The licence-fee dilemma in India’s wireline broadband push

India ranks highly in access to mobile broadband services. The same cannot be said about wireline broadband access. 

While mobile broadband has democratised access to high-speed internet at cheap rates over the last decade, the greater availability of wireline broadband is seen helping tens of millions of Indian households access educational, retail, business, and entertainment services more reliably. Mobile networks can be patchy; wireline broadband provides superior service. 

Realising this, the government has in recent years made many attempts to find a solution to broaden wireline broadband access, but without success. Two years ago, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) even proposed waiving the licence fee for all internet service providers, an idea that the Ministry of Finance eventually turned down, citing loss to the exchequer.