Appreciating the efforts of the AP State FiberNet Ltd (APSFL) in laying 10,600-km Optical Fibre Cable in a matter of months, Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak has said the initiative could be duplicated in other parts of the country to complete the National Optical Fibre Network.
Addressing the media after inspecting the work by the APSFL in the city here on Wednesday, Mr. Deepak said high bandwidth was essential to implement the Digital India proposal of the government and NOFN or BharatNet needed to look at overhead OFC to speed up the project. BharatNet could learn from the experience of APSFL.
BharatNet proposes to complete laying of OFC network to all gram panchayats in phases. In the first phase it plans to lay OFC to 1,00,000 GPs by March 2017, 2,55,000 GPs in the second phase by September 2018 and by the end of third phase all the GPs to be provided future-proof fibre network, he explained.
So far BharatNet, being implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) with Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) funding, has been laying OFC underground. So far 1,25,000 km OFC cable has been laid at 400 to 500 km per day. The BBNL is responsible for providing OFC connectivity from Block to GP level. At the GP, the OFC would have a wireless termination which would provide wireless connectivity to the entire village.
“The Department of Telecommunications is working out the commercial model for the service provider to utilise the bulk bandwidth made available at the GP level to deliver services. This is one of the features to be learnt from the APSFL, the Telecom Secretary said.
Earlier, MD of APSFL Sambasiva Rao explained the features of the AP FiberNet. Chairman and Managing Director, BBNL, and USOF Administrator Sanjay Singh and officials of BBNL and APSFL were present.
