Scindia: Country music

New Delhi, May 24: The government plans to invest $2 billion to provide broadband connectivity to rural India by 2009.

“Around 1,12,000 community service centres will be set up in villages to provide them broadband connectivity,” said Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, state minister for communications and IT at the Assocham global telecom summit here today.

According to Scindia, while private players will invest around $1.5 billion, the remaining $0.5 billion will come from government sources.

“The government will declare its broadband policy soon as well a policy for WiMax so that broadband connectivity, particularly in rural India, becomes easier and the countryside is provided this facility largely under the public-private partnership,” he said.

The new policies will also aim to provide wireless and mobile telephones to almost every household in rural India, he added. Scindia also asked telecom players to adopt a collaborative approach in lowering the tariffs for short and long-distance calls.