | Delhi* | 972552 |
| 6 | Gujarat | 656041 |
| 7 | Haryana | 235201 |
| 8 | Himachal Pradesh | 57422 |
| 9 | Jammu & Kashmir | 46650 |
| 10 | Karnataka | 1129392 |
| 11 | Kerala | 699429 |
| 12 | Maharashtra (including Mumbai, Goa) | 1847013 |
| 13 | Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh) | 418091 |
| 14 | North East** | 37605 |
| 15 | Orissa | 172405 |
| 16 | Punjab | 523508 |
| 17 | Rajasthan | 333165 |
| 18 | Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) | 1331956 |
| 19 | Uttar Pradesh (including Uttarakhand) | 568936 |
| 20 | West Bengal (including Kolkata) | 497971 |
| TOTAL | 10737850 |
Highlights
- Maharashtra leads broadband subscriber list with over 18 Lakhs subscribers followed by Tamil Nadu (13.3 L) and Karnataka (11.3 L)
- Andaman & Nicobar Islands have least subscriber base with only 5k subscribers
- Entire North-East region has about 37 k subscribers
- Kerala, even though being one of the smallest states has about 7 lakh subscribers and has maximum broadband density among states
[…] the broadband connections seem to have taken a boost in the last one year. In 2010, India was only second to China and US in […]