The next business badly squeezed by broadband scarcity is e-education. India’s e-learning market is estimated to be just $250 million (Rs 1,000 crore) as against the global market of $30 billion (Rs 1,20,000 crore). “There is opportunity here, but the lack of high-speed bandwidth means that we are still restricted to the top and mid-tier cities,” says Pranav Roach, president at networking services company Hughes Net Fusion, which runs courses at 1,500 locations across India.

Others such as NIIT and Genpact, which also have ambitious e-learning plans, are as badly affected.

The huge talent crunch across sectors and an unemployment rate as high as 7.8 per cent are just the right platform to grow the business exponentially, provided broadband helps. So far, it has only disappointed. “It is fine to attend a class, but since bandwidth is not reliable, interacting with teachers becomes difficult,” says Ajay Rathore, an e-learning student in Noida. “Often, when I need to clarify a doubt with the teacher, the system can’t take it. So, I e-mail the queries I have.”
Another huge business getting choked is online gaming. According to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global gaming market is $35 billion (Rs 1,40,000 crore), of which online gaming is slated to be worth $7 billion (Rs 28,000 crore) by 2008. Globally, online gaming revenues are 1.5 times the country’s film revenues. By that logic, online gaming should be at least $600 million (Rs 2,400 crore) today.

Rediff’s Balakrishnan believes gaming has been the biggest driver of broadband in Korea and China. Interestingly, the APAC region is being led by the world’s largest market South Korea, which has a 50 per cent share of the global online gaming revenues. An estimated 17 million of Korea’s 48 million population are online gamers.