'DTH broadband is viable only when there is strong demand'

Commercial deployment of broadband through DTH can be viable only if there is a strong demand for such high speed service, an expert said today.
"DTH operators can provide a very high speed broadband in Ka band. It can be 50 megabit per second downlink and 20 mbps uplink. However there should be a demand for such high speed and suitable content to make service viable," R K Arnold, Member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said at an event here.
He said at present there are multiple options available in broadband segments, like wireless broadband and wired broadband.
Broadband through DTH will need to make space in the Indian market, he added.

As per last data released by TRAI, India had about 61 million DTH subscribers end of September, 2013.
At the end of December 2013, broadband subscribers in India reached 5.5 crore. Wireless broadband services, including mobile internet, dominated broadband numbers with over 4 crore connections. Fixed line broadband user base stood at 1.45 crore.

"From TRAI side it is open, there is no restriction. Anyone who wants to start it, can do it," Arnold said.
"There are two bottlenecks. First is awareness among consumers that they should know broadband is useful for them and second is affordability of devices, Arnold said, adding that the demand will develop gradually.

The government too had plans to make provision under telecom licence to create a new segment to provide all telecom and TV services through a single firm, i.E, customers will be able to pay for their DTH, cable TV or telecom services through a single bill.