Tata Communications, part of India’s largest industrial group, plans to spend up to $600m during the next five years to roll out a WiMax wireless network in the hope of dramatically boosting the country’s tiny number of broadband internet connections.

Tata’s WiMax deployment will be one of the largest in the world, according to Gartner, the research firm. Sylvain Fabre, analyst at Gartner, said Tata’s plans were similar to those of Wateen Telecom, which is rolling out the world’s first nationwide WiMax network in Pakistan.