Indian internet use is on the brink of exploding, according to a survey from the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), an Indian IT lobby group. There have been over 80,000 new internet users since the government liberalized the internet service provider market last November. Half a million Indians cannot get web connections for want of infrastructure, while the survey predicts 1.5 million internet subscribers and 5 million users by 2002.
India’s PC base numbers some three million. More than 75% of all stand-alone PCs purchased in the last financial year were bought to access the web. The real boom may come via cable television, India has 37 million connections. Nasscom has established a national internet center of excellence (NICE) to create standards, research new technologies and spread the internet into local languages.
