Broadband to reach 1 lakh gram panchayats by December: Prasad

NEW DELHI: Indian Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Narendra Modi government has revised the timeline for rolling out optical fibre network for high-speed broadband services and will be able to cover only 1 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) by the end of this year.

"The timeline for connecting 1 lakh GPs (gram panchayats) with OFC (optical fibre cable) to provide broadband connectivity under Phase 1 has been revised to December 31, 2016," he informed Lok Sabha.

"Considering the vastness of project execution, the very limited resources deployed by the institutions, time required for tendering, mobilisation of physical resources...the time line for completion of NOFN (National Optical Fibre Network) project could not be met," he added.

The NOFN, which will play a crucial role in government’s Digital India program, was initiated in 2011 with an aim to provide broadband connectivity to over two lakh (200,000) gram panchayats of India at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore ($4 billion).

The project was earlier estimated to be completed by 2013 but missed the deadline and now it was projected to complete by 2016.

The project is being implemented by three central PSUs (CPSUs) namely BSNL, PGCIL and Railtel.

The project is funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

Recently, Telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended public private partnership (PPP) to revive Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL), India’s Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project in rural country which has missed various deadlines of completion.

By March 31, 2015, the NOFN had covered about 20,000 villages. Once implemented properly, it would help the government to provide e-services and e-applications nationally.

Interestingly, the project was formally approved by the Congress-led Dr Manmohan Singh government in December 2011 with the vision of increasing affordable and high-quality access to a number of digital services (including Internet access, cable television and e-governance services).

In the meantime, the project aimed at connecting 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) by laying 6,00,000 km of incremental optical fibre in three phases: Phase 1 sought to connect 1,00,000 GPs and was to be completed by March 2015, while Phases 2 (1,00,000 GPs) and 3 (an additional 50,000 GPs) were to be completed by March 2016 and March 2017 respectively.

The initial design for the NOFN consisted of a uniform 24-core fibre that was projected to deliver speeds of 100 Mbps for all GPs in India.

However, the National Telecom Policy of 2012 (NTP 2012) envisaged broadband on demand by 2015, and 175 million broadband subscribers by 2017 with a minimum speed of 2 Mbps and up to 100 Mbps on demand.