Chennai: Driven by the 3G technology, India’s broadband connections will touch 214 million by 2014, says a report by industry body CII. Exponential rise from the present 7 million would likely create 21 million new jobs, according to the report titled ‘India 2009-14: Broadband Roadmap for Inclusive Growth’.

The report says 700 million Indians would be connected through 214 million broadband connections by 2014. Of this, 295 million users would be from the rural areas, said Manoj Kohli, CII national committee chairman on telecom and broadband. He was speaking at CII’s information communication technology (ICT) conference ‘Connect 2009’.

The country has already missed its target of reaching 20 million internet connections by 2010 and has just managed 7 million connections till now. “There will be no digital divide in the future. This target is achievable. With 3G to be rolled out by January-February 2010, reaching out to rural areas through this technology and providing them with wireless internet access would become easier,” Kohli said.

He said the investment for laying optic fibre cable can be used from the government’s universal service obligation (USO) fund, which now has a corpus of Rs 25,000 crore.

“The investment needed to lay 1.3 million km across six lakh villages of optic fibre cable would be about Rs 17,000 crore,” Harish Krishnan of Cisco said. The government has already budgeted Rs 35,000 crore as revenue from the 3G auction, which will be used for various developmental activities, he said.

Industry leaders also said there needs to be tax rebates to reach this target of 214 million. India is the sixth fastest growing country in broadband connections and penetration. “However, China has earmarked $50 billion for this year that would entail significant 3G growth and touch a broadband user base of 100 million by the end of this year. In South Korea, the government subsidised broadband to achieve a 93% penetration,” Kohli said.