Citing that the progress of broadband technology in the country has been stagnant for the last few years, Gumaste said the government should address the issue taking relevant policy decisions.
"Though wireless technology is jazzy, it has limitations when it comes to providing information. Considering factors like speed and amount of content, optical fibre network is far better than the wireless technology," he said.
Owing to the higher pricing structure of the optical fibre network, the service providers are hesitant in introducing it making the development of broadband services stagnant in the country. But to fulfill the need to access various forms of information like data, voice, video and IPTV, there is no option but to develop the broadband services, which are dependent on optical fibre network, he added.
Gumaste also called for developing research in computer networks. Anand Deshpande, chairman and managing director of Persistent Systems inaugurated the two-day conference. Rajkumar Agarwal, chairman, Vishwakarma Institutes, H K Abhyankar, principal, VIT, S N Mali, dean, students' activities and Manik Dhore, HOD, computer engineering department were also present.