But Indian policy makers have failed to exploit broadband. “All along, the focus has been on increasing tele-density,” says a DoT official. “Broadband was considered something that was needed in the big cities. Now the shift to small towns has begun. Expect a lot more action soon.”

Industrial Interruptus
The country is paying a very heavy price for this oversight with gen-next businesses being the worst hit. Once young Indians begin seeking high-bandwidth content, the opportunity cost would shoot higher. The bandwidth-hungry music and movie download industry is already feeling the pinch as it struggles to meet pent-up demand from young Indians, 55 per cent of whom are below the age of 25 years. A $2-billion (Rs 8,000-crore) industry globally, it’s struggling to find its feet in India with revenues at an anaemic $44,769 (Rs 17 lakh), according to Asia’s largest online and mobile music retailer, Soundbuzz. That’s a mere 0.0022 per cent of the world market. Others, such as travel portals, are learning to live with constraints hampering their business. Cleartrip.com’s CEO Sandeep Murthy has designed his company’s home page without Flash programming. “Since broadband speed in India is just 256 kbps, we took this into account and designed a very light home page,” he says.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), while 91 per cent of digital music in Japan was sold through online downloads, in the US it was 68 per cent. In India, it’s just 5 per cent, because of consumer experiences such as these: At 256 kbps, a 1.68-GB movie like Rang de Basanti could take up to two hours to download, provided the link does not break down. In Korea, it would take less than a minute. “It’s frustrating,” says 19-year-old Delhi University student Santosh K. “Each time I try to download a movie, the network gives in.”