India in 2012: 600 million broadband connections by 2020. There were 747 million
Department of Telecommunications of IndiaJune 2012 · National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP-2012)
«to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed»
At the end of 2020 India had 747.41 million broadband connections against a target of 600 million; it was passed in 2019.
The interim goal of 175 million by 2017 was also passed: 362.87 million. Mobile internet did it: almost all connections are mobile.
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In 2012, when few Indians had internet access, the government adopted a new telecom policy and named the number of broadband connections to come. Here is how many there actually were.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Department of Telecommunications of India, National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP-2012) quote
«to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed»
Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, «National Telecom Policy — 2012»
- What happened exceeded
At the end of 2020 India had 747.41 million broadband connections against a target of 600 million; it was passed in 2019.
Goal: the National Telecom Policy 2012, Department of Telecommunications of India. Fact: the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), its yearly review for 2020 and data for 2017. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The policy promised at least 2 Mbit/s, while the regulator counts access from 512 kbit/s as broadband, so the numbers are only roughly comparable. The growth came after 2016, when cheap new-generation mobile internet spread quickly.
A question for this picture
For «internet for everyone», what matters more: the number of connections or their speed?