India’s Telecom and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, has outlined ambitious plans to offer free broadband across the country by 2009. The proposal would be done through state operators BSNL and MTNL, with funding to come from the country’s Universal Service Obligation Fund.

All telecom operators contribute 5 percent of their annual revenues to the USOF, which currently has a surplus of funds, with only 25% of the fees collected having been used so far, according to media reports.

Use of the USOF has become a hot topic in the country of late, with other proposals focussing on extending infrastructure to the country’s rural areas, as well as extending its scope from basic telephony to broadband rollouts.

"Broadband is a priority area for us,” Maran told local media. “We have set a target of 9 million broadband connections this year, out of which BSNL and MTNL will do 7 million, while the remaining will be done by the private operators,” he said.

The minister said there were now 2.7 million broadband connections in the country, but added that from next month the government would start a major roll out campaign to boost the number. Earlier in the year President A P J Abdul Kalam told Parliament that 2007 would be the year of broadband in India, a point also made on the Department of Telecom (DoT) web site.

One company hoping to cash in on this improved infrastructure is portal operator AOL, which last week launched its India site. The English-language web portal is at www.aol.in.

As well as the standard offerings including news, free email, messaging and storage, the Indian portal will have content designed to attract local users, such as video and information channels dedicated to Bollywood and Cricket, city guides and local news.

“India is one of the world's fastest-growing online markets, and our India portal will help us compete for users and advertisers in this important region,” said Ron Grant, President and COO of AOL, who launched the service at a press conference in Bangalore. “AOL is one of just four companies with the scale, the network infrastructure, the resources, and the products to compete on a global level, and we plan to fully utilise those advantages as we enter new markets.”

According to a Kaufman Brothers report released in September 2006, India had roughly 45 million Internet users (out of a population of 1.1 billion) at the end of 2006. The report projected that India’s Internet population would double to 94 million by 2008 and triple to 147 million by 2010.

“By leveraging a unified product platform, we can accelerate our timetable and reduce the cost of launching and supporting portals in new markets,” said Maneesh Dhir, AOL executive vice president, international. “AOL.in shows how we can quickly move into an important market like India with a strong, local offering that meets the needs of its online users.”

AOL already had an existing presence in India, launching its Bangalore Service Centre in 2002 and a Software Development Centre in 2004 that develops applications and products for the group. In 2005, the company’s Knowledge Centre was launched, devoted to business analysis, search operations, and technology support.

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