It has been widely reported across the Indian media this week that the search engine giant Google is having talks with the IT Ministry of India for the company to roll out 1Gbps Fiber broadband service in the country as part of the Indian Goverment's Digital India programme. Google started rolling out the ultra high speed broadband in Kansas City in 2011 and has since expanded the service to 34 more cities in the US. Google touts its gigabit broadband initiative as a major growth enabler, saying that "a world with universal access and 100 times faster internet could mean 100 times the possibilities"
According to top officials from India's IT Ministry, the discussions on the project are still at an initial stage. “We are keen to partner a company like Google in furthering the Digital India plan. Modalities have to be worked out,” the official said. Google's ambition to expand its ultra-broadband service to the world's largest nation however has its challenges as India's telecom regulations require any company providing broadband service in the country to obtain a license which typically has to be acquired via an open market auction.
