New Delhi: The Government today set a target to more than triple the number of mobile connections to 500 million, provide handsets for Rs 1,000 and increase broadband speed in its 'Vision 2010' for the telecom sector.

IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran also urged the industry to offer broadband at a minimum speed of up to two mbps instead of the 256 kbps now.

"Maximising broadband coverage in the country is a challenge for telecom industry. All the players should work toward providing broadband with minimum speed of one mbps.

"The year 2007 would be the year of broadband in India taking broadband connections to 9 million," Maran said in his 10 Point agenda at India Telecom 2006.

While talking about network expansion, the minister said, "The aim was to have 250 million telephone connections by 2007 and by 2010 we aim to have 500 million mobiles".

The country has a total of about 185 million connections at present. This includes about 45 million fixed line phones and about 140 million mobile subscribers.

With regard to the geographical coverage, Maran said, there would be 85 per cent mobile coverage of the country by 2007 and 90 per cent by 2010.

He said the third generation technology and would announced in 2007.

India would see an FDI inflow of two billion dollars in manufacturing in the next year and exports six times from the present level of 0.5 billion in 2010.

He said the decision of providing support from the Universal Obligation (USO) Fund for mobile telephony as well as Broadband services would open up the vast untapped market in rural areas of the country.