The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said it would issue within a fortnight the final recommendations to encourage broadband and Internet growth in India.

Speaking at a seminar -- Convergence India 2004 -- in New Delhi, Trai chairman Pradip Baijal said, "We had earlier circulated a consultation paper on broadband and Internet. In next 15 days we shall come out with the final recommendations."

Concerned at the slow offtake of Internet services in the country, Trai in November started a consultation process on an integrated policy for accelerating growth of Internet and broadband penetration, within a 'unified' regime.

As the first step towards this, Trai released a consultation paper raising issues such as possibility of allowing unrestricted Internet telephony, promoting availability of low-cost Internet access devices, and reducing infrastructural costs.

The paper on Internet focuses on various policy initiatives, regulatory actions and steps required to galvanise the Internet and broadband subscriber base in the country currently languishing at 0.4 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively.