What’s cooler than a million Indian telephone connections? A billion telephone connections

India now has over a billion telephone connections, with mobiles accounting for around 978 million, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

"In a population of 1.25 billion, we have got 980 million mobile connections, around 978 to be precise. We add 5-7 million new connections every month. Our phone connectivity has crossed one billion," he said.

The Minister also said India has around 300 million Internet connections and he wants to achieve 500 million connections over the next two years.

The government, under National Telecom Policy 2012, has set a target to "provide affordable and reliable broadband-on- demand by the year 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps (megabit per second) download speed", he said.

The Minister launched India’s first long distance Wi-Fi, solar-powered Wi-Fi, 100 Gbps OFC (optical fibre cable) link and C-DOT Next Generation Network in MTNL Network. He also made a video call on MTNL.

C-DOT claims that its long distance Wi-Fi system is capable of providing 100 Mbps speed to users of distant locations. The solar-powered Wi-Fi can work in variable input voltages and harsh climates.

"I hope technology developed by C-DoT get translated in to a widely accepted product. I have asked my officials to give lits of companies where C-DOT products are being used and in what numbers," Prasad said.

(Image: Indiatimes)