Why Internet users have turned their backs to the slow and unstable dial-up connections?

We no more wait around for internet pages to open. Nor do we struggle to shift huge files to our PCs. We have forgotten the meaning of booking a trunk call to talk to our dear ones. Now we do it through Voice over IP (VoIP). In a nut-shell, Broadband access has literally done magic to our lives by enabling us to do so many things through internet which we were never able to think of, with a dial-up connection.

As we grow more and more 'bandwidth-hungry', the need for a high-speed broadband connection became just the basic necessity. Be it Seoul, the most well connected city in the world, or the 'striving hard to be networked' Bangalore, broadband access is in everybody's wish list.Various market research firms have predicted that the worldwide broadband subscribers will exceed 400 million by the end of 2010 against the 270 million subscriber base of 2006. This number is expected to increase drastically over the coming years.

Voice and video, pushing it forward

Data used to be the only demand of the enterprise broadband users, until last couple of years. Now, a set of promising 'value-added services' has entered into the space of broadband applications. "What we see now is a new trend. Apart from using the broadband for accessing internet, people now want services like VoIP, video on demand (VoD) and some home security applications," says Praveen Ganapathy, director- business development, consumer & automotive corporate business development, Texas Instruments India.

Recent consumer surveys show that about 78 per cent of the broadband users are interested in at least one of the value added services offered through high-bandwidth connections. VoIP remains one of the top-listed services demanded by the customers. Enterprises are the fast adopters of this service, which help them control overhead and add more value to business. In the beginning, the quality of VoIP calls used to be pretty bad. Now, it's gradually increasing and it is expected to be as good as today's analogue calls by the year 2009. However, it is now hard to satisfy the customers only with voice.

When it comes to video, customers prefer to get interactive video content and video on demand through their broadband connection. Bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications are further pushing the need for high-speed broadband connection. Instead of offering one or two services, companies now started providing triple play and multi play services through broadband.
IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is considered as the 'killer app' delivered through broadband. The worldwide subscription of IPTV hit 3.6 million last year and is expected to grow aggressively during this year.

In India, public sector service providers like BSNL and MTNL, along with many other players, made IPTV debut possible this year.Video home security is also growing as a latest trend among broadband users. Video conferencing is the major application getting popular among enterprises. Broadband help them centralize storage and thus to adopt the 'thin client' work model to cut down the cost. ERP remains one of the key drivers for broadband among enterprises.

Promising but hard future for India

Though wide spread, broadband is not benefiting every citizen even in the developed countries. US President George Bush has just promised that 'every corner' of the country will be provided with high speed internet by the end of this year. But reports predict that Bush's goal would be tough to achieve.For a country like India, which has a huge population base, broadband has many purposes to serve. Though the growth of the telecom industry is a favoring factor, broadband penetration is still very low in India.

The target set for this year-end by the government is to hit 9 million broadband subscribers whereas there is only just above 2 million broadband subscribers at present in the country. So, it is going to be a Himalayan task for the government and the industry to hit the goals. However, the rising wireless technologies and dipping rates are likely to boost up the process of broadband adoption in India. As a whole, the idea of 'getting connected' itself is very appealing to any user.

However, applications, which are more bandwidth intensive, are not yet popular in India.Once the demand for such applications is created, the broadband market in India would probably see a huge jump.