Broadband warning

Telecom operators will no longer be able to pass on download speeds of 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps as broadband services to their customers.

The government has issued a "strict warning" to all operators to refrain from publishing and advertising speeds less than 256 kbps as broadband services.

"Only a download speed of 256 Kbps or more can be termed as broadband services. Therefore operators should not mislead the consumers with such advertisements or adopting any such marketing tactic, which would defeat the very purpose of providing broadband services," the department of telecommunications (DoT) has said.

The DoT has written to all telecom operators, saying that branding services with less than 256 Kbps download speed were not in accordance with the broadband policy announced in October 2004, which described the service as "always-on-minimum" download speed of 256 kbps.

Welcoming the directive, Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) Director-General, TV Ramachandran has said it is perfectly in line with the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

"While the world is moving to higher speeds, our operators cannot afford to refer to speeds less than 256 Kbps as broadband," he added.