Indian Government is expecting that the government has provided about 2.5 million in more than 1,000 towns in the country by the end of June, 2007.
This shows that the Government is unlikely to reach the target of nine million connections within 2007, which has been declared as the 'Year of the Broadband'. The Communication and Information Technology ministry is expecting that the Ministry has also set up a target of 20 million connections by 2010. The attempt is to provide the connections through various technologies like optical fibre, digital subscriber lines on copper loop, satellite media, terrestrial wireless, cable television network and future technologies. An inter-ministerial group is working out the requirements of various user departments/ministries to roll out broadband infrastructure in rural areas with support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The group comprises of the Health, Home, Human Resource Development, Panchayati Raj and Information Technology ministries. Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) is implementing a scheme for supporting shared infrastructure for mobile services in rural and remote areas not covered by wireless signal.
