MUMBAI: Converged services would grow the telecom sector in India, according to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary Dr J S Sarma.

Delivering the keynote address at the Telecom and Broadband Summit 2005, Sarma said this would hold the key to bridging the digital divide in the country.

Falling prices of bandwidth and faster rates of transmission techniques would give broadband a push, noted Sarma who is also the Telecom Commission chairman. A lot of service sectors can be built around it, he added.

State governments have expressed interest in e-governance, which is only possible with broadband. Rural broadband, in fact, can bring about a lot of changes. Tele education, for instance, is possible. Research and development activity in wireless technology will be important, Sarma remarked.

Telecom is becoming less about voice and more
about images and text! There are now 600,000 broadband connections in India. This will grow to three million by the end of the year. And in 2010, there will be 20 million broadband subscribers and 40 million internet users, he said.